With that animal down, you're overcome with waves of emotions as all the months of effort and training have paid off. The next step, in your mind, might be gutting and quartering the animal, or figuring out the packout route back to the truck.
It's easy to forget in all the excitement that a hunter's next priority after shooting an animal is tagging it. And doing so properly.
Improperly notched tags are one of the most common violations conservation officers see in the field.
So as a reminder for hunters, after you harvest your animal, you must validate your tag by completely removing the correct day and month – just like in the picture – and attaching it to the largest portion of the carcass.
