We have a local harvester of undocumented game...let's call him Hubert...who has an interesting business model.
Hubert parks his truck one or two miles from where he will hunt or fish.
Then he hops on his cheap (solid frame) mountain bike that he had painted with red-primer. The primer is dead-flat and totally non-reflective.
He pedals to where he intends to collect his undocumented game. Does the deed. Then if it is big-game he drags it to a convenient place to load it into the back of his truck at a later time. If it is small game or fish he stuffs it into a plastic bag and puts it into his backpack. Then he pedals back to his truck.
Critical to the longevity of his enterprise, he never guts-out or field-dresses the game he harvested. The most people might find the next day will be a blood-trail and drag-marks.
Upon reaching his truck, if he had big-game to collect, he swings by where he pre-positioned the game he had brought-to-bag. The second-hand story that was shared with me was fuzzy on the details but it might have included ramps and an electric winch. A big buck might run +200 pounds if it is not field-dressed. Also "fuzzy" was how he broke-down his bow to make it transportable (and inconspicuous) while riding his bike. Key to his success was that the deer where he hunted were naive and Olympic-class accuracy was not critical to harvesting them.
Key Points:
- People notice vehicles if they are parked in unexpected locations for a significant amount of time.
- People do not notice vehicles if they are parked in expected locations, even if they are there for long periods of time.
- A bike that is painted flat(matte) gray, brown or olive is invisible if it is laid down in tall weeds, even if it is only 6 feet from the road.
- Separating the motor vehicle (with traceable license plate) from the scene of the crime by more than 2000 feet is sufficient to make the crime unsolvable.
- Without a body, nobody is interested. Blood is not a body.
The rest of the story
Hubert's most productive hunting grounds are the Michigan State University campus, behind Okemos high school, local golf courses and Lansing's Crego Park.
Those locations are far from untrammeled wilderness.
If Hubert can do it in locations with 3000 people-per-square-mile, then it should be a piece-of-cake to do the same in townships with less than 100/square-mile, especially if the harvester of undocumented game is skimming from the bottom (squirrel, rabbits, bluegills, catfish, bullheads, carp, suckers) rather than skimming trophy bucks, huge Largemouth bass and trout.
Hubert's one weakness is that he cannot pass-up a 10-point buck. Folks might look the other way if he was potting deer to fill his freezer but get downright pissy about people who pass-up scrubs and does and skim the trophies.
Note-to-self: Buy a cheap mountain bike at a yard-sale and paint it in flat gray/brown/olive. Put in pole-barn. I can always ride it 5 miles to the closest party-store to buy Slim Jims, beverage and fish-bait.
Seen through the lens of "a net cast wide can harvest more resources", a bike can cover 3 times the distance that walking can in the same amount of time. That opens up 9 times as much area to "harvesting".
plus, unless he is caught with the illegally harvested game in his truck (or loading it ) all the authorities can confiscate is his bike and backpack...not his truck.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'
Cut the time and effort in loading a deer carcass into your truck bed by using a block and tackle setup. Attach to the truck bed right behind the cab and use a piece of plywood as a ramp and you can load a buck by yourself very quickly. It's also very cheap.
ReplyDeleteI've seen a pulley attached to truck bed head bar with rope end attached to tree, the opposite end to deer head and truck pulling forward pulls deer into bed itself. Terrain permitting - nice tip.
DeleteA trespasser of my aquaintance uses similar tactic. He hunts projectile points (i.e. arrow heads) and hides his truck among road crew vehicle parking alongside paved roads, only parking on opposite side of road. People passing by guess the lone truck is part of the crew. The road crew figures the vehicle belongs to the property owner on the other side of road. Neither aware of what is occurring. This poacher does no damage to trespassed property, only leaves tracks and when lucky, finds a point or two if lucky.
I have a takedown bow. The limbs attach to the handle with bolts turned with an Allen Wrench. It's a nice bow. I have had it for a long time. ---ken
ReplyDeleteBuy 2 cheap mountain bikes friend. Parts are more expensive than a parts bike. Check the alinement of the tires and derailleur system. Check ALL Bolts as Walmart type mountain bikes are additional duty for an "overworked Walmart Associate" to assemble before they go home.
ReplyDeleteAND a decent helmet, riding gloves and eye protection. A branch in the eye at bicycle speed is no joke.
Yes, our ER got a patient that did a header off his new Walmart Bike when the forks just fell apart. Most expensive cheap bike they will ever own. C2 fracture.
Great advice about using a bike as a hunting vehicle. Far less noise than an ATV and the thinner two wheels travel single track game trails and dirt roads much easier.
ReplyDeleteI went to MSU 40+ years ago. The MSU property was much larger than many realized -- a lot more than just the campus building areas. I can recall some very interesting areas.
ReplyDeleteAlso recall doing some outstanding small mouth bass fishing on the Red Cedar River that runs through campus (River is a bit more grandiose than deserved). There was little fishing pressure.
Interesting points to raise. In my experience, a deer shot with an arrow will run a ways - how does he make sure it doesn't run somewhere "inconvenient", such as out onto the golf course?
ReplyDeleteJonathan
The only golfers he has to worry about are the blind ones because they are the only ones golfing at night. Plus, the number of golfers is much lower when the weather is below 40F.
DeleteIf it gets inconvenient, you walk away. Over the years I've found several deer with arrows in them laying in the brush or tree lot on my inlaws farm.
DeleteA guy that worked at the same factory as me did that until a neighbor saw and called the law. Guy was arrested, deer confiscated, went to court, and was found guilty for first offense.
ReplyDeleteOh, guess the name of the street worker lived on? Arrow Lane! They never looked inside the freezers in the garage where three other, former deer waiting to be consumed.
irontomflint
Ah yes. Poaching, a family tradition in my extended family. Not that I would know anything about that.
ReplyDeleteBicycles have value for mote than finding dinner on the hoof. Matt Bracken wrote one about using a bicycle to survey his AO and mentioned that very few people were aware of him as he was pedaling around - the bicycle was very quiet, easily covered ground at 4X foot speed, gave the same observational vantage point as being on foot, etc.
ReplyDeleteNo mention of what bike or what tires, but I'd guess they weren't mountain bike knobbies. I'd think Joe's "cheap and painted flat gray, brown and olive" is just the ticket.
Back in college days, I had the same opportunity to poach city deer in San Antonio Texas. My apartment complex had several hundred acres of rural brush. I found a couple of archery stands while hiking there. there was plenty of deer and feral hog sign and I was tempted to poach but never did act on the feelings.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I don't like about biking in wilds is that you have to be rather focused on the trail you are riding, vs. able to stop and look around. Nothings perfect though.
Where is he doing his field dressing - at home? Risky.
ReplyDeleteDepends on situation. Business aquaintence once lived in Hill Country of Texas, where native deer are very small (< 80 lbs live weight). He shot a doe off season from the rear bedroom window of his apartment (.22 Magnum rifle) and waited for any interest of neighbors from shot to calm down. Later, he retrieved the carcass, wrapped it in shower curtain and dressed the deer in his shower stall. Only about 25 lbs of meat that was stored into freezer.
DeleteI used to live in Kalamazoo. Lots of green spaces in town from Upjohn and WMU undeveloped properties. There were a few people living around one of these that were very upset about finding gut piles in their back yards at the edge of the woods. They think they had been there a couple days before their dogs found them, but nobody saw the deer get taken and never would have known about it without the evidence left behind.
ReplyDelete