Over the years I've taken several young kids out hunting,mainly pheasants, to introduce them to the sport. In Illinois, roosters only are the regs. I ingrained this into the young boys before going out, but as things would go, one of them shot a hen. Should I have called the game warden and reported the violation? It was a crime, but more importantly an accident by a new hunter caught up in the thrill of the hunt! We had a talk about the mistaken identity and I carried the bird in an effort to keep him from getting caught. This young man was 13 years old and even though I was yelling hen, hen, hen, he still pulled the trigger.
In another instance involving myself, I pulled the trigger on a tom turkey and killed a hen 15 yards behind. I felt terrible that I didn't see the hen in the background, but sometimes these things happen. Should I have turned the violation in to the game warden, I have the number in my phone? Am I considered a poacher in everyone's mind on here or a human being that makes mistakes once in awhile?