adams is right, you can't beat a cell phone where poachers & trespassers are concerned, especially if they are armed. Absolutely foolish to try to intervene by yourself.

We've got a 2,200 acre lease in the NW Arkansas mountains with a county road right through the middle. Even though we've got the road extremely well posted, we still have a problem with road hunters.

Last season, one of our members heard a vehicle come to a stop on the road not far from where he was hunting. Couple of seconds later, two shots were fired. He went out to the road and found a old pick-up parked on the road with no one in sight. Obviously, they had gone into the woods to retrieve the deer they had shot. He first called a couple of us on his radio for backup and then called the local sherifs department. The deputy actually got there about the same time we did. He immediately recognized the pick-up and said that he knew who they were, that they were really bad folks and that there was no way in heck he was going into the woods after them. We offered to go in with him but he wouldn't have any part of that either.

He called in some more deputies and the game warden. They finally went a ways into the woods and found the doe that had been shot. No sign of the guys from the truck. They took the deer and empounded the truck. Never did hear if they cought the guy.

Point is, even the police had better sense than to go in after these guys. We won't go out of our way to start a confrontation, but we do have sense enough to protect ourselves. We all cary side arms now, especially in the off season, and most of us cary cell phones as well.

firstshot