Partner and I were turkey hunting in Lincoln County on Sunday around 7:30 am when we heard a rifle shot, followed a few seconds later by a second shot. Scanned the opposite canyon where the shots came from and saw a female in camo running from the tree line, looking for something. A quad started up and a man on the quad pulled up next to the woman, the two both searching the area slowly. The woman ran back to the trees where the shot came from and a third guy comes walking out for a look (without a gun), he too was in camo.
He and the guy on the quad keep walking/driving slowly searching the area. Meanwhile 5 longbeards huddled together about 200 yards downhill from them, unseen by the guys. I thought, what the heck are they doing? The guy on the quad then hands the guy on foot a rifle and then he drives away for a few mintues. They guy on foot, now with the rifle, walks another 75 yrds, then squats down and takes a 3rd shot with the rifle. I'm scanning the area to see what the hell he's shooting at.
Then I see what looks like a deer lying down in the grass with it's head up looking around still!!! The guy on the quad then pulls up slowly to the deer (whitetail doe) and slowly approaches it on foot with a rope. The rope is tied in the form of a noose and the guy carefully puts the noose around the deer's neck, while it's looking at him. He then strings it up to the quad and starts DRAGGING IT ALIVE!!!!
He drags this poor deer by the neck 500+ yards with the quad and out of sight! We RUN down the mountain side to the farm where the owner of the property we're hunting on and tell him. We call the game warden and the sheriff as we drive up to the area and find the deer hide trail leading to the property owners neighbor's house!! The sheriff came and confronted the neighbor and after a ton of lying, finally learns that the neighbor's step son drove over there from Idaho to poach a deer, cause he was outta deer meat!! They took his rifle and issued the 22 yr old kid over $3,100 in tickets as well as his step dad that assisted!! A$$holes!
Now my partner and I got to split the 10 bonus points.
