Cheaters
 

I'm sure just about everyone on this site has been a part of some hunting contest or another, sometime in their lives.I've been around long enough to know thatanytime you have competition with a prize on the line, you will have guys who "cheat" or "bend the rules" to get an edge on the rest of the field.

If it's golf, they're fluffing their lies and shaving strokes. In baseball, they're taking steroids, corking bats and doctoring the ball. In hockey, they're wearing oversized pads and using sticks with too much curve. It's everywhere. Cheating.

So, post 'em here. Your best stories about guys who got busted for cheating in whatever context (gun, bow, trapping, big game, small game contests). We're going for entertainment value here, so don't be afraid to tell us exactly what they were doing to get the advantage. It doesn't even have to be a "contest," it could be guys who were trying to add inches to make PY or even using "questionable" tactics to win an archery or rifle shoot.
__________________________________________________ __

I've got a few:

1.) We usually enter a groundhog shooting competition in August every year. The prize is usually around $1000 to the winning 2-man team with the heaviest 5 hogs. Guys will do anything to win. Anything.
[ul][*]They now have to gut the prize-winninggroundhogs, b/c they caught a guy stuffing lead fishing weights up his groundhogs' asses to make weight. Seriously, I think it's time to re-evaluate your life when you're ramming lead sinkers up a dead woodchuck's ass. [X(][*]"No wet hogs" is now written in the rules, because some genius decided to soak his groundhogs all day, and weigh them dripping wet to add a few ounces to each hog. LMAO[*]"No roadkills" is now an official rule. :eek: Oh yeah.Apparently, they've checked in a few hogs over the years that were "highly suspected" of being roadkills. [*]I know one of the local wardens who told me that, on the day of the big groundhog contest, he gets a huge spike in complaints all over the areaabout truckloads of guys roadhunting for hogs. He sincerely wishes that the hog contest would disband forever. LOL[/ul]

2.) Turkey contest: With a free turkey gun and $500 on the line, we had aguy who got caught crazy gluing a few "extra long" strands into his turkey beard, trying to get that extra half-inch of beard length and finish in the money.

RE: Cheaters
 

The best one I ever witness here in my home towns contest is a ROAD KILLED BUCK that was hit in Sept and then thrown in a freezer until November. The guy brought it in and said his kid killed it. It had no cape, just a skull and rack...and road rash on the main beams of the antlers. Not only did he bring it in this way....but the night they ran it over they had went to a locals house to call the police because of the damage it haddone to the car they were driving. The local went back to the wreck with them an saw blood everywhere. he asked? Where is the deer you hit, the guys stated, "he ran off" we dont know. So the local went back the next day and found the carcuss without a head...

the buck was excluded from the contest after entry.. no charges were ever filed that I know of..

RE: Cheaters
 

There are always cheaters on the 3D courses, it is hard to beat the pencil sometimes. However, I was in an in-door league a few years back. It was teams of 3 guys, mostly for fun. A team member and I always use to beat a soda, just to add a little fun between us. He normally beat me, but one night I was shooting my butt off and shot a 416 out of 420. I knew I had him on this night, but when I told him what my final score was, he informed me he shot a 418. I thought this was funny, because I knew he had shot 8's on his first two targets. After he left, I took a look at his score card and seen that he shot not two, but four 8's, but scratched out three of them and marked 10's. I thought it was funny that this guy had to cheat to win a $1.00 soda. Like you said, there will always be someone out there.

RE: Cheaters
 

I haven't witnessed any cheating in a contest, really haven't been in hardly any but when I had my buck scored for P@Y the measurer told me people are now gluing 2 different skull plates together to make a rack for P@Y. In some states down south its to the point where they scan or x-ray every rack some how they score to see if there's any lines in the skull plates. People will do anything to get some where these days. Every score sheet has to have something saying the skull plate was good by the P@Y or B@C measurer now a days.

RE: Cheaters
 

my buddy enters those groundhog contests...he told me someone he knew took a grease gun to one and pumped a tube of grease into it and STILL LOST!!!


when prizes or money is involved, it brings out the worst in people...pathetic. my buddy is a competition coon hunter. he doesnt hunt the competitions hard core...just enough to get his dogs titled so it helps out the parents and the breeding...but hes told me a pile of stories. i been to 2 with him as a spectator...almost saw a grown man cry over the dang thing...only 10$ to enter...no prize money..just a trophy and a win for your dog if you won...but it almost brought this one guy to tears over something stupid.

im going to my first competition hunt saturday...i have a feeling its gunna be ugly..its a world championship qualifier hunt..you gotta win there to got the semi finals for the world championship...then a couple weeks later i am probably hunting the South Westen PA championship hunt...that aughta be ugly as well...

people do crazy things the get ahead of others...sad...cant let the best man, or kill, or dog or whatever win...

