Fake Deer Bust Poachers

Four days before muzzle-loader season opens, deer poachers are getting caught in the act.  They are all firing at fake deer set up by Tennessee Wildlife Resource Officers.

The stake-out for deer poachers takes place in nearly every county this time of year.  Illegal hunters can be seen on surveillance video firing from the front seat of their vehicle.  "The people who shoot at these aren't hunters, they're poachers," says Bill Swan with the Chattanooga Chapter of the Safari Club International.  His group raises money to buy the fake deer for the T.W.R.A.  The decoys are made of real skin with robotics installed to control the head and tail. 

Hunters fall for it time and time again.  The poachers are putting other people's lives at risk.  "There's always a possibility that there's another hunter in the woods or a home behind where they're shooting or another vehicle coming up the road," cautions T.W.R.A officer Brandon Wear.  And they're putting their own lives on the line as well.  One dad can be seen steadying a muzzle-loader in the cab of his truck for his teenage son to shoot.  After an apparent miss, the dad pulls the gun in, packs it with more gunpower, then tries again.  "And the problem is if the parents do it, or the daddy does it," says Swan, "the kids grow up doing it and so you've got to break that mindset."

Most of the poachers are busted.  Some try to run from the officers, who are always waiting to hunt down another illegal hunter.  "We just want you to do it legally," Wear says.  "The regulations are there for a reason, for public safety and the benefit of the wildlife and the hunters.  Just do it right, do it the right way, do it the safe way."

Each one of these deer decoys cost about $1,400 and often when they're shot the damage is so bad they have to be recovered at a cost of about $700.

The Chattanooga Safari Club has donated about ten deer over the past five years.

Archery season for deer hunting is currently underway in Tennessee.  Muzzleloader hunting opens this Saturday, November 7th.  Rifle season opens the Saturday before Thanksgiving and runs through early January.

Violators can be fined, lose their hunting license, and in some cases like those drivers who had kids in the car, can be charged with reckless endangerment of their children.