ken/bear

I know this will sound like I am whinning but trust me it is far from it.During the 2001 hunt I finnally talked my 16 year old to hunt with me he is very skinny and very weirry ofshooting a gun( but I talked him into it.. during the T Zone hunt we walked threw the woods and walked accross 3 deer that hunters left lay I explained to him this was wrong.Any way we sat on the side of a hill when we started hearing alot of shooting to our left I watched this deer come over the hill about 400 yards away and everyone was shooting at it, I checked the deer for horns and could not see any when it was about a 100 yards I told my son it was a doe,,, He was affraid to shoot and wanted me to shoot first I picked up the gun and fired one shot "lucky me I hit it" as it was falling I saw the small horns.. I went down to check the deer and one of the horns was about a 1/2 in. to long,,, couldn't leave it lay like most do the right thing go call a warden I said. so we drug it out to the truck and took it to a registration station,, at this station they informed me that I didn't want to call a warden the fines where very high they would take my truck and my hunting privilages,,,, they told me to take it home cut it up and put it in the freezer..they even covered the deer with clothes and sent me on my way,,, well I knew that wasn't right to be teaching my son but I also knew I couldn't afford these fines they told me about,,, so when we got home I attempted to shoot that 1/2 in. off the horn it doesn't work both horns shattered.. I took it in and registered it the next day a warden was knocking at the door. I told him everything just as it happened.. and gave him a written statement of the same I was honest....Well He told me because of my honesty they would take the deer and nothing else would come of it (Bull) this is set for a jury trial in Dec of this year,,, over a year later all because there hunting license sales are way down,,, How do you teach your kids that honesty is the best policy if they reply to you where is your honesty getting you please feel free to E- mail me with any responses I will keep you all informed of what happens good luck this year I am honest and cann't afford to go my e-mail is kglfamily @hotmail.com

Edited by - ken/bear on 11/08/2002 19:12:22

buckmaster68

I think you were wrong to shoot at the deer before looking for horns. Just because someone else was shooting at it does not mean you should not look for horns.
I think that it is kind of a raw deal you got from the DNR. They should be more understanding, but that is not how it works.
I did the same thing fishing one time. We were catching walleyes and I asked someone on the water how big they have to be and they told me 14". So we measured the fish and kept only ones over 14". We got off the water and the DNR said they were watching us with Binoculars and wanted to see our catch. We showed them and they proceded to tell us we had 2 or 3 fish over the size limit. I told them the size limit is 14" right and they said it was 15" not 14".
I told them that it was a honest mistake, that they should have seen us measuring them, and they said we did see that, but the law is the law. That ended up costing us about $250.00.

kshunter

I'm guessing that in the T-Zone that their is a slot size that you're not able to kill deer in? I'm just asking because because I don't know anything about that stuff since KS doesn't have that, even though I wish they did.

First, it sounds like you made an honest mistake, but you shoud've looked a little harder. But everyone does make mistakes. There really is not a good solution to the problem. If it were me on my hunting spots, I would've took it home, took a couple hours to butcher it, and be done with it. I'm yet to ever see or be checked by a game warden here, and I hunt a lot. I wouldn't take my chance with the Game Warden on trying to be honest and stay out of trouble. How is he to know that you're an honest guy who's trying to do the right thing or some careless guy who trying to BS his way out of a fine.

I know I'd be breaking the law by just butching it and getting rid of the waste, but ethically and morally I'd feel like I did the right thing. The deer wouldn't go to waste, and if I was a millionaire and didn't care about fines or tickets, then the deer would most likely still not be butchered and given to people, but go to waste.

But it all comes down to, being more careful at what you shoot and not make the mistake in the first place! Then you wouldn't have to worry about it at all.
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RICHIE3

You are just going to have to grin and bare it!! Everyone makes mistakes, and the best thing to teach your son is, if you make one, you need to stand up to the punishment no matter what the cost or penalty. This will teach more about ethics than any other thing you could do. If you were to just keep quiet about it, and cut the deer up for the freezer, what does this show him? What it does, is lessen the degree of penalty, and you don't want him ending up going thru life not knowing that he has his own responsibilities to live up too. I am sure that he wouldn't, but you never know, so don't take that chance. I don't like anyone to get into trouble over a mistake, we have all made them, but, show him that even though it was an honest mistake, you still have to be responsible for your actions.

2eagles

Man, as hard as it is to say it RICHIE3 is right. You messed up and now it's time to pay up. Not all lessons are easy to learn or teach. Jim

RICHIE3

2eagles,


Are you saying that you hate to say what I said??
Or does it trouble you to agree with me??


LOL!!!!!!!!<img src=icon_smile_tongue.gif border=0 align=middle>

2eagles

RICHIE3, Did I say something? It's just that this is such a hard post to answer. Seems like we have a good guy here who just messed up and UNlike many people, he admits his mistake. To complicate matters, his young son is involved. Being the father of two boys who love to hunt, I know how ken/bear wants to do the right thing, more for his son than himself. I have to admire the fact that this kid is learning a very hard lesson - it will stay with him his whole life. Back to what I said.... yep, I hate to say what you said and I agree completely with what you said. Confused yet? Jim

RICHIE3

Take it easy there 2Eagles!!

I was only joshing around with ya!
Hence the reason for the smiley!!
Sorry if you took that comment wrong, or if I didn't make it clear enough that it was said with funny intensions!!

Edited by - richie3 on 11/11/2002 17:05:44

2eagles

RICHIE3, not to worry! We are on the same side here. Jim

2eagles

ken/bear, back to the topic. I was thinking about this problem while at work today. Are you absolutely certain you are the one that killed the little buck? Seems to me more often than not a deer runs quite a ways before going down. Maybe one of the other shooters hit him and he died about the time you shot at him. Not sure it makes much difference in your defense, but it might. Jim