I'm a habitual backroad creeper. I'm out every morning having my coffee, just seeing what is going on. Every evening I have another route that I take. Had been getting reports of a big buck on the other side of the river of the ranch I live on, so I have been frequenting that place quite a bit the last few days. Apparently I drew a little attention being parked on the side of the road, which isn't really surprising. All the characteristics of a road hunter, aside from the gun, but I actually have permission to hunt the land that I am watching. So yesterday morning a truck drives by and I recognized his truck (known outlaw) and I could tell he was checking me out, but he went on about his way without stopping and talking. Sometime during the day, he makes a call to the game warden and reports me for road hunting. Claimed that I was driving down the road with a gun hanging out the window. For one thing, I was parked, could hear him coming down the gravel road for 1/4 mile, was not in possesion of a gun, and would have been an idiot to stick around if I were actually doing something wrong. So the game warden visits the ranch owner's house last night to report to him that someone was roadhunting on him across the river and gets his permission to put out a decoy this morning to do a sting operation. Ranch owner agrees, then calls to tell me about it. I easily put two and two together and begin to laugh about it and told him it was me over there. He proceeds to tell me the details that were told to the GW that I was sitting there with a gun hanging out the window. Then I got mad. It is one thing to make an honest call to the GW to report poaching, but another thing to call and lie about what is going on to make yourself sound more credible. So ranch owner calls the GW back to tell him he knows who it is, that I'm not road hunting, and that I have permission to hunt over there all I want. GW chuckles and said he figured that's what the situation was and that he would like to meet me anyway. GW said that anyone that drives the backroads regularly and isn't doing anything wrong is more of an asset than a liability cause there is a chance that I could be the one that sees the actual poachers out roadhunting. So after all of that, I am a little ticked off, and I go sit at my usual spot this morning, hoping to either see the GW or the guy that reported me. Sure enough, 7:05, I hear gravel popping from 1/4 mile off and here comes the guy that turned me in. Of course he didn't stop just to ask me what I was doing and just goes past, then proceeds to call the ranch owner to report me being over there again. Ranch owner proceeds to tell him I'm not huntin, I ain't hurtin anything, I've got keys and permission to be over there but thanks for the call. That just pisses the guy off even more and he hangs up. End of story... I hope.
I'm not mad in the least about being reported for "suspicious" activity. I'm glad neighboring landowners would make the effort to call in a suspicious vehicle. But when they falsify the report, knowingly, and maliciously lie about what they saw because of their own motivations, I think that is less than honorable. Maybe if he knew I was already tagged out for the season on bucks he wouldn't be so apprehensive about my being there. I just wanna see the big buck, not shoot it from the road. If I were going to poach it, I would use my key to unlock the gate, drive back to the more likely spot where it is, and bust its ass without being seen. So that is my morning rant...
I'm not mad in the least about being reported for "suspicious" activity. I'm glad neighboring landowners would make the effort to call in a suspicious vehicle. But when they falsify the report, knowingly, and maliciously lie about what they saw because of their own motivations, I think that is less than honorable. Maybe if he knew I was already tagged out for the season on bucks he wouldn't be so apprehensive about my being there. I just wanna see the big buck, not shoot it from the road. If I were going to poach it, I would use my key to unlock the gate, drive back to the more likely spot where it is, and bust its ass without being seen. So that is my morning rant...
