Morning trashed by poachers

[Bowana]

Well I was looking foward to a great morning due to temps in the 40's. My stand is located only about 100 yards off of a paved public road but I have a long walk to it because I come in from the backside so I wont cross the main trail coming by it. I arrived at my stand just as it was starting to get light. I got hooked up to my safety harness and sat down to wait for the show to start. A few minutes later the "show" started but it wasn't the one I wanted. A vehicle comes down the road and stops right at my stand. I hear a shot and the vehicle sped off. It traveled a short distance down the road and I hear it turn around and come back. I unhooked my harness, grabbed my bow and arrows and take off running toward the road. As I'm approaching the road I can make out a guy loading a deer into the back of a Ford Explorer. The guy starts to turn around in the road just as I'm running out of the woods, when his headlights hit me he turns the lights off so I can't see the license plate and takes off at high speed. By the time I get an arrow out of the quiver he is out of my effective range. I called my friend who is the local DNR Ranger and he told me he would keep a check on the area. I got back home and talked to some of my informants from work (I'm a cop) and I think I know who the kid is. I called the Ranger back and he is going to interview him now. I'm so mad I could eat nails and pi$$ fire. How's that for a morning?

[BamBooBender]

By the time I get an arrow out of the quiver he is out of my effective range.

Were you going to shoot him?

[hawk22]

hey maybe you could have stuck an arrow in his car. Would have been easier to identify the vehicle. jerks ruin it for all of us

[bretto]

I know the feeling last year for the Kansas early rifle season the night before two deer were killed within a mile of My house and the slobs just cut their heads off!!!

[the Ferret]

Shoot a front tire..sort of a traditional "stop stick".  

[NDTerminator]

I've called in a couple violators via cell while hunting.

A couple years back I called in a couple guys shooting out of their truck and talked the CO right onto them. I was maybe 1/4 mile from them when they were doing it, watching with binocs.

He stopped & cited them.  I walked out to see if I could be of further assistance (I too am a LEO and have worked with this CO for a few years).

Paul made like he was checking my license, then said in a loud overly theatrical voice, "you're OK, have a nice day".  :D  

Another time I found an illegal stand and feeder on a public hunting area.  I called that in and gave the GPS coordinates to it's location.  Another CO I know came out and seized it all.

Funny, no one came in and claimed them...  :D

[Zmonster]

Another time I found an illegal stand and feeder on a public hunting area.  I called that in and gave the GPS coordinates to it's location.  Another CO I know came out and seized it all.

Funny, no one came in and claimed them...   :D  [/QB]

That same guy is probibly on another forum making a stink about how he had a feeder and stand stolen from him, while he was doing nothing wrong.    

When I was stationed at Ft Benning, I stopped at the 24hr shoppette at 3am to get some coffee and gas before my hunt. Some guy pulled up to me and said Ide better leave, cause the MP's are looking for a guy whos truck fit my decription (red and white 76 Chevy Chyanne) who was poaching at an area CLEAR across post from my honey hole. After he said that, he took off like a Bat outta H@((. I wondered what his angle was, untill later that season, he was turned in for poaching....    

I love when justice prevails

[Wild Willie]

I can tell y'all Bowana was plenty mad when he got to my house.We have been best friends and hunted together for about 35 years and I have never seen him so mad.I was afraid he was going to have a stroke.I think he may finaly be getting calmed down now.I just hope the ranger can make a case aganst the slobs.

[cory hunter]

i dont hunt public land but youd be surprised the number of jerks who think they can throw a stand up on my land with out permission. i only hunt with select few guys, and i know where all the stands are.
one time a buddy of mine whos land connects to mine just crawled up a tree with his own foot pegs (the guy took his out when he wasnt hunting) to take out the stand. he found out the guy chained it there. he returned back the next day with bolt cutters and left with a new stand. And this was all after asking the guy and his buddy to leave once when they pulled the "im sorry i thought this was the other guys land". bunch of ignorant people out there ruining it for the rest of us. aboslutly disgusting.

[ejes]

Hope that ranger will be looking for blood and hair on the bumper and if you could see any through the back window.  Being a cop like you, and as a hunter, its no secret you that you can NEVER get rid of ALL of it.

