Poachers and the AGFC

This past Saturday 11/08 the modern Firearms deer season started in our part of the state.I enjoy getting out in the woods and doing a little hunting in the fall,mainly with my bow,but also with my rifle.With the coming of gun season also brings with it the damned poachers.Yesterday afternoon I was walking down a creek near Bull Shoals Lake,that opens up into a food plot maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers.As I started up the hill I noticed 2 does in the creek,shot with small caliber,with the loins and legs cut off.This is illegal to do on many counts.First wasting any edible portion of a game animal,shooting of does,and they were most likely shot from the road at night.I contacted the Arkansas game and Fish to notify them,and was told that unless I saw the persons or have a vehicle description,that it was a lost cause.

While sitting up in my tree,I began to take notice of the passing vehicles on the county road that runs adjacent with the wooded area.Of the 12 vehcs.,9 of them had their guns leaning out the window,ready to shoot.This time I wrote down the descriptions of the vehicles and as I was leaving that evening,passed a Game officer.I flagged him down and gave him my info.He responded that there are "a thousand trucks like that in this area,we'd have to catch them in the act to be able to do anything about it."

We have 4 Officers in this county,all of them seem to concentrate on one single area together,usually at one of the conveiience stores to drink coffee,or to sit on the side of the road and play with their'Robo-Deer".

I don't know what good it does to pay for my licensces,spend weeks out in the woods scouting,sighting in my rifle,only to have some scum come in the night and kill what most of us enjoy,and then not have the laws enforced.

Just venting sorry for the long post.

I hear ya Glen.i used to be a diehard deer hunter.was in the woods anytime the season was in.I still have a place I can hunt up around Hardy but i havent been hunting in almost two yrs.Gets old see and hearing of this folks killing animals like that and yea they do catch some of them but heck the ones around here dont try real hard.But when you try and help them out they say well there isnt much we can do without 9 kinds of proof.Kinda hard to get into hunting when you scout that Big Buck for months and then see or hear of him getting killed in the middle of the night with a spotlight or by folks road hunting..