Your Zone, Observations, & Mgmt Opinion

[leechlake]

your only chance is to do the informant thing where you aren't identified.  I wouldn't even call TIP but just talk a CO into a private visit and have the info  for him.  Reality is what you typed when you live in the same place as those people.  You "rat" on em and you end up paying for it or your kids.

They won't get pinched but if my wife got a visit from the CO she wouldn't be buying a license next year.

[reinhard1]

Maybe I'm just an Unusual member of a party hunting group.  We have 5 in our group,   All family from brothers to son-inlaws.  We all have our own licenses.  We have hunted together for years.  We have never had tags outside our own.  No wife's tags or anything else.    What we do is legal and has always been as far as I know.  We share everything that is harvested and have been doing that also for many years.  We hunt in area 180 and to the best of my knowledge have never filled all of our tags.  We will continue this tradition for years to come as long as it's legal.  Our number one reason for being at deer camp is to be there.  To be there.  Just to be there and enjoy the outdoors and hang out.  Getting deer is a bonus.  One year in our area, we could get up to 5 tags.  We only got our licence and no additional tags.   Following the law is very important to us, especially where we hunt.

 

We don't have the numbers in general like in Central and Southern parts of the state.  We don't shoot yearlings.  We will make it an exception however when my nephews son comes to hunt next year.  My first deer was a yearling and it was a great thrill but over time I was convinced to let them grow a bit.  Kind of like releasing my first large walleye when I was young.  Man that was hard but after watching her swim away I felt real good about it and have been doing it ever since.  I understand this isn't for everyone and I can appreciate that.  I read the whole thread.  Some of the stories about 7 wives and 7 tags do concern me.  That is a horrible example of hunting ethics.  That is not a definition of hunting,   Even when we first came to this country and were dirt poor, we followed the law.  It was wild game [when in season] and fish that we depended on for meals for a few years until we got on our feet.  

We don't make drives.  I don't like shooting at running deer for any reason.  Don't like wounding a deer and shooting on the run increases that plus creates danger to other hunters around you.  That's just me, some like it.  I actually walk through the woods at time very slowly, step by step, stop and take two steps and stop to listen and observe.  However most of the time these days I sit in a stand.  My favorite time of the year.  Just love being there.  Hope to hunt until they wheel me in there in some blind in my later years.  good luck