RE: Cheaters
 

Never really witnessed any cheating, then again I'm not a contest kinda hunter!


Wasn't there some questioning going on a few years ago in the HNI contest????

RE: Cheaters
 

I'm no 3-d shooter, but a buddy of mine is always complaining about guys who have ways of "ranging" targets on the 3-d course without a rangefinder: i.e., counting the footsteps of the group in front of you or marking the focus knobon their bino's with the yardages.

To be totally honest: I join every contest I can, just for the fun of it. I don't get mad when people cheat, b/c I expect it. In some ways, I enjoy it - because it makes the whole experience more entertaining. In some ways, it's really pathetic that anyone would cheat, but in a weird way, it's actually kinda funny. It adds a new dimension to the whole experience. It also makes the victory even sweeter - knowing that you beat guys who were really trying to pull out all the stops for the win.

RE: Cheaters
 

I've heard of guys that stuff catfish with lead weights in fishing contests.

Honestly, IMO there is no place for competitions with prizesin hunting. Our sport is under enough scrutiny as it is, but if you add competition into the equation that is just going to lead to some of the things we are hearing and give us all a black eye.

RE: Cheaters
 

It's one reason I never have and never will be a part of contests. I think it tempts too many to do the wrong thing. I hunt with my own goals, and could care less about the next guys goals except I hope he gets them. Whether somebody's goals is any Deer with a Bow or a B&C if he gets it I'll shake his hand and give him congrats! As long as he is Happy with what he has killed, I'm Glad for him.
We really don't need anymore in this sport with a"Holier than Thou Attitude"!

Dan

RE: Cheaters
 

I've never heard of this. I've entered 8 into P&Y the most recent being this year and did not see anything that pertained to what you have said. I'll look again. Maybe you could tell me where to look?

RE: Cheaters
 

Here's a good one. We have a shed antler hunt up north every spring. I'm not even shur what the prize is. A local guy has won several years in a row. Then we found out he was getting the sheds from a deer farm. The rules didn't say where you had t find them so technically he wasn't cheating.

RE: Cheaters
 

How about all the geniuses who break their skullcaps after ramming a 2x4 inside the spread of their buck to keep it from shrinking during the drying period?

I've named this trick "The Family Entry" - Here's how it goes down:Dad shows up at the sport shop toenter the deer/turkey contest - but he pays two entry fees - one for himself, the second one "for hiswife/kid" (not present). It never fails, maybe during the first week or so, ole' Dad will show up with a big tom or a buckand get it scored. Amazingly, a week or two later, either the Misses or ole Junior will happen to bagone that is actually bigger than the first one that Daddio checked in. Amazing!

It's even funnier when Dad brings the deer/turkey to "get it scored for Junior" (who is still not present). Or when wife was the one who "supposedly" killed the animal, and tags along for the check-in, but it's very obvious to everyone involved that she has never hunted in her entire life.

RE: Cheaters
 

I've gotta say I never really participated in any hunting contests other than here on HNI. I'd love to do a groundhog contest though, next to turkeys and deer I really enjoy shooting these things.

I've seen some really crazy stuff though in 3D. Guys that average 5-10 points below the top scores somehow getting on a 3D course alone with no one in their group and magically shooting their highest score of the year and winning. I also saw one group of archers last year (all buddies) and one of them was actually a really good shooter. He would always shoot first in the group, and as it turns out was using aluminock. Everyone in his group now had a great aiming reference. :eek: The thing with 3D, is that you gotta be willing to call people out, and shoot in peer groups score wise.......that really helps to keep things honest when you don't have buds scoring each others arrows.

RE: Cheaters
 

I used to run an Archery check station here in IL. and hung around the firearms check station also. I've seen guys bring their wife to check in a Deer with curlers in her hair.:D

Who do they think they are fooling?[8D]

Dan

RE: Cheaters
 

We used to hold a heaviest coon contestat our hunting club a couple times a year and we always had guys coming in with coons they had penned up to start pups. They would catch a coon fatten him up on dog food, corn, ect. then shoot him and bring him in to be weighed on hunt night. All you usually wonwas around $25 and a bag of dog food. LOL We had to switch the rules around so we could draw the winning weight out of a hat at the end of the night aftereveryone weighed in and whoever got the closest won.

I also saw a guy get kicked out of a bass tourney for catching bass on limb lines the night before the tourney and put them in his live well the next morning.He won 2 or 3 in a row before he got caught. It's hard to beat a guy with 20 or so bass waiting on him to pick thru as soon as the tourney starts.

RE: Cheaters
 

Years ago there was a guy who got caught cheating at a local charity gopher hunt. Usually a certain amount of the entry fees go towards prize money and the rest was donated to a charity….

