Shooting from the Passing Lane

On April 15, a Dallam/Hartley County game warden received a call about someone in a vehicle shooting at pheasants from a county road. With assistance from Dallam County Sheriff’s Office and a DPS trooper, the vehicle was stopped and the driver and his 13-year-old son admitted to hunting and shooting at a pheasant from the road. Citations for hunting during a closed season, hunting from a public roadway, discharging a firearm from a public roadway and not having hunter’s education certification were filed.

Just shows you don't need brains to procreate.

I forgot to explain that article was on the latest Texas Parks and Wildlife weekly news digest.

Proof Texas isn't immune to such stuff
Randall.

George

Seems a reasonable way to raise a poacher.

Poaching runs in families they have to learn someway.

My partner and I were using my robo decoy deer on day in December. Decoy was on a gas line 100 yards off a rural road, partner hid up a side road. A truck came by, slowed, then continued. I roboed the decoy closer to the tree line as the truck turned around . When they stopped at the gas line I made the decoy turn it's head and wag it's tail. Shots immediately rang out and my partner blocked the road and we took them into custody.

Two adults were arrested and written up off the road out of sight. I stayed on the road with three juveniles. I proceeded to talk to them about their bad ways and suggested they should learn something from this. A kid about 12 spoke up and said " I learnt somethin, don't shoot till you SEE them move".....

Kids daddy had shot the same decoy the year before about ten miles from that spot.

If there is any kind of control needed for current issues, it's birth control.

"If there is any kind of control needed for current issues, it's birth control."
That and better education!

A member of the Dallas Woods and Waters Club is high school teacher and has for years taught an outdoors class where students are taught the Texas game laws and taught field skills. Some of these kids have participated in DWWC outdoor events which include fishing and hunting outings. For the most part, the kids love it and are genuinely interested in continuing to fish and hunt.

It is worrisome that so many parents are ignorant of the same things taught these students.

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Proof Texas isn't immune to such stuff

You ain't ever seen me say Texas was immune.

That item was just one of the many that come out in the weekly report from TP&W and it caught my eye.

Having been born and raised here I have been able to watch the changes that have taken place both in legal hunting and in poaching.

One thing that becomes readily apparent when looking at the incidents that are repoprted in the weekly GW Digest and the incidents that appear on the TV program, Lone Star Law, is the amount of actual poaching as compare4d to people being ignorant of state game and fish laws.

Oh the horror! So you wanna hang someone for shooting a pheasant from the road. I don't see where it says they were shooting from inside the truck so correct me if I'm wrong.

Holy fuck you don't know how to pick your battles. Give them a ticket and forget about it until they become habitual offenders. Must be a slow day in bumfuck TX for this to anger the lot of you.

PS.....I'm pretty darn fond of bumfuck TX so no offense.

I bet the fines were still cheaper than renting a field for a day there.

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Originally posted by Norton:
Oh the horror! So you wanna hang someone for shooting a pheasant from the road. I don't see where it says they were shooting from inside the truck so correct me if I'm wrong.

Holy fuck you don't know how to pick your battles. Give them a ticket and forget about it until they become habitual offenders. Must be a slow day in bumfuck TX for this to anger the lot of you.

PS.....I'm pretty darn fond of bumfuck TX so no offense.

Wrong is wrong. It's the same as a breaking any other minor law. A person who would have no problem breaking these laws would have no problem stealing either. It does run in families which is sad. There is a lot of that here in Montana too.

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Oh the horror! So you wanna hang someone for shooting a pheasant from the road. I don't see where it says they were shooting from inside the truck so correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct that the article is silent as to whether the shooters actually shot from inside the truck. However, that is not actually relevant to the charges that were filed. What the article is not silent on is that it was the month of APRIL. Dead pheasants generally hatch very few eggs.

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Originally posted by Stonecreek:

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Oh the horror! So you wanna hang someone for shooting a pheasant from the road. I don't see where it says they were shooting from inside the truck so correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct that the article is silent as to whether the shooters actually shot from inside the truck. However, that is not actually relevant to the charges that were filed. What the article is not silent on is that it was the month of APRIL. Dead pheasants generally hatch very few eggs.

Oops. I apologize to everyone. I completely missed that it was April....thought it was hunting season at least. My bad!

It really does not matter what month it was, that it was shot from a PUBLIC ROAD that is the problem.

Being out of season is secondary. Shooting from or across a Public Roadway, paved or dirt is illegal in Texas.

