You can't do it in MI either. I have a buddy that hunted land next to a local gun club. He arrowed a deer and it expired on their property, barely. He could see it from where he was. They would not let him come get it and they kept it. They said it would be put to good use or something like that. It was private land, so there was nothing he could do about it. And by the time he could have gotten a hold of a game warden or something it would be to late any way, they were already taking posession of the deer themselves. What a great club, glad I don't belong to it.

He talked to an officer later and he said there may have been a possibility he could have gotten it back for him, but no promises. That is if one could have responded in time.

I talked to one about this very same thing, because I hunt some pretty populated areas. You know, like what if I shoot one and it runs into someones yard and dies on their back porch (seen it happen before, but not to me). The officer said the best thing to do would be to contact them or the sherrif's department and have an officer go with you to retrieve it.

Game wardens can go anywhere they want pretty much, without having to have a search warrant or anything like the police do. That doesn't mean they can make someone give you your game though. The catch 22 is there are laws that govern what can be done with an animal and how it is to be tagged, and hunter harrasment laws. The guy can not simply let the deer rot after being informed that it is there. And in order to claim it, he has to tag it. So if he doesn't have a tag, or doesn't want to burn one on a deer he didn't shoot, guess who takes the deer, the game warden. Who will inturn give it back to you most likely. However if the owner wants to tag it, your pretty much screwed if he sticks to his guns. Probably won't get much cooperation from the DNR in the future though.

At least that's how it was explained to me any way.

I agree, it would be easier and wiser to ask first to make sure, before you go and tick the guy off for no reason. Heck if someone asked me to retrieve a deer off my property I would probably go help them do it if they wanted.

Paul