This Saturday I shot a doe and tried to check it through the app, but I had low cell reception (one bar going in and out) and the app wouldn't show confirmation. When I clicked to view harvests the deer didn't show up, so I tried three or four more times.

A conservation officer came by while we were skinning my deer and checked records. Didn't catch his name. I told him I had tried to check it multiple times already and he said to try again with him there, because he said if I had done it with no reception it would still show up but I that I would get a confirmation number later when I got reception. As luck would have it I had no reception at all at camp so everything worked great with him standing there...the app said I was offline and it would update the record when I got online.

The officer was professional enough about it but I could tell he didn't believe me and he told me he could give me a ticket for that which of course made me feel pretty sick to my stomach and powerless to prove myself. Thankfully he didn't give me a ticket. I get it...they're lied to all day, but it sucks to know you're telling the truth and have someone not believe you.

Saturday evening I got one harvest confirmation email and 4 Duplicate Harvest Report emails.

I just wanted to let y'all know that it's possible for someone to check their deer on the app with a tiny bit of reception and still not have that record show up when the CO shows up.

What I'll do next time I have really low reception: Put my phone in airplane mode, open the app, check my deer, take it out of airplane mode. I'll also just go ahead and print a record to keep with my license just in case.

Just take pen and your paper copy of license/harvesr record and write it down. You have sometimg like 48-72 hrs to report it as long as it is written down on the harvest record on your person. Must be writen down before moving the deer.

You are not required to prove your innocence. He is required to prove your guilt.
He "could" have given you a ticket but a judge would likely call him an idiot in open court.

Same issue here. Killed one a few days ago on public well out of any reasonable cell phone range. Check my deer in on the app and think I am good. I get home and check to see if the kill was recorded yet, keep in mind I've now been in cell range for at least an hour and a half now, and my kill still hasn't reported. It only reported once I opened the app again and looked at my yet-to-be-submitted kill report. Had I been pulled over on the way home I am sure I would have gotten the same reaction, "yea, sure you reported it way back in the woods...".

Same thing happened to me. I don't trust a cell phone. I have the hard copy of the license, and I still carry a paper harvest record that sits next to it in my wallet. Write it down first so you know you are legal, then you have 48 hours to check it.

Certainly, the app helps create a better hunting experience.

Just use the paper record. That way you know it works, aren't potentially being tracked-hacked, and can show the GW.

I've been critical of game check, and the app, in the past.
But I've used it twice this season and it's been very easy and flawless.
I guess I'm not so much critical of game check, I'm just critical of Chuckie.

Stuff like this is why I hunt less and less.

I just became a big fan of game check! I'll support anything that gets more people out of the woods! 👍

Yeah, it’s really hard. Your head would explode if you ever hunted out of state. 🙄

Sonny, I've hunted out of state in several states with less hassle than here.

Game Check isn’t running anyone off from hunting. I have not met one person that had said they quit hunting due to the app or regulations. Now I have heard quite a few say they ain’t going to report but none said 5hey they were going to quit hunting. The only hunters that I know that have actually given up deer hunting was due to the piss poor management of deer herd by the State allowing some areas to have their deer population decimated due to crazy liberal doe limits.

Come on bigt, no deer = no night hunters. You gotta look at the bright side!

You can use the app to buy your license. Takes less than 5 minutes. It takes less than 1 minute to check a deer. What is so hard about that? Hell, it easier than old days when we had to go to a store to purchase our license. The real reason folks say it’s “so hard” is they don’t want to check their deer.

The app was a PIA to begin with but most of the bugs are worked out now.
However mine still says there's a mandatory upgrade required, every time I open it. I hit continue and there's no update.
I've not found any way to get the "mandatory update" to update.

Sonny, I spent two days trying to check one my grandson killed and finally said fk it. It don't work ALL the time and I sure ain't the only one who has had major trouble with it.

Alabama is a decent app. Now Florida is cluster fudge .......

Its not the fact that the app is working or not. Its the fact that the gov wants in your buisness in every thing you. I just want go hunting kill deer go home an clean it. Not have worry bout warden stopping me an hassling me about whether ive told them ive killed a deer . Biggest bunch crap ever. Could understand if i was on gov lands like management area. Most clubs nowaday do better job managing there deer than the gov ever will. Especially the ones that hunt on there own land.some rednecks i hunt with have never checked a deer. Some these older folk that own land don t know what a smart phone is much less a hunting app.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with gathering statistics on the number, sex, and quality of deer killed each year, I just wish there was a different way to go about it. I’m afraid we’re gonna get issued tags before too long and that is a totally different hassle.

Actually, tags aren't any hassle. You already have a license and are checking in a deer on the app or via paper-phone-computer. Wrapping a piece of something around an antler or leg, or poking it through an ear isn's a big deal.

Physical tags do not have to be issued by the state and cost them or hunters money. Ohio requires tags but allows the hunter to do it themselves with whatever they want to use - big zip ties, a sheet of paper, whatever. As long as the info is on the tag/paper/whatever and affixed to the deer before moving and you then telecheck it, they're good.

Everyone bitching about trespassing, poaching and lack of compliance with deer and turkey check-in should want physical, visible tags on deer and turkeys. I know in Iowa they don't phuck around with anyone who has an animal with no tag. You're in trouble, period. It makes a difference.


What'll happen next IMO is weapon-specific licenses like in Tennessee and Mississippi for centerfire, MX, bow, xbow. There's too much money to be made to not do that. If you enjoy a crossbow and rifle, for example, right now you only buy one license but with segemented fees you'd have to buy one for each.

Some keep saying it won't happen but I believe it will. Just a matter of time.