RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

what part of "a deer can be unfit for consumption without having these noticable signs" do you not understand? A deer can look normal on the outside but the meat can be bad/infected/whatever. It doesnt have to be limping or have ribs sticking out to be unfit for consumption.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

It doesnt matter if are from out of state or in state,if u kill it u tag it,cant even believe there has to be a topic about this,if u dont tag it u poached it, plain and simple.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

If you hit a deer and fail to recover it,there's no guarantee it died so no reason to relinquish the tag.However,if you find the deer,you absolutely should tag it,regardless of it's condition.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

That's an opinion some have I don't.Nothing will go to waste in the woods.

Luckily haven't had the problem.

Wouldn't take the antlers from a deer I shot and have it mounted after a month like I have seen on this and a couple other sites, but that's another thread.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

As Charlie said, that's your opinion. If you feelcompelled touse your tag that way thenof course that'sfine with me. I definately won't be following your example though.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Why should you tag a infected deer?
I am not goanna touch it once I found out it is? I am sure not goanna drag it around as was mentioned looking for a GC.
This has now became a safety and health issue. The board of health I am sure would be interested in this? Person will be fined if they don't tag and drag their infected diseased deer around in public looking for a GC?
So under the disease center control, I would do the correct thing by not touching the carcuss anymore. There is health problem risks here. Do you not think so? Peoples health succeeds the GC laws. If someone was to leave a deer and not tag it for diseased reason, It was morally and under health codes the ABSOLUTE correct thing to do. Peoples health over rides dead diseased dear. I would call the health officials first before the GC. These are the experts on diseases. Same as a rabid animal. If you find a dead animal or bird you are not to touch it but to call the appropriate authority. A diseased deer calls for the same authority of experts.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Boy, I am sure glad there are only 500 deer left in pa so my chances of shooting one thats unfit for consumption are prettttttty low [&:]

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

I personally would tag it because that IS THE LAW! In all my years of hunting in PA, I've never read in the rules/regulations that anyone hasa choice "to tag or not to tag" an animal theyharvested.Youshould tag it take the animal to the CO and report it so they figure out what's wrong and why! I'd fill out my tag and report it! Once I meet with the CO, I'd ask for the replacement tag then. If he didn't issue me one I'd ask for his supervisors name and take it up with that person.

What if you shot a new PA record buck and found out it had gangrene as you started to gut it? Would you just leave it or tag it? According to those that wouldn’t tag a deer that's unsafe to eat you would have to walk away andforget about it right?I doubt! I seriouslydoubt any of you would! You'd tag it and probably smiling pretty big at the local coffee shop orsporting good store and never thinking twice about consuming it or getting another tag from the CO.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Do you use a flashlight to find your deer stand when it is still dark?
It is against the law also to use a light while in posession of a firearm during deer season..

How many stay in their stand looking for deer after shooting hrs, Even if its ony 5 to 10 minutes? It's against the law.

Show me one person who has never been guilty of the above.

And then ask yourself if you are a hypocrite for saying it is the law when it comes to a diseased deer and not tagging it. Go buy a rotten steak at the store just to return it for a refund instead ofjust avoid purchasing it in the first place. Common sense people that some do lack of.

Yes I would tag the WR if was diseased. What idiot would throw free money away?

I would have it mounted and prob sale it for a very nice price. Again common sense people lack of.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

A question was asked and I posted my opinion on it. You don't agree with it? that's fine! You have that right. I didn't single you out Hung_Bear or call anyone else on it! So why get so upset at my reply?It's just MY OPINION! So seeing you decide to point out a few things to me and questionme, I'll reply to them for you.

All I ask is for you to answer my question about shooting a a new state record buck. OK, let's not make it a state record animal, how about, just the best buck you've ever taken! What would you do when you opened up your deer and with your years of trainning and degrees as awildlife biologist, determine the meat was not good or diseased?

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Yup and it's totally legal unless I use one with too mnay batteries.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Never broke a game law.:D:D:D:D:D


Hypocrits annoy me when they say it isa law and then have broken laws themselves.
And I have allready answered your question? Maybe take some time and read all the posts before you ask questions again.;)

And on your last comment, It doesn't even make sense.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

It's not aginst the law to use a flashlight to find your stand.It's against the law to shine a light on game you intend to shoot,with the exception of predators.

It's not against the law to sit in your standfor another 5 minutes after hunting hours as long as you unload your gun or un-nock your arrow.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

You asked me questions and I replied to them and yet again! Because it wasn't what you wanted to read, I'm a hypocrit.Can't you show me the same respect and reply to the question I posted? Never mind, it's a waste of time trying to make sence tosomeone like yourself. You're probably the kind of guy that would chop off the deers head and leave the rest of it behind no matter wascondition it's in! I see now where your ignorance is coming from! A total of 14 post and half of them looks like it from youtrying to defend your logic or justifactionkilling deer and *not tagging* them. *POACHER*


Sorry to those that had to readthe rants ofHungmy crap doesn't stinkBear!Iwould have never posted it if I had knownabout thegrub it was going to draw out of the ground. My opinion was posted and that how I feel about the question in which was asked.

