Poachers in the family

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Poachers in the family

Post by Anonymous » Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:32 pm

Ive got to get this off my chest. Im from a family of poachers. My grandpa and all my uncles buy northeastern tags and hunt southeastern. They also will shoot two deer and have an other person tag it. They have never shot more deer than they have tags but it still bugs me. I cant turn them in cause they are in the family and every one would hate me but I just had to say something

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Post by Jackalope » Wed Nov 03, 2004 2:50 pm

Are we realted??? J/K It would ruin some family reunions if you did turn them in i guess 8-[

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WYMULEYMAN
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Post by WYMULEYMAN » Wed Nov 03, 2004 2:54 pm

I know how bad this sucks, not that i have poachers in my family, but i have two good friends that are poaching fools. And the sad thing is, is that they have already been caught poaching and kicked out of the national forest for 5 years, including loss of tags, and payment of fines. I thought that maybe they had learned there lesson, last year i went elk hunting with them, i had no tag, i was just along for the ride. when the convicted poacher showed up at my house to pick me up with a rifle in his truck i should have stayed home, but it is normal for people to have rifles in there trucks, for shooting coyotes. anyways, he killed a good bull with his bow a month earlier, and so he had no elk tag. needless to say, we came across a real good 6pt., 300-320 gross bull, and my other friend that had never shot an elk set up to make the shot. i was hunting with him, because this was his first elk hunt. he shot once and then all the sudden, all heck broke loose, there was shooting to the right of us, come to find out my other buddy had gone back to the truck after we split up and got his rifle, needless to say he was the one shooting. WHAT DO YOU DO! He did miss the bull so instead of turning him in, i decided to let it go, i have vowed to never go to the country with him again. I won't put myself in a position like that, i enjoy my hunting too much. besides my dad would kick my rear if i was even hanging out with someone willing to poach. If he would have hit that bull i would without a doubt turn him in. without even thinking twice, sure he would be ticked off, but i really could care less. poachers have no business being in the country and should be put behind bars.

there is another guy i know from my hometown that has been busted more that once and he owns this bar in town and he has got three of the biggest mule deer you have ever seen hanging on his wall, i know darn well he didn't kill them legally, i have watched him hunt before from a distance and i know first hand all he does is drive around, and you are going to tell me that he has killed not one but three huge mulies while driving around, i think not! it absolutely drives me crazy when they do these things and then mount them and try to pass them off for legal, fair chase game.
IT TAKES ALOT OF SACK TO BAG A BIG RACK

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Post by Jackalope » Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:00 pm

That sucks WYMULEYMAN

I've had the samething happen to me but not with big game but it sucks because all it takes is for you to be with your buds out hunting and them poach somehting any you all get caughtt not just him. I know if tonz of my friend who have poached one time or another and if i ever caught them in teh act i wold have to turn them in. Is ther some kind of a anomanise (sp) turn in so they don't knwo who did it?

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Funny story about that....

Post by AGCHAWK » Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:43 am

I was about 16 years old and had already tagged out but I had a friend that had a doe tag that needed to be filled. Back then, special seasons such as doe season were seperate from buck season. My dad offered to take my buddy and I out to fill his tag since his dad wasn't much of a hunter. We weren't out in the field more than an hour when we jumped a BIG buck that was more concerned with finding some hot-to-trot females than with us. He slowly winded his way up the hillside as my friend (also 16 at the time) kept begging my dad to let him take a shot. My dad refused numerous times since it was no longer buck season, but as the buck got to about 400 yards away my dad, probably tired of hearing my friend beg, told him to take a shot. My Pa was quite sure there was no way in burn he was going to be able to hit it. He was hoping that the kid would just light a fire under the buck, causing him to run off so that he wouldn't have to listen to him beg and wine anymore. Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened next....my buddy threw up his rifle, took an off-handed shot, and nailed the buck high in the hind quarters!!! The buck dropped, got back up, and stumbled straight down the hill toward an access road on the other side. He tried to jump the fence next to the road but got entangled in it, unable to free himself. My dad started panicing, raced over the hill to the buck and started stabbing it 'cause he was afraid to fire another shot (My dad was not a poacher and I think was within reach of a major coronary by this point). Well my buddy was jumping up and down screaming that he shot a monster while my dad was near tears trying to kill this buck and get it out of the fence before someone came by. I grabbed my buddy by the arm and drug him back to the rig so that we could get to the access road and my dad before anyone else did. I must have drove about 80 MPH down that old road to get around to my father, who by then was sitting next to the buck trying to catch his breath...and restart his heart.
Well, we got the dang thing in the truck and back to town where my dad "threw" both my friend and the buck out in my buddies front yard, yelling at him the whole time about going to jail, losing his truck and license, and so on. I just sat there the whole time thinking "My dad is NEVER taking me hunting again" and wondering if he would live through this.
Well, although it was probably the scariest hunting trip my father was ever on, he half-heartedly joked about that day up until his death last year. I can tell you this much though, although we continued to hunt together every year thereafter, my father NEVER allowed me to take any of my friends with us again.
My father was a good man who loved to hunt and hated poachers. I still have pangs of regret for putting him in that situation in the first place and because of that I turn in anyone that I discover poaching. It's the least I can do for my father....and myself.
As a side note, that buddy of mine ended getting busted poaching just a couple years ago and spent time in lock-up, lost his rig, gun, and hunting rights for a LONG time. I guess some people are slow learners.
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WYMULEYMAN
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Post by WYMULEYMAN » Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:07 pm

