deernutz

I still remember my first deer I shot when I was 12. My dad told me you always tag before you do anything. Don't even touch your knife or you'll forget.

steviebiggun

I don't know what part of minnesota you are from, but in ottertail county you can hand a poacher over to them with all the evidence, and have them tell you " If he doesn't confess to it their is nothing they can do about it " all I did was waste one day of my deer hunting trying to stop the poaching in my area. I personaly will never again contact the warden when I see a violation such as I did. also, The wardens told me they would get back to me, and didn't, I e-mailed the state about this, and they didn't even e-mail me back.
Minnesota DNR, what a waste

Topgun 3006

" If he doesn't confess to it their is nothing they can do about it "

That is a bunch of baloney and if that's what anyone told you at the DNR I'd be going up the ladder or contacting the Office of the AG!

steviebiggun

I swear to God that is what one of them told me, and I tried to to contact the Minnesota dept of Natural Resources web site. giving them the same information I gave the wardens, and they did no respond back to me (and its been over a month now).
" Just another govenmental agency that we spend alot of money on, and then get nothing in return "

blackhawk16

Just wondering. do you have to take your deer to a registration station like here in WI? If not, that's where I think people are getting confused with the legitimacy of the story. In WI, that would probably result in a $2,000 fine and loss of hunting and fishing privileges for 3 years. Happened to my dad about 25 yrs ago. Probably more now.

ChuckNorris

You shot a deer and let it lay overnight = reasonable

You went out and found it the next day forgetting your tag = reasonable

You "forgot" to validate the tag for a month after the kill = NOT REASONABLE

You should be happy as he!! that you only received a small fine. Working in LE I can tell you that this whole thing sounds quite fishy and the warden made the right call citing you.

Questions that would have been going through my head while speaking with you:

1. I'm responding to a call of "shots fired" in the area and this guy just so happens to have a deer down?

2. This guy admits to not tagging a deer that he killed a month ago. How many other deer did this guy kill and butcher while still keeping his tag "open" to continue hunting?

Honest mistake, maybe. But lots of coincidences. Your wasting your time appealing or anything else. You were guilty of what they cited you for. Consider yourself lucky that your hunting and fishing privileges were not revoked for years and that your fine was not in the thousands. Pay the fine. And hunt responsibly in the future.

Topgun 3006

We do not have to take our deer to a check station here in Michigan where this happened. We are supposed to notch the tag as to sex, points on each antler if it's a buck, and notch out the month and day it was killed. The tag does not have to go on the animal until you get it out to the vehicle so it is not lost when dragging the animal out of the hunting area. He screwed up and his honesty with the Officer cost him. I agree with the previous post of people cheating that way to keep hunting and that is probably what Officers have in their mind when coming up on that kind of a scene. I also agree that he probably got off pretty easy in just losing the rest of the year to hunt and the fine/costs that were assessed. Live and learn as they say!

ihookem1

I noticed everyone from Wis. is less sympathetic. For good reason. They are tough here. I didn't know you could drag a deer out in Mich before it was tagged. Don't care to beat you up on this but If you were in Wis. your bow, deer and license is gone for 3 years. I just helped a warden in Price Co. Wis. from calling 1-800-tipdnr. I told him where hunters were over baiting, and kkeping their back light on all night. This was 11/20/ 12. A few days later warden calls me and asked all kind of questions. I tell him everything. A week later warden calls me tell tell the cabin owner was cought red handed at 10 pm, window open, crossbow loaded, elevated flood lights on, 6 gal. pumpkins ( 2 gal. limit), mechanical feeder ( illegal) His excuse to the warden was " I just wanted a trophy buck" . He also is being charged with killing 4 turkeys illegally cause they eat too much deer corn. He was also busted for shooting a buck warden was suspicious of cause trail cam was confiscated and sd card showed the same registered buck eating corn at night, then laying there wounded, then him shooting it with 22 cal. handgun and him and wife dragging it away. The gy didn't know enough to erase the sd card for 3 weeks. In Wis. poaching was real bad. It's not bad in SOuthern Wi. but up north it's bad. In upper Mich it's so bad you hear more shots gun season eve than opening day. Mich dnr needs to crack down on poaching. There was no " Barney Fife in the warden I got to know.The fines for this guy will most likely be 5-8 thousand bucks. This cabin owner has no idea I can see his light back light on where he baits. Now i know what he was doing the last 23 years. Taking deer I had a legal right to hunt.

Topgun 3006

"I didn't know you could drag a deer out in Mich before it was tagged. Don't care to beat you up on this but If you were in Wis. your bow, deer and license is gone for 3 years."

That's why you need to know ALL the laws for wherever you go hunting and if I was hunting in WI I would know your law is different and abide by it. I really see no problem the way we do it here because the tag is supposed to be taken care of IMMEDIATELY, so what's the difference of whether it's in your pocket so you don't lose it like you might if it's on the deer while dragging it out. If the Warden sees you bringing one out here and your tag hasn't been taken care of, I can tell you that the same thing you mentioned in WI would probably happen. Good for you for turning that dumb scumbag in and I hope he gets the friggin book thrown at him. Some of these violators are so dumb they do like he did to help convict themselves and even post pictures of their violations out on the net or have a diary of all their misdeeds!

acfbo1

Kraker If you brought the doe to a processing plant would they not ask about the tag?