Pennsylvania Game News - September 2008 - 18

grees with a light drizzle, ideal conditions for deer hunting. We’d just left the Pymatuning Administration Building after settling mistake kills, where two spike bucks had been mistaken for antlerless deer. We were traveling on Wilson Road when we were flagged down by the driver of a big gray Dodge pickup. Lawrence pulled over as we approached the vehicle and greeted the two hunters sitting inside. The driver immediately asked, “Hey, how come you wardens let some guys deer hunt in the controlled goose hunting area and others can’t? Lawrence replied, “What do you mean?” “Well, we just watched a hunter shoot a deer, gut it out then go back into the reserve to hunt some more.” I asked him where he saw this and he gave us directions to an area off of Rt. 285, directly behind blinds 30 and 31, which placed the hunter in the controlled goose shooting area. The 18 area is completely off limits to deer hunters, open only to hunters drawn for goose blinds. The witness told us the hunter was wearing blue clothing, a cowboy hat with an orange bandana and an orange vest. I asked the hunters how they knew the hunter killed a deer without going into the area themselves. They responded that they’d used their binoculars and could easily see the gut pile under a large oak tree adjacent to the edge of the standing cornfield. We jotted down their names, thanked them for the information and proceeded to the location. Arriving at the scene, we parked in the Game Lands parking lot and walked 500 yards to the large oak tree at the corner of the cornfield. Sure enough, we located a fresh gut pile, right where the hunters said it was, but there was no deer in sight. The grass was wet with a low misty fog and we were unable to see any human boot prints in the area. We found no blood trail indicating where the deer might have come from or where it had been taken. Lawrence went into the area to search for the hunter while I stayed near the gut pile and tried to locate the deer. I radioed LMO Jerry Bish and asked if he could come in from the other end of the area and be on the lookout for this hunter. Jerry arrived in minutes stating that he hadn’t seen anyone, but would continue searching in another direction separate from Lawrence. I was becoming frustrated, searching for the deer, because I knew it had to be in the immediate area. I walked away from the area four times, out to about 40 to 50 yards, looking back from different angles and elevations to check for tracks or a drag mark. After about 10 minutes I heard a muzzleloader shot from the area where Lawrence had just gone and knew it was within the controlled goose shooting area, but I continued to look for the deer. I knew that it had to be close, so I just stood back and surveyed the area one more time. If I had illegally shot a deer and wanted GAME NEWS

Pennsylvania Game News - September 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - September 2008