Drive-By Shooter Cited for Firing Rifle into Decoy Unfold

The shooter instructed sport wardens he was simply making an attempt to “scare these cranes off the wheat”

Posted on December 11, 2023

Would-be poachers mistook a selection of crane decoys for a reside flock. Deception Decoys

An Oklahoma man was cited yesterday for capturing into a selection of sandhill crane decoys from the roadway. Fortunately no one was injured. Authorities with the Oklahoma Division of Wildlife Conservation say the incident might have ended far worse, nonetheless, as a gaggle of hunters was solely 20 to 30 yards away from the decoys on the time. They have been so shut they might hear the bullet ricochet off the decoy.      

In keeping with a latest Fb put up on the Oklahoma Sport Wardens web page, the hunters have been ready for cranes to return into their unfold on Sunday after they noticed a pickup truck cease all of a sudden on the roadway. The hunters watched as one of many truck’s home windows rolled down and out got here a rifle barrel. One of many two occupants then shot one of many decoys with the rifle.

“When the motive force seen the birds didn’t disperse—he drove off, realizing what he had simply performed,” the put up reads.

The drive-by capturing befell west of Cherokee, and the hunters instantly known as the authorities. ODWC’s District 8 Captain Ben Bickerstaff and Garfield County Sport Warden Blake Cottrill investigated the incident.

When questioned by the sport wardens, the occupants of the truck stated they have been simply making an attempt to “scare these cranes off the wheat.” Nonetheless, as ODWC factors out within the Fb put up, “it wasn’t even their crop of wheat to fret about” as they didn’t personal the property the place they fired the photographs.

Bickerstaff tells Outside Life that the group of crane hunters included one information and a gaggle of purchasers. The information acknowledged the shooter instantly, and he shared that individual’s identification when he reported the incident. Bickerstaff then contacted the accused particular person and requested them to fulfill him on the native courthouse, the place the suspect admitted to capturing the decoy from the roadway. Bickerstaff was unwilling to share the shooter’s identification at the moment.

Bickerstaff seized their Ruger .204 rifle as proof, and he cited the person for capturing from a public right-of-way. The crime carries a superb of between $500 and $1,500 for a primary conviction, and Bickerstaff says it might additionally carry a one- to 10-year revocation of looking privileges. He says extra expenses—together with reckless discharge of a firearm—could possibly be filed towards the shooter on the discretion of the state’s assistant District Lawyer, as a felony case is now pending.

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“The charging authority is finally going to be the assistant D.A., and if she decides extra expenses are warranted, we’ll do no matter is critical to make that occur,” says Bickerstaff. He provides that he didn’t push for extra expenses within the quotation he filed on Sunday as a result of the shooter expressed their regret and appeared to understand the gravity of their mistake.

“By the point we talked to [him], the fact of what they might have performed had actually set in on [him],” Bickerstaff says. “There’s a distinction between getting a ticket from the sport warden and spending the remainder of your life in jail for killing any individual. I made certain to impress that upon them.”

Keep Secure When Discipline Searching 

It’s frequent for waterfowlers to set massive spreads of ultra-realistic decoys in fields. Every so often would-be poachers mistake these spreads for the actual factor and shoot into them from roadways, often with rifles. That is extraordinarily harmful since hunters sometimes cover inside the unfold, utilizing the decoys to assist conceal their format blinds. 

When discipline looking, it’s sensible to park vans the place would-be poachers can see them, however birds can’t. It’s additionally sensible to regulate roads when discipline looking and be aware any vans that decelerate to eye the unfold. And at all times report individuals who illegally shoot at birds from the street. It might save somebody’s life.