A 21-year-old in Oregon has been charged with shooting three black-tailed deer bucks out of season near Coos Bay, hunting with the aid of artificial light and wasting the meat.
After a lengthy investigation, Oregon State Troopers developed a suspect, interviewed him on Dec. 5 and ultimately charged Macen M. West of North Bend with the crimes, the Oregon State Police announced.
Authorities are asking for restitution of $3,000, a three-year minimum suspension of West’s hunting rights, and the forfeiture of his Savage 93r 17 rifle, which retails new for $380.
West faces three counts of taking game in a closed season, three counts of waste of a game mammal for poaching three black-tailed bucks and leaving them to waste, and hunting with the aid of artificial light. The crimes occurred on the weekend of March 19, 2021.
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“It was a crime of opportunity,” Sergeant Levi Harris said in an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife press release. “We believe the shooter drove around a corner, saw the deer in the headlights and made a poor, shocking, impromptu decision to hop out and shoot those deer.”
From the ODFW:
The deer, likely transfixed by the light, would have been easy targets. He would have had time to aim and drop each deer individually. In a normal hunting situation, a single shot at one deer would have startled others into flight. Black-tailed deer hunting season was closed at the time.
All three deer were shot in the head, from relatively close range, according to Sergeant Harris. Because the deer were found so close together, investigators believed early on that the poacher had used a spotlight or vehicle headlights to blind the deer.
There were no footprints or tire tracks leading to the site according to Joseph Metzler of Coos Bay, who discovered the scene the morning of Monday, March 23. That morning, traveling on his ATV, Metzler noticed crows congregating in the area. As he rounded a bend in the road, he came upon the deer carcasses directly in front of him, on the hillside.
“As soon as I came around the corner, there they were, and if it had been dark, they would have been standing right in front of my headlights on the hillside,” he said.
Metzler was pleased that OSP was able to pursue the case and ultimately solve it.
“It goes to show you that if you turn in poachers, it might be a while, but they can find them,” he said.
Photos courtesy of ODFW.
