While I was gone Moose hunting a couple of weeks ago, a buddie of mine arrowed a small buck. He made a liver shot on it and couldn't find. If you ask me he didn't look near hard enough. Well last week he found his deer while scouting.

Is he required to tag it?

Ethicly?

Legally?

I told him that I thought if he took any part of the deer(rack) he was required to tag it.

Your thoughts?

What are the legalities?

Hate to say it but he shot it he owns it. If he chose not to give a 100% recovery effort that does not mean he should get to just throw that animal away and go again. Perhaps using up that buck tag on an animal now not worth much to eat will help him get in a bit more practice for future shots. JMO. . . .

IMO.if he shot it and found it, no matter how many days have passed, he should tag it.

The guy is a good shot, and practices alot, but he has only shot on other deer with a bow!

I'm not sure how the law reads in MN or if that's even where the buck was shot but IMO if he shoots the animal and kills it and then takes any part of the animal I believe he is obligated to tag it, Ethically.

Legally, I don't know the what the law states.

From the MN DNR website

POSSESSION OF BIG GAME
Any person who takes a big game animal must retain the license, site tag,permit and possession(registration) tag for as long as any part of the meat is in possession.

It dosn't specificaly state anything about antlers.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/rlp/reg...ng/biggame.pdf
Page 55 of the document.

Thanks Adams,

Legally it doesn't sound like he has to tag it, but I still think he should!

To me it depends on the amount of time that has passed. You don't know how long that deer lived. I may be against the grain here but I don't think he should have to tag it. It's hard to say that knowing that he didn't bust his butt looking for it, but what if the deer lived for a month and then died???? I don't think you can just make blanket statements like 'if you arrowed it you should tag it'. Where do you draw the line?

Besides, what if it happened to you. Say you shot a deer. Busted your butt for 2 solid days looking for it. You never found it and then 3 weeks later you find a dead deer that is probably the one you shot. It's decaying and coyotes have feasted on it heavily. Would any of you really put a tag on it, drag it out of the woods, and go register it?

I don't buy that at all.

It sound's as though he could possibly get away without tagging this buck ,but I have to agree with the other's that if he shot it he should tag it ,unfortunately he won't get the use of the meat . this is a tough situation ,he owed the animal a 100% attempt at taking this deer home with him and it sound's as if he didn't do that.You just can't shoot a deer and not try your best to harvest it and go back a few day's later fin him and take his horn's ,I would find this to be unethical on his part ,but maybe according to the law's of his state he might just have a loop hole .

nubo

This sounds like one of those grey area`s of the law? It does not specify the time of the kill to the time of recovery.There are bucks lost every yr. That are not recovered untill after the season in which of course you would not tag? But in the hunting season in which you killed it (IMO) I would think that it would be wize to tag it. And then again you might want to call the "Game and Fish" or the "Department of Natural Resource" of your area and ask them just to be legel and not break any laws?[&:]