Chaser posed a good ethics question that generated a lot of response. Good Topic! Kind of a similar topic here, so I'd like to hear ya'lls opinions on this one as well...

I shot a doe, tagged it immediately (in the ear), hauled it to camp, gutted, skinned and headed her (headed? deheaded?). I left the carcass hanging high from branch in our "processing" area to cool over night. I left the head, aka proof of sex, along with the filled tag still in its ear on the ground next to the carcass and tree.

The next morning I quartered it out and put the entire thing on ice. Went to get the head/proof of sex and... nothing. No head, no tag, nothing. Well, nothing but 'yote tracks all around. I looked for a couple hours around camp and could not find it.

So in this case, I can clearly see that my mistake was to leave the head/proof of sex and tag on the ground where other animals could get it... But until I woke up, I *thought* I was perfectly legal. We leave the head on the ground all the time at our camp and this has never happened to any of us in the 12+ years I've been on this lease.

Now I'm illegal, in possession of a carcass with no head/POS or tag. Now what do I do? Do you consider this the same/similar situation as Chaser42?

I'll tell you what I DID do later after a few responses and what the final outcome was. I will tell you now what I did NOT do: call the Game Warden. I didn't want to open that can if I didn't have to...

load your cooler and go home!

If you get stopped tell the TRUTH and see how far that will get you. If its a reasonable GW and he believes you, maybe you get a free pass.

In this case, like P & Y, load and leave.

I'd have a tag missing from my license with the kill log filled out on the back. As far as the moral/ethical aspect, I would know that I had taken a legal deer and was not intentionally trying to circumvent any game laws. Breaking the law, yes. The spirit of the law, no. But if I said I'd call the GW for their assessment prior to leaving camp, I'd just get ridiculed.

Situation is a little different IMO. Shooting a <13" deer is illegal and can easily be avoided by not pulling the trigger.

Yes, your situation could have been avoided but you were totally legal and a coyote caused the issue. In that situation since nothing illegal was done I would have kept it to myself

Transporting that carcass as described would be illegal wouldnt it?

Yep, there's where the proof of sex and the tag comes into play.

Fill out a meat transfer document to your buddy who might be with you so that he may legally transport the dear without the pos with the meat just make sure you don't give him every bit of it so that you still must "posses" pos so you can transport one tenderloin or a bs that you may have already eaten but a gw can't tell that by seeing a legal meat transfer document on the animal in the cooler

Then you get in a bind with partially cutting up a deer that had not reached it's final destination.

Cut it up, bag it, leave it in the freezer at camp.

no i would have transferred my deer through a legal document to another individual. at this point it may be quartered i do not know many people that do this as a whole bodied deer or many people that take their own deer for that matter from the lease to the house whole bodied and not quartered. In this instance i only wanted the a tenderloin or a back strap. In filling out the document you are taking the liability of POS of the person you are giving your meat to. You as the original shooter that kept a bs or a tenderloin that you ate at camp after your buddy left now does not need POS to drive home without any deer in your possession. You may get in trouble for processing the deer before it gets to its final destination but not for quartering it out before leaving camp.

The only problem is the tag must stay with the carcass. If you give a resource document and take the majority of the meat then the tag would stay with the carcass and the resource document with the backstrap and tenderloins. Resource document goes with the smaller share of the carcass from what I have been told. Might be wrong.

I was in a similar situation for one HQ and one BS and he kept POS and I took the document. I may have been in the wrong there as well and if anyone knows more about it than either of us chime in so I will know better in the future. My thought is though that the tag on the animal and the POS is not in my name and without a transfer document to prove why a deer that was not harvested by me is in my possession puts me in a world of trouble because the GW could think i just took someone elses tag to throw on the animal. So the document IMO and understanding stays with the individual that did not harvest the said game.

I really like this forum. One can learn a lot. Opinions, advice, history, helping others out, sometimes bragging a little and even sharing mistakes.

Being somewhat new to this with only a few posts and a few PM's, I'd like to ask another question: do game wardens ever weigh in with *professional/expert* advice on topics like this? Maybe that is a question for the Moderators... A GW section?

Blah, blah. Like I said, I'll tell what I did and I think it was MY best option.

