Regulations on Quartering Deer

[RiverRat]

I will be hunting an area that has some really rough terrain and I'm thinking about packing them out as opposed to killing myself trying to drag one. I couldn't find anything on the DNR site about this. What are the details if it is legal? Do you have to leave organs intact to prove whether it's a buck/doe? Do you have to pack the cape and antlers last? Etc?

 

[Blind Sow]

Page 28 of the 2006/07 Iowa Hunting and Trapping Regulations booklet, under "Tagging Requirements" reads, in part, "The head and and antlers, if any, must remain attached to the carcass until it is processed for consumption."

In other words the head (along with any antlers) must stay attached to the deer's body while being transported from the place of kill to the processor or commercial preservation facility or until the deer has been processed for consumption.

Doug Clayton

State Conservation Officer

 

[Danno]

I've considered this question before too. Doug, Your answer basically eliminates quartering. That would require removal of the head. What about breaking the carcass in half at about the last rib? This would make 2 more managable trips to pack out. Or, as a second option what about completely boning the animal in the field (that could be considered processing for consumption)? In some States that is an option, but most require evidence of sex to be left on the carcass during the pack out.

 

[bukket]

If you're looking at things technically then quartering is the first step of the "processing for consumption."

 

[boacephus]

[ QUOTE ]
If you're looking at things technically then quartering is the first step of the "processing for consumption."

[/ QUOTE ]

That's how I assumed it. I do have a whole hind quarter in the freezer. We do one once a year, in the oven for awhile, then wrapped in bacon and thrown on the grill.