Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: JW_Halverson on October 12, 2015, 10:39:06 pm
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Some of you have seen the photo I posted in the Trail Cam thread of a nice respectable 5x5 whitetail buck. I have spent the last 2 months moving my one and only trail cam around a large tract of the Black Hills National Forest in order to define this feller's movements and haunts. I have really found only one really good spot to set up a hide where I have a good shot at him. It's on a saddle where several trails converge and on the route to the one steady source of water in this watershed. Even in my most deluded pipe dreams, I did not believe I had a brass railroad lock on this buck. He did NOT get to this size by being stupid, but I had a chance.
Then Sunday morning I went in to move the trail cam to a trail leading onto a nice little benchtop meadow. When I got to the "honey hole", I was confused to see a dark brown round stone in the deer trail. When I got closer, I could see the plants around it, dead and withered. I immediately spun around, looking up. Sure enough, I found three tree stands, and two more salt blocks. The ground is baited with salt and that is very much illegal in South Dakota.
Not only can I not hunt this now, I have to wait 30 days after the bait is removed before I can legally hunt here again. Burned, then the fields were salted.
I text messaged a Conservation Officer friend of mine and made plans to meet up in half an hour. I had a bloody hard hump across rough ground to make the meeting, but I felt pretty driven by bitter anger at this cheater or team of cheaters. When we hiked in, he asked if I had seen cameras. Honestly, I hadn't thought of it. When we approached, it was very slowly, binoculars scanning every tree for sign of a game cam. We circled twice and eventually uncovered the approach of the poacher(s). They had come in on four wheelers in a motorvehicle restricted area. They even chainsawed several trees to improve their access and shooting lanes.
This now makes it a bit more serious because the Forest Service certainly did not approve their logging activities or offroad driving. Tomorrow they will be out there to document and do their own investigations in cooperation with the Conservation Officer. Little do they know, those lazy filthy slobs, but they have a meaner predator on their trail now.
If they had put up treestands, I would have understood. I would have tried hard to hunt around them, share the land, share the opportunities, but this is doesn't cut it in my view. The C.O. said he would inform me the moment the salt blocks were removed and he would not bother me if I resumed hunting right away. But I can't. That buck is too cool for that, if I made the shot while he was wandering around looking for the salt block he knew he had found before....well it would just spoil fair chase for me. I would rather fail on my own merit than win on the merits of someone else's cheating.
I don't do a lot of hunting. I don't cover thousands of acres over large swaths of this 1.25 million acre National Forest. What I tend to do is concentrate on a half square mile and learn every tree and rock in that area, to know intimately where to be when the morning sun starts that upslope breeze, where to be when it snows or rains or the wind blows like mad. I like to know where they loaf, where they browse, where they scrape and where they hide. So when someone burns my field, I am left at square one again. My last half square mile was burned the same way two years ago with the EXACT SAME SITUATION. And it leaves me heartsick thinking what are the odds? How prevalent is cheating, how low are the average ethics, how far are my fellow "hunters" from a fair chase creed? I know I am going to listen to what more anti-hunters say from now on. Hate to say it, but they are not far from right anymore.
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I'm truly sorry brother. I've dealt with similar situations over the years. So I feel your pain. There are still good ethical hunters out there. After finding yourself in a situation like that, it is hard to believe. I finally had to acquire a lease with some very close friends to get away from the idiots. It's been worth every penny and we are able to manage our land for the better of the game we chase. It's the first real fair chase hunting I've done since we sold the family farm several years ago. Unfortunately it only takes one bad egg to spoil the pot... My condolences. I hope you obtain your quarry.
Patrick
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I have not yet met a hunter who did not seem like a good, respectable person. That said, there are those few who find it necessary to break the rules, knowing full well the consequences. I do hunting over food plots, but lately I have been making an effort to hunt El Natural, without corn or beans or guns all the time, I liked the ease of hunting with guns over food plots when I was younger but now, it's seemingly a bit to easy for my taste. I think that a great majority of hunters are very good people, but it's the few that break the rules that make it seem like we're all rednecks that shoot at moving bushes. It's a shame that this has happened to you.
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Sorry JW. Sounds like someone has been watching you. Probably someone you think you know. Have you seen anyone else in the area? hard to believe you did not run across their sign when you were doing your scouting. Sounds like a production crew for hunting video.
