Well I saw my first baiter today.

[okhunter]

Shooting from the road is illegal.....period. Whether its a coyote,deer, turkey or whatever. If you do it and get caught you have only yourself to blame. To me poaching goes beyond shooting deer illegally. Poachers are in the same book as trespassers. I've got little patience for either.

 

[Sampson]

Guys, Im all for your youth hunter program. But I am not gonna lie, I'm alittle bothered about your lack of concern about shooting from the road that some people here have expressed. I also do a hunter mentor program on my own farm with youth. But I would tell youth who hunt with me that its an ethical decision and a total disregard for safety to shoot at anything from the road, as well as being illegal. Would you allow your youth to shoot from the road? I would certainly hope not! But your views of entrapment will keep me from volunteering for your program. As a certified driving instructor, I advise those I teach to obey the speed limit, not to slow down and drive like they should when they see a black and white. If we are really going to teach about the outdoors and gun safety, we need to lead by example. And practice what we preach, in hunter education.. PERIOD!

 

[ElkStalkR]

because if their willing to shoot from the road for a coyote then I'll bet a 170 inch buck standing in the field will be shot as well.

I don't agree with that at all! Again, its the simple difference of varmint versus game status. Lets face it the coyote is seen as a "worthless" animal and has almost zero value in the eyes of the majority of hunters and farmers/ranchers. That is not the case with the whitetail deer.

Yes, illegal is illegal and yes it is illegal to shoot from the road period. I understand that. So if you get caught you got nobody but yourself to blame.

 

[AllOut]

Sampson.... I believe your missing the point.
EVERYONE here hates road hunters, no one is saying other wise. The complaint is about the way law enforcement goes about catching people breaking laws. They arnt out there catching poachers, they are out there tempting people with false and fictitious opportunities.
To me it's about as chicken chit as a Highway Patrol going out at night and sticking a temporary STOP sign in the middle of the turnpike and writing tickets to people for running it. Or sticking a 25mph speedlimit sign up and writing speeding tickets all night.

 

[Sampson]

Well, I'm a law enforcement officer too. So, yeah it's offensive as well. No body wants to take responsibility for their actions any more. Everyone's a victim of some kind. It's harassment, it's entrapment, your a racist. It's somebody else's fault not mine! That's what's wrong with society today. If your a officer and you commit a crime, I'll be the first to say throw the book at him because he's giving all of us a bad name. It's easy to criticize what we don't understand. I do a difficult job that most people don't appreciate , but their the first to tell me I'm doing it wrong or how it shouldve been handled. I would never dream of walking up to an electrician, who's been on the job for 15 yrs and tell him, How to do his job. Honestly sir, I would never have shot at the buck, but it was too big to pass up. I'm not responsible, the government is because it's entrapment. It's ok for me to support your second amendment rights, but your the first to criticize me for speeding to catch up to some one who's speeding. But I don't believe in the job I'm doing? I'm the one who scrapes the children off the roadway that were killed by someone doing 15 over the posted. Yes, I believe in what I'm doing! Sorry for the rant but it gets old. Be responsible for your actions, stop blaming everyone else.

 

[VIKING]

Well Sampson you got your thoughts I got mine. As far as comparing shooting at a coyote to a trophy buck, go tell that to someone else. Hell while we're at it lets just start giving everyone that is caught shop lifting for the first time 30 years. After all stealing a candy bar ought to be the same as robbing a bank....stealing is stealing...

 

[Okie4570]

Sampson, I'm not sure where your getting that we teach the youth at the OYH&SP (which is in no way a part of OSA), to shoot game from the road. I think if you read my posts, I was the one who compared baiting to the speed limits signs. The law is the law, it doesn't matter if I'm baited or not, because I'm not going to do it. Shooting from the road is something that is covered in Hunters Safety Program, and gun safety is taught, promoted at all times OYH&SP during hunt. Since you want to tell us how involved you are with youth, I will too. I'm a teacher, I spend all day with youth, I'm a certified Driver Ed teacher as well, I teach them excatly what you mentioned about seeing an officer when driving. I've scraped up people off of the roadway, extricated people out of grain augers................I'm a volunteer firefighter/EMT and I don't get a dime in return, and I don't want it, I enjoy helping people out. Your post, post #45, sounds more like you're venting about your job, than a rant about OYH&SP. If you're burnt out, get some help. You are correct, you have a difficult job, I work closely almost everyday with OHP, and county deputies. And I appreciate everything you guys do. It's an open forum, and everyone has the right to post, and say what you want, but I disagree with what you percieve that OYH&SP is all about. If you don't want to appreciate what we do, that's your right.

 

[Norman]

Well Sampson you got your thoughts I got mine. As far as comparing shooting at a coyote to a trophy buck, go tell that to someone else. Hell while we're at it lets just start giving everyone that is caught shop lifting for the first time 30 years. After all stealing a candy bar ought to be the same as robbing a bank....stealing is stealing...

Nice straw man. Are you going to build another?

I don't see the problem with decoy deer. If you don't want to get busted for road poaching, don't do it. This doesn't seem that complicated to me.

 

[AllOut]

I'm with Okie4570 on this one.
I'm also an EMT, scraping up kids off the side walk is also part of one of my jobs... Look for sympathy elsewhere on that cause you won't get it from me. But like you my job has laws and protocol I have to follow. I don't get to break those laws or go outside my scope of practice, eventhough it may save someone's life! So ya I have every right to get irritated with LEO who break their rules and laws. The ones that get me the most and I see cops break the most are the laws/regulations that are put in place for their own damn safety...

 

[Sampson]

Okie, you missed my point as well. Yeah, I got on my soapbox. But I got the right just like everyone else here does as well. My point is, I don't have a problem with the youth program, I have a problem with people who cry foul because they have been caught doing something wrong, and blame some one else for it.
I actually considered volunteering for your youth hunt, until I read some of the responses on this post. By some of the same people who sponsor that. Yeah, I know everyone's got an opinion. But that's mine .. Ps I am not burned out but thanks for the advice.