Just thinking this, purely hypothetical

Let’s say you have a good hunting place and you decide to take a friend/buddy/whatever

And on your game camera you show him these mature bucks are off limits-Do not shoot deer.

And he ended up shooting one anyway...

Is that your deer or his deer? Could you legally refuse him to have it?

To add, what if you didn’t have a buck tag left and still didn’t want him to have it?

The "friend" was legally hunting and killed a legal deer, regardless of your group's arbitrary restrictions. It's his deer.
No matter how you feel about it (or now - him).

I usually don’t entertain hypothetical questions, I find the real world vexing enough.

In this situation, I’d call the game warden & have my “friend” fully prosecuted for whatever charges I could. I believe it’s poaching if someone shoots an animal they are not allowed to.

Just because someone is on your place, doesn’t mean they can shoot whatever/any/all animals, even if legally in season.

Ok, just to be clear this has never happened to me.

Just spit balling and wondered what could happen

I think that’s the line I was curious about...

It’s the...that was kind of a poached animal in my eyes

But idk

You invited the hunter and allowed him to hunt the deer. The hunter did nothing illegal, they just didn't follow your rules.

While you were showing the off limits deer you should have laid out the consequences as well. This is no different than hunters not following the rules on any given lease - you can lay out all the rules and game restrictions you want, but if there's no consequences then chances are the hunters don't worry much about breaking those rules.

I don't know about prosecutable or not, would depend on whether a verbal contract was constructed or not by being shown the deer, at a minimum a friendship is in jeopardy I'd say.

For those that are saying nothing can/could be done you may be correct

But if I owned the place, he/she seems to have taken something from me without my consent.

And I am aware I don’t own the deer but they still took the opportunity away from harvesting that deer later. Is that worth anything, IDK

Again, just a hypothetical. It’s never happened to me, LOL

Side #1: Is a dead deer worth losing a friend over?
Side #2: You're friend's an idiot.

Man I know I would have said I missed that shot

Whoever kills the deer tags it, no way around that. The tag is proof of ownership.
It is against the law for any person to tag a deer they didn't kill / use one of their tags on a deer someone else killed.
You can't take possession of someone else's legally killed & tagged deer without the transfer of wildlife resource document filled out.

The guest had permission to hunt, a mistake was made, either by the guest when he shot the 'wrong' deer or by the person that gave the guest permission to hunt in the first place.

As long as the deer was legal in the county, TPWD doesn't have a 'he shot the wrong deer' ticket.
TPWD doesn't get involved in lease rules enforcement unless something illegal takes place.

'Wrong deer' is a civil matter.

The land owner and or lessees do not own live deer unless behind high fence properly marked by tag or brand as stipulated in the wildlife code.

I think the video had a pretty good point - if the "friend" wants to stay a friend, they better be whipping out the check book to pay for their mistake.

X2

That guy in the video knew what he was shooting and had likely already seen the dead 11/12 ptr. with drop before his buddies picked him up after Jimmie first drove off, lol. The awe shucks routine didn't work with Jimmie, break out the checkbook to the tune of $8-$10K.

That old video was staged. But this has happened before. I have no idea what the outcome of the case was.

case

"The pair saw a buck deer. The hunter wanted to shoot the buck. The guide, according to the TPWD report, adamantly and repeatedly told the hunter not to shoot because the deer was not a "mature" buck.
The hunter ignored the guide's directive, shot and killed the buck. The hunter offered to pay more than the fee the business charged for taking such a deer.
The outfitter — the "landowner's agent," in legal terms — and the landowner were not satisfied with the offer, it seems.
The landowner pushed for the hunter to be charged under a 6-year-old law that makes killing a deer without permission of the landowner a felony offense.
The shooter was arrested, felony charges filed, he was jailed and had to post bond to be released pending disposition of the case."

Doesn't sound like much of a friend to me.

I got a buddy that did this. BUT, we was warned of the consequences if he took a buck. He sat all day to see nothing. Just as he was leaving a beautiful 12 point stepped out. He got his scope on it and had to have it. He paid 50 bucks a point right then and there and it was over.

Hasn't happened on my place but the only 2 friends that i let hunt know what will happen, they won't hunt there again. Hasn't happened in the 10 years I've let them hunt.

The landowner could press charges.


We had an instance where we had an hunter ( who was allowed to shoot an approved axis, for a fee ) shot an un-approved axis and did not want to pay the overage ( over 30+ inches) trophy fee.

When the sheriff was called, he wrote the check.



Laws or different now on taking game that a person does not have permission to shoot. Landowner can seek restitution and in some cases can keep the animal

Yup...see red....

That's still a cull right.....

Your fault. If you have deer that are off limits and you invite a friend to hunt, you better be guiding him. If not, and your less experienced friend screws up, that's on you. Period. As for tagging, he killed it, he tags it with the tag from his license or an MLD tag from the ranch.

Ok, I will keep chasing this rabbit

Say, y’all are together. Off limits deer and cull are 5 yards apart..

Ok, you got him, yes...make sure you’re shooting the smaller one. Ok I got it

Boom, he shot the big one instead.

At that exact moment, you inform him to leave the ranch and anything other would be considered trespassing.

Not allow another second on the ranch, bye...adios

And then just allow the Game Warden to later take possession?

There’s not much going on right now, as you can tell. Long time until September.