The poachers that posed as female photographers 📸

ven•a•tic: fond of or living by hunting.

We hit a technical snag yesterday and ended up a day behind. Our bad...

So, while the weekend has now officially arrived, so too has your favorite dispatch from the great outdoors. 

So grab your coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and let's get caught up on the outdoor news and views from the past few days. 

Here's what caught our eye this week...

• Scumbags brought down - NY pair charged for posing as female photographers to illegally kill big bucks 🧑‍⚖️🦀

• The old line - Maryland hunters had themselves a time this year 🚔

• Pink is (almost) in- South Dakota's bill passes the house floor 👚

• The trans-man deer - Did hunters kill a transgender man who identified as a deer? 🤡

ARE THINGS GETTING OUT OF HAND?
THE POACHERS THAT POSED AS FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS TO SCORE BIG BUCKS

In what were traditionally simple acts of breaking the law, poaching, as of late, seems to have been getting a lot more complex. As it turns out, those looking to break hunting laws will go to great lengths to get a shot at a good looking deer.

In a recent story out of Virginia, a man was just recently charged for pursuing an urban buck, killing it, and then posting it to social media as if he had taken it in a nearby county. The buck was so recognizable, that he was instantly implicated and charged with the illegal killing.

Well, it didn’t take long for another tale to surface that might even be more ridiculous than the aforementioned one. In a story coming out of New York last month, a pair of men have lost their hunting privileges for five years after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges for illegal hunting.

In what is turning out to be an elaborate poaching scheme Jayson Zorda, of Oneonta, and Kevin Butler, of Afton went to great lengths to locate trophy deer and then shoot them in broad daylight. 

Posing as a female photographer on Facebook, Zorba was able to trick other photographers, who had taken pictures of massive local deer, into revealing specific locations of the animals. Then, heading out into those areas hiding their bows in their backpacks and arrows inside hollowed-out walking sticks, they’d kill the animals and take their grip and grin photos...

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🦀 Old line deer: Maryland hunters had a time this season putting nearly 73,000 deer on the ground. Of the deer taken 41% were whitetail bucks, 53% were whitetail does and the remainder were made up of the always elusive Sika deer native to the swamps and marshes of Chesapeake Bay.

💝 Be my valentine?: A Florida bear was certainly feeling the love this week after breaking into a car and annihilating every piece of Valentine's goodness it could get its paws on. The incident took place outside of Naples in the early morning hours. According to reports, the cocaine candy bear tore up the seats and the entire door panel in search of more sugary goodness.

👚 Pink is the new orange : South Dakota's bill pink hunting bill moves from the house floor and on to the Senate committee. 

✊ Don't bring your guns to town: A Maine town is trying to limit firearm use within city limits. With great duck hunting set smack dab in the middle of town, concerned residents are rallying to ban both hunting and firearms within the city. 

WEEKLY WTF?!?
NO, DEER HUNTERS DIDN'T KILL A TRANSGENDER MAN WHO IDENTIFIED AS A DEER

With so many questions unfolding from one simple sentence, it’s admittedly a lot to unpack.

A transgender man, dressed as a deer - no, that identified as a deer - got shot?

Well, as you might have (hopefully) concluded the story is complete satire, but it didn’t get posted without a portion of the online population giving it some merit

A quick scroll through the comments would indicate just that and serve provide some necessary comic relief. But as one concerned outdoorsmen and citizen, I can’t quite identify what I find more comical - the fact that it had to be verified by USA Today or the fact that so many took it as truth.

A sign of the times I suppose. 

And with that, it’s about time for another belt of whiskey.

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🧾 Receipt, please m'am: Watch as hungry moose attempts to help an Anchorage woman with her Costco groceries. The hungry moose wasn't leaving without fully inspecting her cart and even pointed her nose up at the sweet potato offering.

🎣 Bare handin': Watch as a Bama man grabs a monster 16-pound bass with his bare hands.

WEEKEND MEME // ^{_{CALL ‘EM IN}}

WANDERINGS // ^{_{A SFW GLIMPSE OF OUR BROWSER HISTORY}}

There was a man named Frank. Frank liked to drink and fight. But Frank was also nice and was known for handing out candy to neighborhood children. One of those children was E.C. Segar and he invented Popeye. Here's everything you need to set up a home bar. The best hot sauce in each state. 

EYE CANDY // ^{_{PICTURES > WORDS}}

Soon come.
@edwall11