Tagging A Deer For Your Wife, Girlfriend, Kid - Whatever?
09-12-2007, 09:51 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Central Minnesota
Posts: 676
Tagging A Deer For Your Wife, Girlfriend, Kid - Whatever?
I posted on here a month or so back about how Minnesota shook up their bag limit system and essentially cut the number of deer we could take using an “all-season license,” which lets you hunt archery, shotgun and muzzleloader from 3 to 1 to help increase the overall population of deer in “lottery areas” like the one I mainly hunt. So what this means is that for the next couple of years, until the DNR decides the population is booming, I’ll have to make a choice – a doe or a buck and/or tagging out early if I’m so lucky or waiting for the rut to seriously hunt (unless I’m willing to travel at least 200 miles one way to hunt new public grounds in a non-lottery area).
What really tees me off, is the open conversations I’ve heard guys having at the pro shops and whereverhaveabout “getting their wives into hunting this year,” which translates into “I’m having my wife buy a tag and using it for her.” I know that's what they mean because they openly say so and have a good laugh. This is completely illegal, of course, unless the wife was actually hunting with them in a party, weapon of choice in tow. Most guys I’ve talked to act like it’s a little hiccup in obeying the law, similar to going a few miles over the speeding limit.
I’m not trying to sound like I’m better than them, but I wouldn’t even consider that. I respect my hunting priveledges and don’t want them taken away. I was a little upset that I no longer have the option of tagging a doe early and then waiting for the right buck to come along. But I’m thinking long-term. If I trust the DNR this year and perhaps a few more, maybe the number and quality of deer will be a little better. And I’ll have the option of taking several deer – legally – in one year again.
Anyone else in one or even two deer bag limit areas or states have a similar experience? Is illegally tagging deer for someone else pretty much a dirty little secret? Or do people openly discuss it and laugh/brag about it?
What really tees me off, is the open conversations I’ve heard guys having at the pro shops and whereverhaveabout “getting their wives into hunting this year,” which translates into “I’m having my wife buy a tag and using it for her.” I know that's what they mean because they openly say so and have a good laugh. This is completely illegal, of course, unless the wife was actually hunting with them in a party, weapon of choice in tow. Most guys I’ve talked to act like it’s a little hiccup in obeying the law, similar to going a few miles over the speeding limit.
I’m not trying to sound like I’m better than them, but I wouldn’t even consider that. I respect my hunting priveledges and don’t want them taken away. I was a little upset that I no longer have the option of tagging a doe early and then waiting for the right buck to come along. But I’m thinking long-term. If I trust the DNR this year and perhaps a few more, maybe the number and quality of deer will be a little better. And I’ll have the option of taking several deer – legally – in one year again.
Anyone else in one or even two deer bag limit areas or states have a similar experience? Is illegally tagging deer for someone else pretty much a dirty little secret? Or do people openly discuss it and laugh/brag about it?
09-12-2007, 09:59 AM
#4
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Central Minnesota
Posts: 676
RE: Tagging A Deer For Your Wife, Girlfriend, Kid - Whatever?
Thanks Ron and let me clarify, I wasn't asking if you ro anyone else on here actually did it or get them to admit to it. I was meaning do you know of a lot of guys in your area doing this. Basically, do a lot of people around where you are think this is okay, or a minor, look the other way sort of thing as far as laws go.
09-12-2007, 10:01 AM
#6
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Oct 1998
Location: Hughesville, PA USA
Posts: 18,322
RE: Tagging A Deer For Your Wife, Girlfriend, Kid - Whatever?
ORIGINAL: rybohunter
Sadly this is a common practice here in PA.
Sadly this is a common practice here in PA.
09-12-2007, 10:12 AM
#8
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Central Minnesota
Posts: 676
RE: Tagging A Deer For Your Wife, Girlfriend, Kid - Whatever?
Sorry to hear Rob and group. What rubs salt in the wound is that a limited number of antlerless tags (forfirearms)are handed out in lottery areas so the guys applying on behalf of somone else are (a) wrongly upping their chances of drawing said permit and (b) taking that opportunity and possibletag away from someone legally applying, and who may very well be a youngster or first time hunter forced to watch a nice doe waltz by while the buck never shows up. Which leads me to the next point, all of these phantom hunters who don't get drawn for an antlerless permit, are going to potentially be illegally shooting extra bucks, often smaller ones, who are already more targeted now since only a limited number of legal hunters can take does.
09-12-2007, 10:15 AM
#9
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Central Minnesota
Posts: 676
RE: Tagging A Deer For Your Wife, Girlfriend, Kid - Whatever?
I would too GMAAT. Problem is, it's one thing to hear someone talking of it and another thing to catch them doing it. I haven't heard any close friends with plans to do this. But I have heard people I don't know personally guffawing over it. In fact, one woman at the liqour store last Friday night was telling her friend how her husband reminded her every day that past week to get her doe permit application in before the deadline. They just laughed about how funny their husbands were so obviously, she supported him and bought it.