Does not matter if the shooter was on Private Land/inside a vehicle or standing in the ditch! It was illegal anyway you look at it.

Jaywalking is illegal also. Are you mortally offended by that too? I’m willing to bet the road they shot across doesn’t exactly have much traffic, does it? If not why does this bother you so much? You worried he’s gonna be shooting big horn outta season from the highway next?

Norton, in Texas it is ILLEGAL to shoot FROM or ACROSS a Public Road, paved or unpaved!

I did not make the rules, Texas Parks and Wildlife and our state government did.

I have no problem with jaywalking, in fact that shows your lack of understanding concerning Texas Laws.

I do not remember ever being in a Texas town or city where jaywalking was considered a crime!

Am I wrong in thinking that you support a parent teaching a young hunter that game and fish laws are irrelevant??????

Of course I wouldn't teach a young hunter to do that. I guess my biggest issue is how such a minor infraction would be offensive enough to you that you'd even post it. I thought you Texans had thicker skin.

Killing game out of season is not a minor infraction. Neither is shooting from a road.

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Originally posted by sharpsguy:
Killing game out of season is not a minor infraction. Neither is shooting from a road.

I'm not saying it's right, nor am I condoning it just saying there are bigger fish to fry. If someone doing this is a repeat offender then y'all can lynch him.

Remember one thing: ANYTHING can be made to look sinister so be careful how you look at things.

I'll go as far as to give you a specific example....all of us hunters probably have numerous guns and a ton of ammo for various species, etc., correct? So the headline in the paper says: LOCAL RESIDENT FOUND TO HAVE 30 GUNS AND 1500 ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION IN HIS HOME. You think the average person reading that understands that's not unusual or sinister in the least?

Norton, ever give thought that posting an article such as that is being done to merely illustrate the concept that not all of us that claim to be hunters play by the same rules or are good teachers/role models for the younger generations that are sorely needed if hunting is to remain a viable activity into the future.

As far as your comment,

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I guess my biggest issue is how such a minor infraction would be offensive enough to you that you'd even post it. I thought you Texans had thicker skin.

A, Texans do have thicker skins, and B the only thing I found even remotely approaching offensive, was the blatant stupidity of the Father.

The kid learned or should have learned the more valuable lesson that laws/rules are in place for a reason and need to be understood and obeyed.

Part of that learning process will rest on how the Father reacted to the incident. Hopefully he will have acted in a manner that the son will grow up having respect for our Game and Fish laws and the folks in the feild enforcing them.

It is possible however, as has been illustrated in various discussions that have taken place on here, the Father will be resentful, blame the GW for the whole mess and instill that attitude toward GW's and other LEO's in the son.

I understand CHC, I just hate seeing people lynched in the media for minor offenses. And yes, this is a minor offense IMO if it's a single infraction. There are so many truly bad offenders out there that aren't punished severely enough and that burns my ass.

Sadly, we're losing any grey area (meaning discretion) these days and I find that terrible....you're either good or you're charles manson. To me, someone who mistakenly shoots one bird over the limit is very different than someone poaching big game or fish in huge numbers.

No arguement there. To me the bigger issue is the Dad "teaching", for lack of a better term, something that he shouldn't have.

Texas Game Wardens, or at least all the ones I have dealt with have been pretty open minded, and that incvludes one old man in Baylor County that had a reputation as a hard ass.

You will notice there was no mention of how much the Dad was fined or whether or not he was a "known Frequent Flyer" that had/has a history of playing by his own rules.

I know of an instance that took place this last season on one of the properties my boss manages, where a somewhat inexperienced hunter made a judgement call and shot an undersized .

The folks in the camp he was hunting with explained the situation to the hunter, the GW for that county was called, came out and talked it over with the hunter and the GW did give him One ticket when he could have filed three charges, and let the guy keep the deer instead of confiscating it.

GW's just have a job to do like any other LEO and from my experiences, if they are treated with just a little respect, they usually respond in kind.

Another facet to this incident which I'm sure Norton isn't aware of is that virtually all land in Texas is privately owned. These guys were "road hunting" meaning that they cruised the country roads taking pheasants from the adjacent property without permission to hunt the property. In most instances like this one there is also a charge of trespassing if pressed by the property owner. It is possible that there was no evidence of exactly which property the pheasants came from, or that the property owner could not be located, so the article doesn't mention trespass -- but there were plenty of violations to charge them with, anyway.

