For a deer called Bucky, it was payback time, a chance to get even, however indirectly, for the great wrong heaped upon his antlers.
From a strategic location in a field of tall grass somewhere in Adams County, this deer watched implacably as the tan pickup, racing against its own dust trail, rumbled up the county road from the south.
As the truck slowed, then stopped, Bucky turned his head to watch, beady eyes following a man in a camo jacket and a young woman wearing blaze orange.
When the rifle shot rang out, bullet ripping into his hide, the deer didn’t flinch – and therein lies our story. What these Sunday hunters didn’t realize until too late was that Bucky, in all his four-point glory, was a fake, a product of the taxidermist’s art.
More to the point, he was the centerpiece of a decoy operation staged by Colorado Division of Wildlife officers, one of several such exercises conducted each year by the agency in an effort to curtail poaching.
The irony of it all is that this mule deer actually had been the victim of an illegal shooting incident three years earlier, gunned down in Deer Creek Canyon just southwest of Denver. In transience, he was being put to work saving friends from a similar fate.
Call them decoys, stings, stakeouts, whatever. Point is, in a time when bad guys increasingly are taking illegal pops at Colorado’s big game, in and out of season, the wildlife agency will take extreme steps to stop the carnage.
“We’re looking at areas where there’s evidence of deer being poached, where people are spotlighting or shooting from roads,” said Rob Firth, DOW’s chief of law enforcement.
Firth said his agency typically sets up a couple dozen decoy operations a year, depending upon the number of problems and available manpower for operations that inherently are labor-intensive.
Last Sunday, four officers turned out before daybreak to conduct an Adams County exercise directed by officer Joe Padia, who patrols DOW’s Brighton district. Even though an eastern Colorado deer season was in session, it turned out to be a slow day amid a checkerboard of pastures and cornfields that provide habitat for surprising numbers of deer.
The young hunter who took aim at Bucky actually had a license. Trouble was, she also was carrying a loaded rifle inside the vehicle, a violation that often occurs in conjunction with poaching. Most offenders nabbed in these roundups are guilty of much more: hunting out of season, without a license or actually shooting from a vehicle. Too often, the breach involves senselessly gunning down an animal, or taking the antlers and leaving the rest to rot.
Just past sunrise, a scattering of vehicles stopped to examine the decoy, some for extended periods. Only two were wearing orange.
“It’s hard to tell whether people actually are up to something or just curious about seeing a nice deer,” said Padia, who manipulated a remote-control device that moved the deer’s head and leg from a hiding place a couple hundred yards away.
Traffic dwindled as the day progressed, a midday lull Padia attributes in part to Colorado’s infatuation with its favorite football team.
“Everything gets a lot slower the closer you get to Broncos game time,” he said. “Goose decoys disappear and the fishing rods get rolled up.”
Decoy operations serve two purposes, Padia said.
“We definitely want to arrest the people who are causing the problems, but it also serves as a deterrent when the bad guys think we might be watching.
“In these small towns, word spreads like wildfire. That might help the real deer out there.”
Padia said these elaborate deceptions are necessary for effective enforcement.
“Otherwise, all these guys in vehicles driving around looking for animals can see us coming a long ways away,” he said.
As for Bucky, he has been shot several times in the line of duty, punctures visible in his otherwise natural hide. But in the end, it’s the decoy, once a poacher’s victim, who laughs last.
“I guess you can say he’s getting his revenge,” Padia laughed.
Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
