Whistle Blowers

[roy reali]

How many here have called Fish and Game to report violations? What game violations would you report and which ones would you ignore? Are there some violations that you think are too minor to bother with like shooting during illegal hours? Those that have called in rule breakers, what kind of response did you get from the authorities?

I am pretty quick to call. I even have the tip number locked into my cell phone. I am not perfect nor am I better then anyone else. However, I try to follow each and every hunting law. If someone takes game out of season or above the limit, I consider it stealing. It is stealing from me. I go through all the expenses and hassles of harvesting game the right way. If someone kills an extra pheasant or shoots a deer a week early, I figure those were animals that I may have gotten. So that fellow stole from me.

So, how tolerant are you guys of seeing others violating game laws?

[Art Eatman]

I'll report any poaching.

Texas law says legal deer hours are from 30 minutes before sunrise until 30 minutes after sundown. Fine by me, but I'm not gonna be picky on account of somebody might shoot Bambi a few minutes later than what I think is thirty minutes after sundown.

Righteous does not mean nitpicky.

[taylorce1]

I'll report poachers as well but only if I see them commit the act or openly admit to it. As far as shooting before/after legal light, I've heard the shots but again I will not report it unless I can see who is doing the shooting. I remember hunting public lands for elk and I heard two shots ring out at least 30 min before legal light. It upset me but how would I report it, didn't have cell coverage on that mountain and didn't know exactly where the shots came from just a general direction. I don't have a stop watch out timing legal hunting hours but if it is an obvious violation I get pretty upset about it and will report it if I can prove it. In CO we have the same 30 min before/after rule that Art was talking about.

[davlandrum]

I agree with the previous posts. While I could report "an early shot", with no other info than that, LE won't be able to do much about it. I know there are official shooting times down to the minute, but if I am hunting during the season I go with shooting light. Enough natural light that I can clearly see the target and its surroundings and be able to sight my weapon on the animal. While this may not be the letter of the law, I think it is the intent.

Here is another scenario - you are hunting during the season completely legal. You take a shot at last light. You wait a little and then go start blood trailing it. You find it well after shooting light, but it is alive and suffering. A finishing shot will be illegal.


If I hear a shot out of season after dark in the hills, I try and watch for lights. If I can get a general idea of where they are at, I will call it in.

[J270]

CDFG Cal Tip hot line is a fricking joke

my brother called it once when he saw a doe hanging in someones yard.
the call was routed to some girl behind a desk in Sac. Her reply was the closest warden was three countys over. Not a single thing hapend what a load of shi

[davlandrum]

At least he called it in. Next time the warden might be close enough to do something about it.

[Scope Bite]

Although I have reported fishermen not releasing in C&R only areas, I normally only report two things:

1. Poaching with either no tag, or a different tag than the animal taken.
- In '98 or '99 I watched about a 14 year old kid drop a massive 6x6 bull Elk... He was in a spike-only unit. The same unit, in '99 or '00 (the next year), was actually open to limited-entry trophy bulls. Again, I watched a 25-30 year old man drop a very nice 5x6 bull, and a cow. There were no cow tags issued that year. My hunting partner, and I approached the man after his ordeal of dragging them to the truck. "How hard was it to draw a Bull tag for this unit," I asked. His reply, "You don't gotta draw. It's $20 at a grocery store." (Over-the-counter sale would have made it a tag for another unit, or a spike-only tag.) His truck beat us down the mountain, but a whole convoy of officers were waiting for him. It's always nice to have a CB radio....

2. Wasted game found on the mountain.
- Every year.... dead does/cows during a season with no doe tags... dead bucks/bulls during doe/cow season... bullet holes in animals during the archery hunt... Headless carcasses...
I know the 'authorities' have almost no chance of tracking the offenders down, but it helps them track the numbers. (And sometimes justify getting more officers into that area during the season.)


Now.... if there was an "Idiot Hunter Hotline" to report D-bags on the mountain; I would have them busy all year....

[The Tourist]

In my area 'slob hunters' are the bigger problem. I'll call on my cell phone while they're watching. They are such a big problem in some counties of Wisconsin that newspaper editorials have denounced their practices, worrying the legislature may want tighter controls.

Besides, why protect some idiot who only cares about his hunting rights, and not yours?

[CraigC]

I have a bigger problem with willfully wasting game animals, trespassing and shooting from the road than I do hunting out of season. Around here, you have to be careful. You might be calling the law on your neighbor and nobody likes a self-righteous tattler.

