OutdoorMissouri.com

This year a blabbermouth school bus driver has made it known far and wide that there's a huge buck at the Tick Farm. We live about an hour away from there so our trips up there can be a little sporadic. There are only about 3 houses within a mile of the cabin and only about 20 people live within 3 miles of there. The road that goes past the Tick Farm has absolutely no houses. However, the locals are reporting a large increase in the nighttime traffic and hearing shots during the night.

The regional Conservation Agent supervisor was the Jasper County agent for many years and is friends with my FIL & BIL due to their time in local law enforcement. He has been using the Tick Farm to watch for spotlighters this Fall. Apparently a couple weeks ago, he was working with the Barton County agent and a MDC airplane crew when they picked up on the spotlighting activity. A couple offenders were chased down and caught a few miles away. Two offenders were left behind in the field by their buddies, where they were later captured. Their homes were searched and freezers of meat and several sets of ant1ers were confiscated.

Rural areas are far too under watched. Most agents are pure azzholes, but I welcome their presence.

My favored method of dissuading poachers is high speed chases. Fear is the best motivational tool known to man. It's one thing to be afraid of the fine and MDC, it's a whole different issue to be afraid of the crazy SOB that chases you with reckless abandon, and to be pretty sure if he catches you the law would be a benefit at that moment.

Funny you mention that. TTN. I hunted this season at my new farm in NWMO. I ended up talking to one of my neighbors, who is one of those crazy SOBs. He said that he had been watching for spotlighters lately since he has to deal with the problem every year and that they often come around 2 in the morning about two weeks before rifle season, shooting from the truck.

He seems pretty agressive on "enforcement"- he said he shot at one of them early this fall after they tried to run into him getting away and later this fall he ended up chasing another one of them by vehicle through the fields. The latter spotlighter didn't realize that there are drainage ditches and levees all though there and almost rolled his truck before finally getting away. He hasn't seen either one since