We had a long discussion covering everything from deer hunting to the outlook for spring turkey season this year. As I said, he was a very nice young man, very polite & willing to be helpful. He finally, almost apologetically, said he was checking licenses, and asked if he could see mine. I got it out and handed it to him, and he commented, "Oh, you bought it online!" (they are available online and you just print it off on your printer) That lead to a discussion of the confusion all the deer & turkey check stations seem to have when you check a kill using an online license. The permit you buy in a store has a detachable temporary tag to put on the animal until you get to a check station, but the online permit is to be filled out but not detached. You make your own temporary tag as a landowner would, just a paper with your name, address, and the date and time the animal was killed. Most check stations seem to be unaware of the procedure and get confused when I tell them it was killed on a regular permit. A couple times I ended up leaving the permit with the check station, since I had the metal tag on the animal at that point. I asked the officer about it and what to do. He told me (as he chuckled), "Just do whatever makes the check station people content." He said it doesn't really matter what you give them, the name, address, date & time are all the information he needs, and as long as I have the metal tag number I'm safe.
He finally had to go on, but I had enjoyed talking with him. I noticed most people waited for him to ask to see their license, handed it to him to look at, then stuffed it back into their pocked and resumed fishing without even exchanging a simple courteous conversation with him.
A shame! I picked up some useful information chatting with him, and look forward to seeing if his prediction of a very good spring turkey season holds true. He's predicting a lot of 2 year old toms this spring, and I told him I hope he's right. I'll take a 2 year old over an old longbeard for the oven any day.
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