Growing up in Eastern New Mexico we had to run hunters off our fence lines and wind breaks every pheasant season. Funny thing is, if they actually would come to the house and ask, dad would usually let them hunt with the only qualification being that they didn't hunt our equipment corner or around the house. Sad thing is, 4 out of 5 would never ask and act like they owned the place.

I do remember coming home from Church one morning with my mom. We came by one field and a couple guys had targets leaned up against one of the towers of our sprinkler. Mom stopped to ask what the hell they were doing. They proceeded to tell her that they had lived in that County longer than she had been alive and no rich, little white girl was goin to tell them that they couldn't use that land how they pleased. Mom, told them to wait right there and we would get things figured out real quick with her husband and the sheriff. When she told dad a few minutes later it was probably a good thing they were already gone by the time he got there.

Just a couple years ago, dad caught a couple young men stealing scrap metal off of one of his equipment corners when scrap prices were through the roof. When they saw him hauling ass down the road they jumped in their truck and took off. This was about 5 miles out of town. As dad was chasing them at around 90 MPH he was calling 911 at the same time. The 911 operator told him to stop chasing them immediately and let the police handle it. My dad told her they could arrest him along with the thieves if they would hurry their asses up. They turned down a railroad right of way on the edge of town and dad said there was crap flying out of the bed of their truck all over the place. About the time the police found them he ran over a piece of metal and blew out a tire. The police continued the chase and caught one of the 2 a couple miles later when they crashed their truck into someones yard and took off on foot. They eventually found out who the other guy was but didn't do much to follow up with charges. They also tried their damndest to try and talk dad out of filing charges. Some BS excuse about a little bit of scrap metal not being worth the paperwork or cost of the trial.

A favorite past time of me and my buddies in high school was spotlighting city kids using country roads and sometimes our fields to screw their girlfriends in. Not out of the ordinary to be heading to the house after dragging main street on the weekend nights and see a couple trying to cover themselves in the bed of their truck as we drove by. Good times for a teenage country boy.

Sounds like the other kids had a bit more fun.

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It's hard to tell that bird that is not hit just right to go down in front of you and not onto the property behind you. And when it does go down behind you it is a wasted bird.

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If it lands behind you then you go to retrieve it and if the landowner says "no" then you leave it and keep on shooting. Dont let your hunt be ruined by a d*ck land owner. As far as a wasted bird, the landowner can let you retrieve it or he can eat it himself.

Around here, nearly any nonlocal hunter asked. Local community didn't need to ask but usually do anyway.

When they asked, he'd also give them pointers about where would likely be best. The only restriction was not to hunt where there was cattle.

Regarding the police not wanting your dad to press charges, that isn't unusual. I know a woman who's checkbook was stolen by a temporary co-worker (the co-worker only worked one day). She told the police the woman's name and gave them her home address and they still wouldn't do anything about it. The thief was forging checks on her bank account at a number of local stores and the police didn't want to waste time on it. I never did hear if they ever actually did anything about the thief.

PineTreeAg said:

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It's hard to tell that bird that is not hit just right to go down in front of you and not onto the property behind you. And when it does go down behind you it is a wasted bird.

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If it lands behind you then you go to retrieve it and if the landowner says "no" then you leave it and keep on shooting. Dont let your hunt be ruined by a d*ck land owner. As far as a wasted bird, the landowner can let you retrieve it or he can eat it himself.

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OR, don't trespass. Period. It's pretty simple.

Why would you not at least let the landowner know you would be hunting there? Common courtesy goes both ways. Most people in the country are pretty welcoming if you reach out. The general problem is attitudes like yours, where the landowner is a "dick" by not letting a random stranger walk on his land.

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Why would you not at least let the landowner know you would be hunting there? Common courtesy goes both ways. Most people in the country are pretty welcoming if you reach out. The general problem is attitudes like yours, where the landowner is a "dick" by not letting a random stranger walk on his land.

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I'm not suggesting anyone trespass. We are talking about legally hunting public land and water that is adjacent to private land. The poster above was suggesting you shouldnt hunt anywhere that your game might end up on another persons property.

And yes you are a "dick" if you don't allow hunters to retrieve legally taken game that ends up on our land or at least help them retrieve it....provided they respectfully ask your permission first.

PineTreeAg said:

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Quote:

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Why would you not at least let the landowner know you would be hunting there? Common courtesy goes both ways. Most people in the country are pretty welcoming if you reach out. The general problem is attitudes like yours, where the landowner is a "dick" by not letting a random stranger walk on his land.

