2Poppa

In Kentucky the Conservation Officers issue what is called a disposal permit. If for some reason an officer visits you long after you have cut the rack off, he won't be able to tell if it was "legally harvested" and probably will be somewhat skeptical of your story.
My suggestion: Call the Iowa Department of Wildlife and ask, "What is the right thing to do?"

Terasec

I would call local dnr and double checks regs,
And keep it legal.
I don't just follow laws I agree with,
And disregard laws i disagree with.
Possesion of illegal game is possession regardless of how it was found,
Every poacher has a million excuses for those illegal racks on his wall.
Regs will vary by state, but most are similar in how they regard dead animals.
Usually need tag/permission of some sort.
Those that promote breaking laws and give it as advise should really get their act together

fastetti

Laws vary from state to state, if I went to call in a spike here in Illinois the DNR would laugh at me. It all depends on where you are at and the attitude of the officer in your zone. In mine, calling in a buck would be absolutely useless unless it was close to some sort of record. The DNR is way to busy to be dealing with this around me and will tell you when you call in and IF (and thats a big if) you get a hold of them they just won't care. The DNR knows the difference between a freshly killed deer that was poached and one that was killed 4 months ago that you will do a european mount on. There looking for poachers, not someone taking a walk in the spring.

I'm taking it that you have every tag of every deer you have every shot in your life still attached to the antler, because if you didn't then how do we know they weren't poached? I guess that would be breaking the law if you took the tag off an antler at anytime, but last time I check, I have seen very few mounted deer on peoples walls, in stores and such with tags still attached.

Please don't preach us on advice to give and "Getting our act together", you do not know what state we are in or the situation of our local DNR, we are telling our opinions, not what the laws of his state our. The vast majority of hunters on here are law abiding citizens giving there opinions and help out fellow hunter and work to promote the sport more than most.

GTOHunter

Here in Missouri we are suppose to call a local Game Warden within 24 hours and report what we found,if the Deer is salvageable and recently killed/hit by car etc...they will send us a Reciept stating if the Deer is a Doe or Buck how many points it has and if we are going to save the meat.This is so we can take it in and have it legally Processed or if we cut it up ourselfs and put it in the freezer..this keeps things leagl and hopefully to dicourage any Poaching/Poachers.We can also call or local Sheriffs Dept if it is a Vehicle Deer Collision.

I found a nice 10-Point Buck on our Farm last year,it was bare down to just a skeleton and was probably injured during Rifle/Gun Season but I called it in and talked with our Game Warden,he sent me a written reciept stating "Not for Re-sale".I had lots of trail camera pictures of this same Buck and had Bow Hunted him for 2 years so I didn't want him to waste...I ended up taking the head to my local taxidermist and he Re-caped him and I have him in all his former Glory hanging on my Log Wall.

I found another young Buck hit on the side of the road about 2 weeks ago,I ended up sawing the head off and called the Game Warden again to get another reciept for this 5-Point Buck.The Coyotes had already started working on the hind quarters so I wasn't going to try an mess with the meat?I highly reccomend following the proper procedures to obtain any Deer You find....with the Exceptions of Shed which don't have to be reported here in Missouri.

pnut

If you're straight with the game warden then usually they will let you have it.

BarnesX.308

Every state that I know of requires you contact the game warden and they OK it, give you a tag, etc....

But I've also heard horror stories from a few different states where the authorities claimed it. Seems like that's the case with the real trophies.

Here in PA, if you hit a deer with your car, you call the game commission and they issue you a possession tag. Then you keep the deer. UNLESS IT'S A BUCK. Then the game commission takes it. But, you can buy it back from them at $10 per point.
$20 for a spike, $100 for a 10 pointer, etc... Stupid rule.

nodog

Well you most definitely can get into huge trouble in Ohio. Your compounding it by publishing your comments on the world wide web.

In Ohio you need a tag for a dead deer and they are given out by local law free.

Sfury

In Wisconsin you can call either the DNR or the local Sheriff's office for carcass tags. It's faster to call the local Sheriffs office for tag in almost all cases. Especially now with the DNR wardens being stretched way too thin across the state.

Master Chief

Is it illegal if its on private land? Probably a dumb question but the law seems pretty stupid so you never know. If it's legal on private land just say all of those racks on your barn were found on your land.

snapper1982

well then do not come to ohio because they will cite you for it. you have to call and have them come check it out and if they say it has not been poached then they will give you a tag otherwise they take the rack with them......