Parked and talking to a lady who was looking for her lost horses on some private ground we hunt. An older gentleman pulls up and says hello. Asks how far the hard road is from where we are. I tell him and he asks if we are turkey hunting. He has a dog with him, is wearing camo and has a shotgun laid beside him pointing at the floorboard. He asks if there is any place he can turkey hunt along this road, says he was just riding the roads and looking around. I say as far as I know there is no public ground anywhere along these roads and I tell him about 20 miles away is a WMA that is open for hunting (I deliberately mispronounce it like the one that is closer to my house). He pronounces it correctly and asks where it is. I tell him and he says goodbye and he drives off.
My son is with me and he looks at me and says "Road hunting poacher?".
What say y'all?
Poacher/Trespasser sounds like.
In this day and age there really is no excuse to find yourself unable to find public.
Sounds like to me he knew all the answers to every question he asked. Wanted to see how much you knew and what info you were willing to share with him.
Probably one of those guys who rides the back roads daily during turkey season looking for an opportunity .
I'd lay my money on him being a poacher.
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Could have been a poacher or could be his method of finding land to hunt without having to knock on a bunch of doors. Not my way of doing things but not inherently bad either.
" I don't know son. but thats not how we do it". That would have been my approach. We are how we were taught. Teach them your way and hope it sticks. :z-twocents: Z
Scum bag poachers use 22s.They road poach and shoot from inside the vehicle. If you see something, call it in immediately.
In my state we have to unload and case our guns in vehicles. So where I'm at if he's got his gun at the ready next to him, he's likely planning to use it. Either hunting from a mobile ground blind or fishing for permission, but from the sound of it he was hunting from his truck.
I can beat that story. Last spring I was on private ground in Ky and I had returned to my truck. There was a gobbler strutting in the field on the adjacent property and I had tried all morning to pull him across to my side. I had returned to get a drink and meet my buddy. I thought maybe late morning we could coax him over. An old ford ranger drives by with a guy in camo driving. He stops on the road maybe 100 yards from me and sticks a shotgun out the window and takes a long pot shot at the gobbler. All he does is wound it. He gets out to chase it then sees me coming his way and speeds off. I never got a tag number but I told the landowner and he was going to watch for the truck. What a jerk. I have no clue why he ever thought he could kill that bird and get away with it. Maybe he saw i was OOS tags and just wanted to F me up. It's a pretty rough Hillbilly neighborhood and you got to tread lightly, but most of the locals know me and we get along fine. I usually play Sargent sholtz and see nothing and hear nothing, but this was too much. A couple of the local hoodlums came by while we were talking to the owner and stopped to chat, even they didn't like it and one said they'd take care of him. Maybe this spring I will just see a burnt out ford ranger parked somewhere....ya don't mess with old school Hillbillies.
All I can say, if you see anything, know anything, and care, call tip- mont immediately.
OP,
I wish you could come hunt some of the spots I do. 75% of the guys I come across in one of the states I hunt have a rifle in the seat of their truck and are just driving the gravel roads looking for an opportunity. The use of a rifle is legal. The loaded and in the truck part is not.
Good-looking and Platinum level member of the Elitist club
This sounds like a classic horse thief, was it a cattle dog? Horse makes a fine meal
Sound like an old school poacher that thinks he's slick.
Yeah, after talking we decided he was likely gonna road shoot one or jump out anywhere and poach.
Funny thing is later that day I went with my wife to town to get a pizza and 20 yards from my mailbox a nice longbeard crossed the road headed to my house! Could have shot him and my neighbor would have been fine with it all day long. Now, he better not roost near my property as he is safe from me, but my SIL is a mortal danger to him.
What these punks do, is drive around,shoot a rifle from inside their vehicle, then drive off.Or they will let somebody out to tresspass,trespass, pick them up 5 miles down yhe road at a predetermined time. Low bottom feeders.
Quote from: RutnNStrutn on March 27, 2024, 08:52:46 PM
I'd lay my money on him being a poacher.
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Likewise. I watched a guy in Missouri that was road hunting and blasted a strutting gobbler out his Jeep window. Coincidentally, I was working that gobbler at the time.
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Wait is that not how you're supposed to do it?
Next time, get his plate, turn him in. He should be checked out, the dog in the car was strange for sure....
The fact that the guy had his gun at the ready makes me lean towards the idea that, given the opportunity, he may have had bad intentions. Then again, perhaps he did not...but if that was the case, he showed extremely poor judgement in having the gun where it was. If he was maybe looking for a landowner in the area that would give him permission to hunt, looking like a potential poacher is not a good introduction.
Others have already pointed out that it is illegal to have uncased and/or loaded firearms in a vehicle while hunting in some states. Having it illegal in all states (and perhaps including in that regulation that it is illegal to have the weapon in the front seat where it is easily accessible) would go a long ways to preventing some of these "drive by" hunters.
Quote from: GobbleNut on March 31, 2024, 09:41:54 AM
The fact that the guy had his gun at the ready makes me lean towards the idea that, given the opportunity, he may have had bad intentions. Then again, perhaps he did not...but if that was the case, he showed extremely poor judgement in having the gun where it was. If he was maybe looking for a landowner in the area that would give him permission to hunt, looking like a potential poacher is not a good introduction.
Others have already pointed out that it is illegal to have uncased and/or loaded firearms in a vehicle while hunting in some states. Having it illegal in all states (and perhaps including in that regulation that it is illegal to have the weapon in the front seat where it is easily accessible) would go a long ways to preventing some of these "drive by" hunters.
Even if it was illegal to have it in front seat, they would still do it.
Quote from: YoungGobbler on March 31, 2024, 09:39:02 PM
Quote from: GobbleNut on March 31, 2024, 09:41:54 AM
The fact that the guy had his gun at the ready makes me lean towards the idea that, given the opportunity, he may have had bad intentions. Then again, perhaps he did not...but if that was the case, he showed extremely poor judgement in having the gun where it was. If he was maybe looking for a landowner in the area that would give him permission to hunt, looking like a potential poacher is not a good introduction.
Others have already pointed out that it is illegal to have uncased and/or loaded firearms in a vehicle while hunting in some states. Having it illegal in all states (and perhaps including in that regulation that it is illegal to have the weapon in the front seat where it is easily accessible) would go a long ways to preventing some of these "drive by" hunters.
Even if it was illegal to have it in front seat, they would still do it.
True, there will always be a certain percentage of the unsavory sorts that are going to flaunt the laws regardless of what those laws are. However, I am a firm believer that every deterrent put in place...and associated sufficient penalties for violations...makes a few more folks think twice before doing the illegal stuff.
POS if you ask me but that me!
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