Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Help with Western/Elk hunting...recommendations please

No such regulation. In fact you can have your tag in your pocket when you are transporting meat back to camp,but it better be detached and filled out and on the meat when you are back in camp, or if you leave it in the field.

The antlers must be naturally attached to the head or skull plate and brought out to verify they meet requirements. Definitely if less than 5" if animal is to be considered antlerless.

I'm not aware of any Colorado regulation that requires us to carry out the antlers last. That regulation does exist in Alaska. Maybe someone is getting regulations from the two states confused.

saddlesore is right regarding how/when validating license and attaching the tag to the carcass must be done.

KC

That's what they said when I attended hunter safety with my son a few years ago. - It was at the CPW office on Sinton in COS. Since Vince posted, I've gone online to look and I don't see a specific regulation requiring it. The wildlife officer must have been wrong - wouldn't be the first time. For me either, for that matter.

Hard to believe a LEO would get that wrong, it's fairly basic.

Where should the tag be if it takes more than one day to get all the meat out, and you have some in camp and some out in the field overnight?

Thanks,
Chris

It is suppose to be on the largest piece,but the most conveinent is the part that has the evidence of sex attached. If you get checked, the CPW officer is going to look for both.

I always carry a couple of cable tie wraps with me. They will fit thru the slots in the carcass tag, won't break or tear and no knots are required to affix the tag.

If you have part of an animal in camp, that part is where I'd put the tag. Ideally it would be the part with evidence of sex but once you get an animal or part of one to camp (at the trailhead/vehicle) or transport it in a vehicle it has to be tagged.

Camp is where you're most likely to be checked too.

Thanks - makes sense. It's a problem I wouldn't mind having to face sometime....

Chris

It's a great problem to have--even when all the meat and horns are still up on the mountain!

That's how we do it. When you carry the rack first, that means there is more time for critters to get into the good meat and/or spoil. Respect the animal, take good care of the meat, and when that's done then come back for your furniture.

The actual Colorado carcass tagging regulation as posted on the Colorado Secretary of State's web site does not specify the carcass tag must be attached to the largest piece of the carcass, the piece with evidence of sex attached or any other particular piece. Nor does it require that the tag be attached until "immediately prior to and during transportation in any vehicle or while in camp or at a residence or other place of storage".


Here is the reference:
https://www.sos.state.co.us/CCR/GenerateRulePdf.do?ruleVersionId=119
Article XI (Special Restrictions), Section C (Tagging and carcass tag requirements), paragraph 2:

We often take the rack, straps and filets out on the first trip but we also hang the rest of the carcass if at all possible. If an overzealous officer wants to give me a ticket he will get schooled on what the regulations actually require. There is NO Colorado regulation stating in what order animal parts have to come out, only when carcass tags must be attached.

Also, there is often LESS chance of meat spoilage because camp is often much lower and warmer than where the game is taken. In such cases I'd rather the meat hang in the field than at camp.

The reason I posted to put it on the piece with the evidence of sex is that if stopped and checked,it's a lot easier for the WCO to check that piece of meat rather than hunt around for it.

I respect the animal, which for me includes leaving it hanging a day or two before boning it out. I normally pack my elk meat out a few miles on my back, like CH said, from a high elevation where meat hanging in a tree won't spoil and won't be eaten by scavengers when there's a carcass and a gutpile nearby.

Since I pack it on my back, I bone out the meat beforehand. No sense carrying bones. It's better to leave the meat on the bone and hang it in a tree at least overnight if not longer before boning it out.

The rack still normally comes out last, but if I killed a 340 bull I'd bring the rack out first, and have zero issues with leaving the meat on the bone hanging in a tree for a day or two. Respecting the elk has nothing to do with it.