Ethics Question: Do you notch your tag if you shoot an animal but can't recover it?

[Marbles]

No I do not notch my tag.

I believe it is illegal to notch your tag unless you harvest an animal. Maybe you could throw it in the fire or trash without notching it.

I stop hunting if I think I will wound animals. It has nothing to do with notching the tag. That is grandstanding.

Everybody who says they notch their tag is a self righteous egotistical who is most likely dishonest.

Legal expert in all 50 states now? Or just dishonest and egotistical?

 

[Kelvin Wolther]

I only lost one animal. Felt awful, we spent all day looking. Finally lost all sign in the rocks.
I chose to put my rifle away. I was a spotting scope guy, and meat packer the remai Der of the season.

 

[Fetty Wapiti]

I only lost one animal. Felt awful, we spent all day looking. Finally lost all sign in the rocks.
I chose to put my rifle away. I was a spotting scope guy, and meat packer the remai Der of the season.

You did the right thing. Bravo buddy! Those arguing otherwise are total fuds, no question.

 

[Maverick1]

Legal expert in all 50 states now? Or just dishonest and egotistical?

That’s Dirty @Sanchez LOL.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

I once shot a sheep that died and starting rolling down a face and ended up in a location that was unrecoverable. Tried to get to him but was unable to do it safely without serious risk of ending up in the same state. I walked away and notched my tag. My hunt was over. The outfitter offered to keep hunting but I declined as I harvested a sheep. The outfitter and guide were very appreciative and respected my decision. I had an even better hunt when I rebooked the same hunt in the following years.

That's kind of wild considering it's sheep and they're a coveted tag/resource. Where is this? Big difference too between wounding and not finding to actually finding it. Good on you.

 

[Skerhunter]

I don’t see the point of notching a tag if you don’t have possession of the animal?

There is also a big difference in a grazing shot vs gut shot animal!

If I mortally wounded an animal I simply reserve that tag for that animal (keep hunting/looking for it). Graze one I’m going to keep hunting!

 

[packgoatguy]

I've always understood the idea of "notching my tag" if I couldn't find an animal I wounded was more metaphorical than literal.... in that I could choose to stop hunting/trying to fill (or notch) my tag on a subsequent animal. I wouldn't actually "notch" my tag in a physical sense. I think another phrase I've heard used is "eating" my tag. Either way, the principle is the same... if I am reasonably certain I missed or just grazed an animal, I keep hunting... if I'm reasonably certain my shot was a mortal wound, I'll keep looking for it... but I won't be trying to kill another animal with the same tag. The question really comes when I'm not sure about whether my shot was mortal or not... then it's a tougher decision. This is one reason we do our best to record all our shots with the digiscope... especially when the kids are behind the rifle.

But, anecdotally... I've seen it go both ways. Once found a doe that had completely bled out from nothing more than a lower leg grazing bullet, just happened to get a good vein or something. I once shot a little buck that was hobbling around on 3 legs, the 4th leg was only attached by a piece of hide from the knee joint down... it was obvious that it had been that way for days... he was healthy otherwise, but I doubt he would have survived the winter on 3 legs... once shot an archery bull, and found a broadhead wedged in its vertebrae, completely healed over... looked like it had been there for years... once skinned a cow elk and found an inch diameter wooden stick/branch, 18 inches long, that had penetrated her hide and healed over. About half of it had gone between ribs and was up against the inside of her chest cavity, the other half was under the hide wedged up against the outside of the ribs! But she was healed and healthy otherwise. My son's 360 bull this year had a massive cyst or some sort of wierd gelatinous mass on its front shoulder... I suspected it was from a previous archery wound... but never found a broadhead... but the fluid sack was huge, like volleyball volume... must have been terribly uncomfortable.

Anyway... deer and elk are hardy animals... but at the same time, it doesn't take a lot to put them down, and I personally don't want to be responsible for the death of two animals if I only have one tag.

 

[Jpsmith1]

No I do not notch my tag.

I believe it is illegal to notch your tag unless you harvest an animal. Maybe you could throw it in the fire or trash without notching it.

I stop hunting if I think I will wound animals. It has nothing to do with notching the tag. That is grandstanding.

Everybody who says they notch their tag is a self righteous egotistical who is most likely dishonest.

I mean, in this case "notching" a tag can easily be metaphorical as well.

We don't 'notch' tags here but I "notched" one this season after a poor shot on a doe. Heck, the tag is still in the baggie I carry my tags in but I wouldn't use it.

 

[roadrunner]

I've always understood the idea of "notching my tag" if I couldn't find an animal I wounded was more metaphorical than literal.... in that I could choose to stop hunting/trying to fill (or notch) my tag on a subsequent animal. I wouldn't actually "notch" my tag in a physical sense. I think another phrase I've heard used is "eating" my tag. Either way, the principle is the same... if I am reasonably certain I missed or just grazed an animal, I keep hunting... if I'm reasonably certain my shot was a mortal wound, I'll keep looking for it... but I won't be trying to kill another animal with the same tag. The question really comes when I'm not sure about whether my shot was mortal or not... then it's a tougher decision. This is one reason we do our best to record all our shots with the digiscope... especially when the kids are behind the rifle.

