Anyone look into this? For example, hypothetically, pretend that you are legally carrying a rifle along the NM border with Colorado and you have a Colorado Deer tag. Pretend that your only-best shot into a Canyon in Colorado is from the NM side (about 200 yards into NM). Can you legally pull the trigger in NM to kill the deer in Colorado and walk over and tag the deer in Colorado?

Just curious.

I'd say not legal.

Situation similar happened around here a few years back. Seems a Louisiana guy was shooting Arkansas deer while sitting in Louisiana. Short story is the Arkansas game wardens shot and killed him.

Definitely not legal. Not any different from shooting from public land onto private. That being said, what they don't know won't hurt them. Don't ask how I know that.

Perhaps Arkansas takes poaching a little too seriously. :-)

No.

Thanks. Makes sense to me now that I had good night sleep. Plus, I think that I found a place using Google Earth where I would be able to overlook part of the canyon hunt area in CO and glass/stalk for the right opportunity.

If the game warden asks, "what state was the deer was in"?

Reply, "The deer? Well, the deer was in a state of confusion."

If one must pose this question, he/she should really not be afield.

Hey, Web

I'm not familiar w/that incident. I lived in S E La for 9 yrs but regardless I have no recollection of it.

Can you tell us what led to the shooting w/o going into too much detail?

Jerry

It is every bit as legal as shooting a deer in your neighbors yard without permission, from out of your back door, in a no hunting area, without a license and out of season.

I doubt it would be legal even if you had a valid license from the other state. In that case I still wouldn't count on a court's verdict going favorably for the defendant. The prosecutor would probably call it a case of poaching as the license for the state in which the bullet was loosed wasn't valid in the state where the deer resided. As a judge or jury member, I would agree.

Hunting ethics need to be retooled?

Ask the Colo fish & game dept how they'd feel about it. I'm guessing they'd be rather displeased.

I can tell you exactly how they feel about it ... and so can the two guys that I saw get ticketed for doing it.

A few years back I was about a half-mile west of the Colorado/Kansas state line during deer season, standing in the middle of a county road visiting with the local Colorado WCO. A pickup pulled up on the Kansas side of the line and the occupants extended a rifle from the window and started shooting prairie dogs in Colorado. The officer observed this and counted the shots. He asked me if I counted the same number as he did (7) and then mentioned that their activity was going to cost them at least $75 per shot. They finally noticed that there was someone else in the vicinity and hurriedly drove east into Kansas. He pursued them for several miles before they pulled over.

Turned out they were a couple of off duty LEO's from Kansas ... Deputy Sheriff and Highway Patrolman.

Oh yeah, they got tickets. Lots of tickets.

Shooting across state lines, shooting from a vehicle, hunting on private property without permission, shooting from a public road, hunting without the proper license, evading an officer ... etc.

Colorado WCO was really, really pissed. "They knew better!" was all he snarled when asked about it later. I imagine it was kind of hard to explain to their superiors too.

Enough said. Anyone ever ask a stupid question before and learnt something Thanks gents.

I remember Bryce Towsley writing that while tracking one buck he was no longer sure if he was in VT, NH, or Quebec.
I was Pronghorn hunting in SD and trying to make sure I didn't wander into WY or NE. I know I was close but I don't think I wandered over the line.

Only a rookie would walk over into Colorado to tag the deer. An experienced outdoorsman would drive over.

Plus, this should be in the deer hunting forum.

This is when a GPS with a good map that shows property lines is invaluable. Just south of us is the NV border. There are lots of places where it's impossible to tell where the border is without one.

You can really hunt a number of species on state lines. I had a couple of Montana hunts where I crossed back and forth between MT and ID on an FS road that crossed the divide numerous times between the highway and camp. If you hopped off the road, going back to it at a different point could easily put you in the wrong state if it happened to be just off the top on the other side. You had to pay attention to your subdrainages there to make sure you were elk hunting in the right state. It would be easier now with a GPS to mark the state line for you. There is a mountain goat area in NW WY where you could be hunting MT goats if you were a little lost. You can also straddle state lines on some ranches where you can hunt antelope WY-CO or WY-MT. Hunting right on the line is probably more common for deer, though.

Whatever way you look at it, though shooting across a state line would not be smart. I am sure every state has laws on the books against that. If you can't stay in the right state, find a better place where it is not a problem.

It's a lot easier with fishing. ID & OR have an agreement for the Snake river which is the border for many miles. The entire width of the river is open to boaters of both states but you can't fish from the shore in the other state.
I assume other states with wet borders do the same.

What I don't know is how to handle a deer swimming in the river between the states. Is it legal? Of course if you did shoot it in the water it would likely sink.

Taking a head shot on a swimming deer, over water?

It's illegal to shoot a deer while standing (or swimming) in water in this state. Even if he's only ankle deep.

For those guys who shoot a deer from 700 yds, a 100 yd shot at a swimmer should be a piece of cake, right?

It violates one of the basic rules of firearms safety, but what the heck.

Here, I can hunt the St Croix River. It's not always easy to figure out where the state line is. I might set up on an island to be able to cover a longish stretch of the Minnesota shore and the island may be divided by the state line. I had better stay on the Minnesota side of the island and only shoot deer on the Minnesota side of the line.

