New hunting tags spawn confusion
September 8th, 2005 by Administrator
New hunting tags spawn confusion - This year’s new style of deer and elk tag has led to some to confusion among local hunters.
To make it harder for people to cheat on their big game tags, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks came up with a new design this year, said education program manager Vivica Crowser.
With the old-style tags, the paper was protected by a plastic pouch, she said. The new tags are printed on waterproof paper.
And like the old tags, successful hunters have to cut out the month and day they killed their animal, but with the new tags, hunters have to cut out two numbers for the day, said Jeff Darrah, FWP warden captain in Missoula.
“Each day is a two digit day,” he said.
For instance, hunters who shot a deer on opening day, Sept. 3, would have to punch out a 0 and a 3 from the row of numbers at the bottom of the tag and the September from the side of the tag.
One Ravalli County warden checked six successful hunters last weekend and all six had marked their tags wrong, Darrah said.
Wardens are willing to use discretion on whether to ticket violators, Darrah said. But if people are trying to cheat, it’s pretty obvious.
“That’s why it’s very important, from an enforcement standpoint, that they mark out things completely,” he said.
But unfortunately whether the tag is a new design or not, mismarking them is a persistent problem.
“Tagging violations are the number one violation that we see out there during big game season,” Darrah said.
But this year he’s optimistic things will be better.
“Hopefully by general rifle season, people will be paying a little more attention to it,” he said.
by GREG LEMON - Ravalli Republic