In a least some states its who puts the tag on the deer. But in all I know of the land owner can have trespassers arrested.
I personally have told the neighbors that if they can show me a blood trail coming on to my property I will let them track down and take their deer. I do not consider it good sportsmanship to refuse to let some one track down a wounded deer or hog.

Ridiculous but true.

From my perspective, you can keep the rack but give me the meat!

It's funny, one guy I used to hunt with arrowed a big 12 pointer and the antlers meant nothing to him; my other buddy was straight out jealous and coveted the rack, so the guy gave it to him.
Just like that.
(The thing I remember is that there was an old broadhead healed into the nose)

I don't recall that the rack held much significance for my buddy afterward, he never had it mounted or anything.

I'm just saying what's legal in Colorado. It's your choice to break the law anyway you want.

I've already stated I donate half the meat to the local mission, but that has different laws than giving another hunter meat in the field.

Donating half an elk is like 2-3 deer, so i'm not giving small amounts of meat. One year I gave the whole elk.

I'd move to where they have real deer.

What if this was taking place on public land. Your son shot the deer. The two of you tracked it. And the two of you hear no further shots. But you come on a person gutting the deer and they have already (which is law in many states) tagged the deer. What do you do at this point?

If the one gutted the animal didn't shoot a killing shot into the animal he has no right to it.

Call the game warden.

I commend the landowner for offering the coin toss to the trespassers! That's certainly MORE than can be said for many similar situations. Now, I'm a landowner as well (625 acres) and tho I'm familiar with all my neighbors and great friends with one in particular, let me say that I'd honestly want no part of a deer that was truly already seriously wounded across the property line. I WOULD be MORE than pissed by someone just walking onto my property without asking first. If everything else is legit and the deer just had enough stamina to wonder across the line and onto me then I'd be happy to say, "YES come up to my house and we'll go get your deer on MY property". But if I somehow came across the trespassers on MY land, standing over a dead deer... then I wont be so calm and level headed!

(Now for my one neighbor who's a great bud, we text everyday while hunting and keep each other updated on who's where and what was seen, killed etc... We hear each other shoot so we already know whether or not there's possibly a wounded deer on the borders via communication. If we don't have a hunter in that immediate area then "Go on and get it". If we do have a hunter nearby then we'll either wait until that hunt is over or we'll meet up and make sure that hunter has already been made aware of a wounded deer and trackers are in the vicinity so be on the look out!)

Muley-
you've misinterpreted my post; I take no issue with what you do in CO, just relating you what we do here in the "empire".

However, I will take issue with the bold, above: AFAIK, sharing venison is not a crime here; yet. Your intimation of me/us breaking the law is incorrect and, frankly, rude & unnecessary.

I don't know why you even posted to me. I said what was legal to do in Colorado. It wasn't pointed at anybody, and didn't need to be quoted by you.

You went on to tell me you share half a deer with your buddy. I have no idea if that's legal or not. You never told me what state you're talking about, or whether it's legal.

Then you went on to tell me about sharing the meat is a good thing, and it meat, and not gold bullion.

I had already stated I give half the meat to a mission in an earlier post, so I have no idea why you gave me the smart azz answer about gold bullion?

Rude? Sorry you're so sensitive. You should get over that.