Does South Dakota law enforcement use pheasant decoys?

A

Answerguy8

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Does South Dakota law enforcement use pheasant decoys to catch violators? My sons and I came across two roosters sitting on private property near the fence line the other day in Beadle County. We stopped and watched them for awhile and when they didn't move after several minutes we got curious enough to get out of the car and get closer.
We finally realized they were taxidermy birds. It could have been a prank by a property owner but I know some DNR departments use decoys to catch cheaters. Anyone have knowledge about this?
 
They do in ND, or at least used to. I don't know about SD, as I've never seen it.
 
It wouldn't surprise me that they'd use fakes or taxidermy birds to catch guys shooting out of their trucks. Leaving deer camp about 15 years ago here in MN, we saw a doe and a buck standing on private property, about 40 yards off the road. Eventually we realized it's a fake. This one even was motorized, the back leg would move awkwardly. At first we thought the deer was wounded or something until we realized they were fakes. Looking around and we then noticed a truck parked up on a hill watching over everything. I'm sure it was a game warden hoping to catch some guy blast the decoy out of his truck.
 
Slob cops. Entrapment is un-American and the police who do it should be kicked in the ass and banned from police work. Disgusting practice.
 
As others have stated, I've seen game/poaching shows on TV where they use a fake decoy deer to try and get someone to shoot at it.

That's pretty damn funny they're using fake roosters to try and get someone to shoot at them. You'd have to be a complete idiot and really desperate to fall for that one.
 
Bird Buster said:
Wrong. There is nothing wrong with them trying to catch violators. It happens and the people that do it should get caught plain and simple.
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Like I said, I don't pay (most of my taxes) to cops to have them create crimes that otherwise would not occur. It's a disgusting practice and should be outlawed. If you lure someone into committing a crime you aren't enforcing the law, you are an accomplice.
 
s.davis said:
Like I said, I don't pay (most of my taxes) to cops to have them create crimes that otherwise would not occur. It's a disgusting practice and should be outlawed. If you lure someone into committing a crime you aren't enforcing the law, you are an accomplice.
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Its done all the time in law enforcement. Often referred to as a "sting." You generally have to catch someone in the act of committing a crime to punish them, or have them admit to it.

I'm perfectly fine with a a set up because I know it won't affect me. I'm not one to pull over and blast a rooster from my truck along the side of the road. But some people apparently are doing it, otherwise they wouldn't put them there to begin with.
 
On an episode of Northwoods law, the dnr in one of the northeast states put out a taxidermy rooster off the road. A guy got out of the truck and shot it! I was surprised because he walked to the shoulder of a road and got a ticket. The old rooster looked terrible, shabby feathers and everything, must have been in someone's basement for years! Can't believe it fooled someone!
 
Bob Peters said:
On an episode of Northwoods law, the dnr in one of the northeast states put out a taxidermy rooster off the road. A guy got out of the truck and shot it! I was surprised because he walked to the shoulder of a road and got a ticket. The old rooster looked terrible, shabby feathers and everything, must have been in someone's basement for years! Can't believe it fooled someone!
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Sometimes I wonder if those shows are just staged. But I've also meet some really dumb people out there so I can believe it.
 
So the one or two officers in the county should be able to investigate and hope for eye whiteness with a plate number ? Or just leave it alone ? How do you suggest law enforcement should discourage road hunting? If someone was poaching deer off a stretch of county road where you owned property, you would just wish them well in their investigation?
 
I'm sure everyone that has hunted pheasant in SD knows that birds in the right of way are fair game as long as the safety zones are observed. These birds although on the private side were in the safety zone but what was interesting to me was behind us and on the opposite side of the road was a garage with an open garage door that was angled to this corner. I couldn't see anyone or anything in there from the distance we were at but someone with a zoom lens could have seen the decoys and us.
 
Know for a fact they do around Pierre, SD, as my cousin was ticketed for shooting one near Broken Arrow hunting preserve. Game Warden had set one out on private land just outside of legal ditch hunting (33 ft. from center of the road), my cousin shot it and then drove off. Game Warden drove after him and issued him a ticket. He told me when he 'grounded pounded" the pheasant and it stayed upright he should of just got in his pickup and waited for the Game Warden, as he knew he was busted.
Stuff happens! ☹️☹️
It took the hunt out of him for the remainder of the season. He was 75 at the time, 3 yrs. ago.
Just sayin'.
 
Answerguy8 said:
Does South Dakota law enforcement use pheasant decoys to catch violators? My sons and I came across two roosters sitting on private property near the fence line the other day in Beadle County. We stopped and watched them for awhile and when they didn't move after several minutes we got curious enough to get out of the car and get closer.
We finally realized they were taxidermy birds. It could have been a prank by a property owner but I know some DNR departments use decoys to catch cheaters. Anyone have knowledge about this?
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I heard that they tried it once, but all 25 stuffed birds got shot to hell in the first 10 minutes!!;)
 
akp said:
So the one or two officers in the county should be able to investigate and hope for eye whiteness with a plate number ? Or just leave it alone ? How do you suggest law enforcement should discourage road hunting? If someone was poaching deer off a stretch of county road where you owned property, you would just wish them well in their investigation?
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I don't know, maybe do some police work? Should firefighters build houses with faulty wiring just to put them out when they catch on fire?
 
The SDGFP doesn't just set up random roosters to catch folks. My understanding is that for the SDGFP to have a sting operation, there needs to be an intended target or an afflicted landowner. For example, a few years back, there was a young man in the southern central portion of the state poaching deer. Everyone knew it, but it was tough to catch someone based on a shredded lead bullet in a deer carcass (he was cutting the heads off). Finally, I think they used DNA from cigarettes to catch him. Cost well over a million dollars to investigate. Some of the local CO's criticized the investigation saying that a decoy would've saved a ton of dollars, man hours and, probably, several trophy deer from being poached. They knew who he was and where he was doing it. Anyway, that's my rant.
 
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