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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels November 1, 2004 Beware the Decoys By Scott Staats Tidings Correspondent Two bucks stood very still in a small clearing of the ponderosa pine forest. The hunter raised his rifle, taking aim at the larger of the two deer and squeezed the trigger. At only 50 yards, it should have been an easy shot but neither deer flinched. After two more shots, his partner also fired twice with the same result. Something wasn't right with this situation. Oregon State Police officers check to make sure a decoy of a deer is set up correctly. Submitted photo Actually several things were wrong. First off, the hunter shot from inside his truck and his partner shot while leaning against the windshield. As the Oregon State Police vehicle drove up behind them, the officer introduced both hunters to the state's decoy program. In Oregon, it's illegal to shoot from a vehicle or a road. Although there is a lot of humor involved with many decoy operations, game officers take the work very seriously. Their goal is to apprehend violators before they illegally take game animals. The stuffed animals have fooled many would-be poachers. Following are some humorous but true decoy stories from Oregon State Troopers who enforce the state game laws. A pickup truck came down a Forest Service road at a fairly good clip when the driver spotted a deer decoy, thinking it was the real thing. He slammed on the brakes, slid into the ditch and the truck ended up on its side. The man then popped out of the passenger side door, opening it like a hatch, and began shooting at the decoy. It's obvious where his priorities lie. While a man stood alongside his truck and shot twice at an elk decoy, his wife slid behind the wheel and drove off, leaving him standing in the middle of the road in his shirtsleeves. It was late afternoon on a cold November day. After officers stopped the woman, she said, "I told that SOB it was a decoy and not to shoot it." She said she was going back to camp without him, about a 15-mile drive. She finally agreed to wait there while her husband walked to her, about 1/2 mile away. During bow season, troopers saw a truck with two passengers drive by the decoys, a man behind the wheel. When it turned around, a woman now drove and the man stood in back of the pickup. After shooting a few arrows from the truck, he received two citations. They got ready to leave and discovered they had locked the keys in the truck. The man took a good-sized rock and tried to throw it through the window but missed and put a huge dent in the door. He then smashed the window with the rock. The pickup was rented and the couple was on their honeymoon. The day before archery season, a driver stopped and began launching arrows at a decoy. The first shot fell short, the second long and the third just right - in the center of the chest. The sound of the arrow hitting the decoy sounded like a hollow wooden box. When the shooter realized it was a decoy, he threw the bow down and started running back to the truck. As the officers arrived the man said he wasn't shooting at the deer, but at a squirrel instead. After careful consideration the man decided the judge wouldn't buy that story and paid the fine. He told the troopers he planned on going to college to become a police officer. Once an officer drove up to a man on the road shooting so intently at a decoy that he had to grab the man's rifle and shoulder to stop him from shooting. The whole time the officer was shouting, "State Police, quit shooting!" When the man turned around, the officer said, "Welcome to the Oregon Decoy Program!" The man was too full of adrenaline to realize what had happened that he kept repeating, "Did I hit it, did I hit it?" The decoy most likely needed some repair work after that incident. Around 10 one evening, a pickup with a camper drove by a deer decoy placed only six feet off the road in the borrow ditch. The driver stopped and walked behind the camper, armed with an AK-47. The taillights of the camper weren't bright enough for him to see the decoy about 20 yards off. As another vehicle approached, its headlights illuminated the decoy and he shot two single rounds. In between rounds, he squinted to see if the deer was still there. Then he finally lowered the semi-automatic rifle to the hip position and opened up with five rounds. At that point he knew it was a decoy and ran for the truck. This was more of a high-risk situation and troopers took the man into custody at gunpoint. The trooper said the man was a former Russian national and kept repeating, "I just stupid Russian." He was cited for hunting from a roadway, hunting at night and using an illegal weapon. For those hunters heading out after deer and elk this fall, be sure you really know your target, and when you think about doing something illegal, you better look over your shoulder. You never know who may be watching. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams