Jim Benson, vice president of the Min-Dak Border Chapter of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, said there's a right way and a wrong way for hunters to submit deer hides for the chapter's Hides for Habitat program.
It's simple, he said.
"We want to get the hides with the head and feet cut off -- tail on and the hide rolled up," Benson said. "That's it."
The chapter has collection boxes set up outside Cabela's, Orton's on the Point and Sportsman's Taxidermy Studio in East Grand Forks. Proceeds from the statewide MDHA campaign help fund habitat, education and wildlife research projects.
Collection boxes are clearly labeled with the words "Hides Only."
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Simple as it sounds, the chapter, which preps the hides once a week during deer season with help from Outdoors Club students at Central Middle School in East Grand Forks, gets hides that are in less-than-ideal shape. Wednesday night, for example, the chapter handled the hide of an eight-point buck in which the hunter hadn't even bothered to remove the head.
Ironically, the buck came from North Dakota, where the highly coveted buck tags only are issued by lottery.
Loren Abel, president of the Min-Dak MDHA chapter, said perhaps the worst hides he ever encountered showed up in a collection box two years ago outside Cabela's.
The hunter had dropped off the hides from two yearlings, in which only the hind quarters had been removed. The rest of the deer, including the heads and shoulders, were intact.
As it turns out, Abel said, the tags also were still attached.
"That guy, he got a phone call," Abel said. "And he got his hides and shoulders back."