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I'm not suggesting anyone trespass. We are talking about legally hunting public land and water that is adjacent to private land. The poster above was suggesting you shouldnt hunt anywhere that your game might end up on another persons property.

And yes you are a "dick" if you don't allow hunters to retrieve legally taken game that ends up on our land or at least help them retrieve it....provided they respectfully ask your permission first.

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Common courtesy is a two way street, and ideally, it should be practiced by all, but alas, it is not. If/when a bird is shot where it is more than likely to fall upon private land, and indeed does, the shooter is acting in a discourteous manner, and the landowner is in no way obligated (morally/ethically) to oblige the shooter's "need" to retrieve said bird. "Close calls" are just that, and the shooter has the preponderance of responsibility to avoid those from arising. He (you) has no idea how often the landowner might have been inconvenienced/trespassed on before in e recent past, never mind over the years.

You come across somewhat entitled in attitude, but hope I'm mistaken.

hurricanejake02 said:

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and that if they shoot a bird that lands in the grass, they have a choice of which regulation they'd like to break: (1) Wanton Waste - not making a reasonable effort to retrieve your game, or (2) Trespassing.

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An animal legally harvested that winds up on private land and not retrieved because that landowner refuses to allow access to retrieve the legally harvested game is NOT wanton waste. So I guess what you're saying is fun for you, but it's not accurate.

Sean98 said:

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hurricanejake02 said:

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and that if they shoot a bird that lands in the grass, they have a choice of which regulation they'd like to break: (1) Wanton Waste - not making a reasonable effort to retrieve your game, or (2) Trespassing.

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An animal legally harvested that winds up on private land and not retrieved because that landowner refuses to allow access to retrieve the legally harvested game is NOT wanton waste. So I guess what you're saying is fun for you, but it's not accurate.

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You're making the assumption that the hunter has requested access to the property to retrieve legally downed game.

If you've been previously told that you did not have access to a piece of property, and continued to hunt in a manner likely to down game on that property, our GW has indicated that he's going to write a ticket.

I haven't but I know my dad has walked up on a hunter on family property in Liberty County. The hunter had set up a blind and feeder and was caught in the blind by my dad. He informed my dad that he was given permission to hunt there by the landowner and was promptly informed who the landowner was and that he could remove his blind and stand from the property. I would've piled it in a heap and set it on fire. The fact that my old man is out there solo all the time really worries me and I am always encouraging him to at a minimum carry a pistol when he's feeding cattle. People have easy access to the interior of that property via train tracks that cut through the southern portion. The first night he installed a game camera on the western edge of the property he had photos of three men carrying guns and spot lights around 10:30 pm. I've never seen a deer out there. It's not great habitat but it gets even worse when a-holes are poaching them at all times of the year.

Your game warden can write the ticket for it if he wants. ...and maybe it'll stop the guys from hunting there. But I'd be willing to bet I could get that ticket tossed 100 times out of 100.

Sadly that is a big issue. Over the years we have had all sorts of issues....trespass, poaching and road hunting. In our case GW's caught people multiple times for each issue only to see it thrown out of court.

It just isn't a big deal when it gets to court in most cases.

I'm going to sneak into an old rock pit pond in East Texas tomorrow morning with a fishing rod and a senko. Feel free to try and catch me.

Drove by a deer carcass with a missing head on my county road yesterday. Is this a tale tale sign of poaching? Should I report it?

A friend saw the same thing a few county roads over. Had to have been the same guy...

barnag said:

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Drove by a deer carcass with a missing head on my county road yesterday. Is this a tale tale sign of poaching? Should I report it?

A friend saw the same thing a few county roads over. Had to have been the same guy...

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Why not? If I was a GW, I'd appreciate any and all information.

Watchful Ag said:

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Why not? If I was a GW, I'd appreciate any and all information.

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Done

sunchaser said:

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Sadly that is a big issue. Over the years we have had all sorts of issues....trespass, poaching and road hunting. In our case GW's caught people multiple times for each issue only to see it thrown out of court.

It just isn't a big deal when it gets to court in most cases.

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Yeah, but you are talking about actual poaching. That's a different issue entirely, and I agree that courts don't take wildlife crimes as serious as many of us wish they would.

