Fake Deer

[Ryan Avery]

Friend of my got busted for shooting one. He told me it was huge and that all he thought about. Anyone here ever shoot one?

I have never seen the "fake deer". But it must look legit. He's the third person I know to get busted this year....

 

[Travis Bertrand]

I heard about a guy shooting one and they tried getting him for poaching, his lawyer got him off because it isn't poaching if you shoot a fake deer. That's the story anyways!

 

[Matt Cashell]

I saw a FWP fake deer off the road in the MT many years ago. It pretty much looked as realistic as Big Bird. It boggles the mind how they catch so many people with them.

 

[ckleeves]

One of my friends grandpa put the hammer down on a robo elk about 10 years ago and a kid I knew growing up bagged the robo deer also. I have seen our local Dow's deer in their cooler and it looked less than fantastic.

 

[Ryan Avery]

BB, FYI if I see Big Bird in the wood. That suckers going down

 

[wk93]

I saw robo deer a few years ago and it actually looks legit 50 yards off the side of the road. When I stopped to look at it (It was a decent fork) a voice yelled out of the brush that I need to keep driving. Haven't seen robo deer or elk since then.

 

[a3dhunter]

I know of someone who shot one......believe it or not.

 

[shaun]

About 2 years ago dfg had one in a housing development were a lot of big bucks live and get poached out of and they caught an on duty sheriff shooting one. It was all over the news and he ended up loosing his job over it. Last year had an employee head up the mtn for opening day and while driving they passed one he stopped backed up and put his headlights on it to show his gf and drove off about a minute later he got stopped and issued a citation for spot lighting ca dfg uses them quite a bit I've never personally seen one.

 

[Aron Snyder]

The elk that I watched was looking real to me (at 300 yards).

Head moved back and forth, steam out the nose, ears flipping. I thought it was a little over board for the DOW, because a guy hunting for 7 days and not seeing chit is going to have a hard time not cranking a round off at that thing.

The Mule deer was a little less eye appealing, but it did have a big set of antlers We called him scruffy and looked like he had CWD!

Happy Hunting!

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Do they use them in season?

 

[justin davis]

Interesting stories. I have not encountered one yet!

 

[7mag.]

They have a fake grouse here in Washington. They set them up in the logging road to try and catch people shooting in the road (which every one does, because in Western Wa. in the road is where you see them). My buddy ran it over, and I think he messed it up pretty bad.

 

[shaun]

Do they use them in season?

Yes they do to catch guys shooting off roads. Shooting at night etc

 

[dcestnik]

A second hand story about someone from my home town so not sure about the credibility.

Guy emptied his gun on a fake elk situated off the road near the forest border until G&F had stop him over the bull horn. After getting ticketed and proceeding on to the forest, later that day he had elk cross the road, shot and dropped one just to have G&F catch him cleaning an elk on the road.

 

[RUTTIN]

I was with some people in Wyoming on the rifle hunt. Going down a dirt road there was a raghorn bull standing off the road (dirt road). One guy piled out and shot at the elk, nothing. One more guy piled out and they both shot again, nothing. I was looking through my binos and it never moved, just then Fish and Game came out of the trees yelling stop fish and game property. They got them for shooting from a maintained road, even though it was a dirt road. Wyoming had changed it's laws to where it had to be a two track road with grass growing in the middle. The elk was a newly mounted bull with four point antlers, looked real to me! Glad I didn't have a tag as I probably would have shot too. Cost them 250.00 dollars. The next guy down the road shot from his vehicle and cost him 450.00. Something to laugh at now.

 

[robby denning]

Dad was on a cow elk hunt and there was one along the Fall creek road in Idaho Unit 66. He didn't shoot it. Later that day on way back to camp he was behind a truck and as the came to the decoy, a guy in that truck bailed out, leaned over the hood and emptied his magazine. Dad said he must've figured it out during the barrage as he threw his gun down on the hood and just waited. A few minutes later he got to meet a few wardens.

Also, on the ranches we outfit on, we had a problem with people shooting the does in the field even though it's posted and the ranchers house is 500 yards away and in line of fire. F&G set up a decoy. They got so much business that they said they were tired by the end of the day. They've been back several times and still catch people shooting from the road onto posted property. I wish I had time to sit with them and watch. They said it can be quite humorous. Lots of guys miss completely, too.

The decoy is about a 24" buck with a head that turns. Looks pretty real from 100 yards, but still fishy enough that a real deer hunter would know. Of course a real deer hunter wouldn't shoot from the road onto private, right?

 

[Ray]

As a kid in the 1970s I remember reading an outdoor life article about fake deer. One of the stories was of a rancher that had a huge home taxidermy mule deer shoulder mount hung on a fence post. He then placed a 55gallon drum hung on chains between that post and the next. He would cover the drum with an old deer hide. The drum would get shot several times each year. Usually one once as the shooter would hear the GONG and realize what was up. However there will always be exceptions. One guy emptied his rifle and then reloaded and emptied it again. He hit the drum with all the shots, but didn't make the connection between the sound and the deer not going down. Pretty funny to read as a kid.

Alaska has a roadside moose that they set up during the season to catch folks in the Valley. It's not a legal sized moose with too narrow a spread. Still gets shot.

 

[JPD350]

The G&F in NM set these up often and they get pounded by road hunters! They did a recent story on the evening news and as they were busy busting someone there was someone else already shooting at the buck and the news guy was pumping his story up big time, he absolutely made all hunters out to be dangerous scum that will shoot at anything without thinking. What topped it off was the G&F without realizing it handed the antis a story without making sure they mentioned that all hunters were not this way, it really made hunters look bad!

 

[Ross]

Back in the 80's around Priest Lake Idaho when they first started using Deeks we watched a funny event unfold. We were cruising to our deer hunting spot at daybreak and there was a long straight stretch of road notorious for road hunting. We saw brake lights up ahead, 3 guys jumped out of the rig, we could hear the shots and then bodies, sirens, lights and vehicles came out all around the area and surrounded the vehicle. As we cruised up and by the stunned hunters it was like the twilight zone............I can still recall the look on their faces as the F&G surrounded them and the large Deek stood smiling at what had occurred

 

[cali_hornhunter]

Great stories everyone I've seen one in my neck of the woods they were trying to get people shooting off the road and the buck was set up off the road on a ridge we saw it about 1000 yards out me and my buddy so we ended making a big loop to come in above it and we got about 150 yards from it and I thought it was kinda fishy that the deer was in the same position when we spotted it before you know dfg warden came out and told us what was going on. I was kinda surprised that they were doing it broad daylight but I guess they were getting people mind that we were on public land