There is such a thing called waste of game...

Whether you intended to kill it or not, you know a wildlife resource / game animal is going to waste and you did nothing to prevent the waste.

A simple call to your GW. May have let you keep it, may have donated it to a needy family, either way it wouldn't have gone to waste.

If you're afraid to call the GW, the 'story' and the truth likely don't match up.

The "waste of game" offense only applies if you killed or wounded the animal. The scenario provided in this thread does not deal with an animal killed or wounded by a hunter - but rather an animal killed by another animal. Thus, the "waste of game" offense is not applicable to this situation.



Technically, it wouldn't go to waste leaving it there - scavengers have to eat too. It might not go to the eating cause you prefer, but it wouldn't go to waste.



Absent a legal obligation to call the GW, the vast majority of people are not going to do so - and not doing so is absolutely NOT evidence of unlawful behavior (or other wrongdoing) or evidence that their story and the truth don't match up. GWs are not the gods of all hunting matters that need to be called up and involved in all things involving hunting and game. Most people prefer to be left alone to enjoy their recreation and not to have GWs questioning their honesty or screwing around on their property. There are enough hassles in life to not intentionally ADD to the hassles you have to deal with by calling a GW when there is no legal obligation to do so. And if this thread proves anything, it's that different people will have different opinions on any given situation - you call a GW who ends up with a different opinion on what happened, you may end up with a ticket or talking to a judge, it's just simply not worth it. Once a GW is involved, the TRUTH doesn't matter, only the OPINION of the GW.

If GWs want a call in every situation like this, then the state will have to pass a "No penalty" law for people who make the call - to prevent people from being penalized based on the OPINION of a GW. And even if they did pass such a law, I'd wager that most people still wouldn't call. As a general rule people don't do things that are inconvenient for them.

We live in a age where LEOs (including GWs) don't just merely exist to do the right thing, enforce our laws, and protect people (or game in the case of GWs) - we live in an age where LEOs are a significant revenue generating arm of government. When generating revenue is part of the job, you lose public trust. Personally, I think most GW's are great honest people who try to do the right thing by people most of the time. But not all the time. I doubt anyone here who has ever watched "Lone Star Law", hasn't seen some GWs do something and thought "That's kind of an [censored] move" - and that's stuff they know is going to be viewed by the public on TV!

Nobody called our local GW for anything growing up, even legitimate/truthful matters, as he'd find a way to make 4 arrests, traumatize the kids, and cover everyone in cigar spit.

I'm happy to say the GWs around us now are amazing, and on account of knowing my childhood GW are extremely understanding as to why it took me a while to trust them.

Lighten up Francis, it was just an opinion.

Simple conversation - Hey GW, you won't believe this, I shot a buck and another buck ran into him after the shot and I guess he broke his neck, whadda you think I should do?
GW - tag, clean & keep him, or, gut him I'll be out in a few minutes to pick the buck up, Joe Baker broke his leg & can't work his wife lost her job 2 months ago they got 3 kids I'm gonna take it to them.

You talk like one of them big city attorneys that sit around thinking up ways & contract wording to legally screw folks out of their money.

Might explain why you have such a low opinion of GW's & LEO in general.

ummm okay...that's all I was offering as well. No need to take my opinion personal.



Yeah, nobody actually does that. But I'm sure there are some TV shows out there that make laymen believe otherwise.



Not sure how my actual statement of "I think most GW's are great honest people who try to do the right thing by people most of the time" is interpreted as me having a low opinion of GW's and LEOs... I would actually call that pretty high praise. But that's the problem with people these days, they hear whatever they want to hear and interpret things however they feel like interpreting them.

Now, I do have a low opinion of the government and the systems in place - it's all broken and screws citizens every single day...but the system and the people working in the system are two different things entirely. Nothing I stated was anything more than FAIR criticism of the system.

Im no buny hugger but I wasn't raised to waste either. Ive eaten my fair share of deer hogs and javalina. If I literally watched this legal deer I killed run into knock down and kill the other (not legal deer" I would contact a warden to try and use the deer.

I believe if it had occurred in a non AR 2 buck county and I had both my buck tags I would probably just tag them both.

Well then, it's clear I owe you an apology for the personal jab I gave ya... and I took your words with a tone of anger or disgust, my mistake.

