How to register buck who shed antlers already with new system?

[lakevet]

This has happened on occasion to us northern MN muzzy hunters (about 6 times in the past 15 or so years). More common in years with back to back hard winters like the mid 90's. Shoot what appears to be adult doe, only to find it is a buck who shed his antlers already. One cousin heart shot an antlered buck, which took off running. When it ran thru an old fence the wire knocked off the antlers then the buck dropped dead 10 yards further down the trail! So now legally it was antlerless. Have been told to register these bucks as antlerless, as it didn't have a 3" polished antler attached. With phone in / on line registration antlerless is not a category, but adult male, adult female, fawn male, fawn female. Which category would apply? Is adult female the same as adult antlerless? Lou if you or someone from enforcement could reply, that would be great.

Thank you,

lakevet

[Matt Breuer]

This happened to me 2 winters ago during muzzy. I shot what appeared to be a nice 6 and when I approached the deceased animal 100 yards from where it was shot it had no horns, only a dried blood stump and one stump bleeding profusely. I can only imagine that it had one horn and it broke off as it was running through the brush, though we never found it.

Since it was muzzy season, and was the last day, I registered it as an adult male. Had it been early in the season I probably would've registered it as an adult female, since it was indeed antlerless.

Can't wait to get clarification on this one, great question lakevet!

[vister]

its a doe if it doesnt have more than 3" of antler length

[KG243]

Your getting to technical, if it has balls and has more then three inches of antler it is a adult male, even if the antler fell off after you shot it. If it is less then three inches then it is a fawn male. I think it is important to get this information right so they can get the right numbers out for their studies.

[Matt Breuer]

So if you shot a buck with no antlers you'd register it that way, eventhough you have say 3 intensive harvest tags?

[Powerstroke]

The original question was if you shot an adult male and the antler broke off in the time it took you to recover the animal, how would you register it. I think KG is saying, he shot a legal buck so you register it as a legal buck.

Unless there is an official ruling from the DNR that says differently I think this is the right way. If you shoot a buck, the antler is knocked off and you reg. as an antlerless because you have intensive tags than you are cheating.

If you shoot a shed buck because it was without antlers, then register it as antlerless.

The law would stand behind intent. If you shot it as a buck, register as a buck. If it was antlerless and you find its a shed buck, then I say stick with antlerless. Since there is no category for shed buck, I say leave it. Kinda like when registering a turkey, they don't differentiate between tom or bearded hen.

[KG243]

Actually they have a spot to mark if it was a hen or a tom, so if I shot a bearded hen I would then mark it as a hen because that is what it is especially since the regs say one bearded bird for the spring hunt anyways.

[Powerstroke]

Shows how many toms I've shot recently...doh. Never hunted fall before.

[lakevet]

Your getting to technical, if it has balls and has more then three inches of antler it is a adult male, even if the antler fell off after you shot it.

With all due respect, the DNR told us otherwise back when that happened. And CO's can get quite "technical".

It is a very small number of the deer harvest so probably not a stats thing, just want to be legal.

lakevet

[Bear55]

So what happens if you don't have an antlerless tag and a buck loses their set after the shot? Is finding one or both of the dropped antlers enough proof to register as a buck?

[lakevet]

The way the muzzy season was originally set up (main time deer are shot when shedding antlers), this was a non issue. With all the modern experimentation with the muzzy season, that is now an issue. In fact in the youth only antlerless areas, even youth cannot shoot antlerless in muzzy season, period. So if muzzy season is your traditional family hunt, your kids can't shoot a doe in those areas, but the trophy buck guys have the opportunity to hunt archery, shotgun and muzzy. If you are starting your kid out and want him to shoot any deer, you are forced into the main firearms season zoo.

Sorry for the rant. One bad winter and my kids could be in that situation.

Basically calling a CO is what we have done when it happened to us and we followed their advice. With mild winters lately, it hasn't been an issue. But being Minnesota..........

lakevet