Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Yeah He was a damn poacher

Unless you’re in Alaska, none of us. There’s NOWHERE in the contiguous 48 states much more than 10 miles from the nearest road. If you find a spot that is, post up the coordinates.

there is down here the ranches he poached are huge the King is over 800,000 acres, forgot how big the Kennedy is. easy to get that far from a paved main road, there will be ranch rds but if you're in there poaching you're not going near them, he went in on foot with his gear in a backpack.

MattMan is spot on. Huge ranches...but not contiguous to that extent. No way you are going 30 miles into the bush in the lower 48.

Post it up. If you’re 15 miles in, you went in the wrong f’n way. And other than western states, you probably crossed a road.

You can get pretty close in th Frank Church, plus its steeper than a cows face.....about as remote as it gets.

There are plenty of places in the United States that you can do that legally.

I don't see any point in his endeavor.

Remote trail cams would make it more difficult now. The same with thermal from a chopper. I have looked down in heavy timber from a chopper with a thermal scope. Heat signatures are fairly easy to see.

So, is this fellow in prison, still poaching, living the dream, what?

they used choppers with thermal to try to find him at night he had a foil-lined tarp he would sleep under. wouldn't build fires.

Ya, I saw that. He was hard core for sure. I wonder if the thermal capabilities have improved since then? Not sure when he was hunting those ranches last.

In an area with almost no public land to speak of amid huge landholdings I would guess that hopping fences was not an uncommon practice among the local working class stiffs. As noted, before the era of trail cams and thermal cameras.

Heck, we have had poachers going after deer and hogs with firearms, crossbows, bows and even dogs well inside the city limits right here in San Antonio along the undeveloped flood plains.

With respect to antlers it does seem a puzzle to me that people would run big risks and/or pay serious money while obsessing over large antlers but, since I once drove 2,000+ miles to find a Connecticut warbler I ain’t gonna judge 🙂

If ya wanna hate on that Prince of Poachers guy IIRC from reading his book years back he also poached on at least one occasion in West Texas and New Mexico (unless that was another book, pretty sure it was him).

Jimmy Buffet sang about smuggling weed, in “Rocky Top” Lynn Anderson sung about murdering strangers and Federal Agents to protect the moonshine trade (when I first heard that song on Hee Haw it made my blood run cold ) I’m pretty sure most everyone who likes those songs is against weed smuggling and murder.

The appeal of the Poachers guy is his extraordinary feats of endurance, hunting and woodcraft as well as the snapshots of life in South Texas.

Doesn’t mean ya gotta approve of what he did or feel bad that he got caught. Seems like he sure got off light.

`````````````````70s and 80s into the early 90s if I remember right, 6yr break in there.

^^^^This

Of course it could go both ways. Imagine if he would have has an accurate suppressed rifle, and thermal, or night vision of his own. The sky would have been the limit.....practically was anyway.

Bob Marshall Wilderness for starters.

I would think you could in the CMR as well.

Guess it also depends on how you define roads. There are expanses in the high desert that are miles and miles from a county road, let alone a state highway. There may be old 2 tracks or ranch trails, but a long ways from a road.

I would suppose you could also get that far away from roads in ynp.

lol

Where do you live/hunt?

living down there, i think you could get 15 miles EASY from a paved road especially east of 77 in the sand country but i doubt a ranch road or 2 track.
i know i went in there once with an employee to fish the laguna madre and we went thru 31 gates before we smelled salt and it was a few hours carefully observing the ranch speed limit

used to be lots of guys slip into them ranches when i was a young man in the 80-90's but i dont know about now too many border patrol and oil field traffic. folks who arent from there cant understand theres familys that own land far as you can see and a 10k acre place is a "hobby ranch"

some of those familys and ranches even thoink they own the tide flats and navigable waters and patrol it as such, the game wardens pretty much do what the ranches say in exchange for a few trips a year

Can't even find the book on Ebay, does anyone have any ideas on where I might find a copy of the book?

I would sure like to know where a person could get 10 miles from a road in the CMR. 3-5 maybe depending on how roads are counted. If we are talking 2 tracks that count as county or refuge roads probably not even that far.

try here on his sight. https://princeofpoachers.com/