Got it all quartered and packed back to camp - let it hang couple days - now I'm going to cut it up (process it) in camp.
I'm done - every thing is bagged, tagged, and in the cooler, ie: cut up "in my opinion - it's processed".
Obviously the proof of sex is now removed and discarded.
I know the law states something like - proof of sex naturally attached until processed.
I think what I've done is completely legal - the elk is now processed.
My partner thinks we need to leave proof of sex on until we get it home (MN) - (leave a portion of the elk "unprocessed" with proof of sex "naturally attached".)
What say you?
Oh, we leave at "0-Dark Thirty" Tuesday morning - I'm going to really suck at work tomorrow.
Deer, elk and pronghorn:
"If the head or antlers are removed, evidence of sex in the form of testicles, penis, scrotum, udder or vulva must remain naturally attached to the carcass or parts thereof on all harvested big game animals until they reach the final place of storage or personal consumption, or a commercial meat processing facility."
They gave me a formal written warning that i had to sign. They said they could have given me a ticket.
Doubt you can have it frozen in the field. But if you are staying somewhere with a big freezer or bring one with you on a trailer, sounds like it is doable. If not, then leave one quarter with proof of sex attached.
Like I would spend all that time and money going into a hunting area, killing a bull and a cow, bringing the antlers out from the bull and the meat from the cow and leaving the bull meat .... I never understood the evidence of sex rule. Ever
You just have to leave a strategic strip of skin on the ham to keep it from falling off.
Stupid verbage IMHO.
We can upload it from the field on the tele-check system if possible. If not, as soon as we get to where we have the needed cell or 'net access.
For a change, we're the one with the makes-sense rule. :-)
No, what you describe makes no sense, but killing a bull when you only have an antlerless tag would be common if you did away with the requirement.
In other words, kill a bull, stash the antlers in the woods, haul the meat out and claim it was a cow (since there would be no proof of sex required). If the warden wants to go back to the kill site, well, a bear must have hauled off the head and buried it somewhere.
Or you could kill a cow with a bull tag and just claim you didn't want the antlers so you left them in the field.
Under your system, there would be no way to control how many bulls or cows were taken
Based on that, I would leave evidence attached to some meat that is still attached to the rear leg bone if you are determined to process it before heading home. Or just leave one hind unprocessed and leave evidence on that.
Page 17 also addresses your question.
We may have to yank your Man Card.
Say you are hunting in an any elk area and you shoot an elk. Great, you have evidence of sex attached to the meat and/or head gear in your possession at camp and/or transporting.
Without evidence of sex attached to the meat, it is way too easy for folks to game the system. They can do this by keeping antlers in possession while packing out an illegal cow. They can do this by trying to sneak out a bull on a cow only tag, etc.
There are a number of situations where someone could try to pass off an illegal animal as a legal one if they were not required to keep evidence of sex attached to the meat. Is it a perfect system? Heck no. Folks with no intentions of being illegal will get nailed for what they consider an honest mistake. Black and white enforcement of laws is never a good thing.
However, to think that a huge cooler of antelope meat, with no evidence of sex attached to anything has never contained a buck taken on a cheap OTC doe tag is just naïve.
What if you drop off your animal at a butcher and head home as soon as he's done processing it? You've done everything legal, but it's thawed out so it's illegal.
Knowing he was from the Midwest and an avid WT hunter (but new to CO elk hunting) I curiously asked if he left the EoS on a quarter when he gutted it.
Nope.
So, when we went back in to pack it out, I left the head naturally attached to a front shoulder. That was a very cumbersome load for sure.
Good thing we did as we got checked we we arrived back at the trailhead. and all was good.
It's written the way it is cause someone tried to intentually or had unintentionally done wrong.
I still have a hard time getting evidence of sex from a bull, I just cringe a bit!!
Its a gig to hammer nonresidents with a fine if anything and yes - its archaic because if it truly helped prevent anything every state would have it.
only Colorado has this silly law to my knowledge
Actually, all of the states I've hunted in have it, including Idaho, Montana, Washington, Nevada, and Wyoming.
I'm willing to bet just as many residents get hammered as non-res.
I didn't say it would stop it. It just makes it easier to catch.
On a related note, I've never been sure which order to bring meat out of the woods assuming solo with a pack frame. Usually I bring out the portion with attached evidence first then the head/antlers last. Any thoughts?
I don't think I would and I'd be a little leary of telling them where I shot it as well.
You may have missed my earlier post, but Wyoming dropped that attached requirement a few years ago.
Yes there are some idiots that break rules. They will break them regardless of the rules. This stuff is like gun laws. Go ahead, make it harder to own a gun. Only the honest will go through the trouble to comply. And you will lose a bunch of honest people who just don't want to deal with the hassle anymore. Stricter laws? See: Chicago, et al that have the strictest in the nation. Works well there I hear...
I will bet money I don't have..... the vast majority of tickets written or game confiscated under these rules were legally and honestly taken by honest folks thinking they had followed all the rules only to be shafted by.... what exactly? No, no.... not what... WHY exactly?
Just a little bit of rationality. Nobody is robbing banks here. But it does seem more and more like you have to bring your lawyer with you to go hunting. It's hunting for cryin' out loud! A recreation a heritage. But don't dot that "i" that someone stuck in there for whatever reason and there will be hell to pay....
Go after poaching out of season, no license, tags, spotlighting, whatever, criminal intentional offenses. But legal hunters hunting in a legal area in a legal season need to be treated with a bit of respect, not contempt. Yet many game depts insist on treating them as criminals that just haven't been caught yet. Like other regulatory gestapo, heap regulation upon regulation written up by some cubicle cowboy until somebody steps on a crack in the sidewalk. gotcha.
Sorry for the rant. This attitude, the micromanagement and assumption of guilt having to prove you are innocent is so..... never mind.... I give up. Don't bother reading me my rights... I no longer seem to have any already.... all government strives to become the IRS or EPA.... omnipotent.... PROVE you are innocent before us.... if you can....
Bravo for WY. They have been leading the west in the interests of true sportsmen for years even as some others seem to have been taken over by urbanite bureaucrats in DC. Offices in....
I'm just talking about a situation where a nonresident has to get on the road immediately after the butcher is done and it's not frozen yet. Or, like the OP wants to do, butcher it in camp and head home.
Some people even bring out freezers with a generator to keep everything frozen on the way home. If you process and pack the meat in camp you would still be illegal until the meat has become frozen.
All of those scenarios should be legal, but they are not the way that rule is written. Heck, when I process mine at home I'm technically illegal the minute I cut the evidence off because it's not frozen.
