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.