Good Guys 1 / Poachers 0


Guest Hold_em_Archery

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Guest Hold_em_Archery

I apologize in advance for the LONG post, but it's a good story. Well, I had quite an interesting last day of the archery season. After spending 6 hours on stand and not having any deer within Bow Range, I had to run to Wal-Mart with my wife and kids.

Just after 10pm, my wife and I were unloading my truck. While in the garage, I heard a loud pop. My wife asked "what was that"? I responded, "it sounded like a .22". She then said, from outside the garage, "well, these guys are spotting out here".

Just then an older model, what appeared to be a Blazer, that was heading east on the road infront of my house, quickly turned left at the intersection, heading away from my house, and my wife and I could hear "hooting and hollering" coming from the vehicle. I uttered some remark about high school kids. About 5 to 10 minutes later, while standing in my kitchen, I saw a vehicle heading north on the dirt road next to my house. They spotted the same field, so I quickly opened the door to the garage and turn off the light. I then watched as the same "Blazer" type vehicle rolled through the intersection. They came to a complete stop in the middle of the intersection and I saw a person exit the passenger side of the vehicle and run across the road into the field.

It was at that time that I told my wife to get the phone and come outside. I quickly unlocked my truck and turned on my spotlight, trying to see who was running into the field and why. I could not see anyone, but I knew I saw someone exit the vehicle and run into the field. I asked my wife to take the spot light and continue to shine it in the field while I got my cordless spotlight. With my cordless spotlight in hand, I told my wife to call the police while I continued to spot in the field.

At that time, I saw our neighbors walking onto their front porch wondering what all the commotion was. They live diagonally across the intersection from us. I walked to them, crossing the intersection, explaining that I heard a shot then later saw someone get out of a vehicle and run into the field. While spotting the field and talking with my neighbors, I saw the same "blazer" type vehicle slowly drive pass and then speed away several times. I was unable to get a look at the license plate, but on their last pass I could a see a male driver, wearing a knit camouflage hat. As I made my way back toward my house, I saw someone laying in the field. They were dressed in head to toe camouflage, including a fleece hat. I told them to get up, and they "pretended" that they weren't there. I again told them to get up, explaining that I could see them and that the police were on their way. The person then got up and approached me, he had obviously been drinking. Knowing the situation that I was now in, I again explained that the police were on there way and I asked him if he had any weapons on him. He said "no". As I walked him to the corner of the intersection, I explained we would be waiting for the police and he told me a story about how he and his wife had been fighting after he had been drinking at his uncles all day and that he got out of her vehicle and had been walking up the road when he saw all the spot lights. He said that he was afraid it was his wife looking for him, so he hid and he "really couldn't understand why everyone was getting so upset".

I told him "if that's all that's going on, then he should be able to straighten this out quickly with the police when they get here". My wife stayed on the phone with dispatch until some one arrived.

The first to arrive was a PA Game Commission WCO. He asked what was going on and I explained to him what I had witnessed. He then began to question the man I found in the field as other Police Officers began to arrive. They found a bloody knife on him which he claims was used to gut a doe he shot the day before in while archery hunting. He denied shooting anything or having been in a vehicle that like the one I described. Later, the Game Commission Officer asked me where the vehicle was when we heard the shots and where this man was when I found him. After I gave him the details, he entered the field with his vehicle. After 2 quick passed across the field, he yelled "I've got the dead deer".

The happy ending here is that they took this (insert explative here) away for poaching, and he also had outstanding warrents for his arrest in Cumberland County. Then the WCO asked me if I would like to keep the deer and he explained all he needed was the head back for evidence. So, I got to spend my Sunday butchering after all.

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we too had a similar encounter a couple years ago.

there was someone driving by with a big spot light shining into our trees then we heard what sounded to be a rifle and then the truck sped off. we got ready for when he'd come back and sure enough he came back driving real slow and we got into our truck and turned off the headlights so he couldn't see we were coming. when we got closer we turned the headlights on hoping to get a license plate and right when we hit those lights the driver of the poachers truck sped off and we chased him a little ways trying to get the plate numbers. but when the poacher blew across the highway at 70+ mph we decided to stop the chase. it was about 2 days later that an officer came to our door and asked if we had been seeing any poachers around and we told him the story. and the officer said that they caught a man with a little green truck (same truck we chased) shooting into other ppls properties claiming they were "raccoon hunting"

well these poachers had been in the business for quite some time and now they had cought them

theygot locked up for a long time..................dang poachers get what they deserve

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Oh man that is so awsome. we have a big problem with that here in ky. a guy i work with is a self proclaimed poacher and spotlighter, so i turned him in to the game wardens and they had actually been lookin for him for awhile it turns out. Now I don't like being a snitch and all but agree with me or not but sometimes like this one is the right thing to do in my opinion.

So again great job on getting those guys busted.

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Guest stranger2u_19

yeah poaching ticks me off i knew this one guy that took 70 sum deer and he sells the meat the law has tried to get him but he has friends and other ppl hold the meat at there houses so he never gets in trouble and i know another that use to poach in a way he had 5 kids and he would use there tags to tag out more of his but he did it for food so i never really had anything agianst him but 70 sum deer thats just wrong exspecialy when i can barely get one lol

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Guest Hold_em_Archery
good job.. did they shoot a buck or doe?

It was a big doe.

Thanks for all the comments folks. I'm glad to see that there are others out there that would or have stepped up and done something about this scum that calls themselves hunters.

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Guest FL-Cracker

Good job! I'm glad he got busted and you got to keep the doe. Be careful next time though...poachers are unpredictable and dangerous...don't go out there unarmed....there could've been a number of things that could've happened differently. It's best to wait for the authorities really before approaching poachers. There's been plenty of wardens that were armed that have been killed over little button bucks and does.

Everything worked out for the best this time though! My congrats on busting this guy...just be careful...

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Nice work but I'm glad the situation didn't escalate. It's people like you that help all of us as hunters and conservationists. It's the poachers that probably are the ones complaining during hunting season that there aren't any deer around anymore. Duh! Really? I wonder where they could have went?

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