If you could go back to where you saw him and find some blood to match it with, it could nail him.  Sounds like a lot of ado about nothing to some, but here in KS, they'd do all of that to nail a poacher and to make a case.  Last year, we had a guy run up on some poachers in the north central part of the state and the poacher tried to kill the old farmer who was stopping to see if they had car trouble.  Stabbed him several times with the same knife he was cutting the head off with and nearly cut off the old man's nose if I remember right.  Poachers usually have other criminal records as well and can be dangerous.  But in this case, it is probably good for him he didn't stick around.   :D

[deadpool]

Originally posted by hawk22:
hey maybe you could have stuck an arrow in his car. Would have been easier to identify the vehicle. jerks ruin it for all of us

thats exactly what i was thinkin!!

[Otto]

Bowana

I understand you were PO'd, but you being a LEO, I'm sure you realize taking a shot at him with your bow would not have been a very intelligent thing to do on your part.

[zilla]

Good on ya, but trying to shoot arra at him is kinda like the knife in a gunfight deal, e'h?

[trashwood]

I hunted on my best friends ranch a bit.  He has got a gate on the front road that would stop a D9 Cat.  They were gone for a few days at the start of hunting season and ask me to look the place over ever once in a while.  I was dirving by and saw a strange truck driving up the hill to the hunting stands.  I had a chain in my pick up that was befitting the size of the gate.  I chained the gate shut and waited   .  Sure enough in a couple of hours here comes the truck.  The front access to bordered on one side by a steep cliff and on the other side by a deep creek.  the fence is made of 8" steel pipes with 5 strands of 1" drilling cable running the the 8" post.

I told the I would open the gate for $250 or call the sheriff.  between the 3 of them they came up with $150 and I took a remington 700 .243 and 4x12 redfield scope......and the doe they had in the truck.

I had a video camera running in my truck.  
I gave the rifle and $150 bucks to my friend for their hunting fee.  when my friend watched the video he was glade I hadn't called the sheriff.  they were some folks that he solicalized with but did not have an invatation to hunt.  they know he was out of towm.  my friend returned the gun and money to them in person much to their embrassment.

rusty

[Rusty in Fla.]

Here in Florida poaching doesn't rate very high. BUT! ARMED TRESPASSING is another mater.
   That will cost you the ability to posses a firearm for the rest of your life.

   Rusty (the other one) <><

[GingivitisKahn]

Get him, man.  I really love the follow-up.  That kid needs the book thrown at him in a spectacular fashion.

[Bowana]

I was kidding about shooting an arrow at the vehicle. That would be considered deadly force here in Ga and you can only do that to protect your life, the life of another, or to prevent the escape of a fleeing felon. Since the vehicle was going away from me I had no right to shoot. Sure wanted to though.
Bowana

[jon]

Several years ago I had a lease outside of Valdosta Georgia. There had been some poaching in the area and the landowner asked us to keep our eyes open. I had been hunting a very large 10 pointer and had just repositioned my stand to catch him crossing an old dirt road he was crossing regularly. Seems that the poachers had found him too. 11pm that night I was just about asleep when I heard 2 shots. I almost rolled over, but remembered that the land owner asked us to help out. Got into my truck and got to the scene just in time to see a set of tail lights go over a hill. I followed but they had pulled off and hidden. I pulled off on a side trail and waited. About 20 minutes later, here comes a pick up truck back by going slowly. I gave them a few minutes to settle in and drove up fast behind them without lights. Hit the lights and wrote down the tag number and decsription of the 3 guys. The oldest and biggest(he was a 300 pound monster) of the 3 tried to get me out of my truck. He reached his hand in the window and grabbed me by my jacket. I had a pistol on the seat and made a big show of putting my hand on it and telling him that I had their tag number and a complete description of the 3 of them and that he had better let go. He backed off and I left. The next morning I called the game warden for the area and we went to the kill sight. It looked like the 10 pointer I had been hunting. They only took the head and the backstraps. The game warden said he knew who they were by my description. They all had been in trouble before for poaching. Being stupid criminals, they left empty beer cans in the ditch where they butchered the deer. The game warden took the cans to fingerprint them. My testimony and their fingerprints on the beer cans got each of them a year in jail,a hefty fine, and a lifetime revocation of their hunting privilages. To this day, I get mad about the situation. I had hunted that 10 pointer for 2 years and had just zeroed in on him when they poached him. I was very glad thart they got some real time for their "fun".