Behind the Badge - Suspicious Behavior
Suspicious Behavior
District Game Warden Joe Lucas
On various Wildlife Management Areas across the state, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department has some great public shooting ranges that provide opportunities for recreational shooters or hunters looking to zero in their respective firearms before season.
Our department’s game wardens often patrol these areas to ensure compliance with the gun range rules and regulations.
All ranges on department WMAs will have signage with the regulations for that range posted near the entrance.
Most of these regulations are in place to limit littering, reduce range damage, as well as to ensure public safety.
Be sure to read to signs and brush up on the range rules before shooting.
The following story may not be a very common scenario game wardens encounter while patrolling gun ranges, but it is an example of how you just never know in this line of work.
About 6 years ago I was headed down Highway 85 south of Williston though the Lewis and Clark WMA.It was the week before the deer rifle season and that is often a time when the range was busy, as hunters wanted to double check their zeros before deer season.
It was well past sunset, and I could see a pair of headlights from the highway back at the range.
The range closed at sunset and after-hours shooting is something that had generated complaints from hunters and neighboring landowners.
I turned around and headed down the road toward the shooting range to check out what was going on.
After parking off the road behind an oil well location, I could see a vehicle just sitting at the entrance road to the gun range with its headlights on.
Up on a hill behind the gun range I could see a couple of flashlights scanning the grass.
There were two individuals walking and crouching down like they were looking for something.
There was another vehicle parked down at the range.
After watching the individuals on the hill for some time, it looked like they might be tracking an animal or looking for a blood trail.
My suspicions got stronger when an unassociated vehicle came down the road past the range, and the vehicle that had been sitting at the range entrance then pulled out and left.
As the vehicle left, the two flashlights on the hill then shut off and the people came rushing back to their vehicle.
It looked as though the unexpected vehicle spooked them.
I got back to the road and met the vehicle coming from the range as they got back to the main road.
I contacted the driver of the vehicle to explain that the range was closed at sunset.
Upon talking to the driver, I could tell that something was not right.
I asked about them being up on the hill and they initially denied being up there.
After some time, the driver admitted that they were up on the hill.
I asked if they were looking for blood up on the hill as I had watched them for a good while.
The driver eventually admitted to shooting at a mule deer buck with his rifle.
They had been shooting at the range and spotted the buck as they were leaving.
The driver got out and snuck up to a berm and shot at the buck multiple times.
He had planned to put his archery tag on the deer if he recovered it.
After looking on the hill they were unsure if he had hit the deer or not.
I then called another warden to assist with looking for the deer since it was now very dark.
After a short while, we did locate a blood trail in the area the deer was.
We followed the blood trail for a good distance until it started to lighten up.
After looking hard that evening the deer was not located.
A local with a tracking dog came out the next day to help us try and recover the deer.
Unfortunately, the buck was never found.
The driver of the vehicle was charged with and pleaded guilty to Illegal Take of a Big Game Animal.
As I stated earlier, this was a more severe case of gun range misconduct.
If you do find yourself enjoying a gun range with whatever nice weather we have left this year, be safe, follow the range rules, and shoot straight!