would far prefer a call-in tagging system

[dewey]

Here in MN we have the check stations and they are at pretty much every gas station I prefer them over the telephone or internet for many reasons.

1. At the registration station you get a card saying that this deer was registered and you need to bring that with the deer to have a butcher shop take care of it for you.

2. It gives you a chance to talk to other hunters and see how they did.

3. I think a telephone or internet reigstrationwould promote the dishonest people to say they got a doe/buck when they actually got the wrong one. I have been to check stations where they come out a look at the animals to make sure they are what you said the were. This is not normally what I encounter but it did happen none the less.

In closing I am in favor of having to register your deer at gas stations/ect.

Dewey

[Cgull]

Call in game checks are too easy, there needs to be better game monitors. Cheaters will just cheat more.

[camel]

ORIGINAL: hunter480

Indiana has proposed the call in check system. I`m opposed to it for a couple reasons, but primarily because I believe it would encourage poaching/not checking in deer.

 
Here in NS Canada we can register our deer or bear online.I don't like it one bit,primarily for the same reason as above.No data is collected from the deer.Registration stations should be mandatory and certian data should be collected from every deer for overall statistics.

[Woods Walker]

We had check stations in Illinois up until about 3 years ago, and the way the were being run at the end I say good riddance. They were staffed by college students, and I don't believe the quality of information they were recieving and giving was all that accurate.

Let's face it, the cheaters will still cheat, regardless of however they do it.

That, and I certainly DON'T miss not getting back to camp until 7:30 before I even got a chance to clean up, pop that first top, and eat dinner. Many times that happened if you shot a deer at the end of the day, or if you killed one earlier in the day but had to wait until everyone got back to camp at dark to drag it out, and THEN head to town and check it in.

[Ohio farms]

I do agree with WW on his point. If I shoot a deer during bow season at last light I have to bust my butt to get to the checkin station in time. I will not miss that hassle. Cheaters will always find a way to cheat.
Ohio is going to convert to computer/phone check in the next year or so. I look forward to it.

[metrx]

I agree...cheaters will cheat one way or another and a check station will not stop them.  Nothing will ever stop people from hunting without a license, poaching, jacking deer at night or just shooting a deer and dragging into their barn and butchering it without using their tag (if they have one), which will allow them to take another deer. 
 
NY has the call in system, but my guess is it is easy to forget to call your harvest in.  It is a very convenient system, as i think they give you 48 hours to call it in...but if you called it in a week later, would it really matter?  I hunted VT for many years and they have the check stations that were mandatory to check your deer.  I liked that.  Hanging out, BSing with other hunters, hearing stories and seeing what and where other hunters had gotten.
 
Funniest hunting one-liner I heard...it's probably an old one though...
I remember when I was a kid with my first buck (a spike) in VT and being at the check station.  These guys pull up with a nice 8 or 10 pointer.  They were locals for sure.  I said to them, "Man, thats a nice buck, where did you get him?"  The guy says, "In the woods."  He was right...we both just laughed. 

[fasteddie]

The check stations we had were few and far between . We used to have the mail-in cards . The check station in East Avon is about 40 miles away and checking in was always voluntary . I went there once when I shot a huge doe to have it checked / measured . The DEC guy acted like it was an inconvenience for him to get off his butt and come out . Mailing in the cards was a simple process ......

[zos41]

I normally make use of the online option NY has myself and you can always get in that witrh no waiting. I once heard a NY DEC person state that they believe that less than 40 percent of hunters register there deer. This is a sad state of affairs if true.

I formally hunted in Massachusetts which (at the time) had a mandatory checkin (in person) of all deer killed. They collected stats on age, sex, weight and where killed along with other info.

[woodsalta]

I live in MA and we have the manditory check stations, where like zos41 states, they check the deer out. I would like to see the phone in or computer registration brought into MA as one of our laws states that we need to have some part of the deer visible until it is checked in and tagged. Some of the dirty looks and comments you get driving with the hoof or an antler sticking out of your truck bed is enough to boil your blood!

The check in stations are far and few between (the closest one to me is in Westboro at the MassWildlife field office). There is another one in the town of Acton, but it is the same distance to Westboro. Plus a friend of mine went to the Acton check station after shooting his first deer ever and the ECO gave him a bunch of grief over how he tagged the deer. It was his first deer in 19 years of hunting and he was so excited that he strapped his entire hunting lic to the does leg but forgot to fill out the doe tag. The ECO was treatening to take the deer, his muzzleloader, fine him and issued him a citation for not filling out the doe tag right. If this is what hunters in the area are faceing when checking in a deer I would see how alot of deer would go unreported. Make it easier and less stressful on the hunter to check thier deer and you might see an increase of deer being checked in.

As stated in other posts, if a hunter is going to "jack" a deer he/she is going to jack the deer weither there is a check in station or a phone in system in place. JMO

[SwampLife]

no check stations(besides certain state lands), no tele-check, no nothing. 2 deer a day bag limit, 5 inches or more antler. Ridiculous.