RIght on here. Said perfectly

DougeE, we don't all see things the same way. You certainly have a right to your opinion as do I. Personally,should I make a bad hit on a deer that results in my failure to recover it I feel absolutelyhorrible. Not for my loss (it's not a pride thing)but because of the idea that I caused the animal to suffer a slow death. Fortunately, it's only happened a couple of times in my 40+ years of hunting.I've never found the deer days later though but should it happen, as I said before,if I wanted the antlers I wouldn't hesitate to take them. I wouldn't tag the carcass either. I see no benefit to anybody or anythingin punishing myself for the unfortunate and certainly unintentional bad hit. But if you feel a need to assuage your concience by wasting your tag I won't tellsay you are being foolish. Like I said, we don't all see things the same way.

Take care!

I'm not beating on you and agree that there's different ways of looking at it.I also understand that sometimes things happen and deer get away no matter how much time and effort we put in to making sure it doesn't happen.My opinion is,if you kill a deer and eventually you find it,you tag it and salvage what you can,be it the rack or any meat.The way I look at it,each tag is good for one deer,whether it's edible or not.

where is this topic going? It started with whether or not you would tag a deer if it was unfit for consumption as soon as it was gutted. Now its gone to what if you found it days later after a bad hit? well I don't know of any state that says you can kill an animal,cut it open and then decide whether or not you think it is edible. you kill it you fill out the tag!! If it is bad then you let the pgc or any other game officer decide, you won't find one that will refuse you a tag if it is legitamate. I your to lazy to wait for a new tag then don't hunt, or get off your butt and take the animal to the nearest game office. no matter how you look at it, if you don't tag your a POACHER !!!!! for state that has no deer I can't beleive there was such a stupid topic.

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Well I guess most of usjust figurea deer that has been dead for a few days qualifies as "unfit for consumption", don't you think?Youshouldn't need to gut it out to figure that one out.Now you can do what you like in that situation but I'm certainly not going to dragthe rotted carcass around looking for a game warden to confirm the obvious. That's just dumb! I'm not going to tag a rotted carcass either. Now if you have ethical reasons for wanting to use your tag that way then by all means do it. I, however, don't share your belief on this one. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Fair enough! You are clearly a fellow of the highest integrity!

I've made my share of mistakes but my outlook changes asI get older.

I am not saying to drag a rotten deer to the dec, but if you shoot a deer and upon cutting it open it isn't any good then your are still legally bound to tag the deer. If your not willing to wait for a second tag then take it to the dec.