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Do you let it lay?

Thinkin Rut

Thinkin Rut

PMA Member
You can buy them on ebay, gun shows and even at the state fair but you cannot legally pick them up in the timber. A salvage tag is for meat from roadkill and if a CO gives you a salvage tag for a skull he is just muddying the water. I understand the reason for the law but question if it is enforceable. So....what do you do with the dead bucks that you find? Let it lay?
 
We have a similar law out here. If you come across a carcass with the head/antlers attached (deer, elk, etc.) or a skull with skin/meat still on it, you are technically supposed to call it in before taking it so AGFD can investigate the possibility of poaching, etc. If you find a bleached skull, you can take it. I've had conversations with our WMs out here and I know what I can and can't get away with when it comes to finding carcasses. However, as a Federal wildlife agent (considered non-LEO Federal agent) working for the largest conservation agency in the country, I don't have the option of questioning grey areas. If I get caught violating or stepping in the grey area of any game laws (no matter the state), I will get the book thrown at me with a "You of all people should know better." I can honestly say I would call it in per the regs (have done it, actually) and sleep well at night knowing I did the right thing. What the other person does is on his conscience.
 
that is a very good question! i have had some sitiations where i have found dead bucks where they are rotten or eaten by coyotes but i want the head/antlers for decoration in my garage. around here i have heard that if you call the game warden to get a salvage tag, they might take it and it will become the state's property! but if i take it home and get caught transporting it with out a tag, i am getting in trouble.
 
Gray area but our local CO is fine issuing salvage tags so I'll grab them everytime. I'm thankful he's open to issuing salvage tags because we found 2 locked bucks (both 150's) last year and a 205"+ buck this year. It would be disappointing leaving them in the woods.
 
Brett Morris said:
Gray area but our local CO is fine issuing salvage tags so I'll grab them everytime. I'm thankful he's open to issuing salvage tags because we found 2 locked bucks (both 150's) last year and a 205"+ buck this year. It would be disappointing leaving them in the woods.
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An even more difficult question...if you had found the 205 incher with a less than "dead head" friendly CO, then what would have you done?
 
I have never called for a salvage tag, when we find a dead buck we usually take the skull/antlers. If we found something really large I might make the call. IMO this law is about as well regarded and followed as possession limits on pheasants or ducks, etc.
 
Ill be honest, I would have thrown him in the truck and drove home with him. Not a chance I'd leave him laying. 205" is a once in a lifetime type of buck, dead or alive. Frankly it's a stupid rule and I dislike all the "gray" areas within the DNR regs book. Like normal laws it should be black/white. Either you have to leave them lay or they're all fair game. I understand the potential for poachers to leave deer lay for a year too
 
Found a 200+ dead deer last year and called the co. He told me to take pics of the bones where I found it and send to him. I did and he came over and gave me a salvage tag....after I told him I was going to donate it to our local conservation office where the public could enjoy him. He told me he probably wasnt going to run all over the country giving sal. tags for heads that were going to sit in the garage. But, he also said mine was big enough it needed some legallity to it. I also had wifes flower garden full of sheds and deads that he didnt even look at or pay attention to. After the fact i found a pic a guy had on trail cam of this deer and we presumed he had 20 inches chewed off. The local conservation office is flipping the bill to have his horns fixed and a shoulder mount done. Dont know if this helps because your co might have a different idea but I would give him a call and ask. Remember he works for you!!!!
 
Thankfully i don't have the "enforcer job"... I see people all the time picking up racks they find in spring or whatever. Honestly- I could care less. If I saw the same folks blasting bucks at night with rifles- Id call in 2 seconds. I think with the severity of issues out there and lack of law enforcement time- I personally wish they'd overlook some of the "Minor" things even though they could give a ticket and focus the very limited time on the aggregious & serious violations that r obvious hard core poachers. Those r the folks that probably get away with te most that need to b out targets (vs, say and example of uncle jim bob picking up a rack during morel season). Never justifying illegality but I guess I personally put this way down the list of concerns out state shovel be spending time on- especially when our common sense knows what 99.9% of folks picking these up have done (made a pretty innocent "minor violation).
 
most of the time im sure poachers dont leave the heads behind, but i can see where some(poachers) could shoot 3 big bucks during shotgun season and only tag one, go back in feburary and get the other heads he hid in some brush and take them home. and again who is to say when and how they died after they are at your house and boiled or whatever ?? i have found a couple in the past and things worked out where i had a tag left over that i slapped on it to get it home.
 
I don't see how they could prosecute anyway. For example- say you pick up a dead head, get pulled over a half mile down the road and the co says "do you have a salvage tag for that deer?" All you would have to say is that's the buck i shot last year. I tagged him and called it in after harvest but removed the tag when i got it home. End of story. They might write you a citation and make you go to court (seen it happen), then the prosecutor will look at you and wonder how he's supposed to prosecute without being able to prove anything (seen that happen as well). Then everything will be thrown out and you will sit there and wonder how much time and money the state wasted in the process which could've been used on more important things(yep seen that happen too).
 
I see why there is a law on it. But, I'm not a poacher, so any dead heads I find I scoop 'em up.
 
I pick it up, called one time when I was going to college in IC and the CO just told me to take it. After that never called again because she sounded like she didn't want to be bothered.
 
Probably not the best way to do things but we also pick the heads up and take them. Found 1 last week when dad and I were putting out some food for the deer. Thought it was a shed right away and then saw what had happened. Tree fell right on this deer...had to saw the tree to get him out from underneath. I'm assuming it broke it's neck when it hit him. Never seen that before. You know it's his time when that happens. I think I would be more open to calling it in if it were on public land than if it's private. Unless you could obviously tell that there was some foul play going on.
 
Been a while since I've stumbled across a carcass that I wanted to salvage the rack on. If I did, I'd call the local CO and make it legal. If he takes it, oh well, I didn't shoot it anyhow.

If it were on my own land that I hunted and wasn't going to 'show it off' I'd just bring it home and do my thing.
 
jkratz5 said:
I pick it up, called one time when I was going to college in IC and the CO just told me to take it. After that never called again because she sounded like she didn't want to be bothered.
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Called once in IC and she said "mice and squirrels gotta eat, too, leave it lay". Maybe she had a change of heart? The one I was calling about was clearly a roadkill in the ditch by Sharpless Auction.
 
tph said:
most of the time im sure poachers dont leave the heads behind, but i can see where some(poachers) could shoot 3 big bucks during shotgun season and only tag one, go back in feburary and get the other heads he hid in some brush and take them home.
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George Waters

Waters' favorite ruse was to pose as a fall turkey hunter--a perfect ploy, because the turkey season also runs through September and in many Colorado units centerfire rifles can be legally used in turkey hunting. After poaching each bull, Waters would tie its antlers high in a tree. The following spring he would return, cut down the heads and pretend he had found winter-killed animals. In Colorado it is legal to take long-dead animals out of the wild without reporting anything to the state--a loophole Waters exploited.
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im sure it happens, but loophole or not poachers are going to poach. i think if the opportunity comes and i find a dead buck, i will just grabb it and take it home.
 
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