If you want to get me really riled up on a subject, this is it. Poachers, trespassers, whatever you want to call them; I call them wildlife thieves and there are few things in this world that I dislike more than a thief. This is especially true when it comes to my favorite game species, the wild turkey.
Why do I feel so strongly about it? It’s simple; I care about having a sustainable hunting population of turkeys in this area. LDWF, NWTF, our fathers and grandfathers all teamed up in the 80s and 90s to restore turkeys in North Louisiana. I’ve seen the population thriving in the early years and have noticed an alarming decline over the years. The places I used to easily fill my tags in Lincoln Parish have been pretty much void of turkeys for over 10 years and on the off chance there is a turkey on our property, I elect not to hunt it because I’d just feel bad killing the only one back there.
I’ve resorted to hunting them on a hunting club and properties owned by good friends and family members where I have permission. Even on these properties, I treat them with the same respect as I would my own land. Sure, I’d love for my kids or my father to kill one, but I still want to “leave some for seed” in hopes of having more for the next year. In my quest to do so, I have come across some atrocious acts and people who have no care for the wild turkey and no regard for the law.
Here are just a few of the scenarios I encountered over the last two seasons.
Scenario #1: I had hunted a couple of birds the first week of season on my hunting club. I had a general pattern of where they roosted and where they ended up after fly down, however I could never get them within gun range. This is a hunting club with a lot of members and there is quite a bit of hunting pressure, but I had this large block all to myself…or so I thought. There were no trucks or hunters on the road I parked on, but there was one across the highway which I assumed was hunting on that side of the road. On the 3rd weekend of season, those gobblers had disappeared. I was scratching my head and studying aerial maps and decided maybe the guy hunting at the highway might have gotten them. I drove to his spot and walked directly to where the turkeys had previously congregated mid-morning, and I find an active corn feeder with corn on the ground, and a pile of turkey feathers under it indicating someone had killed 1 or more at this site.
Killing turkeys with the aid of bait is highly illegal in the state of Louisiana. I was running pretty hot when I found this. What low life person goes to these means to kill a turkey? I almost called them a “hunter”, but that person is far from a hunter.
Scenario #2: I took my dad out to hunt this loud-mouthed bird that I had been chasing all year on the same hunting club. There isn’t another hunter from our club on the entire property. We are moving in to set up on him before daylight and hear another bird 75 yards from us and set up between them. Closest bird flies down and heads away from us. We are contemplating what to do, and BOOM someone shoots him about 200 yards away on our property. This hunter had come in from the adjoining hunting club.
We still had the original bird to hunt so we didn’t take off after the poacher, but if killing the first bird wasn’t enough, these same poachers came in after the second bird as well. These greedy guys were never caught but they know that we know, and I’d sure hope they don’t try that again. Also, you owe me a bird so we can be even (you know my #).
Scenario #3: I’m taking a guest on his first turkey hunt of the year on a property in Lincoln Parish, I had sole permission to hunt. I park my truck at the entrance where I knew a big gobbler was frequenting. We were greeted with silence, so we head to another spot. As we get to the blacktop road, a poacher and his daughter came out in the road (CLEARLY trespassing from where that bird was supposed to be). He then had the audacity to question why I was there and proceeded to tell me that I messed up his hunt. This guy obviously isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Seeing as I didn’t own the land, I played it cool and informed the landowner. These guys had come from a neighboring property about half a mile down the road, and from my previous observations, I had my suspicions they had been hunting this property.
Scenario #4: Same Lincoln Parish Property, and this one takes the cake. I was hunting one evening and had called up a couple of jakes and let them go. As it got dark, I headed back to my truck and hear a shot that sounds like it is on the property. I promptly drive over and there is a truck parked on the pipeline, so I call the landowner and wait this guy out. The landowner informs me that a sheriff’s deputy is on the way. I also called my game warden buddy who just happened to be hunting close by and heard the gun shot.
After 10 minutes I see his head crest the hill 200 yards away. I see him ducking down and appeared to throw something out. He slowly walks up to me, and I start making small talk, as I know I need to hold this guy until the authorities arrive. Talking is one of my strong points and after about 10 minutes we were best friends. Heck, I was pretty sure I was going to be the Best Man in his wedding at that point.
Shortly after, the LPSO and LDWF rolls up and I head down the pipeline. I go to where I saw him throw something and find a small dead hen. I walk back up and let the authorities know and he curses at me denying it, and they separate us, which was probably a good thing because I was well above my boiling point, but I still played it cool. He finally admitted to it and I’m not sure what ever happened to him, but I hope he lost hunting privileges for a long time and paid a hefty fine.
Who in the world shoots a hen?! First, it’s not legal and never has been here. A hen can have 12-14 poults per year, and this idiot just took out any chance that this hen and her potential babies may have of thriving in our great parish. But to answer my own question, someone lower than pond scum does this.
I guess I’ve been naïve but there actually are people like this among us. I’m not much for name calling, but these guys are bottom of the barrel. They don’t care about a sustainable turkey population, and I have no respect for them. They just want to kill; whether it be for social media bragging or just because they want to impress Cousin Eddie with the number of animals they can kill. None of those above are hunters… they don’t deserve the respectable “title.”
Our turkey population is struggling and that is for a multitude of reasons that will be covered later, but I know illegally shooting them is not helping. For those actual hunters who do it respectfully and legally, I wish you the best and good luck!
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Dusty McGehee is a native of Downsville and a 2006 graduate of Louisiana Tech University with a bachelors in wildlife conservation. He is currently employed by WestRock and serves as an environmental engineer at the Hodge Mill. Dusty is an avid hunter and crappie fisherman, fishing crappie tournaments with his son when he is not in the woods. He and his wife Rachel have three young outdoorsmen/women: Anders (9), Ridge (7) and Mae (5). If you have a story idea or question about the great outdoors, you can reach Dusty at dusty.mcgehee@westrock.com.
