Yep. Had a dirt poor ranch hand with wife and young kids that live just up the road from our place. Worked for a neighbor, but did some side chores for us. I figured since he knew our gate code he'd be tempted to poach. I beat him to it and made sure he had a doe tag and a date he could come shoot it.

I don’t agree with poaching but would at least understand if the family was hungry. But, it would be way better to let me know that you and yours are truly in need and I will kill a couple wt or axis to give ya along with some other stuff to help get you going. Ask a 2nd time and you better get ready to be put to work digging prickly pear or picking up rocks. Hand up, not hand out.

Ive seen lots of deer poached for the heads. Ive seen lots of bodies left on the road or in the field. If food is truly what they are after? Go to the processor and ask, you'd be surprised what they might give you. Poaching is stealing and it doesn't bother people until it happens to them. I don't ever see that stealing is ok. If it really comes to that, I would rather see them ask for a hand out. Problem is in this day in time people are believing they are in titled. My belief is most people poaching are doing it for the thrill and the excuse is to feed my family.

there's no reason for thievery, poaching being a form of thievery.
folks try to justify stealing by saying "i'd steal if i were hungry or
my family were hungry. ."
anyone can go to any church worthy of the name and get fed.
if you won't go to a church or take food from a charity, you're
not hungry enough.
you don't help your situation or your family any by getting caught
stealing and the person who you are stealing from shooting you
(and they would be perfectly justified in doing so)

stop making excuses

No, poachers are probably the main reason for the short or non existent doe season in many counties.

If you are depending upon hunting for subsistence you have screwed up your life.

I'm a bit hungry right now. I'll take one axis please. Let me know where to pick up.

That's pretty funny, I've never heard that before. But do people really say that? lol

I would tend to agree, but you might be surprised with the number of people with screwed up lives. I've been to 49 of the 50 and just as many other countries and can say that I've been in some places in the good old USA that looked worse than some of the third world countries I've been to. We definitely still have people that live in homes with no doors and holes in the roof. Bad life decisions, and sometimes just bad luck, can certainly lead to living a hard life.

The older I get the harder I try to stand in someone else’s shoes before passing judgement. People still go hungry in the U.S.

Interesting topic. If a hard working person or a person who really cannot work and they cannot feed their family and there is plentiful game , I would not condemn or condone them.

You bet there are people who make good money and are on large leases with a lot of different type of game and they violate the game laws big time, these are the typical Chicken Chit POS hypocrites that condemn others that do The mindset is they are above the law and can and will do anything to impress others into thinking they are big time hunters.
Then there are others who own a little land and have the attitude it is their land and they will do as they please, they are just idiots that do not care.
I am sure there are a few people on here who know people like that.


Was I perfect nope! I Might have shot one or two to many doves back in the 80's and early 90's Might have also violated one other game law in 88, other than that zero possible incidents. By the way, if I had possibly violated a couple of game laws way back then only God and a couple of friends might have known about it.

No reason to poach in my world. Just being honest it is difficult to watch a giant boar in Hagerman all the dang time. He won’t cross the fence.

It is more common then you would think. There are parts of Dallas County that are public lands that are overrun with deer and while you are not supposed to hunt them many people do judging by the number of deer stands that I have found. Up north in PA and MI there is tons of public land to hunt on and not much to speak of down here in the way of public land. Most of my hunting was done up north.

I've heard one guy say it and I laughed pretty good.

Ive come of the lake many a day to find a guy fishing on the dock asking if he can have our fish to feed his family he has been fishing to try and catch dinner so they have something to eat. People make bad decisions, he should have gone to the grocery store instead of driving to a lake in the middle of BFE paying an entrance fee and trying to catch his dinner. That and a job.

Old german family we used to lease from told us they poached deer off their own property out of season many times for food. They weren't starving but pretty much subsisted of their property definitely a land rich type situation as the ranch was worth $5+ million. Never had a problem with that. This was also several decades ago and the people are now long passed.

My grandfather and his brother in law were pumpers for Amoco back in the 50s and 60s around Iraan. They had 14 mouths to feed between the 2 of them. Nobody in my family remembers eating much beef during those days, and allegedly my grandmother could clean a deer faster than most men. I know they spent at least a couple of nights in jail for road hunting and paid some fines but as far as I know the local law enforcement let it go most of the time. I hope I never feel like that is my only option to feed my wife and kids, but I don't plan on having 5 or 6 kids either.