Yahoos cruising the backroads looking for shooting opportunities are poachers, plain and simple. One reason for throwing the book at road hunters is to protect private property rights.

I've hunted pheasants many a time on a friend's property in Hartley County, Texas where this incident took place. He passed away a few years ago, but I can assure you that he would have wanted the law to "throw the book" at someone who shot pheasants on his property off the county road in April.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
Another facet to this incident which I'm sure Norton isn't aware of is that virtually all land in Texas is privately owned. These guys were "road hunting" meaning that they cruised the country roads taking pheasants from the adjacent property without permission to hunt the property. In most instances like this one there is also a charge of trespassing if pressed by the property owner. It is possible that there was no evidence of exactly which property the pheasants came from, or that the property owner could not be located, so the article doesn't mention trespass -- but there were plenty of violations to charge them with, anyway.

Yahoos cruising the backroads looking for shooting opportunities are poachers, plain and simple. One reason for throwing the book at road hunters is to protect private property rights.

I've hunted pheasants many a time on a friend's property in Hartley County, Texas where this incident took place. He passed away a few years ago, but I can assure you that he would have wanted the law to "throw the book" at someone who shot pheasants on his property off the county road in April.

Yes, that definitely adds another layer that I hadn't considered. Private property is exactly that. The disrespect for the landowner as part of the equation makes the whole thing far worse.

I hunt MT every year and my buds know exactly what is and isn't open to us private property wise. I can't tell you how many times we've seen absolute bruiser whitetails that were off limits and we respected them as such.

Just to interject an aspect that in many ways compounds the issue, is that since hunting became "Big Business" in Texas many local residents in a lot of counties cannot afford the lease fees that hunters from the cities/urban areas are willing and able to pay.

In all honesty, were it not for having a close friend that allowed Lora and I to hunt his property in Montague county for several years at no charge and now working for a long time friend that has a couple of thousand acres in Archer and Young counties, my hunting days would effectively be over.

When I was a kid growing up in this area ion the 50's and 60's, there were very few deer and turkeys, mainly dove/quail and waterfowl and most landowners, especially if they knew a person or that persons parents would let people hunt and fish on their properties as long as those folks closed gates and didn't litter.

It ain't that way any longer. My first "Deer Lease" was on a 160 acre pasture that I subleased from a gentleman that ran a small sporting goods store in Graham, Texas. He let me hunt that place for $25.00 for the season.

Taking a kid out and doing something like this Dad did, might have been totally avoided if he had just checked around with the local landowners and he might have found someone that would have been willing to let him take his kid on their property to shoot a bird or two.

Can't say that I agree. It's a fact that bad parents begat bad children who begat bad childen, etc. What this father was teaching his kid was to have a total disregard for laws and property, not just hunting.
Y If he had a million acres in which to hunt, he'd be teaching the kid it was okay to take an extra quail or duck, etc. "you know, it makes up for the time we don't limit out...."
You can talk all you want to about how it used to be but that doesn't change a single thing about how it is. We have an abundance of game today. Much more than was there in "the good old days". It's the result of game laws and there strict enforcement.

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If he had a million acres in which to hunt, he'd be teaching the kid it was okay to take an extra quail or duck, etc. "you know, it makes up for the time we don't limit out...."

You cannot guarantee that anymore than I can guarantee it wouldn't be that way, Yes or No?

None of us know if the Dad had a history of this type behavior or even if the Dad had ever hunted that much, now do we? NO!!!

All we have to go on is what was in the report.

Whatever the case may be, the Dad and the son received a costly education and hopefully both learned that there are rules/regulations that are supposed to be followed.

Just maybe this one incident will prevent those two and maybe others that read about it from doing such things in the future.

When I was a kid dad would say, Don't do as I do, do as I say, so bout the same as Saeed,

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Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

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If he had a million acres in which to hunt, he'd be teaching the kid it was okay to take an extra quail or duck, etc. "you know, it makes up for the time we don't limit out...."

You cannot guarantee that anymore than I can guarantee it wouldn't be that way, Yes or No?

None of us know if the Dad had a history of this type behavior or even if the Dad had ever hunted that much, now do we? NO!!!

All we have to go on is what was in the report.

Whatever the case may be, the Dad and the son received a costly education and hopefully both learned that there are rules/regulations that are supposed to be followed.

Just maybe this one incident will prevent those two and maybe others that read about it from doing such things in the future.