The situation I was replying to was (or at least sounded) like an annoyed landowner who wanted to keep people who were hunting legally from being near his property. Anyone that has hunted long enough has had animals expire further away that you'd like whether that is a beautifully double lung shot deer that makes it over the fence, or a head shot duck that locks those wings that despite being dead as a door-nail, glides 200 yards before crashing. My point was that the game warden can write a wanton waste ticket if he wants, but if it's not actually wanton waste then it's getting tossed. Same as a cop can write you a speeding ticket but if you can prove you aren't speeding the ticket will be dismissed.

Mark Talasek, who is a fishing guide in Matagorda, was convicted of poaching on my family's ranch. Try to make a long story short:

We had a 170 class 4.5 year old buck with 22 scoreable points. Very unique. Our place was high fenced (we sold it a couple years ago). This deer showed up regularly. At a blind right in the middle of our place and miles from our fence. Mark and his buddies had been poaching for years in our area. They leased a small piece of property across the highway and always managed to fill 5 tags time 8 hunters (on 200 acres). They used scanners to listen to our radio chatter about where the deer were and when we were gone. Game warden knew they were packing but could never catch them. One morning I am going out to my blind really early (like 5 am) and there is a truck parked next to our high fence on the county road. It turns on its lights and hauls ass about 70 miles per hour so I never got close enough to identify. I assume it was them.

Anyway, on Christmas day 2002 he hops the fence and kills our deer under the feeder. We don't know but notice the deer stops showing up. A few weeks later the game warden calls. Mark, who also has a couple convictions for slapping around his girlfriend, apparently pissed off his girlfriend. She called Operation Game thief and reported the crime. She also told them the location of the antlers at a taxidermist in Fredericksburg.

Game warden seizes the antlers and questions Talasek. Talasek denies poaching and says he shot the deer on their lease under his feeder. Says it must have jumped our fence and traveled 8 miles to his place.

No one had hunted the blind where the buck was shot on our place in the interim weeks. There was a big blood spot, I guess it had not rained. Game warden took samples. Did a DNA match with the antlers. 99.999999% match. Talasek was busted. He finally confessed.

Game warden search there camp. They had stolen numerous signs with our ranch name on them that hung on our high fence. I guess as a trophy.

Gets convicted of a felony. So no more gun hunting. And he lost his job as a plant operator at one of the plants near Matagorda. Which is a hard job to get and one of the few high paying jobs around that area.

No telling how many deer he and his buddies poached off our place and other ranches,

Now that is a great poacher story.

hurricanejake02 said:

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Sean98 said:

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hurricanejake02 said:

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and that if they shoot a bird that lands in the grass, they have a choice of which regulation they'd like to break: (1) Wanton Waste - not making a reasonable effort to retrieve your game, or (2) Trespassing.

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An animal legally harvested that winds up on private land and not retrieved because that landowner refuses to allow access to retrieve the legally harvested game is NOT wanton waste. So I guess what you're saying is fun for you, but it's not accurate.

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You're making the assumption that the hunter has requested access to the property to retrieve legally downed game.

If you've been previously told that you did not have access to a piece of property, and continued to hunt in a manner likely to down game on that property, our GW has indicated that he's going to write a ticket.

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Game wardens can write tickets all they want. Proving your guilty intent beyond a reasonable doubt is a tough standard. Especially to twelve jurors who have to unanimously agree. Many will think a waste charge for a wounded bird that crossed a fence isn't a big deal and will be mad for wasting their time. Most DAs would not screw with that over a wasted duck.

Ahhh, a woman scorned. Good for her.

Sean98 said:

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Ahhh, a woman scorned. Good for her.

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Yep. Hope he's learned his lesson and obeys the law now.

My buddy's fishing trip in a couple weeks is going to be... Awkward.

Canyon99 said:

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Sounds like the other kids had a bit more fun.

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Sounds like he was jealous and wanted to ruin their fun.

Early 1980s in Coke County my Dad and I were hunting. The property was next to a Farm to Ranch road. A deer was out in the opening of a field. My Dad raises his gun to shoot and we heard a big bang and the deer fell. On the road was a pickup and a guy on the outside of the truck with a gun. He didn't see us. My Dad raises his gun, looked thru the scope and fired a shot thru the windshield of the truck exploding it. That guy jumped in and drove off.

Around the same time my Dad and his buddies and myself were at the ranch house. There was a salt lick at the top of a small hill. One night I was outside taking a piss and saw flashlights in the field. I went inside and told my Dad and his friends. They went outside with their guns. Saw the flashlight and shot over their heads. The poachers ran off toward the highway. They had shot a deer at the salt lick. We grabbed the deer and butchered it that night.

