Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Sex...evidence of

If the regs say "until you start to process the meat" or some such, then bone the elk out, that is processing.

Wouldn't work in Idaho:

On the last bull I shot, we backpacked out quarters bone in and hide on. I left the tip of the penis attached to a quarter which worked fine at the game check station. The only thing the nice FWP lady commented on was my attaching the tag to the rack. According to her, that's okay when they come out whole, but when in pieces, they want the tag attached to the largest piece. She cut my tag off and re-attached it to a hind quarter and told me that is how they want it done.

Our proof in Texas is similar. Most wardens don't even really know what the regs say, as everyone tags the antlers and then cuts the head off...

I had one get his ticket book out already years ago. I had the tag zip tied to a hindquarter in a cooler and the head in our freezer without tag.

I had to get the TPW book out and read it to him, it is a CARCASS tag, not a head tag. Once head is severed it stays with carcass.

Luckily we don't have to leave anything attached, but when I've been in that situation I carry ziplocs as another poster noted... leave whatever in place and cover most with ziploc. I even go a hair further and run a long zip tie over the bagged/attached parts, poked through the hindquarter to make sure the tissue may not separate in the backpack etc

Uh..... Care to show me that in writing?

Haven't got the regs in front of me right now, but he's right, Wyoming law no longer requires evidence of sex be naturally attatched. I quized a warden about it last fall before my moose hunt and he told me to either carry out the antlers or the testicles, no need for them to be attatched. He explained that leaving them attactched is no longer necessary becuase all thier cases involving the sex of the animal use DNA evidence in court.

That's why I want to see it in writing. The latest regs I looked at still say "attached to edible portion."

Guess my google was bringing up old versions. Latest on G/F page says accompany and not attached..

I've never understood much of it. I don't know anyone that shoots a buck/bull by verifying it has a nutsack, yet often horns ain't proof.

Yeah you can keep hauling the same head and rack back and fourth to the bush many times before it rots on you.

If it ended up in court, they'd have a hard time proving that the tag wasn't on the largest piece. How do they measure 'largest'? If its by weight, a hind quarter would win. It it's by length, the antlers would win. Just saying largest doesn't describe it.

Honest warden....A bear ate the sex evidence I had hanging in a tree.

That's exactly what I've done to meet the "evidence of sex attached" requirement.

It's a carcass tag, not an antler tag, at least in CO. To make it easier on yourself and the WCO,attach the tag to the piece of carcass that has the evidence of sex on.

"To make it easier on yourself and the WCO,attach the tag to the piece of carcass that has the evidence of sex on." ----My routine practice, and I have passed through a lot of check stations with no issues in this regard. CP.

Probably has to do with antler point restrictions, so if you have a bull, you need the horns to to show it was a legal bull. At least that's how it is here in CO.



They are in CO, as long as they're attached to a whole carcass.

Good point - hadn't thought of it that way and will do it differently next time.

Canada also has the 6 point trophy hunt for elk in certain provinces. That is 6 points each side. The head must be with the body.

Idaho regs just say that the tag must be attached to largest part of the carcass. They don't say how that part is determined to be the largest. And, yes, antlers are part of a carcass. While the term carcass is often used for an animal slaughtered for food and with the inedible parts removed, it's also commonly used for a whole dead animal. If the state doesn't define 'carcass', they'd have a hard time making stick a citation for a tag on antlers.

In Alberta, if the animal is quartered or otherwise butchered in the field, the tag must be attached to the same hind quarter that has the evidence of sex. You have to dig pretty far into the fine print to find that out, but it's there. And the tag is a sticky piece of tough paper around a metal clamp that's impossible to change from one quarter to the other if you forget and screw up.

Idaho requires that the tag be attached immediately after the kill. That can only be interpreted to mean before you dress it. If the tag can't be switched to a different part, it might be very difficult to determine exactly what part will end up being the biggest. Idaho's tags are made of a plasticized paper that you attach with a thin wire. The paper is very tough stuff.