Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Illegal Growers/Poachers Caught

Brandon270

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Messages
474
Location
Central California

As often as this happens it makes me wonder how many of these operations are going on in our state right now. What's crazy is that it doesn't just happen on public land but large private lands that aren't in use as well.
 
Sad thing is I bet the real number of illegal grows is much higher than any of
Us could imagine.
 
Crazy is right. My unexpected experience first elk hunt.
Last year found a trimmed up patch with my buddy and I while out hunting elk in Colorado. We hiked up a thick creek bed from our base camp for over a mile then clawed our way up a side bank through oak brush towards a bald peak to glass from. About 500ft we push into a wierd clearing with trash an black tubing everywhere. I can't imagine carrying the lime or fertilizer bags up in there that were laying around let alone the 2hour 10mph dirt road ride.
After grabbing pictures we went to climbing up to the top. About 50ft up we see a pile of rock an dirt an went over check it out. A perfect square hole. 8x8 an 5ish ft deep with a camo curtain material stretched over it. And the wierdest thing was a pair of kid size jeans laying in the pile next to it. We kept climbing to get the heck out of there. Glass awhile just freeked out about what we just saw. Said lets head to the truck...
Then like an act from God we see a CPW officer truck crawling up the crappy road towards us. So we flagged her towards us gave her the pictures an location. She said it sucks how much these things are popping up. But she gave us her card an thanked us. I think we made a friend.
 
Crazy is right. My unexpected experience first elk hunt.
Last year found a trimmed up patch with my buddy and I while out hunting elk in Colorado. We hiked up a thick creek bed from our base camp for over a mile then clawed our way up a side bank through oak brush towards a bald peak to glass from. About 500ft we push into a wierd clearing with trash an black tubing everywhere. I can't imagine carrying the lime or fertilizer bags up in there that were laying around let alone the 2hour 10mph dirt road ride.
After grabbing pictures we went to climbing up to the top. About 50ft up we see a pile of rock an dirt an went over check it out. A perfect square hole. 8x8 an 5ish ft deep with a camo curtain material stretched over it. And the wierdest thing was a pair of kid size jeans laying in the pile next to it. We kept climbing to get the heck out of there. Glass awhile just freeked out about what we just saw. Said lets head to the truck...
Then like an act from God we see a CPW officer truck crawling up the crappy road towards us. So we flagged her towards us gave her the pictures an location. She said it sucks how much these things are popping up. But she gave us her card an thanked us. I think we made a friend.
It's stories like that that bug me since I usually hunt solo.
 
They're everywhere. There's a local that loves telling us farmers that he made more money in our corn fields than we did.

But the funniest was seeing a guy run out of our neighbors corn field fifty feet in front of the chopper. We laughed that they were the happiest cows in the county eating that silage.
 
Hard to say. They sure have diminished in the PNW.
That's what I've noticed. My hometown used to have a bust or two a year. I can't say I've heard about one in many years now. And it's certainly not because of the lack of people out there potentially running into them.

I wonder what the difference in with CA. Why do they still have the illegal grow issue alongside the legal grows?
 
Just make sure your side arm ammo is lead free, I know a couple guys that got busted for that. They had lead free ammo for their rifles but common lead hollow points in their handguns and got cited for it.
This. I specifically got lead free for my sidearm and carry it with me on all scouts or hikes in hopes that I never have to use it but prepared if it came to that
 
That's what I've noticed. My hometown used to have a bust or two a year. I can't say I've heard about one in many years now. And it's certainly not because of the lack of people out there potentially running into them.

I wonder what the difference in with CA. Why do they still have the illegal grow issue alongside the legal grows?
According to the podcast, it's just a misdemeanor now in CA for an illegal grow. In the guest's opinion that made it much more attractive to put an illegal grow there as the penalty was not a deterrent.
 
According to the podcast, it's just a misdemeanor now in CA for an illegal grow. In the guest's opinion that made it much more attractive to put an illegal grow there as the penalty was not a deterrent.
I'm not sure what the numbers are but it might depend on the size of the grow. Having weapons on them in that scenario will go against them also.
 
According to the podcast, it's just a misdemeanor now in CA for an illegal grow. In the guest's opinion that made it much more attractive to put an illegal grow there as the penalty was not a deterrent.
Combine the low penalty and extremely high taxes on legal weed in CA, it is still way more profitable with low risk to grow illegally. CA thought they were going to be smart and reap tons of money via taxes once making it legal, but illegal grows have taken off because people don't want to pay such extreme tax, including individual cities can set their own taxes on top of state
 
Just make sure your side arm ammo is lead free, I know a couple guys that got busted for that. They had lead free ammo for their rifles but common lead hollow points in their handguns and got cited for it.
I was under the understanding that lead free was only for hunting. If you stated the sidearm was for self defense not hunting I don’t see how that citation would hold uP in court
 
That's what I've noticed. My hometown used to have a bust or two a year. I can't say I've heard about one in many years now. And it's certainly not because of the lack of people out there potentially running into them.

I wonder what the difference in with CA. Why do they still have the illegal grow issue alongside the legal grows?
Not really sure. Legalization had a huge affect on the clandestine grow business.
 
I was under the understanding that lead free was only for hunting. If you stated the sidearm was for self defense not hunting I don’t see how that citation would hold uP in court
That's correct, but the officer that cited them said there was no way to prove that they wouldn't use it on an animal or to finish an injured animal off.
 

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