Deer Tags And Game Wardens

[Wes]

In all the years I've been huntin I've only been check a hand full of times. Most of those times have been cordial interactions Couple times the wardens seemed to have gotten out on the wrong side of the bed. One of those times was a bunch of years ago when I lived in California. Some buddies and I headed up to Lompoc to hunt blacktails. The first day out we killed 3 bucks. California required you to fill out and attached the tag immediately before moving the deer. Well I didn't have a pencil so I filled out the tag using a lead tipped bullet.(This was back when you could still use lead ammunition). After I was done I started draggin the buck back to the truck. Back then draggin a deer a couples miles wasn't as hard as throwin one in the back of the truck now days. Any way I met up with my buddies that had also killed a couple bucks. As we dropped off the last hill and crossed the road to our trucks a couple game warden trucks came around the bend. They screeched to a halt and got out to check our deer. They checked both my buddies deer and they were tagged properly. One of the wardens walked over to check my deer and couldn't see the tag. He asked where's your tag. I could tell by the tone of his voice he thought he me for an untagged deer. I said oh he's tagged. His voice got a little more aggressive the second time he asked where's your tag. I told him again he's tagged. I threw the deer up on my tailgate. It's been a couple hours since I killed the buck and now he's got lock jaw. I'm pullin for all i'm worth and finally get his mouth open enuff to get a couple fingers in and pull the tag out. It's now las soggy as a piece of used toilet paper. I handed it to the warden and he takes it with two fingers and shakes it open. Fortunately you could still read the writing. He handed it back to me in disgust and says next time put it in your pocket. I could tell by his attitude he wasn't happy so I said if it was in my pocket you'd be writing me a ticket be happy I didn't stuff it up his ass.
Wes