MCH Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 I've noticed an increase in poacher posts lately. Thought it would be interesting if everyone would post their worst poaching experience whether it be first hand, word of mouth, or news media. Here's mine: Last year, I had told my uncle of a nice location behind our house where I thought a ladder stand would work perfect. We loaded up the stand one evening and hand carried it over a quarter of a mile into the woods in 100 degree heat. We found the spot I was talking about and connected the stand to a nice pin oak. I had also carried in a mineral block and we placed it about 100 yards from the stand. On our way out, my uncle noticed an old rub on a small oak tree. Well, I say small...but the tree was bigger around than my knee. My uncle looked at, looked at me, and asked "Is that what I think it is?". I laughed and told him yeah, because I had seen it earlier in the year. He said that he had never seen one that big in his 50+ years of hunting. We left that spot thinking that it held a huge buck and could not wait for season to open. A week before season rolled around, rumors started flying around about our neighbor killing a huge buck. Apparently, they were out fixing some fence and a buck had walked out of the woods and they shot him. They said it was a 10 pointer with a 25 inch spread and would have gone 175 field dressed, which is a good buck for around here. Well my uncle called him up to ask him about it and he admitted it. The location he gave was within 100 yards of our deer stand. Needless to say, I was sick. All the anticipation over without even stepping into the woods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oo_buck Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... The guys who kept tresspassing on the ground we had permission to hunt for the last 7 years, just bought the ground...... Broke up our gang, as we don't have another piece of ground for all 6 of us to hunt anymore.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gastj Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... Had a guy stop in the middle of the road in front of our cabin we were renting back in college, step out get a rifle out and proceed to take aim over his hood into the creek below. We had 60 acres with 20 on the other side of road by the creek. I step out on the deck and yelled at him and his son got back his truck and sped away. Looked down and a doe and fawn per standing there. They were going to poach a doe and fawn at about 7:30 in the morning. Pretty said ethics in SE ohio in some people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hutchies Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... Some people were born stupid. If a man needs to feed his family and killing a deer is his only way of doing that then I don't consider that poaching. On the other hand if some idiot that is too lazy to get a job and provide for his family then he should be hung. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest deldeer Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... [ QUOTE ] I put this on a different thread but here it is again since it fits. I put this on another post but want your thoughts. I own 3 farms and hunt them all. I scout hard and learn where my deer are moving and why there doing it. We only shoot trophy bucks or dry baren does. My son has been getting alot of crap from a kid he plays foot ball with for annually killing nice bucks. He has 8 deer to his credit and 7 are over the b&c min of 170. This other family hunts a farm that borders me to the east and seldom see nice deer and mainly shoot ridicously small bucks. I asked the dad last season why they shoot a buck that carrys less inches of antler than my fist. and he says any buck is better than a doe. We "DEBATED" this one for a while and he came out and said then that we have taken more than our share of big ones and if he can kill a baby to keep one less trophy off our wall than he's gonna do it. they accuse us of night hunting and baiting which we dont do and never will. What is this crazt A$$&^le teaching hi 15 year old son? How many of you agree with his behavior. I want to know if I'm out of line. But wait there is more. I cought them out two nights ago shining a spotlight into my living room, so I drove down there and they were spoghtlighting deer allright they found a bachelor group of young 3-4 yr old deer. They shot a 130 inch 3 yr old and anothe just over 150 inches both in velvet out of season on land they were tresspassing on with an illegal rifle. They shot them with a 22 mag. So I got very angry and called the game warden that lives two and a half miles away on the other side of the section from me and they both were arrested. The warden told me this morning that they have to pay a 1000.00 civil damages fine for each deer plus hunting at night, hunting out of season, no licence, illegal firearm, tresspassing. He said he confiscated both deer as well as there rifle and he said he is working on taking the guys new suburban all for evidence. What sort of things is this worthless, jealous, slob teaching his son the next generation of sportsmen. Now neither of them can hunt for 2 years. That is alot of quality time with that kid gone all because he is lazy, impatient and irresponsible. These guys are giving all hunters a bad name and are some of the reason why obtaining permission is difficult. What are your thoughts? One good thing the deer will be made into european mounts and placed in the office of the state park about 12 miles west of my home for every one to enjoy. [/ QUOTE ] you did the right thing....i pride mysef on knowing that i taught my kids to be the best hunters they can be...no shortcuts & no ignorance towards other hunters, landowners, or the animals they will harvest in their lifetime......i think my best poaching story was the guy that told the game warden ( that i called), i gave him permission to be on the land i was hunting!!!!!!! with me standing there!!!! he kept looking at me going "remember???, remember???"....what an idiot!