Hiawatha

This is my official "Busted a poacher" story. I was on my way to set up a spot for rifle hutning in the farmland seeings how the season opened up in a few weeks. I was driving down my road bout a mile from home when i saw 2 bucks near the ditch one was a borderline shooter and the other was a bambi 3 point, i had a look then kept on my way. As i apporached the highway i notice a vehicle turning off the highway down my gridroad and the men in the truck were suited in orange. Seeings how there are only 2 farms down that dead end road i thought i would follow them just to see what they were up to. I turned the truck around and let them get a good mile ahead of me. I pulled up behind a hill and watched the truck 400 yards in front of me come to a stop and the driver get out with a rifle. He fired 2 shots at the bucks, got in his truck and pulled into the field 50 yards from the road. I fired up the truck and burned into the field beside them. First thing i did was write down the plate number.
I asked "Do you guys have permission to be on this land hunting?"
One man replied, "No we don't need any we shot it on the road."
I replied "You mean to tell me you were shooting at a deer on the road over top of the hill?"
"Well i guess not the deer was in the field". he said.
I asked the man if he knew that the bush that was behind that deer contained a farm house? there really was no house in that bush but the hunter did not know that. he apologized and stated that he was not from around here. BINGO that is my point.

Then i ask "What type of season is on right now, is there a rifle season for deer on in the farmland with rifle."

"Oh ya either sex rifle is open in this zone." he replies

I state "Oh thats funny i have hunted here 10 years and i have never remembered the farmland opening in October. This deer been poached and i know exactly what you guys are up to."

He tried to give me this spiel that he thought it was the provincial park or the provincial forest which had seasons on at that time.He laughed and said theregulation map was hard to read.Does a wide open wheat field look like a provincial FOREST or PARK. After he joked about it I totally flipped and started using the words my daddy and rig work has taught me. I toldem to load the thing up and i never want to see them back there again and they better put a tag on it or i'll be even more pissed.

So there it was a little 3 pointer not even 1/4 his potential yet shot by an out of town road hunter out of season 1 mile from my house. I decided to call the local authorities and a warden came out. I walked him through it and found one of the shell casings from the drivers rifle. I think now of different ways i could have handled it but hard to think when your fuming mad. So anyways i have not heard lately how the case is going probably get to miss a few days for court.

KonaBoy

Good for you. I would have done the same thing

buckhunter14

It needed to be done...

bhensley

Good job, just out of curiosity, did the guy have a tag to put on it as you instructed him to doand did you get to keep the deer to process?

skeeter 7MM

Hia you old crime dawg you. Ihave had the pleasure of running into a number of CO's this season. As usual I asked how is business andthey have all said,laid a record amount of charges this year. Largely thanks to landowners, watchful citzens and sportsman...I guess we can lump you into all 3. One thing they mentioned was the amount of fellas they have napped with caps on their muzzleloaders while driving! My reply to this was "doesn't suprise me".I ran into a few guys in the pasture during early season mulie's that were actually trying to road hunt with BOWS[:'(]! Same area ran into a local young fella who hand a loaded crossbow on the passenger seat of Daddy's truck[]! The fields are all pounded out from cushion riders, posted or not every field around my cabin had a good path of truck tires on it. Seems that everyone now thinks the best way to deer hunt is from a truck seat in this province[:@]! To think they actually wonder why the deerare nocturnal??

Thoughevery year gagers are shot off the worlds best invention for a gun rest "the side mirror's", highly illegal but that doesn't seem to stop many[&o]! I'll stick to shooting dinks vs ride the cushions all day in hopes of shooting a boonie in the arse!

Good on ya, hopefully this will be a lesson learned and not repeated!!

janesburg

The only thing I would have done different is not let them take the deer. Then I would have called the authorities and give them the deer to feed a deserving family, not some scumbag poacher.

KoBear

congrats. that is awesome. im in school now to become a conservation officer. most arrests that CO's make is from hunters like you.

Poachers are not hunters, they'rethe lowest level of beings on earth.

Aught Six

When you want a job done right, you do it yourself, so I commend you for busting those idiots. On the other hand, there are some real scumbags out there, so if I saw anyone poaching with firearms, my first move would be to call the GW or sheriff and just keep an eye on the poacher(s) until the LEOs get there.

I'm usually armed, hunting or not, but still, I do my best to avoid confrontational situations with criminals unless there's simply no other option. You never know how crazy the other guy is until you get too close.

timbercruiser

All hunters need to keep phone numbers of the conservation officers cell phones and their office numbers with them at all times. They can't be at all places at the same time and they count on the public to help out.

Rob/PA Bowyer

I'm assuming you meant, Poachers are NOT hunters, etc........

Hia, way to go man, kudos.