Moose Droppings

I thought I’d Poach a Story from the Black Bear Blog

Sep 29, 2006 @ 12:24 pm by Moose

In today’s post Tom puts forth a good stab at (just kidding) on what is poaching. I actually agree with just about all that he said. The article breaks poachers up into 3 basic groups; Group One is the poor person trying to keep his family fed. Although it’s wrong I think most of us would look the other way and I hope we would offer to help them out. The second group is the trophy poacher who only wants the horns or head. The third one is the one who kills for the jollies of killing. My view is this is the individual who commits animal cruelty, ritualistic killings, spree killing, and thrill killing. These are individuals who are often teenagers and young males that are often on the path that leads them to becoming serial killers. Very sick individuals and calling them poachers I think down plays the seriousness of their crimes. In my professional life I’ve run into a few of these individuals and early intervention is about the best hope for them so if you know someone like this please get them help.

I’ll put forth another group of poachers that in the past I’ve taken a lot of heat for talking about them. I suspect because many of us have knowingly and unknowingly crossed the line from hunter to poacher. Have you ever shot a deer or bear after legal shooting time? Today’s scopes with great light gathering abilities give us abilities to see well past the end of shooting light. One minute past that time and you are a poacher. These are also the same guys that may over look bag and possession limits. Daily bag limit is 5 fish possession limit is 10 “I only took 4 yesterday I’ll keep 6 today and I’m still legal.”

My first deer I ever killed was in Massachusetts when I was hunting with a group of guys and at the start of the hunt they said we have 2 doe tags to fill so if you get the chance shoot one. I did and it wasn’t until after this that I discovered that the tags were not party tags and only the individual who had the tag could use it. I learned a lot from that experience and I strive not to ever do that again.

I’ve never had a B&C buck walk in just after the end of shooting light but that would be a great temptation but I think my ethics would help me resist the urge to drop the hammer on him. I know many others say that’s crazy and who would know? I guess I would and somehow that trophy I bet would always be a bit less then it could have been much like my memories of my first deer.