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPGS22 Posted September 24, 2005 Report Share Posted September 24, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... It was two days before the bow season started and I was scouting for deer. I was watching a huge buck work this tree line. Got me pumped up for archery hunting. Opening day of deer season I found the buck died will a bullet hole in his neck. I asked the farmer if he heard anything and he said he heard two shots last night and went up to check it out. Most have scared the proacher away. Two bad that buck later scored in the 170's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horst Posted September 24, 2005 Report Share Posted September 24, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... Every year around here theres someone, or more likely a couple people that drive around, spotlighting deer.They shoot em after dark with a rifle and drive off.They leave the deer lay, never pick them up, dont even cut the antlers off.Theres been as many as 7 deer dead in one fenceline south of town.They also shot a herd of small bucks I was watching, there was 7 of them to, they picked em off one at a time, and had killed 5 out of 7 of them in a weeks time. Two years ago they tried staking the area out.What they caught was me, dragging a legally tagged buck outta the middle of nowhere after dark I just about crapped myself when I hit the road and all those spotlights came on Sad part is they know whos doing it, but since they never pick any deer up theres no evidence.Without catching them in the act they really cant build a case against them.This has been going on for years now and will start again soon when the crops come out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted September 24, 2005 Report Share Posted September 24, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... I always wondered what makes a person poach? Is it lazyness, gread, when I am lucky enough to take a deer I want to share my experience with everyone, sometimes to a fault but what do these guys do have a secret poacher club where there like hey buddy just spotlighted me a monster buck but umm i just left it laying there cause i i got scared i might get caught. real nice!!sickning Hey on a lighter note i leave in 6 days for my 10 day hunt with my dad up in maryland good luck this year guy!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnf Posted September 24, 2005 Report Share Posted September 24, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... My definition of a poacher is someone who intentionally breaks the law while killing an animal. I went out with my father in law last year and "hunted" with his camp. They dog hunt there, and I'm not really very fond of that style in the first place. He took me out on one of the government timber roads and dropped me off on a big pine flat. I went out about 75 yards off the road and found a good tree to climb. After about 15 minutes up in the tree I started hearing the dogs barking and got a little excited. The next thing I know, there are two pickups going about 40mph down the road with two guys sitting on the dog box in the back with their guns up and pointed into the woods in my direction. After about their second or third pass I was more worried about getting shot than I was about seeing a deer, so I turned my stand in the tree so that the tree was between me and the road. I figured the lesser danger was that they couldn't see me rather than having the risk being shot. After about 2 hours sitting there hearing them go by every 10-15 minutes I heard another truck come by and honk the horn. It was my father-in-law. I got down the tree as quickly as I could and "High tailed" it back to his truck. While telling him about what happend, both of the two trucks pulled up and the guys jumped out the back, guns in hand. These morons where my wifes 2nd and 3rd cousins and part of the camp I was hunting. Every single one of those guys, and thier kids, 12 and up, had a beer in thier hand (including both drivers) and there was about a case of emptys and a full ice chest in the back of both trucks. These are the people that have hunting "accedents" and proliferated the "Deliverance" view of hunters that people have. While I never heard a shot that morning withing 1/4 mile of, I've never been more scared in the woods. I told my father-in-law he could come hunt with me any time he wanted to, but I wouldn't be back out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beagleboy Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... I hate poachers. There is nothing worst to our community of hunting. I know two guys who last year boasted to everyone that they shot 13 does. I hate hearing it. I know where they poach. What can be done without involving myself. I know them personally and if they knew it was me it was cause problems in my family. What to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest INHunterman Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... Just do the right thing and turn them in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfletch7441 Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... My in-laws have 350 acres here in Oklahoma that I hunt. They run livestock on 60-80 acres, so that leaves me quite a bit of land to manage. The only problem is that my father-in-laws cousin owns about 120 acres that backs up to our place. He shoots whatever he sees whenever he sees it. He doesn't kill them for the antlers, if there's a buck and a doe out together, he'll shoot the doe. My wifes whole family know's he does it, but it doesn't bother them because they aren't hunters. It drives me crazy. I'd like to turn him in, but I just can't do it. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missed160 Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... I'm not sure if this would exactly be poaching the way you guys have been affected by it, but check this out...... My brother shoot a small buck about 10 yrs ago. We hung it on the pole around lunch time. That evening we went out to the stands, when we got back, THE BUCK WAS GONE!!!!! Tire tracks where someone pulled into the cabin yard, backed underneath the deer & cut the rope. They cut the tag off & left it where the deer had been hanging.