Just remember, It's not written in stoneand it wasn'tput into a law........IT'S JUST MY OPINION :DAND THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO ADD ON THIS TOPIC. Good luck to all those that hunt right and for those that don't.....it will catch up with you ;)

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

so apparently only a few of ya'll think that you should tag every deer you shoot and recover.

well, i never tag my deer! :) i shoot them out of my pick up truck and keep a tag around incase i get stopped. why waste a tag and have to wait for a new one?

the easiest thing to do is not tag them at all, then you ALWAYS have a tag!

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

[ol][*]Under no circumstances may an antlered deer be taken with a DMAP permit. [/ol]

See, Even they are telling meunder no circumstances should Iuse my DMAP permit to tag my mistaken killed buck. So If I shoot one by mistake, I do not have to tag it.;)

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

The question didn't ask what was ethical and what wasn't.If I shot a deer unfit for consumption,I'd tag it and drag it out prior to trying to get another tag.I would do that because it's the law and it isn't worth it to me to get pinched and potentially lose my lisence.Ethically,I see no real issue if a guy shoots and leavesa deer that's infected and obviously unfit to eat.It isn't worth the risk to me but I wouldn'tconsider anyone a slob that would do it.On the other hand,if you make a poor hit on a deer and fail to recover it before it spoils,I feel youshould useyour tag.You killedthe deer that tag was allotted for and you don't deserve the chance to kill another one with that tag.

I wouldn't rat someone out that left a diseased or infected deer to rot.I would turn someone in in a heartbeat if they killed a buck and left it to rot,especially if they removed the rack.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Two different subjects here.A diseased deer compared to a "bad hit" found after spoil.Question for ya huggy bear,if you made a bad hit and found your buck with bad meat would you tag it and keep the rack or walk away?

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

If I made a bad shot and couldn't find it after about 2hrs. I wouldn't waiste any more time on it.... If I found it the next day by accidentand it was a big buck. I would most likely take my bow and license home and come back with a sawzall and do some skull surgery.But I am sure not gutting it open while it is bloated.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

If you did the skull surgery would you tag it?

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Serious side. Yes I would keep looking for it and yes, I would tag it if I found it. I would use nose plugs though when opened it up. Now if it had a disease after I opened it, I would not tag it and go call the GC and have them meet me and make arangements of some sort. I would still be in legal cause I didn't move the deer. I will not take the deer to them. They would have to come to me though. Cause I am not goanna tag that deer.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

agree

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Well there hung bear, or should I sayGeorgepoker or Lead poisoner, we now know who you are! That graphic was the giveaway.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

If I found a rotting deer with anice rack I would cut the antlers off and take them home. Why not? The meat is of no value but the antlers do have value and leaving them to be chewed away by rodents is a waste. They could be used to make a nice display, knife handles, rattling horns or just a conversation piece. Now whether I was the one who delivered the shot that eventually killed the deer or if someone else did, it wouldn't make any difference to me as far as tagging it. I won't be putting my tag on a rotted deer and as far as I'm concerned it would take an idiot of a game warden with a Barney Fife mentalityto give me a ticket for it. I think I would fight a ticket like that all the way to a jury trial just to be a pain in the you know what. I wouldn't care if it cost me thousands just to drag the warden to court and publicly show him to be the idiot he is.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

You may not like it but in Pa that would be illegal possession of wildlife parts and you'd get prosecuted with no chance of winning.Once again,I'm not debating the ethics or the law,just stating that it's illegal to remove and possess the antlers from a deer you didn't legally harvest and tag.Some youngsters were just prosecuted and found guilty of that very thing around here.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

There is always a chance to win a case in court. But win or loose it would show the idiocy of some tin horn, no common sense fool who would ticket for such a trivial thing. I can just imagine how much fun a lawyer would havewith the warden. He'd make him look like a jerk in no time and I'd bet any jury ever assembled would refuse to convict for such nonsense. That is if the judge didn't simply dismiss the case and repremand the wardenand prosecutor long before that happened. I've got to believe common sense would win in the end.

BTW somebody tell me if it really is illegal to cut the antlers off from a deer you find dead in the woods. Whatmorons could produce a law like that?What about if you find a shed? What fool is going to tell me that thisit's wrong to take it home? So what if you find a patch of deer hair caught on a barbed wire fence and you want to take it home to make fishing flies. I suppose these idiots would want to ticket you for that too huh? Well assuming you didn't tag the hair of course.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Sheds are legal to keep as of about two years ago.Removing the antlers from a dead deer and keeping them is absolutely,positively considered illegal possession of wildlife parts.Unless the WCO blows the investigation and arrest,you will be convicted and no judge could rule otherwise.It doesn't matter if you,I or the judge feels it's a stupid law.The law is what it is and it's illegal to take the rack from a deer unless it's legally tagged.