Hey, you were the one making that bullshit suggestion that if they had a place to hunt,(that they didn't pay for) they wouldn't be doing stuff like that. I'm saying you can't change the spots on a leopard. And, fwiw, I'll put my knowledge of human nature against your's any day.

Wrong again!

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Taking a kid out and doing something like this Dad did, might have been totally avoided if he had just checked around with the local landowners and he might have found someone that would have been willing to let him take his kid on their property to shoot a bird or two.

The above is exactly what I said.

Even in this day and time, there are landowners in Texas that can and will allow a person to take a kid on their land to a hunt for birds and pigs without charging them anything. In fact the Dad could have contacted the GW to see if he/her might know of a land owner that was open to such a situation.

As someone else pointed out, the fact that it happened in APRIL, pretty well nullifies every other argument!

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Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
Wrong again!

quote:

Taking a kid out and doing something like this Dad did, might have been totally avoided if he had just checked around with the local landowners and he might have found someone that would have been willing to let him take his kid on their property to shoot a bird or two.

The above is exactly what I said.

Even in this day and time, there are landowners in Texas that can and will allow a person to take a kid on their land to a hunt for birds and pigs without charging them anything. In fact the Dad could have contacted the GW to see if he/her might know of a land owner that was open to such a situation.

As someone else pointed out, the fact that it happened in APRIL, pretty well nullifies every other argument!

Actually you're making my point. The fact is the father wasn't interested in making any effort. He would be a slob regardless of the circumstances.

That was the point I was making when I posted the article!

Somehow you seem to have missed it.

The KID did not drive the car, the Father did!

The Father told the Kid to shoot the bird, the Kid did not make that decision on his own!

The Father knew it was NOT hunting season and most likely knew shooting from the road was illegal!

The REASON I believe that the Father is probably not a scum bag or Hard Core Poacher, is that shooting the pheasant from the road was simply a "Window Of Opportunity" he tried to take advantage of and those in the [popaching business aren't that STUPID!

There are accepted norms. At times, they condone bad behaviour. They can perpetuate accepted and repetitive bad behaviour that becomes the standard. We must understand and change those behaviours and standards.

I grew up in east Texas. In the area where I was raised, the game warden was the enemy and rules were made by rich people. The land owned by the timber companies and the gas companies was ours to use and abuse. Who were they to keep us off our local lands that are managed by rich people in the city? At a very early age I became a successful poacher and provided meat for a number of BBQ and beer joints as far south as Houston. I was busted one night with 11 quartered deer and a number of raccoons, ducks and geese. I was 16 years old. My peers and family said I was an idiot for getting caught (for getting caught, not for breaking the law). The judge was ready to make an example of me. It was suspected that "spot" the one eyed dog had assisted me and the court wanted to send all evidence to Texas A&M to determine time of kill and sex of the game. The game warden that caught me spoke up and asked that he be in charge of me for a year of community service if I would plead guilty to all charges. He saw something in me and I will be forever grateful as it changed my life path. He taught me hunting ethics and conservation. It was the best thing that ever happened to me and changed my entire life.

Just my thoughts and experience.

Safe travels and good shooting..............LL

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:


The REASON I believe that the Father is probably not a scum bag or Hard Core Poacher, is that shooting the pheasant from the road was simply a "Window Of Opportunity" he tried to take advantage of and those in the [popaching business aren't that STUPID!

Perhaps by your standards but not mine. The man is a thief, a crook, and a criminal. No matter how you try to spin it, those facts remain.

I am not defending the father, I am just stating that I personally do not view the shooting of the pheasant from the road and out of season, in the same way I view finding the body of a good sized buck laying out in a wheatfield with just the head gone, knowing that it was poached just for the rack.

Yes, the father is a crook, a theif and hopefully he and his son got the message and never repeat that type stunt again, but that does not mean I believe he should be executed for his mistake.

Justice has to fit the crime, and poaching a pheasant from a roadway out of season should not be treated the exact same way as killing several deer at night using spotlights, just to take their racks.

Thief, crook and criminal....lol

Hang 'em high!

So what you're trying yo describe is "a little bit of rape".
I don't want to get into one of your long, convoluted arguments so I'm done with this.

Nothing long or convoluted about it.

Each of us are entitled to our own beliefs on any issue as an American citizen.

I just don't happen to believe that all crimes are equal and deserve the exact same punishment and from what I know about Texas Parks and Wildlife, they don't feel that way either.

Killing a doe deer illegally is not going to even come close, fine and restitution wise as illegally killing a buck.