Just an FYI.... on a wildlife crime, even if the DA doesn't prosecute (they always do on a Class C ticket, just depends on how aggressive they want to be), the State can go after the poacher for civil restitution for the game animal regardless of the outcome of a criminal case. That can get real expensive, real quick.

Can't believe I missed this thread the first time around.

We hunt a place that is 2 tracts of land that join at a corner. The piece I'm hunting is the place my dad grew up. It's probably 60-75% farmland and the rest is mesquites/creek bottom with a house on top of the hill on the edge of the property. There's a point that comes out with some tall trees that splits the farm land, so i have a tripod there and just hunt the field. We don't bother with a feeder anymore because there's so many small tracts of land around with feeders and tons of farmland, so I always try to have a decoy out in the field to draw them out of the mesquites. Out of the 60ish acres I'm on, my grandpa sold the house that my dad grew up on. It sits on about an acre and is directly behind me about 300 yards away.

I'm sitting in the tripod one day, buck decoy out (not a big buck, probably not even AR legal) and I hear a shot. I start looking around, then hear another shot, and this time hear and see where the bullet hit, about 30 yards to my left. Another shot. At this point I don't want to leave the tripod or do anything because I may get hit. Another shot. I can hear every shot hit. Finally, they realize the buck hasn't flinched and they probably ****ed up.

Once the shooting stopped I get out and look at the house and can't see anything. Called my dad and he called my grandpa and he said he'd talk to them and my dad talked me out of calling the GW because he didn't want my grandpa to have to deal with it. I make sure to put the decoy behind the tree line now. Can't imagine how many deer they've shot.

Texan1976 said:

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Mark Talasek, who is a fishing guide in Matagorda, was convicted of poaching on my family's ranch. Try to make a long story short:

We had a 170 class 4.5 year old buck with 22 scoreable points. Very unique. Our place was high fenced (we sold it a couple years ago). This deer showed up regularly. At a blind right in the middle of our place and miles from our fence. Mark and his buddies had been poaching for years in our area. They leased a small piece of property across the highway and always managed to fill 5 tags time 8 hunters (on 200 acres). They used scanners to listen to our radio chatter about where the deer were and when we were gone. Game warden knew they were packing but could never catch them. One morning I am going out to my blind really early (like 5 am) and there is a truck parked next to our high fence on the county road. It turns on its lights and hauls ass about 70 miles per hour so I never got close enough to identify. I assume it was them.

Anyway, on Christmas day 2002 he hops the fence and kills our deer under the feeder. We don't know but notice the deer stops showing up. A few weeks later the game warden calls. Mark, who also has a couple convictions for slapping around his girlfriend, apparently pissed off his girlfriend. She called Operation Game thief and reported the crime. She also told them the location of the antlers at a taxidermist in Fredericksburg.

Game warden seizes the antlers and questions Talasek. Talasek denies poaching and says he shot the deer on their lease under his feeder. Says it must have jumped our fence and traveled 8 miles to his place.

No one had hunted the blind where the buck was shot on our place in the interim weeks. There was a big blood spot, I guess it had not rained. Game warden took samples. Did a DNA match with the antlers. 99.999999% match. Talasek was busted. He finally confessed.

Game warden search there camp. They had stolen numerous signs with our ranch name on them that hung on our high fence. I guess as a trophy.

Gets convicted of a felony. So no more gun hunting. And he lost his job as a plant operator at one of the plants near Matagorda. Which is a hard job to get and one of the few high paying jobs around that area.

No telling how many deer he and his buddies poached off our place and other ranches,

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I looked this guy up and according to social media he is still gun hunting as of December.

Texan1976 said:

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Mark Talasek, who is a fishing guide in Matagorda, was convicted of poaching on my family's ranch. Try to make a long story short:

We had a 170 class 4.5 year old buck with 22 scoreable points. Very unique. Our place was high fenced (we sold it a couple years ago). This deer showed up regularly. At a blind right in the middle of our place and miles from our fence. Mark and his buddies had been poaching for years in our area. They leased a small piece of property across the highway and always managed to fill 5 tags time 8 hunters (on 200 acres). They used scanners to listen to our radio chatter about where the deer were and when we were gone. Game warden knew they were packing but could never catch them. One morning I am going out to my blind really early (like 5 am) and there is a truck parked next to our high fence on the county road. It turns on its lights and hauls ass about 70 miles per hour so I never got close enough to identify. I assume it was them.

