Poaching. How common is it?

Tom D

Well-Known Member
I saw a post on another thread referring to poached sika, how common is poaching? what signs do you see, anyone been convicted in your area?

Just interested, I don't know of it happening round here, although I do know a farmer who is convinced that people are taking his sheep to feed to fighting dogs..
 
very very common , they operate in the middle of the night and do not approach them they are normally hardend criminals !!!!!!!!!!!!!! trust me i know first hand !!!!!
 
I think it goes on in various shapes and forms, wherever you stay, as it has done for many a year, ground will have alot to do with it (type) poachers will not want to work to hard for their quarry.

George.
 
Why fighting dogs
Just his theory, sheep were going missing, he reasoned that they were going to these breeders of pit bulls etc, it would hardly be worth taking them for the mutton. 5-10 big dogs would need quite a lot of meat, cheaper to just go out and take it if you can.

They have never been caught so no one knows...
 
I know a few - pretty dastardly IMHO but I personally think benefits frauds are worse so until they're sorted out I won't be sticking my neck out accusing people of things I can't prove other than when they've made slips of the tongue!

From what I can gather they always shoot at night, and they do "circuits" of likely spots usually as a pair (to get the carcass out quick).

You'll hear them casually talking to people about where they got one, or where they've seen them - I only picked up on this when I overheard someone I knew did it talking to someone I knew in the pub.

Theres an estate near me where they have 2 visits a year from a large group of 15 or so poachers who drive the fallow to a point at night the murder them in mass - the gamekeeper doesn't even bother getting out of bed as the armed response time is 3 hours (by which time poachers are gone)!

I suspect it's a lot more common than we think!
 
lots of types of poaching and lots of types of poacher.... but poaching in Scotland is one of those things best ignored for the most. The police can't charge without two forms of evidence (so they tell me). Unless you see a poacher do the deed and there is other evidence, gralloch left, rifle in the car etc and the police are there before they leave then the chances of a conviction are slim.

Effective poaching of deer is not too common but the attempt at it is more common where deer that are highly visible are shot at by idiots with rimfires. I get the phone calls to come and check deer around us now and again, The last being a fallow with a rimfire that had gone through it's neck, the one before that was a roe that was lung shot. The dog I came across one that was alive but really messed up quite a few years ago stalking on my ground that had been shot with 6's, I knew exactly who had taken the shot as he like to walk my ground with his shotgun and wasn't bothered because he knew the police wouldn't bother. He's was right too, they weren't interested because without evidence they can't do anything, my word against his isn't worth anything.
 
Theres a few fellas run their dogs here in Poole

Lot of poaching round here and i agree its probably more common than most people think..
 
Fighting dogs and poachers in the one thread not good for the site. It goes on here in a small way but only were the deer are in very high numbers normally two high numbers. We don't get many full commercial poachers just a few dog men and the odd chancer with a lamp.
Certainly not enough to waste public resources on we have bigger problems that need delt with.
 
If you see them in action and if they are well away from their vehicle try putting some sugar in their fuel tank that will bugger them up a few miles away from where the deed was done so they should not connet the two (don"t get mad, get even).
martin
 
I had a couple of Roe shot last month, a nice buck I'd been watching and a young doe. Not by poachers though, this scum shot them and left them. I found them the day I got back from holiday, the foxes/badgers/rooks/maggots etc had been at them for a couple of weeks so were well decomposed.

It makes me sick to my stomach to be associated with firearm owning scum like this that can kill for killing sake.
 
If they are in illegal posession of guns I would expect the police to have a duty of care to the general public to catch them and put them away.
If they are legally held guns then it is absolute grounds for confiscation without recompense.
take them out of the food chain.
Martin
 
I personally see it a lot through the Wye Valley, Red lamps in the middle of the night in the forestry commission woods, mute bangs, guts left near footpaths. Usually we just walk outside and let off a few cartridges which will scare anything within a mile so they bugger off but this goes on through out the year!

Police wont do anything and as soon as you mention poaching and shots heard they cant wait to hang up :(
 
Far more common than is thought if last years incidents are anything to go by. All sorts, dogs, pikeys and others, police informed and know but not a chance in hell of catching them unless they drop on them by shear chance.

D
 
I personally see it a lot through the Wye Valley, Red lamps in the middle of the night in the forestry commission woods, mute bangs, guts left near footpaths. Usually we just walk outside and let off a few cartridges which will scare anything within a mile so they bugger off but this goes on through out the year!

Police wont do anything and as soon as you mention poaching and shots heard they cant wait to hang up :(

Thats just the commission Rangers mate nowt wrong with that.
 
its far better to catch them at the sales end...keep an eye on local hotels/ restaurants selling wild scottish venison....But be carefull not to accuse the ligit ones....
 
Thats just the commission Rangers mate nowt wrong with that.

The bangs are too quiet to be the rangers unless there are using some mod which turns a CF into the sound of a rimfire, if that's the case I want one!
 
A regular occurance around these parts.

£2.40/Kg isnt helping either.

I am surprised at that, I would say there was a lot less at least in my area than there used to be still get the one for the pot guys but can more or less live with that
Commercially not much plenty guys with dogs but not many reach my area they can find deer closer to their home turf don't need to come as far as me.
Most guys with legit rifles are not going to risk it tickets gone if they are caught
Some body mentioned Hotels thats not so easy either these days venison can legally only be sold or bought to or from a registered venison dealer in Scotland

No doubt there are those that would buy illegal venison, however hotels etc have to account for where they acquire their ingredients so could only put it on the menu
if they are buying elsewhere legally and even then only a limited amount if they were purchasing on a regular basis a discrepancy would soon show between what they are buying legally and what they are selling.

Which leaves two options sales to private individuals or dealers who are knowingly buying illegal venison the later raises the issue of tags etc

There is also the stalker who leases a small area and develops elastic boundary's he can get away with it for a while but will get caught eventually

Or on one estate where I was the stalker I had a farmer who marched with us he farmed a little over a 100 acres each year he planted around 10 acres of turnips on the boundary and shot the stags each winter [night shooting] when they came on them [crop protection] the turnips were planted with the sole purpose of drawing the deer though impossible to prove .

Estate I was on at that time was around 12,000 acres and we shot forty five stags per annum the farmer shot more than double that on his 10 acres of turnips
not illegal but more of a problem for me than somebody getting away with one for the pot.



Now I know that poaching goes on and some areas will be worse than others as to how big a problem it is I am not sure certainly in my area a lot less than it was thirty or forty years ago
 
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