If I knew for a fact that a man was poaching to feed his family I might be able to overlook it once, but some of the folks do it as a way of life. They won't work, and think they can live off the land, killing everything they eat. If it were a guy in a new 4x4, with a $2000. gun, I would be the first in line to turn his sorry butt in, and would go to court to see him convicted.
Everytime I hear about a poacher I think about an incident that happened many years ago. We were at a deer camp south of Brownwood, Texas, it was Friday night before opening day of the season. We were in the cabin playing cards when we heard a gun go off. You couldn't see the cabin from the road, but we could see the road. Looking out, we seen a vehicle's lights on the road about 500 yards from the cabin. We could see a man moving in front of the lights, he crossed the fence onto our property and we lost him in the brush. My friend, who already had too much Jim Beam, picked up his .44 mag and grabed his jeep keys and went out to see what was going on, another friend who was sober and myself decided we had better go cheeck on him. When we drove up Jim was out of the jeep, had a guy at gun point reading him the right act. I didn't see any gun, or dead deer, so I asked what was going on. He said he had to use the bathroom and had got out of the truck to go when his friend shot up in the air to scare him. I couldn't prove otherwise, so I asked if had taken care of business, he answered , "yes", so I told him to leave. We stood there as he crossed the fence, got in the pick-up, and they drove away. Jim jumped in his jeep turned around and headed back to the cabin. As many of you know, it takes two acres to turn a Ford F--250 Crew Cab around, as I was turning around I noticed something white on the ground about 25 yard away. I drove over to it, there lay a dead doe, shot between the ears. There was also a Remington 700 ADL, .270 with a Lepould scope, and a nice Puma knife. We loaded the deer in the truck, I put the gun and knife in the back seat, drove back to the cabin, hung and skinned the deer and put it in the locker. I went inside, everyone looked at the gun and knife. We continued to play cards for 45 minutes or so when we heard a knock on the door. Someone opened the door, there stood the guy we had talked to earlier. He said, "you can have the deer, I just want my gun a knife back.' I stood up and asked him, "what gun?" We went back and forth a few times, he seemed to be getting mad and said "I want my gun and I will get it, I don't care what I have to do." I told him again, "I don't know what you are talking about, but I will be happy to call the game warden, or county mounty, and let them sort this out. SInce there were 12 of us in the cabin, he left and we never seen him again. The .270 is in my safe, and has been for several years. I had a sheath made for the knife and still use it. I would bet, this guy thinks about this more often than I do, and I am sure if someone mentions poaching he will tell them it is an expensive way of getting a deer.
