Either sex: still needs proof of sex!

[James Riley]

I wonder how much it would cost to run a DNA test on a suspect piece of meat? Maybe this law is obsolete, given technology. If the warden suspects something is amiss, he can take a sample, check for an X or Y chromosome, and bust the guy later if he was lying. Save everyone a ton of trouble.

That's what I was thinking. Hell, it probably won't be but a few years and they can test all the meat on the spot and make sure it all came from the same animal and what sex it was.

Off topic, but for some reason the first thing that came to mind seeing the thread title was the current up-roar over who gets to use which head and how you can't tell who is what anymore anyway.

 

[Southern Elk]

The rule has never made much sense to me. What is someone going to do, shoot a buck and keep the head but waste all the meat and then shoot a doe and keep all the meat from it?.

I always thought maybe it was so that somebody couldn't shoot two animals with one tag. For instance, guy shoots a buck, puts his tag on the antlers, goes home with the meat and unloads it. He then goes back, shoots a doe, leaves the head, then drives home with a doe carcass and a buck head with a tag on it. I know that's far fetched, but that's all I can come up with.

 

[npaden]

I always thought maybe it was so that somebody couldn't shoot two animals with one tag. For instance, guy shoots a buck, puts his tag on the antlers, goes home with the meat and unloads it. He then goes back, shoots a doe, leaves the head, then drives home with a doe carcass and a buck head with a tag on it. I know that's far fetched, but that's all I can come up with.

Okay, I guess I wasn't thinking deviously enough. You could use the same head for at least a couple days I guess before it started to get too rotten.

 

[tjones]

With elk I figured it for a guy kills a cow in a bull only unit. Packs it and says he left the antlers.

 

[Backstrap]

Can't find the link, but last year or the year before a man was arrested for screwing antlers into does' skulls for transport. Was a weird story.

Never underestimate the resourcefulness of real criminals!

 

[.280 Remington]

Every once in a while you meet a LEO who likes to play commando. Sounds like you found one.

 

[Rat Fink]

I know some guys in Da UP of Michigan that had some screws in the base of some little forky horns. If they needed meat and season was winding down they would shoot a Doe and screw them in. Nobody would ever question them as long as the horns were there. They took turns shooting the same forky on the years they didn't get one legitimately.

 

[TheTone]

I wonder how much it would cost to run a DNA test on a suspect piece of meat? Maybe this law is obsolete, given technology. If the warden suspects something is amiss, he can take a sample, check for an X or Y chromosome, and bust the guy later if he was lying. Save everyone a ton of trouble.

Based on the lab I have used for similar, that would take more time and effort than anyone wants to deal with.

Seriously its not that hard to leave the EOS attached to a piece of meat, quarter,etc.

 

[zachthebowhunter]

I always just cut a piece of meat off with the nuts and throw them in a game bag if I am boning something. It sounds like you caught a guy who was a bit confused or just interpreted it his own way, thats different than most anyone I have talked to.

 

[LopeHunter]

Lived in a state where was okay to shoot a buck on a doe tag if horns were under 3" or some number like that. Before the rule, a button buck would be shot at 200 yards and the result was a game violation. Rule changed and allowed a small length of horn on a buck to be legal with a doe tag. Would encounter some freshly broken antler bases at the check station. Was rut so perhaps were a lot of buck fights.

 

[RobG]

I confirmed that evidence of sex only has to remain on one hind quarter in MT.

 

[Southern Elk]

^That's good to know. Both hind quarters would have been overkill.

 

[8andcounting]

so what if u bone the animal out completely and come home with a cooler full of meat and the head with horns attatched next to cooler with tag on horns? what are u supposed to do then???????????

 

[----]

so what if u bone the animal out completely and come home with a cooler full of meat and the head with horns attatched next to cooler with tag on horns? what are u supposed to do then???????????

You need proof of sex attached to the meat, and the tag needs to be with the meat as well. The regulations are pretty clear on this-

 

[MTGomer]

I always leave a bit of penis attached to the boned out hind. Its a pain, but its the law.
I FINALLY ran into a warden, while packing a bull out with horses a few years ago. The one in my avatar actually.
He checked my tag, but not proof of sex. I was kind of disappointed my tedious cutting didn't pay off.

 

[TheDudeAbides]

I like the accompanying the carcass regulation better than remaining attached myself.

I mean who would freeze a testicle or vulva for a year and bring it out to the field just in case

 

[Sytes]

Good post. Thanks Rob. Not sure I'll go through all the hub-bub to have some form of proof attached <to each quarter> as I've become 100% gutless to include deer. It is simply too easy to resolve 75% of the home processing in the field. I'll attach enough... though not to each quarter / head attached(?) really? I will however video/photo in excess to support my claim.

<edit>
What Randy quoted is relative to my activity. Rob, I think you had an excited volunteer, maybe?

 

[PAGOAT]

What do you guys do with your doe/fawn tag where you can potentially shoot a 6 month old deer or antelope that is a buck but legal as a fawn ? Seems that can be a problem unless you take pictures ? I was thinking about this in Wyoming looking over some herds with fawns.

Goat

 

[RobG]

Good post. Thanks Rob. Not sure I'll go through all the hub-bub to have some form of proof attached <to each quarter> as I've become 100% gutless to include deer. It is simply too easy to resolve 75% of the home processing in the field. I'll attach enough... though not to each quarter / head attached(?) really? I will however video/photo in excess to support my claim.

<edit>
What Randy quoted is relative to my activity. Rob, I think you had an excited volunteer, maybe?

I'm not sure what the deal was. It was actually the biologist who mentioned it, and I followed up with him and he said it only needed to be on one side. I can only guess that he said the wardens PREFER it to be on both sides.

I can think of scenarios where you could abuse it by only having it on one side (say taking out a bull+cow with a 2 cow tags in two trips), but the regs say 1 side so that's all that's required.

 

[RobG]

What do you guys do with your doe/fawn tag where you can potentially shoot a 6 month old deer or antelope that is a buck but legal as a fawn ? Seems that can be a problem unless you take pictures ? I was thinking about this in Wyoming looking over some herds with fawns.

Goat

In Montana deer, elk, and antelope are defined as antlerless if the antler is less than 4" long when measured from the top of the skull. Or horn in the case of an antelope. (Page 18 of the regs.) I've burned my A tag a couple times shooting a spike with an antler covered by an ear and I wasn't sure if it was 4".