Skull with antlers still attached...can you take it?

[Skyvalhunter]

 

[boneaddict]

Kinda hard to take a lecture on integrity from a guy who seemed to think this site should be inappropriate for kids and seemed hellbent on making sure it stayed that way.    

[hirshey]

All I can say is make sure you don't do that in Montana!

... I was working on the 2007 Ahorn wildfire near Augusta with pretty much the sweetest assignment I had ever had: I was tasked to stay at a $60 million ranch in the middle of the wilderness with a crew and provide structure protection. It was the Klick family ranch, which has property in between the two forks of the Sun river... bordered by wilderness on one side, a wildlife preserve on another, and two sides by national forest. (can you say most amazing place to go back and hunt? Their waiting list is years long...)

While working the fire, I found some AMAZING trophies: a big horn sheep skull (found both caps, too!), moose sheds, and an awesome elk shed. More than anything I just wanted to show other people to allow these things to be appriciated.

Mr Klick calmly told me the following story...

"you know, David Letterman offered us some $100 million for this ranch a while back... we gracefully declined. He found himself one nearly 50 miles north as the crow flies... one day, someone attempted to kidnap his offspring... unsuccessfully. Well, they knew who it was, so raided the fellows house... in the process, they found a few trophy animals hanging on the wall that the man had illegally taken." (whether that was to mean he killed them or took their horns post-death I don't know) "well, they immediately dropped the attempted kidnapping charges and pursued the charges for illegal possession of game animals, because it was greater fines and jail time than attempted kidnapping in Montana."

Needless to say I put all my trophies back.

[jjdavis2222]

Road kills are a different story, when you have to cut the horns off the skull or head off the spine that's wrong.
But when you find a skull and horns from an animal that has been dead long enough that predator's have separated the body parts and the meat and hair are non-exsistant, that's a lucky find 

 

[Axle]

My guess is an archery kill that wasn't found...but odd that there were no othe parts of the animal nearby

And my guess is that is was a rifle kill that wasn't found.
Makes as much sense doesn't it?

[jackelope]

here we go again...gonna be a long winter...

[Buckmark]

Just to stir the pot a little.
Now Bone has one on this post that he got in Idaho, which someone else said was legal and the gamie said he could keep.(no problem)

Huntingphool has one he got in montana that the gamie said he could keep due to it's condition. (no problem)
Bone also said a person (lady) was able to pickup and retain a sheep skull after letting the gamies know about it and they gave her the ok.
So has anyone on here ever gotten premission from a gamie in this state to pickup and retain a skull? If so how would they make the decision to go outside the law and say it is ok? What parameters do they use? The laws states only naturally shed with no mention of or if it is this old or obviuosly old and weathered/white?
Also what if you own property and the animal dies on said property over the winter, do you just let it lie or is it then yours because of were it perished?

[huntandjeep]

 i found a 3x4 elk a few years back on bethel .while walking to the truck game warden stopped to b s with me told him about it and said go ahead and take .

[Deep Forks]

no skulls period. that's how it reads. I'm curious to you guys that roll your eyes and say well i took it any way, how do you decide what game laws you will follow and what ones you will break? i may not agree with it but its a regulation that is in  place.

I didn't roll my eyes just smiled when I seen them.  Read my reply #60, these were old, meat free, bleached and scattered.  The reason I took them was common sense told me that no enforcement officer would concider this to be what the law was written for as do I. 
I won't intentionally run a stop sign or break the laws of the road because this could hurt or fatally injure someone, picking up an old skull won't.

[woodswalker]

no skulls period. that's how it reads. I'm curious to you guys that roll your eyes and say well i took it any way, how do you decide what game laws you will follow and what ones you will break? i may not agree with it but its a regulation that is in  place.

buf, the only ones i have were with written permission.  I've passed on some BEAUTIES... only to have someone ELSE grab them before I could get permission 

[andrew_12gauge]

All I can say is make sure you don't do that in Montana!

... I was working on the 2007 Ahorn wildfire near Augusta with pretty much the sweetest assignment I had ever had: I was tasked to stay at a $60 million ranch in the middle of the wilderness with a crew and provide structure protection. It was the Klick family ranch, which has property in between the two forks of the Sun river... bordered by wilderness on one side, a wildlife preserve on another, and two sides by national forest. (can you say most amazing place to go back and hunt? Their waiting list is years long...)

While working the fire, I found some AMAZING trophies: a big horn sheep skull (found both caps, too!), moose sheds, and an awesome elk shed. More than anything I just wanted to show other people to allow these things to be appriciated.

Mr Klick calmly told me the following story...

"you know, David Letterman offered us some $100 million for this ranch a while back... we gracefully declined. He found himself one nearly 50 miles north as the crow flies... one day, someone attempted to kidnap his offspring... unsuccessfully. Well, they knew who it was, so raided the fellows house... in the process, they found a few trophy animals hanging on the wall that the man had illegally taken." (whether that was to mean he killed them or took their horns post-death I don't know) "well, they immediately dropped the attempted kidnapping charges and pursued the charges for illegal possession of game animals, because it was greater fines and jail time than attempted kidnapping in Montana."

Needless to say I put all my trophies back.

they were not illegally picked up they were illegally killed, one of them was the new state record typical muley,i highly doubt that the charges for illegal possession of game are carry greater jail time and fines than kidnapping, i believe kidnapping can carry a life sentece

[hirshey]

they were not illegally picked up they were illegally killed, one of them was the new state record typical muley,i highly doubt that the charges for illegal possession of game are carry greater jail time and fines than kidnapping, i believe kidnapping can carry a life sentece

"attempted kidnapping"... and it IS Montana. The value they put on their wild game is pretty high.

I just repeated the story as I heard it...

thought I'd throw in a fun story since it was getting so serious in this thread.

[Archery King]

Hey can we just say that the elk died of natural causes lets leave it to the greenies to say that every dead critter in the woods died by some hunter who wounded it.  Cause it could have been a cougar kill, im just sayin lets stand up for all hunters on this site       

[nwhunter]

THis law was made for and caused by trophy poachers in the Blues. It sucks because it can turn a law abiding hunter into a law breaker by finding a skull in the woods that he would like to take home and admire forever rather than in a few years have it decay into nothing. I think most wardens will turn a blind eye to a legitimate winterkill but there are some overzealous wardens who will be happy to take them and write a ticket. If you find a skull with horns in the Blues ya better leave it. And comparing picking up a skull to a serious violation like shooting from a vehicle or loaded guns in vehicle that is bogus. nwhunter

[washelkhntr]

Whether we all agree or not.... breaking the law is just that.