Anyway, on Christmas day 2002 he hops the fence and kills our deer under the feeder. We don't know but notice the deer stops showing up. A few weeks later the game warden calls. Mark, who also has a couple convictions for slapping around his girlfriend, apparently pissed off his girlfriend. She called Operation Game thief and reported the crime. She also told them the location of the antlers at a taxidermist in Fredericksburg.

Game warden seizes the antlers and questions Talasek. Talasek denies poaching and says he shot the deer on their lease under his feeder. Says it must have jumped our fence and traveled 8 miles to his place.

No one had hunted the blind where the buck was shot on our place in the interim weeks. There was a big blood spot, I guess it had not rained. Game warden took samples. Did a DNA match with the antlers. 99.999999% match. Talasek was busted. He finally confessed.

Game warden search there camp. They had stolen numerous signs with our ranch name on them that hung on our high fence. I guess as a trophy.

Gets convicted of a felony. So no more gun hunting. And he lost his job as a plant operator at one of the plants near Matagorda. Which is a hard job to get and one of the few high paying jobs around that area.

No telling how many deer he and his buddies poached off our place and other ranches,

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Repeat offender or same story?

same person posting the story ^

My old man always had a hard on to catch poachers.

We ran Cattle and farmed rice in what is now clear lake city and another place in Pearland.


Don't know how many times my old man ran someone down took thier weapons, vehicles etc. told them to call the game warden if they wanted it back.

Generally worked stuff out until the 80's when instead of kids dads coming out to work things out and make the kid apologize, mommies started calling the cops that thier kid was abused by the rough handling. The grown ups started getting ****ty around the 90's when they would actually fight back.

Thankfully he never got shot in a gunfight but I attribute most of that to moral absolutism and hyper aggressive approach. My dad alway knew he was in the right and always got the drop on the guys.

One time he even swam the bayou to get behind someone while I cut them off on the road...
I am not that interested anymore... I don't farm any more country and my place is now away from the city thankfully

One year he hauled over 30 people to the road for the game warden to pick up. Lots of people but recall we were right in the path of the developing city.

I know...TLDNR

AgLA06 said:

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While road hunting in Texas is illegal, it is perfectly acceptable in others.

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I was up in Kenai, Alaska, once for work and driving to the terminal when I saw a dead Moose Cow on the side of the road. I proceeded to the terminal, and got about a mile down, and thought to myself; "you don't see this often back in Texas," so I turned around and when I got back, there was a truck parked and loading it up, so I took a picture to share with my buddies back home then I drove off. I got to the terminal and was telling one of the guys about it, and he asked why I didn't get out to help; I said, "I'm not going to jail up here for helping some guy road hunt. That's when I learned it was totally legal to "road hunt" in Alaska.

Quamado, NM, Population 64 in the early 80's:

My Dad and I would drive from Austin to Quamado for Mule Deer hunts on one of his Navy buddy's property. Drove through SETI with all the giant satellite dishes on the way. Always cool to see:



I can remember grabbing a meal at a local diner and there were three Game Warden trucks parked outside. All different make, models and colors with magnetic signs identifying them as GWs and on the tailgate it said something to the effect that this vehicle was surrendered by a poacher.

Glassing Mulies from the top of the mesas nestled among pinyon trees. For fun I popped a few coyotes. One year I had six stacked up by a gate. Not off the main road, but a gate inside the property. I notice the dust of a vehicle and a couple Indians jump out and start loading my coyotes. I glass the truck, memorize the plates and drop a .30-06 round near them. They hauled ass. Told my Dad's friend and he said that's so and so. With a population of 64 or so, everyone knows everyone. Dad's friend makes a call. He gets the coyotes back and said that the punishment that the kids Dad(s) will lay down is worse than what the law would do to them.

One of the subsequent years Dad and I are stalking / glassing and a small pickup is coming out of the property. I stand about 20 yards from a bend with my rifle and when the truck turns the bend it stops. My dad then points his rifle in the window. We get names and license plates and let them go. Same deal as the previous situation.

Awesome place for Mulies and Rainbow Trout. The trout we'd gut, scale and cut off the heads and throw them in a cast iron skillet with butter, salt and pepper right next the stream. Saw a couple Elk over the years, but was never lucky enough to draw a permit. Sad to say there wasn't a single picture taken from any of those hunts.

They aren't doing SETI work out there, it's the VLA, the Very Large Array, which is a radio telescope. Really fascinating place, they give tours all the time, or at least, they did pre-COVID, so check it out if you have time.

Some of my photos of VLA:

https://texags.com/forums/49/topics/2171551