Moose Droppings

Working late on a busy opening day last September in Guilford County, Sgt. Cameron Ingram and officers Brent Hodges and Bray McAteer decided to check out one final hunt before heading home.

Several men were in a field at the back of a farm, and most of them deservedly got a ticket for hunting with the aid of live decoys, a strict no-no.

According to Wildlife In North Carolina magazine’s monthly “On Patrol” feature, the hunters had tied white pigeons to logs throughout the field and had placed their blinds nearby.

Highly illegal but an uncommon practice I’m sure. Hunting over baited fields, unplugged guns and exceeding the limit are much more common. If you hit the dove fields in a couple of weeks make sure you don’t have a “community pile” of doves but rather each individual should keep their own pile. The last few years the wardens have been cracking down on “community pile” and issuing tickets for exceeding the limit.

 ”The two officers were checking fishermen on Lake Norman when Carlisle received a call from a friend who was scouting the nearby Catawba Game Land for doves to hunt the next morning. The friend reported that a man was sitting in the middle of a field on the game land shooting doves in violation of the law prohibiting Sunday hunting.

“The officers drove to the field and approached the hunter. He was polite and seemed glad to see the officers.

“Carlisle explained the violation to the man, who in turn revealed that he recently had moved to North Carolina from a state where Sunday hunting was allowed and had not thought twice about doing so.

“As Carlisle was writing the ticket, the man said that he had been wondering why no one else had showed up to hunt.”

Uh, might it have been they were at church?

North Carolina is one of a few states that doesn’t allow hunting on Sunday. Currently the state is studying the issue to see if the law should be changed. I must admit that I’m happy with the way things are right now North Carolina has some long seasons. The lack of Sunday hunting also allows for extra days on the front end and the back end of the waterfowl season which has been very beneficial with the way some of the migrations have gone. You have until the end of the month to be heard on the issue if you wish to contact the NC Wildlife Comment. Additionally if you want more information about the Sunday hunting from folks working to get the law changed check out this site.

 ”Arnold was reading through the Shelby Shopper when he saw an ad placed by a man who wanted to sell two mounted deer heads — one of a doe, the other of a buck.

“Arnold called the man and asked about the mounts. The fellow said he had sold the buck, but still had the doe. The officer went to the subject’s house in uniform, thinking the man had figured out by now the sell was illegal.

“Officer Arnold asked for the mount. The man brought it to him and asked, `Will you give me $30 for it?’

“Arnold advised the man it was against the law to sell the mount in North Carolina. The man answered, `I know, but who is going to tell?’

“After the man dropped the price to $25, Arnold advised him that he was going to issue a citation. At this point the man finally looked at the patch on the shoulder of Arnold’s uniform and asked, `Are you the game warden?’ ”

Well, doe — er, duh! Tom

Not much you can say about that other then it wouldn’t surprise me to see this guy as a Darwin award recipient sometime in the future.