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Poacher already striking

4775 Views 57 Replies 30 Participants Last post by  pirogue
I've been going up to the lease for a couple of weeks now to video turkeys. I put up a feeder a little over a month ago just to keep some turkeys in the area. I have three strutters that I have been videoing, along with seven hens. I went up there Wednesday morning to video. I only heard one bird gobble. I didn't think much of it, but a couple of hours after daylight and no turkeys, I had a feeling something was wrong. When I got in my blind before daylight, I noticed my flap was open. I closed the blind the last time I was there. After a couple of hours I walked to the feeder and saw a bunch of feathers. Way too many feathers from fighting. I knew at least one of the gobblers was shot. When I was coming out on the road, I saw tire tracks where someone had driven in far enough where they would not be visible from the county road. I don't know how many he has killed. It pisses me off when I put in time and money to turkey hunt and some low life just disregards the posted property and actually gets in my blind to kill turkeys over a month before season even opens. I put a few cameras out to try and at least get a picture of his truck if he comes back. I'm sure he will. I live in Louisiana, so I can't be up there all the time to try and catch him. I also took the feeder and blind out. I don't want to make it any easier for him to kill what gobblers might remain. I'm going back up there next week to check the cameras. I have got to get a couple of cellular cameras. Don't know why I haven't done it yet. Looks like a promising season may end up being a bust because of one or more idiots that can't abide by the laws. I know I'm not the only one here that has to deal with trespassers and poachers, but this just irritates the crap out of me.
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Need to use a cell cam - so if he sees the cam, it may be too late to steal it.

with the current season structure, legal AR hunters get about 3 weeks to hunt, and poacher season is about five or six weeks. Lots of turkey hunters are in the woods scouting before turkey season, so the poachers blend right in. If the AR season was earlier and closed earlier - it would restrict the time poachers get to hunt by themselves. And, there would be very few active poachers after season, and no legal turkey scouters, making it much easier for GW to key in on vehicles in the turkey woods.

Remember back in the 80’s when AR had a season opening date of Apr 1 and turkey populations were expanding across the state? How could that be when all those early gobblers were killed, completely disrupting the mating hierarchy?
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I just hope the guy is not on this forum. He will really be expecting the cameras now
No doubt!

If it were me, I would already have expected cameras. Most folks in this neck of the woods have a camera around a running feeder, and many folks I know keep a camera at road entrances into private property - especially vacant land. Whenever I am out and about on public land, I take a pretty good look around for cameras before I take a leak.
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