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- so now another item to fill out on harvest log
(2)c5 from rule text - 5. Once a harvested deer is reported through the Commission’s harvest reporting system, all deer, or parts thereof, shall have written information attached thereto containing the information recorded in the harvest log and the harvest reporting confirmation number prior to being transferred from the person who harvested it to another party.
But I'm going ahead and responding now as to one point.... the law already requires that you leave the head on and that all the meat be tagged and labeled after cleaning in camp. Here's the current rule:
"(2) Positive evidence of sex identification, including the head, shall remain on deer taken or killed within the state and on all turkey taken during any gobbler season when taking of turkey hens is prohibited so long as such deer or turkey is kept in camp or forest or is en route to the domicile of its possessor or until such deer or turkey has been cooked or stored at the domicile of its possessor.
(3) Deer and turkey may be dismembered in the field or camp but each portion shall have a tag affixed to it identifying the name, address, FWC Recreational Licensing Issuance Services Customer ID number (if a hunting license is required) of the person who killed it, the date and location at which it was taken, and shall be readily traceable to the portion of the animal bearing the sex identification."
Every time we clean a deer in camp and don't label the individual parts with an affixed tag that has our name, address, hunting license number, and date and location of kill, we're breaking the law. I've pointed this out before in other discussions. I've never heard of this rule being enforced in the past. But where now it is going to be connected to a bag limit, it no doubt will be.
Best I can tell, the tagging of parts has been law since at least 2015.
Tags would be so much easier. Just tag the deer in the field when its on the ground. Then report it in before you clean it by calling it in or going on a website. Totally ditch the paper log. 2 steps. Step 1. Tag. Step 2. Report. The true enforcement mechanism will be the tag. A tag that can't be reused once it goes in a deer's leg. The cheater will have to try to cheat by not tagging the deer and hoping not to be checked either in the field, in the back of the truck, or at the cleaning rack. In this taggless system, violations will have to be proven via the log or lack thereof, and it has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. A confusing system has reasonable doubt built into it.
Also they are planning on having a cell phone app. This is from FWC site....."Hunters would be required to report their own harvest within 24 hours of harvest AND prior to transferring possession of the harvested deer. After using their telephone or any internet connection to report, hunters would receive a confirmation number to record on a paper harvest log (if used) or to be saved automatically on their smart phone."
Here's the link to the Presentation that FWC staff will be presenting to commissioners at their next meeting.
http://myfwc.com/media/4520668/12B-ProposedDeerManagementRules.pdf
As far as does being better to eat than bucks that's just bs, if you compare by age and care for the meat the right way after harvesting there is very little if any difference.
One management plan that covers private lands and WMA's will never work. DMU's are too big to have just one management plan to cover private lands and WMA's. FWC looks at WMA's like small DMU's so it can be managed on a more local level by it particular habitat and deer population. This is no different than many private clubs managing their clubs on a more restrictive level in order to increase deep population or antler size.
Now we need to downoad a proposed APP, no thanks dont need another tracking device attached to my phone.
Start managing the habitat then we can talk about more ways to burden the hunter.
The hunter who prefers to actually skin and clean in the woods than drag (and I fall in that camp) would/should have to report before dismemberment. Because once its dismembered its mostly on its way to disappearing and never having existed for bag limit purposes.
I actually think that makes sense. What I don't agree with is this:
If we could magically make the funding all go to benefit hunters and fishermen, heck yes seniors should be paying like everyone else does to utilize the resource. Use that extra money to buy the tags or harvest logs the FWC apparently can't afford.
But seeing this is coming from Ds who absolutely intend to use the funding to buy lands that can't be hunted or fished, no thank you.