One shot, two hen mallards. Now what?

[Neighbor_guy]

...By the way ... No party hunting for waterfowl ... ever ... in any state ... Fed rule trumps state rules. You must shoot your own limit of birds ... technically and legally no sorting, no swapping....

That never happens Never ever ....

Hey, how many birds can we have? How many birds do we have now?

Be they ducks or sky carp if you are hunting in a group, you are party hunting. Most of the time, the dog brings all of the birds to one guy, then they get sorted out at the end... May not be that way all the time everytime or everywere, but it happens.

[brittman]

Quote:

That never happens Never ever ....

Hey, how many birds can we have? How many birds do we have now?

Be they ducks or sky carp if you are hunting in a group, you are party hunting. Most of the time, the dog brings all of the birds to one guy, then they get sorted out at the end... May not be that way all the time everytime or everywere, but it happens.

I certainly realize that happens and that is what friends are for ... that said ... the comments above would be your opinion in a largely party hunting state. In ND you cannot legally party hunt upland birds either. In several Southern States, hunters are careful to separate birds and even tag them as they leave ... swap, sure they do ... but they realize the Feds law is no party hunting allowed...

Word of caution .. if you are ever stopped by a Federal Warden you better have YOUR DUCKS in a row ...

[southwest]

Been stopped by Federal warden, night before duck hunting one time by Sunburg. Not alot of fun, all we were doing was heading to the bar. They dont care who your are, if your kids are along or not they treat you as guilty and make you feel like you need an attorney. Truck across each side of the road. My bother in law got stopped for coon hunting without dog Same thing but 5 vehicles, looking for deer poachers. If you carry to many of the wrong species would be interesting to say the least and would make you think twice of taking the wrong limit home. What stops you from doing it all the time if you never get checked or stopped. Its makes the heart pound real hard, after that i never risk taking wrong limit from the field, its like an cops program when they are making a bust, i think they do for the heck of it sometimes to make sure you dont even think about breaking the rules. Party does happen, look at Pheasant hunting bird gets up who says " ok bob you take one of your 2" now and I will shoot at the next one. Everyone opens up, just how hunting is. heck who know maybe you can party hunt for pheasants but i am sure someone will let me know this. We do it, just how it works sometimes.

[brittman]

You can party hunt pheasants, grouse and deer in MN. A few exceptions apply now with deer.

[cutter08]

Yeah i here you about the Fed's. Me and my brother got stopped up in Pine River two years ago and man was that a pain. He was watching us all morning and knew how many birds we had. But still felt like he had to hold us at the boat ramp for 45 min. He made us pull out all 7 dozen decoys in the front of the boat after he walked all over them. We didn't even have a full limit. No bills or cans. You think if we went over we would have showed him a full bag limit. After about a half hour of this i started to get pretty irritated. And being a smart [PoorWordUsage]. Now that i look back on it that was probably not the best thing to do but we walked away with no citation and i think i got the point across that we didn't brake any laws

[RumRiverRat]

I told the last CO that wanted to see under all my decoys to move them himself.

He moved took six bags of decoys out of my boat and found nothing, he told me that it was against the law not to comply with his demands, I told him if he wanted to conduct a search I was not going to help him.

He was rude from the start and I chose not to be helpful because of his attitude.

I filed a complaint with the DNR.

[cutter08]

RRR we did the same thing but ares were not in bags. had to pull out all 7dz by himself. Wanted us to help and i just said go ahead. You want to see the bottom of the boat start digging. but I'm not helping.

[RumRiverRat]

RRR we did the same thing but ares were not in bags. had to pull out all 7dz by himself. Wanted us to help and i just said go ahead. You want to see the bottom of the boat start digging. but I'm not helping.

We got stopped by a Statey, I have yet to be checked by a fed.

[Bowfin]

Anyone can accidentaly shoot two hens. I think the limit should be 2 hens. My son dropped a hen mallard Saturday and I spent the rest of the time keeping him from shooting at any mallards cause its hard to tell many drakes from hens. Would like to have had him be able to try for another.

We do the best we can at duck I.D. but sometimes its tough especially when shooting starts a half hour before sunrise and the little missiles are zipping over at 60 miles an hour.

[JeffB]

I always try to follow the law, but I wouldn't report myself for speeding, jay walking, or an honest mistake. Many people on this site say you should always turn your self in and report any-thing you see. Well live up to your words next time you have a couple beers call in and tell them you haven't had that many drinks and you think your fine but maybe they should pull you over just to check. Try your best to follow the law, and learn from your mistakes. Make too many mistakes and hopefully the warden helps you learn from them.

[Mallard1]

My opinion, take the ducks home, if stopped explain the event, and go on from there. If there is a ticket, so be it, as long as the kids understand the rules, etc, I see no problem. We need more youth hunters, I think you will all agree, and the YWD is a great way to get them started. But for them to continue on it has to be a very positive experience, not to say that they all will keep on hunting, but chances are if it is a fun, exciting hunt they may help carry the sport into the future. Every hunter at some time will be faced with a tough decision in the field, it is their choice on how they deal with it, and the consequences are theirs as well. Have a great season everyone.

[cutter08]

JeffB I'm with you on this one. Couldn't have put it any better

[PierBridge]

I've been told by Law Enforcement to leave the bird and not have an illegal limit of waterfowl in possession. That's pretty much what I intend to if the problem arises.

