road kill feathers?????

[Shooter_G22]

ok gents,

    lets just say " hypotheticaly Speaking"  if one found a couple of what maybe "but not sure"  buzzerd feathers...     would they be able to be died a differant color "not for" camouflaugeing, but for a prferred color of feather...  ( i know a bottle of Rit liquid die is only a couple of bucks at walmart)   is this possible to do    how would one do this???

[mullet]

 Well, to tell you the truth. I've never had anybody get real curious about my feathers. But I hane dusted them before with a light coat of spray paint. And saw a fellow at a rendevous selling Eagle, Hawl and Owl feathers that were nothing more than white turkey feathers airbrushed to look like the real thing. I couldn't tell by looking at them.

[Mechslasher]

i wouldn't worry about it.  gateway makes feathers in every color.  it would take a dnr officier with a phd to tell the difference.

[Shooter_G22]

thanks   thanks Little John...

   i really appreciate it...  and i feel the same way about certain things with this is illegal and that is illigal... hell its everyting is illegal these days cant even cross the street unless they say its ok and only here. here and when they say...  with out getting a ticket...lol.. and cant pick up that dead birds feather cuase its a fedarl offense..  wow...   served eight yrs of my life for this country and i love it and would die for it and have and will kill for it... but god forbide i pick up a feather or cross a street... lol...

i love my country.. and im a patriot but sometimes... well i cant into it..  cant speak of politics right... soo i wont...

sorry i almost went there...   my bad...

[DanaM]

I tend to follow the spirit of the law not the letter of the law

[cowboy]

I used buzzard on my first set of arra's, picked em up under the roost. Have since gathered enough turkey and goose to get away from that - just didn't like that somebody looking over my shoulder feeling . Don't know how many perfectly good hawks i've passed up on the highway, feels like a crime to not use em..

[Pat B]

If the law was lifted, someone(or a bunch of someones) would go out and shoot every raptor they see. Unfortunately, we all pay the price for the action of a few a-holes.  I walk in my woods every day. I collect every feather I find and have a jar full on my work table to admire. I don't use them on anything. There are enough legal feathers so we don't have to use the illegal ones.    Pat

[JW_Halverson]

PatB is right, and that law does not even have to be lifted for the wholesale slaughter of raptors to take place.  The is a N. A. reservation in the southwest that I will not name that has historically been a real haven for raptors but now there is not a single eagle, vulture, or hawk to be found.  These birds have been extirpated to feed the "culturally significant" desire to possess raptor parts.  So much for the concept of living "one with nature".

[Pappy]

Seems every thing I like is either illegal,immoral or fatting.Go figure. 
   Pappy

[billy]

Honestly, unless a DNR oficer is also a falconer and is VERY meticulous in his feather ID, there is very little chance that he'll be able to determine the type of bird that your fletching came from.  He'd probably be more concerned about the power of your bow or the effectiveness of stone points, not the origin of the feathers on your arrows. 

I've seen bald eagle feathers that looked VERY similar to canada goose wing feathers. 

As far as raptors being federally protected, I don't know a single person who shoots hawks.  But I've seen dozens lying on the side of the road, killed by vehicles.  The problem is that untold tens of thousands of different animals are slaughtered on america's roads, left only to rot or become a smeared stain in the asphalt.  Deer, birds, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, opossums, otters, beavers, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, ducks, hawks, owls, armadillos, housecats, dogs, kingsnakes, rattlesnakes, cornsnakes, copperheads, ratsnakes, etc..etc...etc.... ad infinitum die EVERY DAMN DAY by cars.   That's a list of things I've seen on te road, and that's just off the top of my head. 

 If it's fresh and I can use its body parts for something, I pick it up.  It's such a shame that animals pay with their lives because of our need to make the almighty dollar... a sad but true reality of the cost of our "advanced" society.

[Papa Matt]

Nobody would ever know. Just don't let 'em see ya picking it up. You can always say the feathers are not the original color and that you died them. What are they gonna do, confiscate the arrow to do a DNA test? Just grab 'em and run. Besides, they really do look a lot like goose, especially to the untrained eye.

~~Papa Matt

[Pat B]

That's a chance you guys can take but it is not worth it to me. There are too many sources for legal feathers and if they do catch you, it is $1000 fine per offense(that could be each feather  ). It's not your local DNR guy you should be worrying about either but the undercover federal wildlife guys that know their stuff about these things.     

[JackCrafty]

That's a chance you guys can take but it is not worth it to me.

Pat, I'm glad you said that.  I was starting to get the idea that most guys think it's OK to use illegal feathers.  It's not so much the feathers, but the attitude as a whole that bothers me......if it's OK to use whatever feathers you want, then it's probably OK to hunt wherever you want, use whatever weapon you want, and kill whatever critter crosses your path, etc....as long as you don't get caught and that it doesn't offend too many people.  I'm not offended by the use of roadkill, so I won't call the DNR guys if I see someone doing it, but I hope that people disregarding one law (and getting away with it) don't go ahead and disregard similar laws.

OK, I'll get off my soap box now.

[JW_Halverson]

Thanks, jackcrafty, for that no nonsense approach.  I think it is best to take the high road on this issue.  Ya just never know who is gonna be looking at your arrows next.  I was at a muzzleloader shoot this summer and a nondescript short fat guy was looking at my arrows, he finally smiled and said "two snow goose feathers and a sharptail grouse, right?"  Well, right he was.  He was also a Fed that has busted poachers and similar lowlifes that we have all peed and moaned about on other threads here.  I look at it this way, sure - chance of getting caught is near zero.  But if it is a Statey that catches me I lose all hunting and fishing rights in the state for at least a year.  Then there are the 30 some other states that hold reciprocity with South Dakota.  Then there is the stigma of a conviction, every game check and road stop means a detailed search of my person and vehicle because I am a known lawbreaker at that point. 

I have a certain bond with the kestrel.  Used to have a tail feather from a young female, used it as a bookmark for years.  I gave it back to the prairie years ago when I thought about what severe consequences I would face if I was busted with it.  It wasn't worth it. 

If you want cheap feathers there are other sources, some good ones mentioned earlier in the thread.  Use your imagination and grit you teeth as you pass up the raptor feathers on the roadside.  Now, as for the roadkilled turkeys...better hope I don't see 'em first!

[jape]

This isn't an easy one, it is similar here in Oz as I found out when I posted a pic of a crow-fletched arrow I was soooo proud of making, and when I was told I could get fined $4000 for killing a venomous snake that struck at me twice and wouldn't retreat! I understand and support the law in so much because despite my own feelings and personal morality, it is a very sad and bad world and in the end there is little sane choice to do otherwise, at least until it all finally lets go and we have anarchy. (not long now).
I hate waste and could protest truly it is part of my own personal spirituality to respect the death by using the carcass. I don't know if it would be the same for you there but I  went so far as to get an email from our local game-rangers dept. equiv. that said it was OK to use shed, found feathers .... so it stretches the point but satisfies me. I don't like stretchy morality but I don't like too much oppression of my rights as an intelligent and responsible adult either!