Got turned in for poaching!!!!!

M

monarchtaxidermy

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LAST EDITED ON Oct-14-09 AT 12:50PM (MST)[p]Kind of a funny story I would like to share. My brother in law and I were on a CMWU hunting elk on the wasatch unit. We were hunting OCt 1st through Oct 4th before the opening of the utah general elk on Sat the 3rd of october. We ended up killing this bull on the 2nd of october. On are way out of the canyon all the spike hunters were on there way up to set up for the opener. Well it seems someone called the DWR and reported they had seen a big bull in the back of a truck on a spike unit. On Our way out of the canyon DWR stoped us and told us that someone reported us. THey checked tags, bull and all the regular stuff just to send us back on are way. I just wanted to post and say HELL YES!!! I am glad hunters are actually paying attention and calling on this kind of stuff. Even though it was a mistake there's no reason not to believe this could have been a poaching incident. So I guess you could say that I am happy this happened and there is no shame on calling if you are suspicious of something you see.
Here is a picture of my brother in laws bull. Had a very enjoyable hunt.
Curtis Wilson
Monarchtaxidermy.com
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I had a similar incident and felt the same way.

In 2004 I had killed a 4 point buck in Utah on opening weekend, which was a week before the Colorado opener. When I got off the freeway back in Colorado I had a guy in a lifted Chevy get right on my tail so I knew he was probably checking out the rack.

About 2 in the morning I get a call from the game warden. He says, "We got a call about a poached deer. I'm standing outside next to a silver Ford Ranger and the plates match. There's blood in the bed--we need to talk."

He was on call that weekend and had to drive over an hour in the middle of the night to come check it out, but he was as decent as could be about it. I showed him my Utah tag and a gas receipt from a Utah gas station, he said congrats and took off.

I was pretty impressed with the whole thing, from the concerned citizen thinking I'd taken early dibs on a buck to the professionalism of the warden.
 
I have a similar story that didn't end up with such a good ending. A friend of mine had a cow elk tag. We usually have one or two people that draw a cow tag every year. Well it is for the same area that we hunt the General Muzzy deer. You can shoot a cow during that deer hunt as long as it is shot with a muzzy. My friend shot his cow, hitting it a little back. Long story short, After the second day of trying to find his cow, the F&G show up in camp. They told us that someone had seen him shoot the cow and assumed it was illegal. These people proceeded to tell the F&G exactly where the animal finally died. Once the F&G were convinced that nothing illegal had happened. He accompanied myself and my friend to the now spoiled elk. Even with the effort we put in to recover the animal, this cow died a ways away from where we lost the trail. I understand that the assumption of poaching should always be reported, but in this case, if the people that reported my friend had simply came over or yelled or anything to point us to where the elk had died, it would not have spoiled. They had clearly seen that we were trying to recover the animal.
 
OpeningDay, I agree it is too bad the elk spoiled. But I would've possibly done the same thing. If I think somebody poached, I'm not going to confront an armed group of people and accuse them of committing a felony.

I think just gather all the information that you can and call the authorities.

Grizzly
 
Grizzly,
Yeah. I know it would be a tough decision to confront what could be armed poachers. I personally though, considering it was a general unit, middle of the morning and we were searching the mountain for the animal, probably could have put it together that it may not be so suspect. I am sure poachers have done dumber things than shoot animals in the presence of people, but in this case I believe it was pretty obvious that we were determined to find the animal. There was no reason to believe we were being sneaky. But you are right. Eveything is thought out different in people's mind, and if one didn't know about an elk hunt going on I can see how people could jump to conclusions. I think any suspicion should be called in. I just hate to see an animal go to waste when it could have been recovered with a little direction.
 
Curtis,

You took it well and I agree with you. I am glad guys are watching out for illegal behavior. Maybe some of the real poachers will get nailed. Nice bull.
 
Monarch - I have often wondered when my turn will be to get stopped and checked like that. We hunt a couple of CWMU's and haul bulls off the mountain from the first week of September until the second week of November. I haven't got stopped in 9 years but when I am driving down the road with one in the back of the truck and all the other seasons are closed I have to wonder what people are thinking. I chuckled when I read your story. Nice bull by the way.


It's always an adventure!!!
www.awholelottabull.com
 

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