My second response more clearly illustrated my thoughts. Just a quick simple call.

I haven't had a negative experience with any GW anywhere in this state that I didn't deserve, going back more than 50 years.

I occasionally talk to the GW's in the counties I have cows in & in the past leased to hunters, sometimes 3 or 4 times a week or month, sometimes twice a year, sometimes they call me, just to shoot the breeze or ask an ' If or didja or have you heard or seen ' question, or let me know some type of shenanigans is taking place near one of my interests and keep an eye out deal.

If I were to find myself in these circumstances, unlikely, but if...I don't even think I would try to drag the second deer to the brush. Dragging it away would tend to make some think it shady. Personal choice on whether to call the GW or not, but to me, this does not meet any part of wanton waste - more like just a traffic accident.

I don’t have anything against GWs. In fact, I like the ones in my county and my hunting county.

That said, I don’t feel the need to call them every time some issue comes up on my place. I usually handle it. I have never known anyone to voluntarily call the GW about anything other than reporting a poaching violation/trespassing on their property.

Some of you must lay awake nights thinking about all the road and predator-killed deer that die on a daily basis.

What law states that exactly????

My bad I should have not referenced TPWD game laws! Common sense should prevail in this scenario
Even though he did not directly kill that other buck, his actions (wounding that other buck) indirectly killed that second buck so there might be a legal requirement to contact the game warden.
I have reached out to a couple of game wardens and posed this scenario to them, waiting for their response.

And Thank You for highlighting my comments in Red, that is so special I would have never known your question was directed at me

Can't we all just get along...Seriously, a rather interesting and unusual situation; guess I'd have to exercise full transparency with Game Warden and hope for the best....

Agree on both counts

I like the way you think.

Heard back from one of the Game Wardens and initially he agreed with me and when I replied back to him for clarity if the person is required by law to contact the game warden and he replied " not necessarily"
So I guess there maybe some Gray area there

Anyways when I am not 100% right I will and do admit my mistakes

I still think the Red was cute and special thank you

Well we know that is illegal, question is as long as you are going to break the law why would you only remove the backstraps and not take the rest of the deer

This person has common sense and logic! Nice.

Many of the other posts just demonstrate why our society is the way it is.

Is this situation true? Who knows. Possible. If it didn’t happen that way, why tell someone?
However you feel/believed really happened, you can’t prove it.

I like the fact that an officer of the court was the first one to suggest committing a game violation.

What's the game violation?

Heehee I was kidding......

x1000. The last thing I am ever doing is calling a game warden to come snoop around my place.

I completely agree with this. I have had really good experiences with most game wardens, but have also had a really bad experience with them.

When I was 11-12 years old my dad took me and another friend hunting at the coast during teal season. About 20 minutes into the hunt, after shooting 3-4 teal 2 federal game wardens came up to us. They immediately ripped each of our guns from us. They didn't have a reason, didn't even tell us why. After giving us the full search down, plugs, licenses etc, they proceed to tell us we shot a model duck that fell behind us. Both my dad and this other hunter had been hunting for 20+ years and clearly know the difference between a big duck and a teal. They proceeded to write us all $550 tickets for a duck we could never find. We had a master certified field tested dog search and search over this area and couldn't find anything. I was still extremely young at this age and couldn't believe how much of a** holes these game wardens were. It was a 4 hour drive one way for two court dates, so my dad didn't even have the time to get off work to fight it. I still to this day will never fully trust a game warden and have never returned to this area to hunt. This was 15 years ago or so, and it still doesn't sit right. Call a game warden tat your own risk, but just know you could very easily be getting a ticket like we did, with no evidence.

Because I’d have to transport it and don’t want the hassle of any questions.

Big picture, any GW ain’t worried about some accidentally killed deer.

Lol lots of lacy-pants straight arrows on here. I’ll bet some of you must stop and call a DPS officer to come write you a ticket when your speedometer registers above the speed limit.

Actually I take great pride in following the laws of the land game or otherwise, except for maybe driving a little over the speed limit.

I do too. But I guess everyone has their lines. I wouldn’t sweat taking the backstraps off an accidentally killed deer and eating them.

I’m pretty sure I could call all the GWs I know and they wouldn’t sweat it either. But I’m not worried enough about it to do so.