do you tag unsalvagable deer?
Indiana
This scenario came up amongst a group of deer hunters at the local diner the other morning. No one knew what was the legal thing to do and out of the 6 or 7 guys there, there were 6 or 7 different opinions. What do you all think and if you know what is legal, please share. We couldn't find anything specific in the regulations as far as finding your kill a week or more after the shot.
You shoot a deer and for whatever reason you can not find the deer. After an appropriate amount of time you search for hours and find nothing. The next day you get some hunting buddies to help you do a grid search and check every blowdown and brush pile and still turn up empty. The next 3 days are spent walking and glassing, looking for crows and buzzards, but still find nothing. You call the neighboring property owners and walk their properties and you are now a mile away from the site of the hit. Nothing!
You start to hunt again, but there is still that nagging feeling of what happened...did the deer move? Did I just blow the shot? You double check your equipment and shoot it to verify your accuracy. All is good on the equipment and shooting end of things and you start to hunt with confidence again and then...
A guy hunting well over a mile away calls and says he found a dead deer. Nothing much left but the skeleton and an arrow is in the body cavity. You go check it out and it's your arrow, your deer. Do you keep hunting or punch the tag and call it a season?
Personally I'd be done buck hunting for the year. Seems like a no-brainer. Plenty of does to kill if you want deer meat.
it's an ethics issue unless you take any part of the animal and if you do it better be tagged.
Our Rule is if you take any part of deer. Horns hoods meat or hair, you MUST tag it. That's not for everyone but the guys I hunt with it's the unwritten rule.
What if you find it or any dead buck after season has ended and your tag has expired? Do you just take the antlers/skull or do you call the DNR for a salvage tag?
If you want to legally possess the antlers you tag them.
I figure if your arrow is in it and you know it’s yours, then you should tag it.