It's something I have considered seriously many times. I fish the river a lot and see a lot of deer while fishing. I wouldn't try it though without a GPS. Too much intermixed private land and state park land which may not be open for hunting or may have different season dates.

There is an elk hunt for those wanting such a thrill.

"Elk hunters with this Utah permit may hunt Nevada's portion of this interstate unit (091) and abide by Nevada laws."

http://wildlife.utah.gov/maps/public/details_boundary.php?boundary_id=682

Depends on the deer doing the swimming. And local regs.

Caribou float, and it is common (also legal) practice in NWArctic to shoot swimming caribou early in the season (August, Sept, to mid October when freeze-up occurs). Motor up within feet and head-pop them..


Then there is a sort of hiatus until snow machines can be used and the rivers and lakes freeze up enough for safety. Usually around the first of November.

In fact, most won't shoot an animal more than a couple hundred yards back from the bank, early part of season. Season being when the caribou are there.... "Too much work", when they can get one in the river from a few feet away, throw a rope on it to tow/float it to a sandbar to dress. Sometimes several at once. Limit is 5 per day. Meat making!

It's a whole different mind-set/lifestyle from Outside "sport hunting" !!!!!

i wouldn't do it.... and I think its now moot...

but if your license and deer are in CO on a national forest and you are in NM on a national forest, the canyon is the state-line and shooting across a canyon is a common and safe hunting technique. You have a right to be and shoot where you are and you have authority to kill a deer where it is, I would say it should not be a violation.

but it probably is for some reason or another... like NM might assert that you are "pursuing" and "attempting to take" game in NM even tho the game is in CO.

check with Game & Fish in both states before proceeding...

what if it was a coyote and you had a license in both states?

what if you are blowing up water jugs on National Forest (after confirming it is legal in both NFs) and the perfect safe impact mountain is in one state, but you can only drive up to it from the other state?

Fun discussion and thought exercise...I can assure you I will not try it at my nearest state line, which is a bit south of here, where Arizona and Sonora meet. That would draw waayyyyyyyy too much attention.

Poole

sure what part of az you are in. we glass up deer and immigrant in a different country to the south , the deer tag is for the az side.

When I was down on the ranch, we had a few pronghorns shot each year by shooters in Mexico. They would crawl through the fence, gut them and drag them across the line. The Mexicans didn't care, and the country was so wide open that it wasn't worth trying to patrol it on our side.

It would be an illegal take of a NM deer for not having a valid NM deer tag. That would be the poaching charge.
Then if you bring it back across the state line into Colo. it becomes a Lacey Act Violation which is a felony (transportation of illegally taken game across state lines).

I just threw out the bit about a deer in the water because we do have an area where the Snake River is the border between ID & OR. You can fish the entire river from a boat but I don't know the laws about a deer in the water. A deer standing knee deep on a sand bar would be an easy target if legal. I would check it out before I did it. ID regs usually specify if there are islands involved but not for deer in the water.

I don't see the problem. I've hunted state lines before, when both states had deer in season and I had a license in both states.

Hell, one of the fields I hunted was in both states. What's the problem?

In years past, the Oregon synopsis had a prohibition against shooting across a navigable waterway but don't see it now, it was right along with the "on from or across a roadway" section. Also there was verbiage about shooting from a motorboat prior to it's forward progress subsiding but don't see that either, now just saying it's prohibited from motor vehicles which likely includes watercrafts. It was rumored but never founded that game could not be shot even while at water, just nonsense, err rumors from other locations... Along these lines, several decisions and changes came about from state AG rulings in the 2000s, such as the one clarifying that ODFW does not have the authority to regulate possession of firearms, just their use in hunting. Also, many of the interstate islands that have special restrictions too. Just my late night swing at it...

In this state line discussion there's definitions of Pursuit, Take, Attempt, Hunt etc and such that likely varies in all 50. I see the OPs case differs from the scenario Scott mentions. However, ultimately one state does not have the authority to allow hunting in another state, so how could it be permissible? Your state 'A' licence is not valid in state 'B' nor grant you any authority to take game in state 'B'. Unless there's some interstate agreement that specifically allows it.

I have heard guys talking about this in PENN when close to the NY border.

this was the same thought that I had...

We can embellish the facts any way we want to justify an answer we want.

It has the potential to be a quagmire,depending on many things. Go read some regulations,

Why are you hunting in NM with a CO license? This'll get you busted in any state.

Maryland deer season opens before Pa. PGC watches the border with a vengence. There is a pipline right of way near me that parallels the border, 100yards or so on the Pa side. Many Md hunters think of it as the line, the wardens look at it as the bait in a trap.

Not just state borders. Indian reservation borders are equally watched. I've seen Indian policemen on horses riding the boundaries just waiting for a hunter to make a mistake and set foot over it with a gun in hand.

A gps with a HuntX map program can save you a lot of anguish. It clearly tells you who owns the land you're on.
You older guys will remember the Claude Dallas case many years ago. He was convicted of murdering 2 fish and game officers in Idaho. They had to survey the scene to determine which state, ID or NV, had jurisdiction. Borders out in the wild aren't exactly clear sometimes.

Sabine River, Lake and Pass in the Texas/Lousiana border. Same rules, fish river and either bank from a boat with either state license. If you wade you must have a valid license for State on which shore you are wading.