Kevin Dill
WKR
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2014
- Messages
- 3,158
Good things happen to good people.
I really sympathize for you and it seems you did the right thing by bringing it out of the field. I've never lost any meat, but its always been a major concern. I wish your trip would have turned out better.
All of the AK Wildlife Troopers I've encountered have been excellent professionals with absolute common sense, but one. This trooper tried for two hours to find a reason to write a ticket. He told us that he was looking to write a ticket that day. All he could come up with was ONE missing rib bone that I discarded because it was shattered with impact (All meat has to come out on the bone in that unit). He eventually told us that he wasn't going to write the ticket and said that it was the best meat care he has ever encountered in the field, then caveated it with "I'm surprised a non-resident could do it". I kept my thoughts to myself. Finally, when he was ready to head back to his plane, he said "I guess I'm not writing any tickets today" to which I replied "I guess that's good for me". His only response was "not good for us, how am I supposed to pay for the gas to get out here today?". SO the moral of my story is that there might be some incentive for the troopers to write tickets and impose fines to either justify their field work or generate revenues that can support their enforcement efforts. Maybe if he was on the fence in your case, he figured he's write the ticket and let the DA or judge sort it out and hope it justifies his efforts and possibly put some money back into the enforcement coffers.
So what if you down a moose day 1 and you're hunting with 3 other pals. You guys decide to splurge on eating moose meat for the rest of the trip, say 9-14 days off that moose. You'll definitely go through both tenderloins and maybe a moose "rack o ribs" What do you do then? Do you hope they believe you that you ate it? What if a bear came in and took off with some or most of your meat?