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCH Posted September 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... [ QUOTE ] I'm not sure if this would exactly be poaching the way you guys have been affected by it, but check this out...... My brother shoot a small buck about 10 yrs ago. We hung it on the pole around lunch time. That evening we went out to the stands, when we got back, THE BUCK WAS GONE!!!!! Tire tracks where someone pulled into the cabin yard, backed underneath the deer & cut the rope. They cut the tag off & left it where the deer had been hanging.. [/ QUOTE ] Now that's just flat wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... Not a deer story, but one day a few buddies and I went to my lease to hunt grouse. When we rolled up to the property, we saw a band of about 9 guys walking right through our property. My buddies and I went the other way, but when we stopped for lunch I walked down to where the tresspassers were parked. They had two grouse on the ground and I asked "what the heck?" They said they thought they were on so and so's land, I told them no and asked them to move on. They did, but both them and myself were pretty angry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... OK here’s my worst one. It’s in horst’s part of the county. During the fall of 2003 my buddy in Iowa was telling me about a problem they had with poachers shooting big, mature bucks at night, cutting off the heads, and leaving the rest to rot within sight of the road. When I arrived that November to bowhunt in Iowa he drove me around and showed me 4 carcasses on his leases that we left behind. That sure got my blood boiling. The problem continued to get worse throughout the area. Numerous complaints were called into the game warden. From my buddy checking around with other farmers and landowners in about a 3 county area, he estimated there were close to 100 mature bucks killed at night by these poachers just for their headgear. The rest was always left to rot. They had a good idea who it was but no proof. From what he could figure out, the poachers were killing the big racked deer and taking them to Missouri to sell them to a middle man. The middle man was then selling the racks to collectors. My buddy contacted me and a number of his friends about donating $ toward putting up a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of these poachers. To say the least, I was pretty upset about these poachers so I personally put up $500 in the kitty. The total donated by sportsman to the reward pot added up to $10,000. My buddy put ads in the local paper as well as other places so everyone in the area would know we had a $10,000 reward out for these scoundrels. Our thought was even someone that knew these poachers might turn them in for a big enough reward. Anyway, we never had anyone come forward and claim the reward but evidently the poachers didn't like the idea of having that amount of money offered to turn them in. They pulled up stakes and disappeared completely. We ended up spending some of the reward money to buy the local game warden a mechanical deer and he did catch some night shooters last year using it. The remainder of the $ are still sitting in an account so if these poachers ever show up again, another reward notice will go out for information leading to the arrest and conviction of these scoundrels. I sure hope that justice is served some day on these scumbags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texan_Til_I_Die Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... 8 or 10 years ago I had a fantastic spot picked out to dove hunt. It was a small farm pond on 130 acres next to another place that had a big sunflower field. I'd been out there about a week before the season opened and the doves were just swarming the pond. I left after a few minutes so that I wouldn't disturb them. Went back on opening day and sure enough, the birds were still there. I walked up to the pond to sit down next to a small cedar tree and I noticed something on the ground. I got to looking around and there was milo seed scattered all over the place. Someone had come onto the property and illegally baited it. Not only did they trespass, but they ruined the spot for me. I had to wait about 2 weeks for all of the grain to disappear and then another 2 weeks just to be legal again. I'm sure it was these yokels from the next place over. They didn't think there'd be anyone around since most of the time (except for dove season) the place stayed pretty much deserted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Washi Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... [ QUOTE ] Every year around here theres someone, or more likely a couple people that drive around, spotlighting deer.They shoot em after dark with a rifle and drive off.They leave the deer lay, never pick them up, dont even cut the antlers off.Theres been as many as 7 deer dead in one fenceline south of town.They also shot a herd of small bucks I was watching, there was 7 of them to, they picked em off one at a time, and had killed 5 out of 7 of them in a weeks time. Two years ago they tried staking the area out.What they caught was me, dragging a legally tagged buck outta the middle of nowhere after dark I just about crapped myself when I hit the road and all those spotlights came on Sad part is they know whos doing it, but since they never pick any deer up theres no evidence.Without catching them in the act they really cant build a case against them.This has been going on for years now and will start again soon when the crops come out [/ QUOTE ] A similar thing happened around here. One night when my brother and me were at the local bar he came over to tell me something. Him and our friend Shawna were at the bar and two guys started bragging about how they had been driving around after dark shooting deer and just letting them lay. Then said they had probably shot 30 deer. Before my brother could even say anything Shawna tore into these guys and gave them a serious butt chewing. She went off on them for several minutes and they didn't have a thing to say. Afterward we were talking and she said it was the fact that they left them lay was what set her off. If they shot a few to eat she wouldn't have said a word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tyshe17 Posted September 28, 2005 Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... TN is pretty bad about poaching...the worst from my expierence comes from a place I have been hunting in hickman co for about 10 years. right when I started hunting it, we were walking around one morning looking for sign, and got to the top of a ridge where a logging road deadends, and it started to stink. After a little looking around we