[blockquote] I'm happy for you that you've obviously NEVER made a simple stupid mistake that could have gotten you into some trouble with the law.

Your definition of poacher is obviously a bit different than mine.I would differentiate poacher from lawbreaker with one word... intent. No one will ever know for sure if this guy made a mistake or did it intentionally. I'm not exactly an old man yet, but, the longer in the tooth I get, the more I catch myself in having forgotten little details just like that one.

Was this an honest accident? We'll probably never know? As I said before, did he buy a tag every year like he said of has he failed to buy one in certain years before?

Assuming for the minute that he realized his mistake when he went to tag it? He was immediately in a lose-lose situation. How would most handle it after the fact? I suppose some wouldactually turn themselves in right away but I think their numbers are few. What he did is immediately go buy a license and tag the thing and even was honest about telling when it was actually killed.

Stupid? yes!

Poacher? Not enough facts yet for me to tag him with that title!

As for the question as to how could it happen without him realizing till he made the kill? In my home state, we buy a license and then variuos stamps get affixed to it. Archery, muzzleloader, furtaker, waterfowl and even the class of your license like junior senior or adult are all a stamp that attaches to the license. More than once, when purchasing my license, I've been told "we're out of _____ stamps, they'll be in next week" That means a trip to another issuing agent to comlete the license or a trip back to the same store later. I can certainly see it happening to mewithzerointent on skirting the law. Take that along with the fact that, being past 50 and taking way to many mindnumbing meds for my screwed up ticker,thehunting seasons are becoming more like one continous blur, it's not a reach at all to imagine this as a stupid but honest mistake.