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Think outskirts suburban wantabe rednecks.

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You just described about half of my 80 cousins. The other half are the real deal.

Along the lines of this discussion, I remember some of the old-timers, my dad's friends, telling me that there was a time when it was special to find some deer tracks.

Those of us hearing that comment have a hard time believing it considering that somewhere near here there is always a winter oats patch with 200 or more deer on it.

I'm in my mid-60s and can remember when you couldn't shoot does at all, ever, and you got one tag a year - spike buck or better. I remember lots of hunts where nobody even SAW a deer of either sex. It wasn't all that long ago.

I asked my Dad, who used to farm as a kid, how they protected their crops from deer. He said "there were no deer back then around here".

I remember hearing stories about efforts to restock deer in East Texas in the 40s. They would ship in deer by the rail car load and open the doors to let them loose. As soon as the rail car would pull away, people by the dozens would turn their dogs loose and track them down with shotguns and lanterns.

My grandfather would tell me that if they came across a deer track all the neighbors would get together and track it for days to kill it.

Different times / different attitudes.

Ursus, is East Texas poaching really as bad as the Internet claims? When i read game warden field notes, there doesn't appear to be a concentration of poaching in east Texas.

Pinetree, as a generality, it's a bit more prevalent in East Texas. Granted, as folks let their fence lines along the roads grown up, the problem decreases. Like I said, look counties near larger towns/cities. One area I forgot to mention is the Sabine River corridor along the Louisiana border.

Busting poacher for spotlighting actually rarely makes it into the field notes. The Kaufman County game wardens can make an arrest almost any Friday and Saturday night if they feel so inclined.