[brittman]

I've been told by Law Enforcement to leave the bird and not have an illegal limit of waterfowl in possession. That's pretty much what I intend to if the problem arises.

Wanton waste violation. If you are observed leaving the bird behind, you will be ticketed and face a fine.

Wanton Waste: misdemeaner and $100 fine

Provide false statement to DNR officer: misdemeaner and $100 fine

Overlimit: ?? couldn't find ...

[Cheetah]

Had the boy out fot youth waterfowl day today. We jump a pot hole and 4 teal and 6 mallards jump up, he takes a shot at the teal and misses then decides to take his 1 hen mallard shoots at one and drops 2, now what to do? Trying to teach good ethics but not going chance a ticket. What would you do?

If you like punishing yourself, feel free to call the warden.

Personally I'd just try to avoid shooting any hens the next time out to make up for it. Butcher the ones I got that day, don't waste it, and get on with hunting.

[anybody but jr]

Originally Posted By: PierBridge

I've been told by Law Enforcement to leave the bird and not have an illegal limit of waterfowl in possession. That's pretty much what I intend to if the problem arises.

Wanton waste violation. If you are observed leaving the bird behind, you will be ticketed and face a fine.

Wanton Waste: misdemeaner and $100 fine

Provide false statement to DNR officer: misdemeaner and $100 fine

Overlimit: ?? couldn't find ...

IT IS NOT WANTON WASTE IF YOU LEAVE THE BIRD

I teach FAS and we have local CO come and talk one evening, and this Question comes up every year. His response is to leave the bird, call tell him what happened and he may meet you out there to take the bird or tell you just take the bird, but you have to be more carefull, making sure you idenify your game before shooting and what is behind the object. Depends on CO but if you take the bird you are going to get ticket especially since it is a youth hunt good learning lesson.

[Lunker]

Never had this problem, but it is a brain teaser. To be honest, I would probably take the duck and hope for the best. I went to school for wildlife management and am pursuing law enforcement, so I have great respect for the officers and the laws, but I'm not going to leave a duck out there. I would be honest if stopped and hope for a warning or just a taken duck.

[fishuhalik]

hmmm something seems skeptical for me here. 1 being after jr took the 1st shot those birds had to be getting out there in range being ya jumped them in the 1st place,i could see if ya said ya were in the dekes and it happened ,yeah. But a more likely scenerio seems like a ground and pound water swat that went bad. either or why even talk about it. Obviously you know what happened is wrong so use YOUR better judgement and set the matter straight with your kid so he knows from here on out right from wrong.Instead of asking us "what would you do"I used to think the youth waterfowl had no bearing on future hunting and was a good thing,until i hear stories like this which inturn give it a black eye !

Really? You know, you're right, I've never been able to get more than one shot off at a group of ducks I've jumped.....just like I usually shoot once when I'm pass-shooting. Sounds more like jr. actually knows how to handle a shotgun

[Gordie]

All this talk of wanton waste got me thinking. Your saying if you leave the bird its wanton waste OK so when you catch a walleye on mille lacs that is to big to keep but goes belly up when your releaseing it is that wanton waste? keep it and you could get a ticket, possibly lose your fishing stuff,boat, rights to fish. and so on. the same goes with the duck ticket,possible loss of gun, boat,truck, right to hunt. It is the discresion of the CO to make the dission what the out come will be. Your best bet is do what you think is right and not what someone else tells you what you should do.

[brittman]

Local CO would be under arrest if the Federal Warden stopped him. There are plenty of headline stories of hunters that dumpster drop ducks and geese uncleaned. Maybe a no win solution, but the fines for either lying to a conservation officer and/or Wanton Waste are real.

I think the local CO is misguided here. In talking with a few local COs that have rural MN roots - I have found they often take a more "practical" route and not necessarily the strict legal route. I understand this, the number of laws and changes in laws that they enforce are many. Talk with them they tell you they are not lawyers.

Under your scenario, if someone shoots a doe and the party only has buck tags, you let her lie?

Again Wanton Waste ... and MN no longer distinguishes by animal size Wanton Waste is illegal.

[B-man715]

Local CO would be under arrest if the Federal Warden stopped him. There are plenty of headline stories of hunters that dumpster drop ducks and geese uncleaned. Maybe a no win solution, but the fines for either lying to a conservation officer and/or Wanton Waste are real.

I think the local CO is misguided here. In talking with a few local COs that have rural MN roots - I have found they often take a more "practical" route and not necessarily the strict legal route. I understand this, the number of laws and changes in laws that they enforce are many. Talk with them they tell you they are not lawyers.

Under your scenario, if someone shoots a doe and the party only has buck tags, you let her lie?

Again Wanton Waste ... and MN no longer distinguishes by animal size Wanton Waste is illegal.

Again the best solution is to call the local CO. It is the only right thing to do. Don't tell him who you are or where you are at first. Simply ask "What would happen if someone were to accidentally shoot a doe with just a buck tag?"

In my personal experience, they will come and pick the animal up. They send the animals to schools and colleges for research, or deer to a locker for the food pantry. No tickets and no bad blood. They truly appreciate honesty. There is nothing law enforcement officials hate more than a liar.

But, if your warden is a dickhead and says tickets will be issued and weapons confiscated; leave the deer. He is not going to use cell phone towers to triangulate your position and issue fines.

Nothing goes to waste in nature.