I believe it's legal in Maine. It's an old tradition.


Still don't think it's right.

Its not like a hunter is in the field, without buying a tag. I really don't care much.

One guy in the group has a doe tag. Shoot a doe, throw that guys tag on it, and split the meat. They don't give doe tags by me. But I think in areas, that happens some.

It is illegal in Washington State. Only a disabled hunter can have one person with them that can dispatch wounded and retrieve game.

I've wondered about that. And think it's a good law.


-Jake

It's a way to let the older hunters use their tags when they haven't shot a deer in 20 years. If someone is 80+ years old they can still pull tags, go to deer camp, hunt out in the field (as much as they can), and take a deer home so they have venison all year long.

The object of the tags is to generate money and to thin out the Deer in a controlled way to prevent over forage and the spread of disease. If they decide the herd is getting too thin they can limit the number of tags next year.

Does it really make any difference whose tag goes on which Deer? Only a percentage of tags are filled each year anyway, plus or minus a few Deer isn't going to have much impact in the short term.

We do it a completely different here, a shooting plan/quota is set at the beginning of the year for each parcel of land. The object is to harvest out the Deer, by age group, in a controlled manner. You report at the end of the season. If you fail to shoot your quota for two years running. they send in a paid hunter to harvest your Deer. An overseer keeps track of the game numbers. They've worked out the fine points long ago, they have been doing it this way for 500 years. The up side is we have a nine month season.