"Git yer gun and git in the truck!"
Jul 14, 2008 8:11:42 GMT -5
Post by Pun on Jul 14, 2008 8:11:42 GMT -5
Only in the South...
Some hunters are just lucky. Like the guy driving down the road in Jackson County who spotted a deer in a yard and not long afterward drove off with the critter in his truck.
Call it mountain multitasking.
“It’s an easy way to take an animal,” said Sgt. Tim Lominac, of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
In most of the state, it’s also illegal. Jackson last month became the 13th Western North Carolina county to take on “road hunting.”
But the practice seems to be increasing across the mountains as deer and turkey populations grow, Lominac said.
The General Assembly must approve local hunting laws, so lawmakers periodically are asked to restrict shooting game from a road — and, in at least one county, from a boat.
Before they signed off on Jackson County’s ban on firing a gun from a road’s right-of-way, sponsored by Rep. Phil Haire, of Sylva, wildlife enforcement officers’ hands were tied. They couldn’t arrest road hunters unless they committed a separate crime by firing from their car.
That happened last year in the Caney Fork community, where a woman watched a deer in her yard become a motorist’s trophy, Lominac said.
But that was just one of about 25 reports of road hunting in Jackson County, he said.
“I know of incidents where people have shot turkey off of N.C. 107, practically in downtown Sylva,” County Commissioner Tom Massie said.
Commissioners heard support from the public at two hearings they held before the legislature passed the ban, Massie said.
“It gives all the hunters a bad name.”
Call it mountain multitasking.
“It’s an easy way to take an animal,” said Sgt. Tim Lominac, of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
In most of the state, it’s also illegal. Jackson last month became the 13th Western North Carolina county to take on “road hunting.”
But the practice seems to be increasing across the mountains as deer and turkey populations grow, Lominac said.
The General Assembly must approve local hunting laws, so lawmakers periodically are asked to restrict shooting game from a road — and, in at least one county, from a boat.
Before they signed off on Jackson County’s ban on firing a gun from a road’s right-of-way, sponsored by Rep. Phil Haire, of Sylva, wildlife enforcement officers’ hands were tied. They couldn’t arrest road hunters unless they committed a separate crime by firing from their car.
That happened last year in the Caney Fork community, where a woman watched a deer in her yard become a motorist’s trophy, Lominac said.
But that was just one of about 25 reports of road hunting in Jackson County, he said.
“I know of incidents where people have shot turkey off of N.C. 107, practically in downtown Sylva,” County Commissioner Tom Massie said.
Commissioners heard support from the public at two hearings they held before the legislature passed the ban, Massie said.
“It gives all the hunters a bad name.”