[Wild Bill Bucks]

I have a couple of stands, that are in areas that don't get a lot of sunshine, so my shooting time is diminished by 15 or 20 minutes in the morning and the evening. I can generally leave one of these stands at a point when it is to dark to see through my scope, and will be able to see rather well at the 4- wheeler.

Because of this, it is real hard for me to get upset about a shot I hear a little late or early. I do get upset about poaching out of season, trespassing, game waste, and guys who are jerks in the woods.....and you know who you are.

Just an after thought.

With the economy the way it is, and the money it costs to hunt now days, please don't waste game. There are plenty of people who need the meat, and can't afford any, to be wasting game. I donate a couple of deer every year to our local boys home, and they really do appreciate it, and I'm sure that most of you guys could afford the extra $50.00 or so to have one processed. If you are a rack hunter, then put out the extra cash, and do something that will make you feel good.

[copenhagen]

OK, I have reported poaching on our property in SC before, makes sense, right? Well, to come home on leave out of deer season, and have DNR show up at your property when you shot a .45 Auto at a milk jug in your back yard? Now that is rather annoying. I would submit that just because you hear a single gun shot out of season does not mean that someone is poaching.

[davlandrum]

Cope - agreed. Surprised someone called it in, but these days who knows. I here shots here and there almost daily on the farms around us.

When I hear a shot after dark above the farms is when I get curious...

[CraigC]

Or it could be some idiot like me that walks out back and fires off a shot from his Lyman Plains Pistol just to watch the light show. Or killing something four legged in the chicken house. Or picking off a coyote in the pasture. As is true most the time, it's dangerous to ass-u-me anything.

[davlandrum]

Man, you guys are making me defensive

I did say "above the farms". Where I live, it is pretty clear where the farms end and the woods begin. Also in my earlier post I indicated I watch for lights.

So if I hear a shot and see flashlights wandering around on the hill, where I know there is not a farm or even a house anywhere near it, I think it is worth a call. Don't expect much action on it, but you never know.

Heck, I would be happy if they would just stop the illegal dumping on the area I am talking about - seems no one wants to pay a dump fee anymore...

And yes, me and my neighbors all kill things in and around the chicken coops in the middle of the night, but manage not to turn each other in.

[Inspector3711]

I've called the police on 5 occasions in the Seattle area. Four were legitimate situations where a life was threatened. Two involved road rage of another driver (not at me) and another a man who threw a young girl (probably 8-9 years old) into the passenger compartment of a pickup by her hair. Her scalp was bleeding and when I stopped my car he drew a revolver (I was unarmed so politely moved on) Another case was an obviously drunk woman who rearended my brand new (1 day old) car 1 block from a large well staffed county police station. I had been stopped long before she pulled up behind me. In all cases I had license numbers and full vehicle descriptions. In none of these cases was there so much as a returned call by the police. I called about the girl several hours later and was told the vehicle didn't match the plate. I called a week later and they had closed the case with no resolution. In the case of being rear ended I was told that since I was on a state highway exit ramp I would have to contact the state patrol. The state patrol told me that no officers were in the vicinity and to file a report in the morning. I said "but she is drunk" and they repeated the same sentence.

I'm not sure reporting poachers would work here!

[CraigC]

Heck, I would be happy if they would just stop the illegal dumping on the area I am talking about - seems no one wants to pay a dump fee anymore...

Now we get to a subject that lights a fire in my eyes! The person that shoots deer from the road and let's them rot where they fall is equal to the person that dumps garbage anywhere it doesn't belong but especially in woods that don't belong to them. One step above a child molester.

[guntotin_fool]

yeah we call, we called in a group of duck hunters who were starting the barrage of WW3 on the other side of the river. We saw six guys, we counted 30 birds down. plus a bunch struggling away.


We have called deer hunters, trappers, and a few others who can not respect no trespass signs.

The biggest was a car from chicago a year ago at a well know minnesota walleye factory, they had three coolers of fish they were loading and high fiving about. They lost the boat, the truck, the camper and the other truck and all the fish. About 200 fillets, almost all in the slot (release mandatory between X and y inches.) dimensions. I think we were the fifth or sixth caller, because as soon as my brother mentioned it, they asked if it was the "red bass boat" and when he said yes, they said we have people on the way. that was nice, knowing others were willing to call too.

[roy reali]

Yes, I realize that some areas have goofy shooting times for hunters. However, it ain't rocket science. Most fish and game hunting regulation books also publish sunset/sunrise charts. If the regulations state that legal shooting time starts one-half hour before sunrise, the chart comes in mighty handy.

