Why risk, your ability to hunt, your guns, your vehicle and your money to kill a deer? It's probably cheaper in the end to pay for a high fence hunt.

Why risk, your ability to hunt, your guns, your vehicle and your money to kill a deer? It's probably cheaper in the end to pay for a high fence hunt.

greed

Wow, what a shame. I read a very interesting article in Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine several years ago. The article was about poaching. The author interviewed a "retired" professional poacher. The poacher had clients all over the US. They would call him, specify a particular class range, and pay a deposit for the deer.

He scouted areas, mostly S. Texas, by entering the ranch through a gate that was seldom used. He would cut the chain off the lock and replace it with his own lock. He would take the landowner's lock to a smith and have a key made for it, return and replace it on the gate. He now had his own key. He would drive into the ranch in a old beater truck and watch feeders in the dark with a red light. He claimed he had one client that bought him a new Chevrolet truck for a "200 BC deer every year. The client was a rich fat cat from OK.

The author also had a write up about the hay days of dog hunting in Newton and Sabine Co. during the depression through the 90s. I wish I could find the article, it was very interesting.

had a buddy hunt illegally in s Houston years ago and I asked him why he took the risk...he told me because there's nothing like hunting in a place where you are also the hunted. He simply got a huge rush from it but that being said I never saw any animal that he killed so he could've been all talk but then again I kind of think he did hunt and get a few.

^^ This. This is the same response often told of career violent criminals. They do it for the rush. They had to get their "fix".

That is going to be expensive! Who took the pics of the deer alive?

Here's the article.

https://tpwmagazine.com/archive/2002/nov/ed_1/

That's an interesting read. Thanks.

Great article.