Poaching. I think of illegally taking a deer on another’s property.

No reason, even if your hungry. There are to many programs out there. Lone Star cards, hunter for hungry, etc.

I did see my uncle shoot a deer one summer, it was in his garden. He was poor. I’m pretty sure he never ever had a license. He didn’t consider shooting that deer hunting.

as pappy once said: Few people could walk a mile in my shoes, i got small feet.

First read OP, twas reminded of the movie stars, singers, athletes & live styles of d rich & famous.
All talk about the hard times gone threw before they made it big.
Yet for every ONE that made it, millions (& maybe few more) are left stuggliing just ta get by.

One of the things that makes GREATER than rest of counties, the willingness to help others in need.

If lucky, just might make a Whopping $10,000.00 this year. No help from Gov. They made joke out workman's comp, Gov, help for low-income workers, (twas making little over $7.00 an hour) & that won't pay medical bills. Got terminated over it. My lawyer got new office, & more clients. People DO get hurt at work. They had lawyers on payroll.
Was willing ta work. No one would hire, had alien body parts. Denied disability, (several times) . Think they waiten on me autopsy report.
Payed for me Gov food stamps. Till shoulder went kaput, couldn't hold bow out at arm's length.
Did have total shoulder replacement, state funded. Dr & Hospitals got insurance money. i can sleep better at nights, constant knumbness from shoulder ta fingers, & limited use of shoulder. Both knees going out, back worn out, foundry work, before hit 40, seen back specialist, he said: got back of 80 year old man.
Finally found work, part-time, so can afford me Gov. Food stamps.
. People going hungry in U.S. ?

Ya'll haven hog problems, have gun will travel.

grew up around many outlaws growing up in the unique state of Louisiana. Taught me the joy of hunting small game hunting and the lengths people will go to hunt illegally, some for good reason, some not, Regardless, it seems people biases come into play; where do we draw the line? Whats the right situation and whats not? Its a hard line to draw but now being in the profession I am in, I'll tell you the law is the law. Those regulations are in order for a reason. You break them and get caught then you pay piper. Not saying it is always 100% fair but these are the rules that you must play by. I've dealt with poaching my entire life, very recently actually in my home state, and I am totally against it.

It is like driving 15 miles over the speed limit, or the rich guy that shoplifts a 75 cent item when he has a $100 in his pocket, poaching is for the thrill of the "game" of seeing if they can get away with it.

The food factor is , it is an excuse, rationalizing that it is "okay" because they need the food.

Everything has it's limits. If you're trespassing, that's a different crime than just poaching. If a man hits a deer in September and throws it n the back of his truck, or shoots one in his pasture in February, to me that is worlds away from him busting one from my blind on a Wednesday when I'm workin. I don't think it takes a rocket surgeon to figure out the differences there

In regards to the original post.

It seems to me that attitudes have changed a lot in the last 50 yrs or so towards game, the purpose of hunting, who owns what and killing critters in general. My Dad(deceased) brought home a number of illegal deer over the years. Some were doe shot when you couldn't shoot doe, some where deer he shot and used one of us kids tags for, a few were shot off county roads. We weren't destitute but things were tight, he had six kids to feed and we ate every one of them. We also raised our own chickens, turkeys, pigs, rabbits and beef. Some people don't understand "living close to the bone", but they would if they saw a carcass after we got done with it. Heck, we used to cut the deer meat out between the ribs. I remember the first time after I got older and breasted a dove in front of the old man instead of picking it, he bitched for 10 minutes about the meat I was wasting. Most of his buddies did the same things. What used to get you a $25 fine and maybe you could keep the deer depending on mood of the JP is now a felony offense plus fines.

I don't use my kids licenses for extra tags or extra bag limits for doves and such like he did. I have hunted public lands when to broke to afford a lease. I agree if you are using hungry as a reason then you're better off chasing a different squirrel up a different tree. Seems like most killing we do these days is for sport, either legal or illegal hunting. I certainly didn't go all the way to Kansas and back for 2 pheasants last weekend because I was worried we were short on meat at the house. Ethics aside, the law and consequences are what they are now and I don't poach.

So in summary - no, there is no reason to poach these days.

A critically injured or sick deer found any time of the year. Don’t ask, don’t tell. Besides, predators have to eat too.

With all due respect please tell me what a "rocket surgeon" is? lol