AGCHAWK,

chitty luck i must say! we were out elk hunting one time, in a special limited quota area that was known to produced some huge elk. anyways my dads hunting buddy had shot an enormous bull one morning, later to find it gross scored at 386 and some change. anyways on our way back to camp we were coming across this sage flat that filtered out from the black timber and into the lower elevations. out in the middle of this flat there was a coyote running at full boar trying to get back to the timber, my dads hunting buddy got out of the truck and let his son get out. the son wanted to shoot the doggy so his dad said fine and he pulled out his dads rifle and set up on the coyote. after a few seconds my dad realized something out of the oridinary, the coyote had a four foot tail and he was a super tan coyote. and then it sank in, wait a minute this is no coyote, it is a mountain lion, the lion perched himself up on a rock outcropping and sat there for a minute. my dads hunting buddy told the kid to not shoot, because noone had a tag, needless to say, he was not forceful enough with his plea and the kid shot. luckly he missed and the lion got away uninjured, but i will tell you one thing, my dads heart and dads hunting buddies heart skipped a few beats.


sounds like your dad was a good man, and we all make honest mistakes sometimes. 99% of the time the kid would have missed that deer, like say if he really wanted to shoot it, legally! but it is those times when we really don't want to hit something that we do. example, this deer season my brother in law was set up on a so so 4pt. buck, it was going to take a good shot for him to hit the deer. straight up a hill at probably 450 yards. he shot and hit the deer and after all was said and done he was mad at himself for shooting something smaller than he really wanted. the only thing i could say was this, never attempt to shoot at something you don't fully intend to hit. because it is those times when you will hit it. this is not intended to be a lecture, just a line or two to show that i understand the luck that some people have.
IT TAKES ALOT OF SACK TO BAG A BIG RACK

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Post by ABert » Sun Apr 10, 2005 10:21 am

Most western states do have a poachers tip line that you do not have to give your name. Check inside the hunting regs of whatever state you are in and you should be able to find it. If you don't want to turn your family in for poaching I think the strongest statement you can make is to refuse to go hunting with any of them. Let them know that it really upsets you and you would rather not go hunting than to witness what they have been doing. I'm not saying this will stop them but it may make them pause and think about what they have been teaching you.

On a side note, just read an article about cell phone use while out hunting. Used to be a mortal sin to carry a phone but now the various Fish and Game departments are really liking it throughout the country. Seems that ethical hunters and fishermen have been calling in violations that they witness while out in the field. Numerous states have noted an increase in the amount of arrests AND convictions for poaching. I've never carried my cell in the field before but now I may start to rethink that.

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Post by wrmdnkr » Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:35 am

hey teflon,
I know how you feel, I have a friend who has probably killed the most deer out of everyone I know because he usually gets at least three per year by tagging them with his dad's, mom's and his own tag. To tell you the truth, I would turn in someone I don't like because Utah gives some pretty sweet compensation for tips that lead to convictions. But friends and or family, I would probably stop hunting with them. You can live without hunting, but you can't live without family and friends.
=D>

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Post by tylercreek2 » Sat Jun 04, 2005 1:59 pm

in 2001 down on boulder mountain i found myself lucky enough to be right smack dab in the middle of not 1 or 2 or even 4 bucks but 6 all at once in a bunch ,,, have no clue how i managed this except for outhouse luck :) and i'm talking like they were milling around at about 50 feet from me , and they all looked pretty nice , well after i recovered from my heart attack :) i whacked one , well after the shot i could see my deer laying right in front of me ,turned out to be a forked horn 24" high and about 20" wide probably weighed around 150 maybe 160 pounds or so ,, not huge by no means but a nice fat healthy buck ,,, well as it turned out 4 of the other 5 were 3 pts and the one was a VERY NICE high not to wide but high 4 point i'd say around 25" or maybe more high ,,, i could have EASILY shot at least 2 of the 3"s AFTER i shot the fork , and could have shot the 4 point like 87 times ,,, he just stood looking at me from like 20' feet away for at least 2 minutes i finally yelled at him and he ran off ,,,, now heres the sticker i'd say at least half the people i've told this story to that hunt say that they would have shot the 4 point ,,,, can you guys believe that ? #-o and people wonder why i rarely hunt with anyone other than my dad ,,, as for popping the 4 pt i never even CONSIDERED it ,,, but sure was neat watching him eyeballing me ,,, all poaching is a real bummer ,,, see you guys later :thumb

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Post by TheGreatwhitehunter » Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:06 pm

thats a tough one but the law is the law and family will always be family :-k
THE LORD IS MY ROCK

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