This guy got caught shooting gophers ahead of time and freezing them… He got busted because after the hunt and everyone had gathered and was counting the gophers for the official numbers, he had a few that hadn’t un-thawed yet :eek:[8D]:D

RE: Cheaters
 

I can't think of many. 7-8 years ago a couple guys I knew went in a catfish tournament. When the day was over, they camein with over twice the lbs of fish as anyone else. I knew these guys weren't quite that good of fisherman, and it was pretty obvious to me how they caughtthem,after seeingthe old telephone cranksitting in the back of the truck(after contest).

But it was a fund-raiser contest... no prizes awarded.

RE: Cheaters
 

This is why I stay out of contest's.....People will allways try to cheat the system...3-D is the best tho,when shooting and following a group of friends,watch them pull and call out 10-8-10-10 and you can see its 5-5-8-8 by where they are pulling the arrows from....
I will only shoot against myself or my best friend that way its all up and up...

RE: Cheaters
 

Contest are not for me! People do weird things for a little money! I did hear guys at my old work saying they used other peoples horns and entered them into contests if they did'nt get a buck they would just fill there tag out like it was theres. You won't catch me in any contest! Whoops I lie we bet $10 on the 1st shed and $10 on the biggest the other day and I won that.

RE: Cheaters
 

[/align]We have a striper tourney hear in May. Its just a bunch of friends get together and have fun. Well it's grown and this friend of that friend is now in it. Fishing starts at 7 and ends at 1. Nothing too complicated about that. A guy got caught two years ago for entering a dead fish(had been dead for atleast a day). Ive never seen it but I've also heard that guys will put ice in the stomach of the fish for the added weight. Then buy the time the fish is gutted to check for sinkers the ice is melted.

RE: Cheaters
 

I have never been a tournament bass angler, but have grown up around the sport as it pretty much surrounds me. When I was about 18 years old, I started taking notice in the fall of the year the vast increase in litter on the river. The early fall is when I am brushing my duck blinds... it is also the final money rounds in several local clubs and federation districts leading up to qualifications for some of the BASS federation tournaments.

Long story short.... I noticed a three litre soda bottle near the back of one of my duck blinds and like the great samaritan I am reached to pick it up... I thought it odd when I found a length of 50# braid leading back to my duck blind, then to the bottle and then down to a 1# lead weight. Attached to that lead weight was a steel cord.... attached to the steel cord was a 3'x3' chicken wire "crab pot" that contained no less than three largemouth bass... very much alive.... and all of them in excess of 6# each.... quite a catch for a tournament angler. I put the fish back and called the game warden, who was very much interested to meet this up and coming BASS star. I never found out who it was, and the game warden from our county took a job in another state a few months later and I never did learn if there was any fallout or not. Apparently, after talking to a few tournament directors, this kinda crap happens all the time... and on some very high stakes levels as well.

RE: Cheaters
 

Already mentioned but a buddy of mine was in a bass tournament in MN and a guy got busted for catchingfish the day before and tying them to heavy mono line for retrieval the next day during the tournament.

Personally, I've seen cards that were marked (like a slight nickfrom afingernail or a faint crease in thechosen card)during a night of Texas Hold'em for paychecks. Considering that guys were playing for paychecks, it was a miracle that nobody got killed.

RE: Cheaters
 

A guy in my town shot a big buck during bow season brought it to the sport shop where theres a contest win a bow then brought it to the taxidermist and she found a 22 in its brain she called the epo s and they came brought him to court.Funny thing is he s still doing it here in mass theepo guys don t want to do any paper work there just waiting for retirement.If i had 50 cents for every time i told on this guy i could retire myself.

RE: Cheaters
 

I HEARD A STORY ABOUT GUY WHO BROUGHT A KENTUCKY CAPE AND RACK TO A SPORTING GOODS STORE TO WIN THE GRAND PRIZE FOR BIG BUCK, EVENFILLED OUTHIS BUCK TAG FROM JERSEY, HE GOT CAUGHT WHEN THE MEGA BUCK DIDN'T SHOW UP IN THE STATE'S COMMEMERATIVE BUCKS PROGRAM

RE: Cheaters
 

haha iv seen it

RE: Cheaters
 

an accomplice of my dad (that no one really likes) magically shot 5 duck bands in one season, without hunting a lot, and not hunting in an urban area. his son also got his first, and 3 more that year. well they found his recent ebay purchases, and he bought a lotta duck bands

RE: Cheaters
 

That has got to be the gayest thing I have ever heard of! People buy duck bands on ebay!?!?! I thought that was just some made up internet rumor, but I just checked it out... holy hell.... why!?!?! That is so friggin' gay! I don't have another word for it!

Out of curiosity Rory what does urban areas and duck bands have to do with each other? Are you talking about early resident geese?

RE: Cheaters
 

we have to buy a state duck stamp so there must be state ducks goverment can t be wrong we learned in school they flew south

RE: Cheaters
 

What?