Poacher has my 5x5 elk

[Michelle_Nelson]

I agree with a few things that Bearhunter59 said.  I deffinatly agree about the clear lack of respect, morals and ethics that are young people have today.

If I were in the same situation Longtat was I would have probably done the same thing.  It all depends it is easy to say I'd have done this and I'd have done that.  Ya can't realy say unless you were the person in the situation.  If I felt like the kid learned his leson I'd have let him off.  If he acted like it was all a big joke I'd have had him charged. 

It sucks that the meat is now wasted.  Sounds like to me that Longtat did about everything he could do to find the animal.  Sometimes animals get away and their is realy nothing you can do about it.  Other than keep looking for them.   

[jackelope]

i'm having a hard time saying what sisu did with the arrow-kid was right and what you did was not right, but i'm assuming the kid you had a problem with was older than 15...therefore knew better what he was doing, and the arrow kid incident was clearly an accident.
i kind of feel like some charges should have been filed against this kid, at least an official warning so he had something on his record if he gets dinged again for something, they will know he's a repeat offender. i don't feel like you should have had the option to decide wether or not to press charges on the kid. it's not like he assaulted you or something like that...he violated game laws, for which i don't rreally see how you should have control over that.
my .02
glad you got your horns back, BTW, and i'm glad to see you cut your tag for whatever thats worth.

[wrangler]

He didn't learn anything except he can get away with doing this kind of crap.  The game warden should have cuffed him, hauled him off and confiscated any vehicle that he used to move/transport the head and animal.  Then the little #$^$ would have learned a lesson.  Then this whole episode would have had enough impact on him and his worthless friends that they wouldn't even think about touching a dead game animal that they know isn't theirs.

Whole things shows the clear lack of respect, morals and ethics that young people these days are not taught....

are you serious? you make it sound like the kid went in to longtats camp, held em all at gunpoint, ate all their food, stole the head and killed their dog. dude found a archery killed animal who knows how long after it was shot (which im sure most of us have found more than once) and cut the horns off. bfd dude? now everything else that went on after that is just immature bs that the dumb sob was prolly born with (bragging about it, lying, yata yata yata...), still doesn't make it right and i prolly woulda kicked the kids ass, but seriously....  it's a *censored*ty deal cause it happend to an honest dude but come back to earth, most of us would have taken the horns with out a second thought, illegal or not. btw kidnapping by the legal definition is "moving someone against their will up to 10 feet or beyond" (or something along those lines) should everyone that played football or tackled a buddy at some point in thier life be booked??? the law is not always black and white. chill out. oh and i hate the wdfd just as much as you bear, i have the 'barbs not pinched all the way' tickets to prove it....

[Ray]

most of us would have taken the horns with out a second thought

I have a hard time believing that most people would take the horns and then lie about it later when confronted. That alone proves someone's credibility is in the gutter and at that moment any ounce of respect I might have held for the human being would be instantly evaporated into thin air. There is no reason to lie about this sort of action as far as I can tell. "Yeah I took those horns." - seems like a simple thing to say for me. Unless of course someone had been up to something illegal or felt guilty about something they did. Still... it would not recover the meat if it was spoiled.

To be honest this topic was not about the elk but about it's horns more than anything else - read the topic subject.. Therefore I think it is a little misleading and would be more appropriately coined as - Someone stole the horns off the elk I shot and lost...

It's water under the bridge now...

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

"most of us would have taken the horns with out a second thought"... Glad you have placed your ethics on me... I really like it when non hunters look at some of the things that have been posted and make up there mind about all sportsmen with simple minded statement like "oh you would have done it", no i wouldn't have. it is against the law. If the meat hadn't spoiled by the time someone found it the person who found it should have thrown there tag on it and saved the meat. Those are my ethics, i would rather not see an animal wasted.

And if you think anti hunters are not looking at this site you are in denial...

[Michelle_Nelson]

Anti Hunters are not the only ones coming on this site.  Game Wardens also like to frequent Hunting and Fishing related Forums and websites. 

[wrangler]

most of us would have taken the horns without a second thought

I have a hard time believing that most people would take the horns and then lie about it later when confronted.

im not sure why you're attaching my quote to your post since i never said anything about lying about what happend, i would tell anyone strait up how i found them and then would give them back after some friendly jabs about not finding the animal they shot and drink a beer about it. read my post a little more carefully, i never condoned lying about anything.

Someone stole the horns off the elk I shot and lost...

sooooo id like to know at what point does taking the horns off of a dead (meat obviously spoiled, we're not talking about claiming a freshly shot animal here) animal make you thief?  is it day 4, or day 400? although illegal, hardly makes someone a thief. i have a nice skull from a whitetail buck i found dead, it had been dead for years. it may have been killed by a hunter that couldn't find it, i don't know. am i thief? i think your logic is flawed a little. oh, and spare me, i already know i broke the law, it's not legal to take skulls im sure.... iv never really been that worried about it to check the rcw's.

[Ray]

im not sure why you're attaching my quote to your post since i never said anything about lying about what happend, i would tell anyone strait up how i found them and then would give them back after some friendly jabs about not finding the animal they shot and drink a beer about it. read my post a little more carefully, i never condoned lying about anything.

It's the whole point. There's no reason take something and then lie about it. Perhaps you had not read that part of the discussion .. but from your responses prior to this one can only conclude either you missed the point that he lied about it when confronted or that you did not care and might do the same. I did read that earlier and so that is the whole reason for picking that out of your response.

sooooo id like to know at what point does taking the horns off of a dead (meat obviously spoiled, we're not talking about claiming a freshly shot animal here) animal make you thief?  is it day 4, or day 400? although illegal, hardly makes someone a thief. i have a nice skull from a whitetail buck i found dead, it had been dead for years. it may have been killed by a hunter that couldn't find it, i don't know. am i thief? i think your logic is flawed a little. oh, and spare me, i already know i broke the law, it's not legal to take skulls im sure.... iv never really been that worried about it to check the rcw's.

First - I never used the term thief. I did suggest that the subject of the topic was wrong. I didn't say that my casual suggestion was wholly accurate. It was just a gesture and nothing more... Otherwise I would have changed it... However the turn of events which is described in the context of this incident seems to indicate that someone is at least a liar and possibly more. Comparing carving horns or cutting the head off an animal full of meat to casual bone collecting from long dead animals is preposterous and clearly out of touch with reality. Who's logic is flawed here?  Second -  I think there is enough compelling evidence to suggest that someone is a snake; there is nothing wrong with that legally. There must have been a reason why the warden was threatening to bring charges though....

[Ray]

Sounds good. This one is locked.