Is poaching truly this prevalent?

[cjarchery]

Have you ever actually watched a man drive on deer? Most of those guys are so reckless and shoot so bad, its a wonder there aren't more people killed than deer.

It’s horrific. I hear about guys getting shot almost every year. I’m primarily an archery season guy but the first couple years I tried gun season I went with a guy that was always putting a random group of people together and it was always a circus. Not knowing half the people’s names. No one really sure where anyone else is on the drive. And definitely no one showing up to help clean deer after. I even heard a slug wizz past my head one day. I should count my blessings everyday I never got shot. These days I go with a really small group of guys (usually 3 including myself) and if I’m lucky I’ll never go with anyone else. Everyone’s on the same page. Everyone’s safe. If we only fill a couple tags or hell even no tags then big deal. We still had a good time. The biggest buck in the world isn’t worth someone getting shot.

 

[jgilber5]

Curious how others handle other violations in the field that don't equate to poaching necessarily. OHVs on closed roads are almost inevitable where I hunt. I don't feel like there's much I can do about it though. I have started reporting alot of shed hunters having huge bonfires out here when we're in a fire ban though. Feels bad, but thats how our town burned down the last time.

 

[Pilsner]

Wildlife Poaching Is Costing Americans an Outrageous Amount of Money

Researchers discovered that poaching happens way more often than we realize, and it usually goes undetected and unpunished.

www.outdoorlife.com

I asked one of the members of our Arkansas wildlife commission about the rates of poaching and how it effects their population estimates. I got a surprising answer:
The state of Arkansas figures that something north of 40% of deer in certain counties do NOT get tagged/reported.
As someone who has lived in one of those 40% counties for the last decade, I think those numbers are LOW if anything!

The first year that I lived here I caught flak from the neighbors because one house of two folks with zero kids had 6 bucks hanging. I mentioned that the limit was 2 per person and was informed "They shoot deer for food" as if that was an excuse - my problems started when I mentioned that I doubt the first 6 deer they found while hunting for food were all 140"+ bucks...
Yet somehow I was the A-hole for pointing out this to everyone...

Before anyone tries to give me flack for complaining about "poaching for food" or whatever your particular cope is - in the last 2 years alone we have trapped, killed, butchered, packaged, and donated to our neighbors well over 150 adult wild hogs and dozens of does that we cull based on CWD tags,

 

[Pilsner]

Curious how others handle other violations in the field that don't equate to poaching necessarily. OHVs on closed roads are almost inevitable where I hunt. I don't feel like there's much I can do about it though. I have started reporting alot of shed hunters having huge bonfires out here when we're in a fire ban though. Feels bad, but thats how our town burned down the last time.

Removing tire valve stems results in $0 of damage thus there is no way to prosecute for vandalism. Just gotta leave the vale stems behind with the vehicle.
Do with this piece of info what you will.

 

[Yoder]

This comparison is ignorant! The outcome of driving intoxicated can kill innocent people.

The getting away with it is one thing, but to tie it with drinking and driving just doesn’t sit right with me.

Both are irresponsible, illegal and widely accepted. Both give you 100 chances without taking your privileges for life and both are money making opportunities for law enforcement. Both also usually involve violating your constitutional rights. Setting up check points, and detaining you with no probable cause. I think it's a valid comparison.

 

[Pilsner]

Both are irresponsible, illegal and widely accepted. Both give you 100 chances without taking your privileges for life and both are money making opportunities for law enforcement. Both also usually involve violating your constitutional rights. Setting up check points, and detaining you with no probable cause. I think it's a valid comparison.

Not sure that the risk comparison for by standards is exactly 1:1 but you other comparisons are on point.

 

[*zap*]

Yes it is.
Maybe more than you think.

 

[Nine Banger]

I like the way you think. Did this to a guy at a boat ramp one time. Non-motorized lake, I was throwing muskie plugs off an SUP. Dude rips over to me with a 150 horse, almost knocks me off, then chucks a musky lure about 4 feet from my face. Just pulled the tires off his trailer and left a nice pile of lug nuts.

Is this a criminal or civil matter?

Statute of limitations up?

I hope you're just huffing and puffing and full of crap.

 

[WoodlandCritter]

One of my girlfriends coworkers texted her last week to brag about her and her husband getting their first grouse of the year. 5 months before the season...

I highly encouraged her to report it but she didn't. She did at least tell her coworker "I literally despise poachers" and then the lady avoided her for the next couple days at work.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I believe poaching has gotten a lot worse here in SW Colorado. I live in the county and almost all of the private land is 3 acres or larger as the county has an ordinance preventing subdividing of any land that has less than 3 acres. Almost all of it is former farms and especially hay ranches. Lots of draws and canyons also. We have a ton of resident deer here. Last week I have around 50 feeding in my small hay field. Lots of kids brag that their families eat some venison almost every day. The thing that I have noticed is that there are a lot less big mature bucks around the last few years. Last year I only saw a couple and I usually see 15 or 20. I could keep my freezer full year round and all I would have to do is get my .22 rimfire and shoot a doe in the head from my deck.

 

[wind gypsy]

Wildlife Poaching Is Costing Americans an Outrageous Amount of Money

Researchers discovered that poaching happens way more often than we realize, and it usually goes undetected and unpunished.

www.outdoorlife.com

I asked one of the members of our Arkansas wildlife commission about the rates of poaching and how it effects their population estimates. I got a surprising answer:
The state of Arkansas figures that something north of 40% of deer in certain counties do NOT get tagged/reported.
As someone who has lived in one of those 40% counties for the last decade, I think those numbers are LOW if anything!

