Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Poached deer

Here in Oklahoma where I'm at deer season doesn't open until October 1. Had a young kid tonight shoot one from his pickup off the paved county road out of pasture across from my house. Neighbor contacted the game warden. He was out at the young kids house within the hour. Kid had only cut the backstraps out of it and deer was still laying in his front yard. Kids has run off and is hiding out in the woods while mom and game warden are looking for him. Just frustrating to watch them all summer long and have them fawns shot right in front of the house. Ugh.

Our archery season starts Sept 29. Looking forward to it. And yes, poachers suck.

"Kid" is old enough to drive, that means he's old enough to have his @ss beat until the pain erases the temporary pleasure he derived from poaching that deer. And beat again for running away from what he did. That's just me, other folks might feel differently.

He is 15 years old. Drives an old Toyota pickup around without a license. Rifle season doesn't open until end of November. Just a kid that made a stupid mistake and can hopefully learn from this. The waste of the deer is what bothers me. Momma gonna beat him from what I know of the family. Just sad situation every way I look at it.

Oh yeah legal driving age here is 16 to get a license. I see several charges is warden comes down hard on him. Hopefully he learns from it.

Poor kid trying to help the family by getting some meat, possibly?
Did he leave the deer to waste before he saw the warden coming?
I see these deer in central and west central Texas protected to the point of overpopulation and starvation by the thousands in bad drought years. I hate to see white tails eating cactus with their ribs and spine showing in Jan.

Grown bucks dress out at 80 lbs and does at 55 in a lot of areas.

Just some thoughts most never consider.

Fire away.

Apocalypto had a pretty good solution for poachers...

Oh I agree if was gonna eat it go for it. Warden found the carcass an hour later on the ground below the skinning pole at their house. Just backstraps cut out of the fawn. Not really sure he know how to do much else but most in this area can debone one in around 45 minutes by the time they are 15. Start young in this part of the state hunting. I not sure what he was thinking just glad no cattle were hurt, houses shot, or anything else bad come from his actions. Not over populated here at the house. Haven't been any here when I was growing up. Last 10 years have actually been some seen. The deer tonight was from a group of 5 I've been seeing. Was a fawn from a set of twins one of two does had. Other doe didn't have any fawns. Would love to have a few more around. Get an actual huntable population here at home. Save me having to drive to go hunt.

Stupid kid -
I'm trying to forget the dumbazz crap I pulled - back in the day!
Hope it turns out for the best.

I see where you are coming from, but we're probably a couple of generations past the time when the rural poor would go hungry if they didn't poach. If the kid is going hungry, it's because mom is trading her EBT cards for booze, meth, etc,. Also, if a deer is really needed, there are a lot better ways of going about it than shooting one out of your neighbor's yard. Most likely, the kid was bored and looking for a thrill.

Kid needs some guidance, however it may come.

Had a bunch of poaching going on here a month or so back.

They took a couple of backstraps, and just dumped the rest... One still had spots.

Dumped them off a small bridge at the county road to rot after they shot them.

Every one of us did dumb stuff when we were kids, and as we get older we tend to forget that Hopefully though, we learned from our mistakes, and didn't keep doing them as we got older.

I've always said that I would find it difficult to turn someone in for killing a deer out of season, if that person was truly in need of the meat to feed their family. But, it sounds like in this incident, that that wasn't the case. The kid needs to be punished by the law, and maybe he'll learn and not do stuff like that again......although there are those who never learn.

I did dumb cshit, but never killed deer out of season

I did.

When I spent the summer at my grandad's ranch as a kid, I would kill a meat deer on our own ranch. But we never wasted the meat.

Heck all the old families we knew ate deer year 'round. Just the way it was.

Well this morning found out are charging him with operation of motor vehicle without a license, criminal trespass, hunting/shooting from a public road, taking of deer out of season, and wanton waste. Pretty much threw the book at him.

I did plenty of things growing up and learned from them. Never went that far. Heck if want to shoot a deer out of season don't do it in middle of evening from a public road. Heck walk out there and shoot it. Pack the meat out and no one would know or see you. But to do it in broad daylight even confuses me. Lots here somewhat subside on wild game. Poor part of the world for sure. But do it smartly and world will leave you alone. Crazy situation. Now to see how the charges stick and what gets thrown out.

What county in OK?

McCurtain. Far southeast Oklahoma

Dru, Kenny, or Mark?

Funny thing is i would see the Co wardens on the show on the outdoor ch catch grown violators and nail them with a reduced charge and cut them a little slack by ignoring some charges they could have filed. The wardens in Mi not so much. Your snomobile 2 db over the noise limit, youre screwed.

I guess they could hang the kid and realky send a message. Poor stupid sob probably took the shot off the road as he was too stupid to be able to get a deer any other way.

It would be nice to know what his previous hunting history and success had been.

Wanton waste is bs. The warden was there within an hour. Deer should have been hanging to cool and maybe skinned. Who has a deer put up an hour after shooting it?