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A “party” is defined as any group of two or more licensed deer hunters who are all afield; hunting together at the same time; and all using firearms (including muzzleloaders) or all using archery.

This is one of the points in the handbook where party hunting is defined. It brings up an interesting question.

Suppose my 16-year old daughter and I are hunting together. This means we have formed a party. My daughter takes a deer opening morning and uses her tag on it. Because I would rather she got the opportunity to take another deer rather than me filling my tag, I decide I’ll just assist her with the hunt and not fill my tag myself, which is perfectly legal because we are both licensed. Since I don’t intend to fill my tag I decide why bother carrying a firearm so I go unarmed and just plan on doing a little waking to hopefully get deer moving and maybe give her an opportunity.

Are we now in violation of the party hunting rules? Do I actually have to carry a legal firearm in order for her to fill my tag?

My thought is that the description above is intended to clarify that you can’t mix firearms hunters with archery hunters in the same party. I suspect that the rule was not written to imply that the hunters in the party with open tags had to be armed. Either way, I could see where this could be argued in court if a CO was to issue a citation.

Fish, you can still hunt with your bow as long as you are legally licensed. You just can't use somoeone elses tag. You are not considered one of their party.

The only case where you wouldn't be able to use your bow, was if you were in a lotto area and your tag was used up. Then you would be forced to party hunt if you wanted to continue hunting because your archery tag would essentially be tag soup.

Fish&Fowl, can you explain the situation better, are you in a lottery area?

Now say I fill my firearms tag, I can no longer hunt with a bow because no one else is.

If you are not in a lottery zone, you can hunt with them, with your bow. Can you please show me where it says you can't? I am 99% sure that you can. You just can't cross tag with them.

So basically it sounds as though the person whose tag is used on the deer must be in possession of a firearm AND be a member of the party.

This is one of the points in the handbook where party hunting is defined. It brings up an interesting question.

Suppose my 16-year old daughter and I are hunting together. This means we have formed a party. My daughter takes a deer opening morning and uses her tag on it. Because I would rather she got the opportunity to take another deer rather than me filling my tag, I decide I’ll just assist her with the hunt and not fill my tag myself, which is perfectly legal because we are both licensed. Since I don’t intend to fill my tag I decide why bother carrying a firearm so I go unarmed and just plan on doing a little waking to hopefully get deer moving and maybe give her an opportunity.

Are we now in violation of the party hunting rules? Do I actually have to carry a legal firearm in order for her to fill my tag?

My thought is that the description above is intended to clarify that you can’t mix firearms hunters with archery hunters in the same party. I suspect that the rule was not written to imply that the hunters in the party with open tags had to be armed. Either way, I could see where this could be argued in court if a CO was to issue a citation.

The part that is throwing the kink into the equation is the word "and."

My daughter could legally fill my tag only if she is part of my hunting party. In order for that to be true if I read this correctly, we're not a hunting party unless we are "all afield"; "hunting together at the same time" AND "all using firearms..."

If I'm not using a firearm then I am not in her party and therefore she cannot fill my tag.

What you have eluded to is the other twist to the law. She would not have to be using a firearm to assist me with filling my own tag. In that case, we would not be party hunting because I would be hunting to fill my own tag. She would merely be assisting me. She could do that because she is still licensed even though she already spent her tag.