had found 16 dead deer 4 with their heads cut off and two that would go 150 dressed...these are huge deer for that area and what was worse there was nothing we could do about it. deer hunting there was bad for a couple years with no good bucks killed, but the past 3 years it has started to build up and no more deer have been dropped off at the "graveyard" hopefully people jsut grow up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCH Posted September 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... This is just speculation, but rumor has it, this happens often in these neck of the woods. Oklahoma does not allow running deer with dogs. Arkansas does. Arkansas is only 5 miles from my house. A lot of Oklahoma hunters will turn their dogs loose near the line without fear because they can just pawn them off as Arkansas dogs. A couple of local, respectable men, are widely known to be huge dog runners. It is nothing to pull up to there vehicle and find 3 doe piled in the back freshly killed from a dog run. That's the truth. The rumor is that any attempts at calling game warderns is always fruitless. According to word of mouth, if someone calls the game warden, the game warden then calls the "well respected" dog runners and tells them that he is on his way to their location and that they need to clear out!!!! I bet this happens elsewhere, also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beagleboy Posted September 28, 2005 Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... That's just wrong. I experienced that once when w started hunting a new spot. We found deer deer with gun shots in them when it was bow season. The poachers would take the back straps and the head if it was a buck. Kinda ruined it for us who try to kill a deer the right way. We saw this guy one time back there and questioned him and told him if we find out who is poaching it will not be tolerated. Soon after that we no longer found dead deer. We realized it was probably him and that he found a new dumping ground for his deer. Real sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GobblerBuster618 Posted September 28, 2005 Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... We have aprox 80 acres we hunt and i was sitting in my stand pretty close to the property next to us. When i say pretty close i mean like 100 yards or so. Anyway the property next to us has a house that sits right on the border that no one lives in. Back to the story. Its about 3 weeks till shotgun season opens which also means the rut is in full swing and i hear this gun shot pretty close to where the house is. About fall outta my stand its that close and i hear this deer wheezing and crashing around but still am not 100 percent sure what happens. Well i hunted my ladder stand a day earlier so i know there was no dead buck laying there. About a week later im going into the woods and see this teenage guy and his gf or whatever walking outta the woods carrying a shotgun (its youth gun season then). So i what they are doing and they tell me they have the rights to hunt this land. I ask for their permission and they dont have it so i ask them to leave and do so quietly. Then the proceed to tell me there is a dead buck by this ladder stand and they have the antlers in their bag. They tried to tell me it was there for a few weeks they think. I walk to my stand Dead deer about 10 yds from it shotgun hole through his back. People make me so angry sometimes but im glad that i was brought up right and know how to respect God's creatures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowJoe Posted October 21, 2005 Report Share Posted October 21, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... I have a "Buddy" that I just recently found out kills about 10 or so deer a year. This guy eats all of the deer and stuff but he kills them out of season, at night, with a .22 rifle. I found out also that he hunts around an area that me and my friend hunt frequently. I told my friend and we both agreed that if he is seen doing anything illegal we would both be in contact with the law. It's hard to do when you are friends with someone you've known for a long time but he's not just doing something illegal, he's screwing up our chances for the legal harvest of animals in the same areas. It's a lot of hard work to get out into the woods on 100 degree days and hang stands, scout and cut shooting lanes just so someone can come along and shoot something 150 yds away. JMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ousoonerfan22 Posted October 21, 2005 Report Share Posted October 21, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... [ QUOTE ] This is just speculation, but rumor has it, this happens often in these neck of the woods. Oklahoma does not allow running deer with dogs. Arkansas does. Arkansas is only 5 miles from my house. A lot of Oklahoma hunters will turn their dogs loose near the line without fear because they can just pawn them off as Arkansas dogs. A couple of local, respectable men, are widely known to be huge dog runners. It is nothing to pull up to there vehicle and find 3 doe piled in the back freshly killed from a dog run. That's the truth. The rumor is that any attempts at calling game warderns is always fruitless. According to word of mouth, if someone calls the game warden, the game warden then calls the "well respected" dog runners and tells them that he is on his way to their location and that they need to clear out!!!! I bet this happens elsewhere, also. [/ QUOTE ] Sounds like you need to make a call to Oklahoma City and turn this ranger in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slughunter Posted October 22, 2005 Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 Re: Your worst Poacher Story.... i once was hunting and i was just getting packed up at dark and right when i was going to get up a truck pulled into the feild and started shinning 30 yards from me, then one of the guys said "ok load you gun" and it was bow season. so they shined and i tried to get up to leave and the shined the light on my but didnt know what i was, so i sat still and they lost interest. i had to sit there for 2-3 hours. i was so scared and mad. finnaly i wa able to sneak out adn so i called the sherif and he tried to catch him but was unable to get him, they make me so mad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.