Early Morning Poacher

I got there with little daylight left to hunt. My short hunt was uneventful. Using the sun's last rays I could just make out my pickup as I returned to it. I raised the pickup cap/camper door and opened the self-inflating pad and sleeping bag first thing. I planned to get a good night's rest and to be up before the sun.

The old farm is several miles from nowhere, even the nearest farm house is a couple of miles away. I ate a simple camp supper and listened to the radio till about nine. In the bag I tossed and turned a while before crashing.

My eyes popped open, I looked at my watch, it was 3:05 a.m.
Dazed with sleepiness... must have been dreaming about gun season...
though I heard a gun-shot.

As I was trying to gather my thoughts... Boom!, Boom!, and this time I was awake... Shooting at this time of the morning... Instantly I thought...
A Poacher!... It must be a Poacher!

I judged the shots to be on a wheat field about a half mile east of me... I wondered what I should do. I knew I didn't want to go out after a criminal at three in the morning. I didn't want to call the game warden at that time. So I did nothing.

Probably most of an hour passed and I was still awake. Again and again I opened my eyes to look out at the stars. It was a beautiful clear night, but only about half a moon.

There was a star moving across the sky... no an airplane... no it's a reflection of a small light. Oh!... I realized it was the poacher's headlight reflecting in the camper window.

I raised up an looked out the other side of the camper.
The guy was crossing the open field only 30 - 40 yards from me...
I thought... What should I do now...
I'm not going to let him just carry on with his dirty deal!

I first grabbed my little pump .22 I had lying beside me. Then I purposely threw open the pickup tail-gate knowing it would make a huge noise on such a quiet night.

His headlight made a quick turn to see. I stood up on tailgate so I could see over some small cedar trees. He was making tracks. I'll bet the little .22 pump sounded bigger when I shucked it hard once - just to emphasize that he was going in the right direction.

He may have set a new record for the 200 yard rough-field-in-the-dark-dash. It wasn't more than a couple of minutes before a car was picking him up on the road. Probably had a 2-way radio with him I thought.

What I did was effective, but in the middle of nowhere, alone, I didn't sleep the rest of that morning. I kept thinking about all the ways it could have ended differently. I kept wondering if I was smart, or dumb.

My in-laws, who own the property, repeated my story to the game warden.
They said the warden laughed and enjoyed the story. He told them, "That poacher would probably have to get his pants cleaned."

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