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That's a bummer JW ! I do applaud Your ethics tho Brother - Bob.
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Grrrrr.
I can see why you are annoyed... where's the sport in vehicles, chain saws and salt blocks? I hope they get caught and hung out to dry.
Del
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One way you can view this though, is that because of YOU, those creeps will get what's coming to them. Imagine if they had nailed that buck through illegal hunting methods, how disgusting that would be? Now you know that buck will likely live another year for you to try at again, and you know you did the right thing in the meantime.
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Grrrrr.
I can see why you are annoyed... where's the sport in vehicles, chain saws and salt blocks? I hope they get caught and hung out to dry.
Del
Sadly if they are caught the fine isn't enough to scare off those with money enough to do it.
Get 'em JW. Put some tree sap all over their tree stands.
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I ran a big hunting club with 50 members, it was a QDM club with strict rules.
Running the club and dealing with John Q Public was a real eye opener. I found that 10% of the members were arrow straight and would never break the rules, 60% were rule abiding most of the time but would tip to the dark side in a heart beat if the right opportunity arose, 10% of the members were down right criminal and killed anything that moved as well as spotlighting and killing deer on the club plots at night.
There are not that many honest, honorable hunters out there in my opinion. The traditional ranks probably have a much higher percentage than the overall population simply because they aren't looking for an easy way out.
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John, is your trail cam set up where you can catch who it is? That might be an option for you.
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start scouting out another area,,next year have a back up,, concentrate on what you can do to move in a positive direction,, giving energy to what happened may slow you down on what you need to do to find another great place to hunt,,, you can do it think positive ,,, its not over till its over,,, :)
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Hope you find a better spot with an even bigger buck.
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Grrrrr.
I can see why you are annoyed... where's the sport in vehicles, chain saws and salt blocks? I hope they get caught and hung out to dry.
Del
Sadly if they are caught the fine isn't enough to scare off those with money enough to do it.
Get 'em JW. Put some tree sap all over their tree stands.
That is for saps. Instead, I got a line on some bear and wolf feces for FREE. I think if they can bait, I can ANTI-BAIT!!! Now, some might say I am harassing a licensed sportsman in lawful pursuit of game. But that would only apply if they were not UNlawfully hunting over bait! Who says I don't give a sh...shucks.
John, is your trail cam set up where you can catch who it is? That might be an option for you.
Jim recommended I get my camera out of the area. They would be the type to damage or steal my property. Instead, he is setting up camera traps on likely routes and on the one and only access road.
I am moving further north a quarter mile. Google maps and a good set of topographicals show that there are a couple of nick pockets of heavy cover. I think when the pressure comes on, he may move there.
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That is for saps. Instead, I got a line on some bear and wolf feces for FREE. I think if they can bait, I can ANTI-BAIT!!! Now, some might say I am harassing a licensed sportsman in lawful pursuit of game. But that would only apply if they were not UNlawfully hunting over bait! Who says I don't give a sh...shucks.
I like the cut of your jib sir!lol
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Good luck JW! Don't forget the mountain lion scat...
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I used to hunt a management area that bordered private land. One year I kept seeing a guy slip across the line onto the management area and hunt it illegally when the gun season was open on private land but not on the management area, which was bow hunting only.
He never noticed me up a tree in camo bow hunting and he always sat at the base of the same tree when he slipped across the line to gun hunt. I made it a ritual to water his sitting spot every time I got down after dark to leave, he always left before I did. He never got the message and kept sitting in the same spot.
I finally got fed up with his trespassing and shouted at him " you are across the line and hunting illegally" at which point he left and didn't return.
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JW I used to hunt out there in the black hills of SD. If you want a recommendation for an area to look at shoot me a PM. It's been almost a decade since I lived there, but according to my buddy the area I'm talking about remains unchanged. To this day it was the greatest deer hunting I've ever experienced.
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JW I used to hunt out there in the black hills of SD. If you want a recommendation for an area to look at shoot me a PM. It's been almost a decade since I lived there, but according to my buddy the area I'm talking about remains unchanged. To this day it was the greatest deer hunting I've ever experienced.
THAT is P. A. spirit at it's very best, right there. Folks, I am humbled and honored.
DK, thank you for pitching in with the others helping me turn my negativity around.