Kinda nice Blacktail dead head I picked up this year

[wendigo]

finders keepers I say!

[JDHasty]

Wonder if you can keep a dead head you find on your own private property if you dont remove it from the property?

That's about the same as finding it "in Idaho", it's a stupid law and very difficult to enforce.

As we all know tags are suppose to stay with the meat, in the freezer.  I've got dead heads all around the property stuck in various red ant hills.
Whatever enforcement value there used to be with dead heads is gone.

I'm sorry Hoythunter doesn't under stand where I'm coming from or thinks I'm just being "cute" or whatever he thinks from his high horse I don't care. 
Picking up a dead head is illegal in WA but it's done all the time and I could care less, it doesn't help catch poachers.  I can almost understand big horn sheep heads but I still think we should be able to pick those up and have them pinned.  It's ridiculous.

Get real, your reply was "where did you find a BT in Idaho?"  But then again, you don't care, right?  another fly over post.  Get to the point already.  Your posts swing from both sides of the plate.  If you could care less you would've never allocated he's doing something illegal, as you did.  Don't usually bite but I did.  Damn, time to get back up on my horse.

If it does actually does help to prosecute poachers I am all or it, with the caveat that it does not become so all encompassing that the net cast could "catch" anyone regardless of their intent and desire to not be violating in any way shape or form and place them at the mercy of the legal system. 

I understand full well that "officers discretion" plays an important part in retaining some useful tools for use when a LEO suspects a deliberate and/or systematic attempt to charge and thereby throw the door wide open to a full blown investigation and as someone who opened that door by posting what I posted at the top of this thread, I would love it if such a trivial matter as picking up a dead head was the chink in the armor that allowed WDFW enforcement the opportunity they have been patiently waiting for.  Let no one be confused however, I just don't know how I reconcile that desire with a desire to not see innocent oversight to result in a violation. 

To b perfectly clear, I trust our game wardens to want to do what is reasonable, but I also recognize that sometimes that trust is, maybe not unwarranted, but in my estimation,  poor judgement rears it's ugly head and someone who just made an honest mistake is charged. 

It is important to understand the distinction I am making.  I truly want there to be weak points in the defense of serial of blatant violators defense that allow lw enforcement to get behind those defenses and go to town once the defensive line has been breached, but the last thing I want to see is a good man who has made an honest mistake drug through the legal system.  It really is a "push me, pull you" scenario. 

I want those who are constantly just that much over the line to get a "wake up call" and for them to decide that to stay well within the law, but I do not want to see good and honest sportsmen and women to be "collateral damage" in any effort to achieve that end. And what I really, really do not want to see is for our wildlife enforcement officers lose an effective tool to "kick the door in go in and do an anal exam"  when they are doing what we want them to do against serial or blatant game law violators.  I will go even further and clarify that many "good and honest men" have used poor judgement and knowingly and of their own free will decided to violate, and this is an isolated occurrence that was not premeditated, but it was willful and knowingly a violation.  If what it takes to kick their door down and gather further evidence... hey I am all for the law being on the books.  They are there for us, let's give them this tool.

I just don't know how to reconcile my desire for giving every tool our game enforcement officers need to go to town on violators cannot end up with someone's innocent mistake in taking home a dead head ending up with them in the dock defending themselves when doing so really doesn't, in my mind, demand much, if any, due diligence that goes beyond reading and understanding the Annual Game Regs that are published and distributed.

[Buckhunter28]

There's a few issues I have with the whole thing. First being, it's safe to say the majority of us conservationists and hunters are NOT poachers, so most likely what we find in the woods truly was found. And the fact is, if you find a 3 year old dead head, fish and game will NOT be able to track it back to a poacher, in the case it was poached. They wouldn't even be able to tell if it was. Second, when a dead head is received by fish and game, i doubt it gets returned back into nature or anything of the sorts, they just end up spread out between the wardens. Us hunters would appreciate the beauty of these a lot more than them. Third of all, is my own personal experience with this law. While working this past summer, I was across the street from NorthWesTrek , for those who know where thats at, and i was weed eating along the highway when I cam across a large garage storage tote. I opened it up to find a decaying, large spike blacktail, head and body. It appeared to have been there for 2 years, and upon finding it, rather than taking the head, I immediatly called fish and game. I relayed my find to them, and how I found it, my loaction, and heres the end to the conversation. The warden asked me how big the deer was, I said its a nice spike, and he responded by saying, "Well there's nothing we can do to decide if it was poached or not based on the age of it, so we aren'y going to drive out to it." It's a total joke. I followed the law protocol of CONTACTING fish and game, and they wanted nothing to do with a stinky, rotting spike. They need to do proper procedure of removal of a CARCASS in a plastic tote on the side of a highway in a GMU that was 2 point min when this guy was most likely killed. It left a bitter feeling towards them with me after that encounter, as I really am not so much as irritated about the head, than about the fact they wouldn't properly handle it. I left the head and carcass in that tote.

[KFhunter]

Wonder if you can keep a dead head you find on your own private property if you dont remove it from the property?

That's about the same as finding it "in Idaho", it's a stupid law and very difficult to enforce.

As we all know tags are suppose to stay with the meat, in the freezer.  I've got dead heads all around the property stuck in various red ant hills.
Whatever enforcement value there used to be with dead heads is gone.

I'm sorry Hoythunter doesn't under stand where I'm coming from or thinks I'm just being "cute" or whatever he thinks from his high horse I don't care. 
Picking up a dead head is illegal in WA but it's done all the time and I could care less, it doesn't help catch poachers.  I can almost understand big horn sheep heads but I still think we should be able to pick those up and have them pinned.  It's ridiculous.

Get real, your reply was "where did you find a BT in Idaho?"  But then again, you don't care, right?  another fly over post.  Get to the point already.  Your posts swing from both sides of the plate.  If you could care less you would've never allocated he's doing something illegal, as you did.  Don't usually bite but I did.  Damn, time to get back up on my horse.

If my statement about "finding it in ID" gets you all puckered up then so be it and if that's your biggest complaint in life...man I want to trade. 

I'm still not sure why you got all butt hurt when I was talking to JD, that comment was meant to get JD to ask questions..which he did.  It was just my way of opening up a dialog on this issue and at the same time show just how much I support this ill conceived law; keep in mind it's against forum policy to advocate breaking the law so I must beat around the bush here.

Clearly you already knew this was illegal in WA but -for some reason that escapes me- you decided to interject your opinion and show everyone on HW your charming demeanor.

If you could care less you would've never allocated he's doing something illegal, as you did.

I do care.  I do not want any hunters to fall victim to an ill conceived law.  I'm not one of those types that keep their mouths shut when someone is doing something that could get them in trouble unless there is turpitude, then I smile and hand them more rope.