Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game all poaching galls me

but one like this really boils my oil. This nice buck was shot numerous times with what they think was a .22 cal and left to rot this last weekend. It happened just south of me.
The pic looks like it's throat was cut. I'm wondering if the culprit was going to take the head but got scared off.

Gives us all a bad name. Hope they are caught.

Probable trying to cut the head off. Amateur poachers. Takes some practice to hit a joint between vertebrae to get the head off with just a knife. Need to include a cordless sawzall in the poaching kit with the 22 and a spotlight.

Seriously that crap pisses me off. Never will say poaching is right. But if your going to pop something illegally that you are going to utilize and really does not affect the herd or others hunting and is not a trophy I can almost look the other way almost. But poaching for bragging rights is pure BS.

In another poaching case the same day:

A landowner (maybe 20 miles from where the 1st one was poached) reported that an SUV with a Raiders sticker pulled onto his property. The driver shot an antelope in a hay field then drove off leaving it wounded. While the IDFG was in the field investigating, the same SUV drove by. They pulled it over and found the driver to be triple the legal BAC and with 2 small kids in the back. They got him on numerous charges but haven't filed poaching charges yet.

Considering the similarities in the poaching cases, I think there's a fair chance that he did both of them. They weren't all that far apart.

This 2d one happened only a mile from where I shoot on BLM land. I was out there Sunday shooting and possibly saw this vehicle but it was 1/2 mile away and I wasn't paying attention to it. I did hear shooting from that direction.

That sucks. But there's no cut throat on the buck in the pic, just the black cheek patches. Probly just a thrill killing. What a waste.

R C -

I agree. Poaching illegally removes animals, whether trophies or not, that will never be seen nor hunted by anyone else EVER.

I get INDIGNANT over button bucks that are shot, whether legal or not. Every button buck will NEVER have the chance to get bigger, the amount of meat is negligible, and NO ONE will ever have the opportunity to hunt that buck AGAIN.


ALSO, I find it interesting that in 2 days - 369 reads - ONLY 5 (I'm the 5th) have responded. Makes you wonder?????

Jerry

Somebody shooting a critter out of season to feed their family in hard times is one thing.


Shooting and leaving the animal like was done to this antelope and the other one mentioned in this thread is something entirely different.


Who ever did this needs strung up.

this is the guy they've arrested for drunk driving with 2 kids in the car. Knowing the IDFG, we won't hear anything at all for a few weeks while they do the poaching investigation. They usually keep them under wraps until they announce everything. The guy had a bunch of guns in his car and the rancher identified his car as the one that was in his field. If they recovered any bullets they'll run ballistics tests, etc. Once he sobers up, he might confess, too.
The 1st antelope was shot several times with a small caliber. There's a good chance that they'll recover a bullet. I think they've got the goods on him for the 2d one.

He looks like a 'roads collar'!...


Jerry


Pun - Sarcasm - Irony .......all intended.

A Sumbitch that will drive drunk should be jailed for at least five years as a public menace.

A Sumbitch that will drive drunk with two kids in the car should be skinned alive and fed to the hogs.

Yellow Avalanche?

HAHAHAHA!

No argument from me that all poaching is reprehensible.

I have shot a couple of button bucks in my time, but both were unintentional - at 200-250yds I thought they were both does. I guess in some states it's also a much bigger deal because of low animal population numbers.

In a recent article I read, MS is second in Whitetail population, behind only TX. 1.75 million by some estimates and almost double our neighbors in TN and AL. Article claims 400,000 per year need to be harvested, and average is only 350,000. We don't even have to tag or report the number of animals we take. There are limits imposed by the state, but they really have no way of enforcing them. I guess our state is one of the few places that poaching doesn't do a tremendous amount of harm, but I still don't condone it.

Tate -

I also have killed a very few button bucks but it's been a long time. I came to my position because of the button's < I > killed, no one else.

For a number of yrs I hunted W of McComb, Miss. IIRC at that time the bag limit was 6 deer. Also at that time Alabama's deer population WAS 2nd to Tx. I hunted a few seasons in Al. and the 'bag' limit was 1 buck PER day and during their doe season you had to kill a doe BEFORE you killed a buck.

I moved back to Ark in '86 so I'm not up on the recent changes in populations and bag limits.


Now in Ark you have tags, doe & buck, but all game checking is done by phone OR computer. So we are in the same situation, there is no way for AGFC to enforce (verify) the bag limit. Now they do catch poachers and hunters w/illegal deer, but the "reported" deer kill is QUESTIONABLE at best.

ESPECIALLY how many does killed and reported as bucks and vice versa in different DEER zones.

I know of several guys that have taken game out of season strictly for food. I don't consider this poaching, or unethical, though it is illegal.

The guy that was caught poaching, drunk, with kids in the truck is another story. The least of the things he did there was the unlawful shooting of game.

That antelope buck that was shot and left, that is a damn tragedy. Many of us would pay good money, good time, and good sweat to hunt and shoot that one, and be proud of it. And that is why we cooperatively have game laws. All things that are alive will die, but it is an ugly waste that creates such an ugly waste.

H n S -

I completely agree !!


Jerry