It's a clearly written law and I'm afraid the only one that would look stupid is the one trying to fight it.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

O.K. so you convinced me. You have morons making some of your laws. Sorry...

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Thereis absolutely nothing stupid about fighting against a moronic law and/oran idiotic enforcement of a law. What would be stupid, not to mention spineless,would beto just blindly accept such nonsense. Besides, a jury can refuse to convict someone even if they believe they are guilty. If the jury decides it just doesn't make sense to convict the person they are within their right to find "not guilty" even though the person is indeed guilty. A judge has the right to do the same.

I have a pile of antlers in the garage and though they were all legally killedand taggedover many years.I doubt though I have a single tag for any of them. Especially the older ones. Tags were thrown away years ago. So I guess I'm a real serious poacher to some then right? Possesing antlers without out a tag oh my!

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

I suppose the antlers would have to be from a freshly killed deer.We all have mounts on the wall or racks in the garage.I never saw a mount on the wall with a tag on it.Not sure what the time frame is with having the antlers without a tag.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Everyone of my mounts has the tag stapled to the back of the mount. Been doing that forabout the last18years. Racksin my Fathersbasement that my brother or I havekilled over the years, still to this day have the tags on them.As a shed hunter, I've got at least five full skulled racks of deer I've found and they all havea non-hunting tag issued for them from either MD or PA.

In NH I've got all the tags from everyanimal I've harvested in the last 9 years.Even my mounted turkeys have the tags on them as you can see on thismount.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Wow, I think you must be the rare exception!

The truth of the matter is that laws regarding the illegal possesion of wild game animal parts were rightly created to give law enforcement another tool to fight the illegal trade of said parts. A good example is the bear gall bladder trade. These laws did NOT come about with the intent to prevent some 16 year old who gut shot his first buck and found it days later from removing the antlers as a keep sake. A game warden who uses the law to ticket this young lad is simply incapable of using discretion and common sense and imo should loose his badge.

When law enforcement looses sight of the intent of the law and uses law merely as a tool to "catch" people who with no ill intent have committed some techinical violation then they are in serious need of reform. Just mho.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Putting the tag on the back of my mounts camefrom my very first taxidermist I used. Went I got my mount back, that's where hehad it tapedand he explained to me why. I've just been doingever sinceand it actually helps me remember theactual stats on theanimal. Date, time, weight, location orcounty. I've known a few people who's deer or turkeyhave gained more weight dead than they did while being alive :D

I agree totaly with your last post ;)I feel thatlawis really onlyenforced if you give them or they have reason to believe you're doing something illegal. If you have a rack without a tag/permit and theyquestion it? it's probably because yougave them a reason tocheck on it. As long as you have information on the date or place killed, you could clear things up through PGC records.

I know if you loose a tag in MD you can call DNR and they will issuse a new one for it but Iit will cost you some $$ for the time they spend on it. Not sure how much seeing mywife found my tagbefore they re-issused me a new one.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Let me give you an example of why the law is the way it is.Last archery season,a 17" eight point was found poached just down the road from my house.It was shot in the throat and just left to rot,antlers and all.The WCO figured the poacher would be back so hejust kind of kept an eye on the deer for a couple days.About a week or two later,a landowner heard a gunshot just down the road from this incident.He didn't see the shooter but identified the vehicle.Upon investigating the scene,they found a dead doe.Just after dark,the same vehicle pulled up and let someone out with a flashlight.The alleged poachers were apprehended and their vehicle was searched.They didn't turn up a weapon but they did find the rack from the dead 8 point.There wasn't really enough evidence at the time to convict them of poaching but they were charged and recently convicted of illegal possession of wildlife parts.Pretty good pinch in my book.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Man after reading some threads like this one, seems like there are a lot of hunters that should not be in the woods.Lets break the laws and take are chances in court,what the hell is that,follow the rules or stay home.If you dont like a law try and get the law changed,dont break it because u think its stupid.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Have you or anyone else never broke a single law? It seems like alot of people who have drivers license should not be on the road.
I just love the hypocrits.I guess they have what we call in Mexico as double standards of what laws should be allowed to be broken and what laws are not.

Pedro

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

You give an excellent example of the laws proper use. Here was a case whereit wasused appropriately against somebody up to no good. This however is a very different situation than the 16 year old lad I used in my example though don't you think? This is what I mean when I say common sense should prevail. IMO,a WCO who uses the law to arrest the people in your example should be applauded, the WCO who uses the samelaw to arrest the 16 year old lad in my example should loose his badge.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

I think in general this is correct. I think the problem only arrises when you get some over zealous Barney Fife typewco that like in my example uses it to pinch somebody for doing something the law was never intended to address. Again, this is the common sense thing. Real life is rarely black and white and usually requires a little reasoning in order to do the right thing.

RE: To tag or not to tag?
 

Sylvan,if someone gut shoots a deer and finds it day's later,they should tag the deer if they want any part of it whether they're 16 years old or 60 years old.If i made a bad hit on a deer and failed to recover it,I certainly wouldn't be proud of the rack,especially if I went out and tried to kill another one.