Load up and go home and DO NOT stop at any rest areas. Big target for GW's. You know in your heart that you did not break the spirit of the law but were a victim of circumstances. Take it as a learning tool and move on. There is not one person on this forum that has not made some type of mistake and I am willing to be that GW's fit in this category too.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/annual/hunt/tagging/

"The hunting license tag may be attached anywhere on a deer or turkey so that it is not damaged, defaced, or lost in transporting or handling. For deer, the appropriate tag or applicable permit must remain attached to the deer until the deer reaches its final destination and is quartered. If the animal is a deer and the head is severed from the carcass (body), then the appropriate tag and any applicable permits must remain attached to the carcass. See proof of sex in the section Processing Carcass in Camp. If the head does not accompany the carcass, then the head must be accompanied by a Wildlife Resource Document (WRD)."
"Tip: Remember that if the head and the carcass are separated, the tag goes with the carcass and the head must be accompanied by a WRD."
All from the above site listed.

If you lost your tag or permit with from the harvested deer by whichever means it happens, you must fill out another tag to put on that animal to make it legal. It was your own fault that the head and tag was lost, taken by a predator or varmint and you must rectify the situation to make it legal for transport.

A WRD will not work for in this situation, nor will giving the carcass to another with a WRD and removing any part of the deer and then telling the game warden that portion was consumed in camp. Why lie in the first place.

Dang, amazing how many will do to get by with their mistakes. Do what's right...is holding onto another tag to kill another deer that important because you made the mistake or accident in the first place?

i believe in this instance the landowner can fill out a form that the deer was tagged legally. if all else fails call the game warden in your area and ask them what to do

There are game wardens who monitor the forums, not just this one, but many.

It is always best to ask any game warden what to do IF a situation like this occurs or any question you may have. Some responses on here are not the best to learn from or do as they say and many answers will get you in trouble.

Sometimes the landowner is not available and that's when the latter needs to be taken to be absolutely sure. Great reply tgravely!

I would burn another tag and chalk it up to a mistake that I wouldn't make again. Too much trouble to try to figure out a way around the law.

The Game Warden in the county that I hunt in has always been very helpful and reasonable (though we have a new one that I haven't met yet). I would have no issue calling and telling him what happened and ask for advice on the POS.

I've only taken 1 doe two years ago and passed on the only deer I saw last season a 2yr old buck, but I liked that last post and figured what the heck I'd chime in.

Call the GW and tell em what happened, if they came out they would see the yote tracks and understand you were telling the truth. If you try to take off your cammo and sneak out you'd really be compounding the problem if you got stopped. As I understand the law if a GW thinks your up to no good he can take your guns and the vehicle you used to go hunting. You might get them back in court but that will still cost you time and money. Most GW I've talked to at hunters ed, dove fields 4yrs ago, and over the phone in the past few years hunting in TX are honest, reasonable, and love the outdoors as much as the rest of us. Better to be up front about it, then to risk a much harsher outcome in the end. Worst case you lose a second tag if they want to be mean about it, and you chalk it up as a lesson learned...

Ok since you've said you are a GW if we were hunting in your area, and this happened what would YOU want us to do?

Where did I say I was a Game Warden, which I am not.

I never said to lie about the meat being consumed that your keeping POS for, and there is nothing wrong with sending meat Home with you buddy to CYOA in this instance. Say that was your last Dow tag for the county whether it was a 2 or 3 doe county. You have filled out you harvest log properly and you may have a tag left but not to take where you took it. What do you do now because you now have no tags left to "burn" or you have a tag and can't legally use it?

define final destination......( just curious )

what is the procedure if you process completely in camp ? meaning.... grind / wrap / debone... ready for freezer .....

Okay, here is what I DID do:

I grabbed the hunting regulations booklet you get when you buy your license. The only telephone number I could find (that worked) was the Operation Game Thief number. I called it and explained to the person who answered that I was not reporting any poaching but I wanted to "report" what had happened. She mentioned that she had never heard of anything like this before and gave me a 24 hour telephone number (TPWD) in Austin to call.

So, I called that number and again explained what had happened. The guy took my info (can't remember exactly what other than hunting license number), typed this into a computer and gave me a "reference" number. He said that if I was stopped by a GW or pulled over by DPS/sheriff, that I could pass along the telephone and reference number and they would verify that I had already reported it. The person thanked me for reporting this and said I was doing the *right* thing. He all but promised me that I wouldn't get in trouble or a fine.

Problem solved. I didn't take the GWs time, didn't pack up and leave, didn't use another tag or have a fellow hunter take the meat with a transfer. I made a mistake but stayed within the spirit of the law and, most importantly IMO, reported it.