ORIGINAL: quiksilver
I do believe that I am legally entitled to enter and retrieve my deer.I could make a very colorable argument as to precisely why, too. (see Pierson v. Post for deer ownership).
Sorry if "entitlement" bothers you, but I believe that I am legally privileged to enter and recover. Sorry, but I have a valid base for that opinion, and I would be prepared to put it to the test. There are plenty of other situations where individuals are legally permitted (or"entitled," as you call it)to enter private property,at the landowner's behest,and this is just another one of those situations.
Specifically, I think you could make a good argument for implied privilege(trespass defense)based on a theory of public necessity - thepotential waste of mypersonal property that became mislaid upon your property through no fault of my own (wounded on my landand ranacross the fenceto expire).
...good luck finding a judge or DA who would prosecute a guy for recovering his deer in lieu of letting it rot to pieces.
So you feel you have the right to trespass on private land to recover property you don't own? Live wild deer belong to the state not the property owner or hunter and you don't own that deer until
properly tagged and in your possession. Since you can't legally cross the property line to take possession you do not own the deer. In some locations it is actually illegal for a landowner to take possession of a dead deer that he did not kill[/b] even on his own land without a permit from Fish and Wildlife. If you cross a property line without permission and remove anything that is there you will be prosecuted in this state for theft.