I am an avid reader of westernhunter.com. Each week reading the fish and game violations is a must. I am amazed at how stupid and far "outlaws" go to kill our game. It did not occur to me that my hunting practice would land me a game violation.

In February of this year, I shot a wild hog while hunting on a private club in northern California. After a few hours of packing the animal out and driving back to camp, I hung it in preparation for skinning. Our group was resting and discussing my hunt and what others saw, when a game warden pulled into camp. He asked if we had any luck, I proudly said yes and pointed to the hanging hog. While inspecting the animal he asked, "Where's the tag?". Handing my packet of five tags to the warden, he asked, "Why didn't you fill out and tag your pig?" This is something I do when the hide is off and the game bag is in place. As I found out, that is a game law violation. Successful hunters must fill out and tag the animals immediately!

I could understand the big hoopla if it was a deer, but with pigs you can purchase up to 700 tags per year.

The fine for this mistake is $405. I went to court and the judge dismissed the case and charged me a $50 court fee. I was very lucky.

The point of this e-mail is that prior to pulling out your knife, pull out your pencil and tag, and fill it out.

In all the photos of deer, it is a rare case that I see a tag attached to the antlers, as required by law. This is just a word of caution for your readers.

V. Mike Fanning
Sacramento,
California

Editor's Note:
Mike, thanks for reminding our readers about the importance of tagging their animals asap.

The folks who were pictured in the photo spread of the Wallow of Death are buddies of mine. The fella who took the pictures and recovered the bull is John Legnard.

They recovered this bull a month after hearing about it from a fellow hunter. It was found a few miles west of Denver. One other strange thing is when he boiled out the skull he found a stick over 8 inches long wedged in the bull's nose. One would guess it got lodged there while the bull was struggling to get out of the hole.

Yours in hunting,
Ward Anderson

Arizona Bust

I always wondered if any of those Arizona strip mule deer gurus were hazing those Paunsagaunt/ Zion National Park bucks onto public land in Arizona. And now the poor unsuspecting nonresident clients are going to lose their trophies and suffer fines under the Lacey Act.

What is it with some of these guys? Is it the $$$$, the ego or both?

The spring after our huge winter kill of '92, I found the 16th-largest nontypical whitetail in Idaho (196 B&C plus) while looking at a piece of property to log and subdivide within 15 minutes of my home. Actually, I found only his skull with antlers intact. As I had a valid unused deer tag from the previous season, it would have been quite easy to claim him as my "kill"or even wait until the following season, kill my deer and "substitute" the monster's horns for whatever I had harvested. But I didn't.

Brian Farley
Idaho