The first year that I lived here I caught flak from the neighbors because one house of two folks with zero kids had 6 bucks hanging. I mentioned that the limit was 2 per person and was informed "They shoot deer for food" as if that was an excuse - my problems started when I mentioned that I doubt the first 6 deer they found while hunting for food were all 140"+ bucks...
Yet somehow I was the A-hole for pointing out this to everyone...

Before anyone tries to give me flack for complaining about "poaching for food" or whatever your particular cope is - in the last 2 years alone we have trapped, killed, butchered, packaged, and donated to our neighbors well over 150 adult wild hogs and dozens of does that we cull based on CWD tags,

Yeah. Turning deer into food is the law anywhere I've ever been able to legally shoot a deer. They still limit how many deer you can turn into food for a reason.

 

[Hnthrdr]

When I hunted the Utah this year during the "spike hunt" there were ATV's coming down past my camp all night long 1:00AM-2:00AM almost every single night. Lot of shooting going on around us but everyone we talked to said they didn't see anything.....One night I shined my light out to see what the hell it was and there was a guy on a 4 wheeler with a big rack on it going by my tent as fast as he could go. Just the rack. It was a poachers paradise there with that "Spike hunt" going on. I would wager that a LOT of mature bulls were hitting the dirt on those spike tags. Again, no solid proof but I don't believe in coincidences...

Also, I always wondered how many of those people spending 10 + points on a cow muzzleloader tag are actually hunting cows. I'm not buying that people are that damn stupid or desperate for cow elk meat to spend 10 + years of your life applying to get a cow tag......

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Or even funnier......

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I believe if I was the game warden, this is where I would start sleuthing.

With tags getting harder and harder to draw, poaching is alive and well across the west. I would actually go as far to say that I think it is worse now than it was 20 years ago.

I dunno man there are some dummies out there, I see guys regularly dump double digit points ( like 1 or 2 a year) on a freaking buck tag you can draw for 0 points….

There is no doubt a bunch of shady stuff that goes on… unfortunately

 

[wind gypsy]

There’s a level of gaming the system and squeezing everything for every drop it’s worth that seems pervasive throughout everyday life lately, even outside of hunting. And it’s really depressing seeing that in hunting. Even legally. A guy at work told me about a guy he knows that shoots 20+ deer every year. I’ve driven past deer drives of a dozen plus guys doing basically a military operation on a small piece of timber to where there’s no way anything is gonna leave that timber alive. It just gets to the point where why are we taking so much more than we need? To brag? And then one day the bragging stories will shift from how many deer we shot to “yeah there used be a lot of deer here”.

Oh, I saw plenty of deer survive that and it's only by the grace of horseshit marksmanship. Had a 20 ga slug hit the dirt at my feet once while posting for such a drive when i was 12 or 13 too.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

Yeah. Turning deer into food is the law anywhere I've ever been able to legally shoot a deer. They still limit how many deer you can turn into food for a reason.

Hunting for subsistence is not legal here UNLESS you have a tag. You can't take any big game animal without a tag.

 

[Jaden Bales]

This is a super interesting thread. I think one of the pieces missing is the history of hunting and wildlife management. Basically, when the NA Model was implemented, tons and tons of people didn't abide – especially because a lot of the monumental changes came about in and around the Great Depression. It was essentially rural people being like, "the government can't tell me if I can or cannot provide for my family in the way I see fit."

And where I grew up, that thought process was still really pervasive - in my extended family, included. Granted, they all cooled off after getting busted and/or growing older, I think that long-rooted thought process is the epicenter of the poaching that doesn't get caught.

The ones that get busted seem to be the ones who are chasing big stuff illegally - not the cow elk hunter shooting their rifle in muzzleloader season. But in the same vein of a conversation about the enforcement of any laws, if you have 80-90% compliance, historically the management of the species is still happening on a large scale.

Long story short, yeah it's really common, but I think you're getting more compliance these days because social media allows for a public venue to string up those who are really screwing it up for the rest of us, not the other way around.

 

[wind gypsy]

Hunting for subsistence is not legal here UNLESS you have a tag. You can't take any big game animal without a tag.

I’m talking about wanton waste, meaning all big game are “for food”.

 

[DuckDawg22]

Funny to juxtapose this thread with the "new guys are the problem" thread. I made a point over there that poachers were far worse for hunting, having an idea how prevalent it was here in CA but not quite understanding the full scope nationally. It does seem to be more of an older generation thing, guys ignorant to the sort of technology that exists today to catch them and an overall sense of "who gives af, no one around here is going to talk." Today's younger generation and the influencers mentioned understand the tech and have way more to lose.

 

[RS3579]

Yes it is. But the real question is how many people has anyone actually turned in a poacher to the states fish and game commissions? People admit it freely knowing no one will turn them in.

 

[OregonSteeler]

This thread truly hurts my heart. There's a lot of areas in my life where I feel absolutely helpless about the current state; politics, our school systems, social media trends and kids, and also poaching. Mostly, I feel like the majority of our hunting/fishing society are standup individuals who follow the law and a solid moral/ethical compass. This thread counters that violently.

Trust me, I'm absolutely not perfect and did dumb things over my lifetime, but I've felt the guilt in my soul and re-directed myself to be a better person.

I've primarily only hunted solo, with my kids, or 2 very close friends, so I don't run across many things unethical. Reading most of these comments makes me feel like I do have...or should have my head in the sand.