Deer Plate
People are shooting from the road!! Help!!?
We have a farm in Georgia. During deer season the rednecks (ok I’m one too, so the bad rednecks) drive slowly down the road looking for deer. When they see one, they shoot at it. At dusk, sometimes at night with a spotlight. What can I do? Short of shooting back. If I setup a fake deer and video tape them and their license plate, is that enough to prosecute them? Would you contact the sheriff or DNR guys? Any other ideas? We’ve been chasing them and shinning a light on them to scare them off. The DNR and Sheriff are understandably too busy most of the time. HELP!!
My heart goes out to you. This isn't just frustrating, it down right pisses a man off.
First...you never want to piss off a person with a gun. It is best that you just stay away from them. Shining the vehicle from a distance is fine as the criminals would see it as more of an "Oh sh*t!, someone sees me" type thing rather than a threat. If someone sees you video taping them shooting at a fake deer, the criminals might begin to see jail time, big fines, or loss of hunting licenses and blame you.
If you carry a gun for protection and end up shooting someone in self-defense, you will have an Excedrin sized legal headache to keep you out of jail. If you stay out of jail, then you will have civil suits to fight off. The families will claim the whole thing was planned from the start and you will probably die of a heart attack from the stress and leave your family broke (OK, so I am probably being overdramatic, but point is you can get yourself in a world of sh*t). There is a book called Poachers Caught by a retired Warden named Chapin. He tells a story about an old man who was reporting poachers to the DNR and taking them on. A short time later, the old man disappeared and was never found. Most poachers are punk kids or adults without honor, but some are real criminals...it isn't worth the risk.
Second, call and talk with your local DNR warden (your local warden, not the state headquarters...you can find out who your local warden is through the state DNR office or your local police usually). Let the local warden know what is going on. Take notes over time and let the warden know if the poachers come on the same day of the week, they drive the same vehicle, shine in the same spot, etc.. The less work it is for the warden to get an arrest, the more they will listen to you, so collect information (I'm not calling wardens lazy, it is just that there are so few of them and a lot of area to cover, they need to choose their battles).
If the DNR doesn't listen to you, talk with the local sheriff/local police and see if they would be willing to pursue tresspassing charges against the poachers. Take your info you collected to them and try to make it as easy of a case as possible.
If the local police/sheriff won't listen, then you are pretty much SOL. The person who suggested contacting the news agency had a good suggestion. However, a few dead deer in the field isn't much of a story for a local paper (though local law enforement ignoring an ever growing problem might be). Maybe a local sportsman's magazine or paper would be interested in the story.
If no one still won't listen to you, have some fun with the situation. Fashion a deer decoy out of a old deer hide and a metal barrel and put it out for people to shoot. Put a foam deer decoy out there and accidently drop a box of nails in the area, put the decoy in an area that happens to have a lot of holes that are diffcult to see, put some rotten eggs or dog poop in the area, or line a hole with plastic and fill with water. If there is an area poachers drive through your land, accidently drop a board with nails in the track to do some tire damage. When a poacher's car stops, ping the paint with a BB gun (well, the BB gun is probably illegal and crossing the line for sure).
Be creative with rigged fireworks, noxious items, ipecac syrup, or a million other things. Just use your head and make sure not to cause any physical harm as that will get you into trouble.
Good Luck
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