Talondale

I have a friend in GA who is friends with a game warden. He told me that the GA wardens will actually pay house calls on wives who have "filled their tags" to interview them to see if they truly killed the deer. Many a man has gotten ticketed that way.

Germ

That is funny, but in MI there is no checkin at all.

This is where I think a phone registration would help a bit. Funny people will cheat when nobody knows, but having to call in might rattle a fewwives.

GRIZZLYMAN

The only time I did it in the past (a long time ago) was when my stepfather wanted deer meat and was unable to hunt, due to health. He tagged the deer and got the meat.

I know other people that have done this, one of which, because of this and other behavior, a relative of my BIL, is banned from hunting our land/leases.

davidmil

Common practice I think in all of New England states. At least it is in NY and PA. NY has finally changed their laws to allow a person to sign over theirdoe permit to someone else to use. You can't sign over your regular buck tag, but you can a doe/deer management tag. There are women around up here that always brag about getting their buck before their husbands. Of course most of the wifes have never set foot in the woods except maybe to pee.

gplant

WELLI DIDNT WANT TO MENTION ANY NAMES BUUUUT

Red Lion

Chucker34, if you live in central MN you are not 200 miles away from a non-lottery zone/unit. I hunt zone 2, primarily unit 223 and with my all season licenseI can take a buck/doe and one antlerless. 223 is in between the Big Lake, Elk River and Zimmerman area. I live in the cities and it is a 30-35 minute drive for mbr. I also plan to hit units 225 and 227 as they offer up to 4 antlerless tags per person per year.
You got to be close enough to be able to hit some different areas.

chucker34

Red Lion, I'm more toward the southwestern part of the state, almost all of which is lottery. Perhaps 200 miles is exaggerating but its somewhere in between 150-200 miles to the public land I've identified as good targets on the PRIM and recreation maps. The problem is that much of the public land are WMAs or WPAs and after the pheasant and duck hunters come through, the deer are largely nocturnal. I do plan on buying at least one bonus permit for a managed or intensive area and taking a few couple hour drives to those spots. And if we stay lottery along with the new bag limit, I will look into more productive options further from home. I just wasn't ready for this unexpected move by the DNR this year. I don't think anyone was in our area.

dmen

In maine you are allowed only one deer no matter what weapon you use, and the only way to obtain an any deer permit (for a doe tag)is thru the lottery.We have a couple of zones where bonus tags are awarded on a lottery basis, but most are along the coast where their is not alot of hunting.We also have an extended archery season that started last Saturday and goes til Sept. 26 when our regular archery season starts.The extended season is only in a few areas near the bigger cities, and also resumes after rifle season for two more weeks in those selected areas.As for people tagging other peoples deer that is very common in Maine, you wouldn't believe the amount of women who draw moose tags thru the lottery (which is very hard to get), and you can bet a majority are not hunters.

Red Lion

I understand Chucker. My buddy and I were disappointed last year when our typical unit, 223 went from being an intensive harvest area (up to 4 antlerless per season) to managed and 1 per year. I am going to hit some WMA area's, but one is 23,000 acres with 15,000 open for deer hunting, Carlos Avery, and not too worried about the bird hunters running all deer out.
Good luck.

BrianB.

Chucker, I'm from western minnesota (check out my location) I don't think the dnr is doing the right thing by shutting down the number of tags each hunter is allowed. Hunting parties in my area have been doing our own managing by letting the bucks grow until there worth taking. By the dnr doing this it is just going to influence hunters to take that first buck they see rather than passing and waiting for a trophy. In my area the amount of does is outrageous and they (DNR) should be allowing more anterless tags to even out the doe/buck ratio. Also, a few years ago they questioned about putting a point regulation on bucks. (Being atleast 4 points to one side. While many people I know have been pushing for this the DNR will still not put the regulation into effect.

It's hard to grow trophy bucks when the DNR is doing these types of things.