But, anecdotally... I've seen it go both ways. Once found a doe that had completely bled out from nothing more than a lower leg grazing bullet, just happened to get a good vein or something. I once shot a little buck that was hobbling around on 3 legs, the 4th leg was only attached by a piece of hide from the knee joint down... it was obvious that it had been that way for days... he was healthy otherwise, but I doubt he would have survived the winter on 3 legs... once shot an archery bull, and found a broadhead wedged in its vertebrae, completely healed over... looked like it had been there for years... once skinned a cow elk and found an inch diameter wooden stick/branch, 18 inches long, that had penetrated her hide and healed over. About half of it had gone between ribs and was up against the inside of her chest cavity, the other half was under the hide wedged up against the outside of the ribs! But she was healed and healthy otherwise. My son's 360 bull this year had a massive cyst or some sort of wierd gelatinous mass on its front shoulder... I suspected it was from a previous archery wound... but never found a broadhead... but the fluid sack was huge, like volleyball volume... must have been terribly uncomfortable.

Anyway... deer and elk are hardy animals... but at the same time, it doesn't take a lot to put them down, and I personally don't want to be responsible for the death of two animals if I only have one tag.

Have seen the same thing, bullet wounds in legs, broadheads lodged in vertebrae, arrows shafts that have all bit deteriorated after being buried inside a few seasons.

My nephew hit a cow elk one year on a youth incemtive hunt in the leg just below the "death triangle" formed from the scapula and upper leg bone. Of course, she immediately laid down once she hit the tree line.

We bumped her (thinking she was dead) where she went straight up the ridge that was probably between a 15 to 20 deg incline 300 yds and joined the rest of the group she was with. They never slowed down and after trailing tracks and a speck of blood every now and then, a 1/2 mile later, we never saw them again.

Should he have "notched his tag"? According the the ethics preachers, yes. Did we? HELL NO. We kept hunting.

People can flame me all they want. Great thing is, I don't FLIPPING care...

 

[idig4au]

That's kind of wild considering it's sheep and they're a coveted tag/resource. Where is this? Big difference too between wounding and not finding to actually finding it. Good on you.

NWT

 

[Pulleye16]

Yeah…I call BS on anyone that’s tagging an animal they didn’t recover.

People just like to feel good on the internet. Looking at the survey results, I’m on the floor laughing.

I’d love to see the interaction of a freshly notched elk tag at a game stop in MT. Good luck convincing the warden on that one. Pretty sure they would like to see the “elk” you “tagged.” Especially that cow tag. Hopefully it would be film so I ca watch that conversation play out on the show Wardens.

Can’t hardly take this site seriously after reading these comments. Now I know most you are full of it.

 

[Fetty Wapiti]

Yeah…I call BS on anyone that’s tagging an animal they didn’t recover.

People just like to feel good on the internet. Looking at the survey results, I’m on the floor laughing.

I’d love to see the interaction of a freshly notched elk tag at a game stop in MT. Good luck convincing the warden on that one. Pretty sure they would like to see the “elk” you “tagged.” Especially that cow tag. Hopefully it would be film so I ca watch that conversation play out on the show Wardens.

Can’t hardly take this site seriously after reading these comments. Now I know most you are full of it.

This right here shows how pervasive the issue has become. The number of unrecovered elk we found this year was just sad and 100% avoidable. Could see them questioning a notched tag with no elk, that would be suspicious as hell. It is figurative, not literal. Its knowing when you failed, swallowing your pride, and honoring a resource.

There are hunters and then there are killers. The world obviously needs more hunters...

If anything reading this post makes me understand how and why the hunting community has so many that oppose us and want to take away our lifestyle.

DO BETTER!

 

[Jpsmith1]

Yeah…I call BS on anyone that’s tagging an animal they didn’t recover.

People just like to feel good on the internet. Looking at the survey results, I’m on the floor laughing.

I’d love to see the interaction of a freshly notched elk tag at a game stop in MT. Good luck convincing the warden on that one. Pretty sure they would like to see the “elk” you “tagged.” Especially that cow tag. Hopefully it would be film so I ca watch that conversation play out on the show Wardens.

Can’t hardly take this site seriously after reading these comments. Now I know most you are full of it.

I did it this year.

Now, my state doesn't require notching a tag but, on making the decision that the animal was mortally wounded (guts on the arrow) and beyond salvage and recovery (24 hours of 50°+ ambient) i set that tag aside.

Being in a well populated state, I had several tags.

Would my personal ethic hold up on a "hunt of a lifetime" type situation? I don't know. I'd like to think it would but I'm not 100% sure as I haven't been in that situation to test that.

 

[nphunter]

I’ve continued hunting on more than one occasion after wounding an elk. I put a lot of effort into finding the and have never found an elk later in the season or after the season that was dead and I’ve looked. I’ve hit more than one elk square in the shoulder and they live through that shot most of the time.

One elk I looked for on a OIL hunt for 9 days, had a dozen people covered hundreds of boot miles in the area and even took hounds. Good blood that dried up, after 9 days I decided he was alive still and let my two kids call me in a bull which I killed. It was the right decision for me. The bull I killed on that hunt had a broadhead in his spine and one in his shoulder both healed over, one I found at home butchering and the other when pulling his back strap with no signs of a wound or any ill effect. He had a dozen cows and we were on them all day before I was able to get him angry enough to come in for a shot.

Another bull I shot in the shoulder I searched for several days. Took some hounds and went back to spot everyday for almost a month looking for birds. Got a pic of him the next fall and a friend picked up his sheds that year. That bull was shot on Sept 25th and I didn’t hunt any more that year.

These two instances made me realize how tough animals really are and how they can easily live after a poor hit. I think whether a person continues to hunt or not is a personal choice for me I will continue to hunt as long as I do my very best to try to recover first.