Is it illegal to pack deer out?

[Speaks]

Trying to figure this out myself. New to MN and have found a few good public spots that would be a nightmare to get an entire carcass out.

I read the above but had not seen anything about digital registration. I’ll call DNR today and follow up.

My possibly incorrect understanding is that you cannot leave any portion other than guts in the woods.

 

[BLJ]

My frustration is with the state of WV.
Not with anyone in this conversation.
Including @Q_Sertorius.
The bickering over dumb shit has reached new levels as of late and I don’t want to be a part of that. This morning I was.
My apologies to everyone in the thread. Again, including @Q_Sertorius.

I sent the picture from the refs that I posted here to a buddy who’s cousin works for the DNR. Just to get another angle.

The “gray” in the WV regs seems to be of epic proportions to me.

I’ll find some examples and share them with everyone to get some opinions.

 

[3855WIN]

In keeping with Wyoming CWD regulations for my hunt area, I was required to leave the bones where I killed the mule deer so as not to spread CWD.

 

[BLJ]

I read this as after a kill, I attach a properly filled out field tag before transporting.
Then I have 72 hours to obtain the 13 digit game check confirmation number.

 

[FlyD10]

In PA the rule reads like this (as of 2025-26 season):

Deer must be tagged before the carcass is moved.
The tag must remain attached to the ear until the animal
is processed for consumption or prepared for mounting.

So when I've packed out here I always take the head with tag attached to the ear, even for does.

 

[Boarmaster]

In some places its just the custom to field dress a deer and then drag it out and hang it. I used to hunt the federal forest in Ohio. We shot deer the dragged them out to the nearest road. I got learning about packing out deer and decided maybe I should give that a try in Ohio. I had a heck of a time finding out from other hunters and the Ohio DNR if that was legal and what I needed to do if it was legal to stay legal.
It took several emails and a month to get the answer.

I was concerned enough about the lack of knowledge on it that I printed the email I got from DNR confirming it was in fact legal and carried it with me. Heck I was worried a local game warden might not even know it was legal.

After all that I ended up shooting a big buck close to a road and he expired just about 100 yards from our truck and trailer outfit. So I never did ever cut up a deer and pack it out on an Ohio hunt. We started hunting on private soon after and was no longer an issue.

 

[Swamp Fox]

South Carolina:

Possessing any deer with the head detached while in transit from the point of kill is prohibited (50-11-400).


Years ago, I thought I saw a way to read the rules that allowed me to pack out deer from remote areas in a non-idiotic fashion, but I think the regs might have been changed or tweaked recently with the discovery of CWD in neighboring NC.

In any event, the rule now doesn't seem to be the same as what I remember, and that's from a standing start that didn't make it easy to "pack out" a deer in the first place.

Moving in the wrong direction to "go in light, come out heavy" in one trip in the Palmetto State.

 

[Jpsmith1]

Here in Pennsylvania, we still hauling elk out whole.

Yes, packing out is legal but everyone wants to see them big boys, so there's a whole cottage industry around horse sleds hauling elk out.

It's kind of neat.

 

[Macintosh]

In PA the rule reads like this (as of 2025-26 season):

Deer must be tagged before the carcass is moved.
The tag must remain attached to the ear until the animal
is processed for consumption or prepared for mounting.

So when I've packed out here I always take the head with tag attached to the ear, even for does.

Re: PA, This is from another thread on the same topic: (Aaaand, the link no longer works). This old news article from 2021 seems to have the press release I had linked to previously reprinted verbatim, but the page on the pa game commission site has been taken down. The relevant section read: "Hunters can quarter or debone a deer in the field. They still must carry out the properly-tagged head for disposal. Hunters who take a buck also have the option to remove individual antlers or a cleaned skull cap of a deer and bring those out of the woods, with their tag attached to those antlers."

Hunters gearing up for Pennsylvania firearms deer season

Pennsylvania’s upcoming firearms deer season – always the most popular on the hunting calendar – features abundant whitetails and increased flexibility in when and where hunters can harvest them. No wonder excitement is high for what this year might bring.

www.wpxi.com

This is what Id posted in the other thread, which has links and text of several states regs verbatim.

This is what I found--from this link dated 2021: https://www.media.pa.gov/Pages/game-commission-details.aspx?newsid=518

looks like an official game commission press release to me:

 

[Cynoscion]

In Texas you can't break down the deer beyond 4 quarters with bones intact plus two backstraps until you are at your "final destination" which is hunters permanent residence or processing facility.

For out of state hunters who dont use a processor and go from hunting location to airport, good luck figuring out what final destination is. The Texas regulations are written to encourage the use of deer processors and increase citation revenue.

Texas laws have changed since this post due to CWD concerns. It is now legal and encouraged to debone in the field, leave the carcass and any “unused” bones in the field.
If you do remove bones from the property the deer was harvested on, you must:
-take the quarters/head to a processor who disposes of them in a municipal landfill
OR
-process them at home and dispose of them in a municipal landfill
OR
-process them and bury them 3’ deep
OR
-return the bones to the property the deer was harvested on

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_lf_w7000_0859j.pdf

 

[Poser]

When I lived in Tennessee, they had a stupid reg that bears had to be checked in whole which was insanely impractical for any public land. One year during the public comment period, I did my best to raise awareness about this and rallied to get hunters to submit recommendations to change this regulation. Lo and behold, that may have just worked as during the subsequent regulation change window, the agency changed the reg so you could check in a quartered bear.

 

[squirrel]

I didn’t say anything about dumping deer carcasses along the road.

Please show me where I said that.

I quoted the post above because I wanted more clarification.

And after looking through the regulations, it appears we can’t dispose of them anywhere.

View attachment 965266

Page 3 of the 2025-26 regs for WV.

This is classic... write the law so anybody can be written at any time. The 'ol "if you piss me off I'll write you up" rule. We have the same here in CO with a rule requiring all 4 quarters of (an elk) to be transported together. You better eat your wheaties if you are a backpacker. The official line??? "We dont enforce it that way". But they CAN. any time they want to. And you will note they could change it any time, yet they do not.