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Are there any restrictions on quartering and packing out game?


uberyan
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I wasn't allowed to hunt if I couldn't gut and butcher my own deer. I grew up watching my dad and uncle take care of their deer and when I shot my first deer my old man helped walk me through everything but after that I was on my own and he wouldn't let me take any deer if I wasn't going to do the work myself. Maybe that's the old school way idk but I always felt it was the way it's supposed to be.

The only time I will drop a deer off to be butchered for me is if I'm on an out of state hunt. At home I will gut them in the field and hang them from the apple tree in the back yard. If I'm hunting somewhere way back in, I will quarter it up in the field and pack it out instead of killing myself dragging.

I had been going in the deer woods with my father since I was 8. From 8-10 he showed me how to gut deer by watching. At 10 he handed me his knife never carried anything other than a pocket knife after that and I don't think he ever gutted another one. I guess that's what I was for. Lol
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Same here. I would watch my Dad hunt when I was too young to hunt and then hold the legs while he gutted and I learned. We never had an ATV so we always had to drag together. Then when I was a teenager I would drag alone while he carried the guns out. It actually feels weird when I'm on a hunt out west and the guide does the gut job lol


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Same here. I would watch my Dad hunt when I was too young to hunt and then hold the legs while he gutted and I learned. We never had an ATV so we always had to drag together. Then when I was a teenager I would drag alone while he carried the guns out. It actually feels weird when I'm on a hunt out west and the guide does the gut job lol


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You'd be surprised how many guys on those guided trips want absolutely nothing to do with gutting or even dragging it out. I was really surprised when I was doing it how many guys couldn't even watch me gut, they were to grossed out by it. Couldn't even get some to hold the legs.
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You'd be surprised how many guys on those guided trips want absolutely nothing to do with gutting or even dragging it out. I was really surprised when I was doing it how many guys couldn't even watch me gut, they were to grossed out by it. Couldn't even get some to hold the legs.


Haha. I bet.


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On 8/19/2017 at 3:44 PM, Adkhunter1590 said:

 

 


You'd be surprised how many guys on those guided trips want absolutely nothing to do with gutting or even dragging it out. I was really surprised when I was doing it how many guys couldn't even watch me gut, they were to grossed out by it. Couldn't even get some to hold the legs.

 

 

i'm gutting everything i kill. but if i'm paying big money for hunt? You can drag it for me :) haha

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46 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

To hell with that...lol. If I am paying fully guided, I don't even want my knife to get dirty. 

i don't know. If I drop an animal and intend to display and eat it, I want to be part of it. Feel a little more connection with the animal than squeezing the trigger or releasing an arrow. I know what you mean, but I guess I have a little bit of disdain for the "hunter" whose wall is more the result of his bank account than his hunting prowess. So if i can gut it, at least I did a little dirty work? lol.

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7 hours ago, Belo said:

i don't know. If I drop an animal and intend to display and eat it, I want to be part of it. Feel a little more connection with the animal than squeezing the trigger or releasing an arrow. I know what you mean, but I guess I have a little bit of disdain for the "hunter" whose wall is more the result of his bank account than his hunting prowess. So if i can gut it, at least I did a little dirty work? lol.

On the outfitters end some hunters can gut clean, and even fewer skin worth a $hit, and you can count on one hand how many they've seen who can cape a skull for a taxidermy job......may not find all that many even on here except some that are doing mounts, maybe trapping; handful at best.

I've done done a few hunts here and there, I often ask the outfitter to get a feel for where they are at for this topic as I like to pitch in when I can. That has ranged from gutting, skinning and caping, to being too busy trying to keep my barrel warm by hunting rather than time spent at the skinning shed. So it just matters how deep you want to delve in.

 

 

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I actually raised this question to the DEC agent who came to the event we held at Suffolk Archers yesterday. He told me that as long as the tag is filled out properly, its okay to quarter the animal in the field. He said if he catches you just as your leaving your hunting property he would probably ask to see the gut pile and hide for proof of sex, but if your just driving with it you'll be fine.

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I actually raised this question to the DEC agent who came to the event we held at Suffolk Archers yesterday. He told me that as long as the tag is filled out properly, its okay to quarter the animal in the field. He said if he catches you just as your leaving your hunting property he would probably ask to see the gut pile and hide for proof of sex, but if your just driving with it you'll be fine.

I don't get the comments on here about proof of sex. The sex means NOTHING!
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I didn't think it was either, but I guess an officer could make the case that a deer you have tagged is not actually the deer the tag is meant for. 

All you need is the head. It's all Antler based not sex. Could be an antlered doe. Or a buck with broken antlers. Sex organs mean nothing. And any DEC or forest ranger or cop that say otherwise don't know their ass from their elbow

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This is one of the answers to a question on DEC's website regarding transport.
 
  • A deer carcass minus the head may be transported as above, but evidence of the sex of the deer must be intact. The deer carcass tag must be affixed to the carcass, and a tag supplied by the taker must also be attached showing the name and address of the taxidermist where the head was sent.
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This is one of the answers to a question on DEC's website regarding transport.  
  • A deer carcass minus the head may be transported as above, but evidence of the sex of the deer must be intact. The deer carcass tag must be affixed to the carcass, and a tag supplied by the taker must also be attached showing the name and address of the taxidermist where the head was sent.

It's not a carcass once you process it. You know what. Have at it any way ya want. When I bring them out it will be just like I have always done. Meat and a head.
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15 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:


It's not a carcass once you process it. You know what. Have at it any way ya want. When I bring them out it will be just like I have always done. Meat and a head.

Of course, but I would think if someone decides to totally reduce a doe to nothing but boned out meat and doesn't want to lug out the head and hide, they would have to show some type of proof of what they killed....or maybe not, doesn't matter to me, was just showing the wording they use that may cause confusion.

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19 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:


It's not a carcass once you process it. You know what. Have at it any way ya want. When I bring them out it will be just like I have always done. Meat and a head.

He basically said once you have the skin off it, it really doesn't matter. Unless its a buck I don't even take the head with me

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10 hours ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

All you need is the head. It's all Antler based not sex. Could be an antlered doe. Or a buck with broken antlers. Sex organs mean nothing. And any DEC or forest ranger or cop that say otherwise don't know their ass from their elbow

i hear you on this. Probably more applies to button bucks than the rare antlered doe/antlerless male. These discussion are always fun because they get deep into rules and regs and often point out the bs behind them. 

As someone who often writes policy for his company I can tell you that it's hard to make a regulation that is all encompassing and also not 10 pages long and simple enough to understand.

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16 minutes ago, Belo said:

 

As someone who often writes policy for his company I can tell you that it's hard to make a regulation that is all encompassing and also not 10 pages long and simple enough to understand.

Interpretation of a law/policy etc is good for much discussion.

In other words, many pages and posts on a forum............ :)

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If I'm packing out a doe I'm not carrying the head, law says sex so while I'm gutting I cut out the two holes under the tail and put them in my pocket with the tag zip tied to it. With a buck I cut the horns off and his dangling duo and zip tie them and the tag to the horns. The law doesn't say 1 word about antlers it says sex.


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Are you guys cutting off genitals hunting public land? Are you quartering? I never quarter in the field, but I often wait till the garage to even tag on private land. I've lost a tag once that was zip tied to a hole in a does ear but still ripped out during a drag. Cutting out her cooter seems excessive :)

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