The hunter just looks up the date he plans to hunt on the chart. If the chart indicates a sunrise of 6:45 am, then subtracting thirty minutes from that gives you 6:15 am. Heck, I ain't even that good math and I could figure this out. Newspapers also publish sunrise and sunset times.

[hogdogs]

I don't snitch... I have tried to offer the LE agencies "gimme busts" and they dropped the ball enuff that I quit. I am not a perfect angel and don't wanna worry that some sinless person is watchin' me so me and my karma mind our own business. If someone offends or transgresses directly against me I will just deal with it and apply the three S's rule...
"Its Okay Officer I am a professional poacher..."
Seen that on a t-shirt recently.
Brent

[crowbeaner]

Well, the hunting hours used to be 1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset, but they changed here. Sunrise to sunset so we have to be out of the woods before the time listed in the local fishwrapper. Would all you posters that call the DEC when you hear a shot after dark do me a favor?

MAKE SURE IT ISN'T ME COYOTE OR COON HUNTING! FAHCRISSAKE!

[Jack O'Conner]

I tell my hunting partners to go ahead and do whatever they want because I can use the reward money! They know I'm serious but I'm getting the message across in a friendly manner.

There are parts of USA where poaching is more wide spread than others. It probably is related to tolerance and lack of public support for game laws.

Jack

[roy reali]

Some years ago California did an interesting experiment. They wanted to see how many people would report poaching.

They would have wardens dress up like your average hunter. Then they placed fake deer along major highways. They were near enough to the road that motorists would have to see them. The undercover warden was then positioned with a rifle as though he was about to shoot one of these deer. They did this experiment in the late spring and early summer figuring some people know hunting seasons generally are in the fall.


To quickly wrap this up, not one person phoned any authority to report this activity. If this had been a real poacher shooting at a real deer, he probably would have went unpunished. When poachers are not held accountable, they punish the rest of us law-abiding, honest sportsmen!

[Edward429451]

Unless they were doing gross harm (read slaughtering a whole herd for fun etc.) I wouldn't snitch on them. Taking a single game animal out of season...maybe the guy is having trouble feeding his family or something? I try not to be judgemental.

It might strike a nerve with me if I seen it, but only because I know I couldn't get away with something like that. My lucks not that good and I jealously guard my record & rights. I wouldn't begrudge the man the meat though.

[shortwave]

IMHO, probably opinion on this depends where your at to some extent. Laws on taking game out of season are there for a reason. Its hard for me,in todays time, to think somebodies starving enough to poach. To much legal help out there today. Poaching goes on around here in a big way,usually deer found dead,out of season, with racks cut off and rotting carcass. Holes size of baseballs blown in em. Last late summer 5 total found piled in ditch by county workers. Turn in a poacher-in a heartbeat!

[azsixshooter]

I don't hold any hatred for a hunter who makes an honest mistake and breaks a minor rule (say, shoots 5 minutes early but in light that he can see well in or something like that). However, when I read stories like the recent one of the 120-odd Caribou massacred up by Point Hope, AK or the endless stories of grotesque poaching in Africa/Asia/India my heart burns with a black rage to see those soulless parasites swing from a tall tree with a short rope.

I'm not the type who "relishes" the opportunity to tattle on somebody, but if someone is brazenly breaking the law and demonstrating reckless disrespect to the land, animals or fellow hunters then I'd be happy to call and do ANYTHING I can to make life as miserable as possible for them. I would think that if you saw someone illegally taking game and really wanted a quick response call the tip line anonymously and tell them what you saw and that you're heading over to hold them at gunpoint until help arrives then hang up. I bet the cavalry would come charging in over that, I wouldn't be surprised if they showed up in a chopper. It's not like you're providing false information, you could just say that you thought better of it later and decided to leave it to the professionals.

I saw a documentary a long time ago that always stuck in my head. It was on a guy in Africa who was some kind of game warden. He had a background in special forces (maybe SAS) and he would actually hunt the poachers and he had the authority to kill them if necessary. THAT would be awesome. Those kinds of scumbags deserve to die for the kind of poaching they do. I bet it would make a lot of them a little less apt to go running around out there at night slaughtering white zebras or whatever knowing there's a total bad@ss hunting them! I googled around a bit, but couldn't find any solid reference to the guy I'm thinking of. I want to say it was in Kenya, but it's been so long since I saw that. They should hire teams of guys like that to wipe out poachers.

If you are a poacher, go suck a tail pipe you worthless piece of dung. You know who you are.