The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: MikeBjerum on October 20, 2009, 07:59:19 AM
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This is a question to think about and not to incite gunning the guys down ... I think.
While having my morning pot of coffee I was watching The Best Of The West on Outdoor Channel. For those that have not watched this program, The Best Of The West is all about long range hunting. They specialize in shots waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out there. Today they were hunting in Mexico just south of the U.S. border.
The guide warned them that they may see drug smugglers being that close to the border. These guys are set up on a ridge over looking a waterhole. We're talking a guide, a couple hunters and a couple cameramen. Sure enough, here come a group of about eight Mexicans with large heavy backpacks right down the game trail. The group uses the waterhole to fill canteens and rest in the shade of the brush.
Once "the danger passes" the hunters realize the smugglers are headed straight for their trucks ... their unlocked trucks in the middle of nowhere Mexico. They pack up and hussle down the trail toward their trucks. As they near the trucks the smugglers spot them coming over a ridge and scramble in another direction.
As soon as they could find a cell signal the hunters called the Border Patrol.
End of reported story ... Back to deer hunting.
In this day of Meth and pot in our area, and many activities that take place in secluded and abandoned areas in other parts of the nation, what would you do if you were found in this situation or one like it? I have a friend that came across a meth site on one of his vacant farm yards when spot checking fields last summer, and while there someone with no business being there pulled into the grove. I have found harvested pot patches in vacant yards while hunting, scouting or chasing cattle.
Sadly this is not a far fetched movie or novel plot that we live with. How many of us remain prepared for this type of encounter in our daily lives? Because, every one of these described encounters happened in normal daily life.
P.S.
I am not looking for the smug answer (the one I would typically give to get a reaction) of putting the 7 mm or 300 win mag (a couple of these guys favorites) to good use!
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I think the best thing you can do is a situation like that is keep a low profile and exit stage left ASAP. When you are clear report it to the proper authorities and let the professionals handle it. CYA but do not initiate any action. Self defense is one thing but I aint getting my ass shot up for something like this.
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If you have GPS mark the spot. EXIT ASAP and report it to the proper authorities, via phone and a followup mail. I would also clue in the local Sheriff.
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Ditto to what those guys said with a side order of amen if they were actually in Mexico, not the US. Do not shoot a foreign national in their own country unless it is literally kill or die and at bad breath distance, given that we aren't the most popular team in town. In Mexico employ the Monty Python defense (run away, run away) and screw the trucks. Better to buy a new one than get some QT in a Mexican jail.
FQ13
PS as far as the drug smuggling goes, those guys are bringing it to someone wants to buy despite knowing the risks. Why endanger your life over that? Leave it alone, call the cops and find somewhere ele to hunt the next day.
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I certainly would not have shot to kill, but making them dance would have crossed my mind,.... ::)
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Definitely would have made an exit with as much info to give authorities. Accidentally coming across any drug situation can end up in a bad way.
I certainly would not have shot to kill, but making them dance would have crossed my mind,.... :
;D
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Stealth and tactics..... to stay as 'out of sight' as possible....try to gain as much info for the authorities as possible (without putting myself in peril) for reporting later.
An old neighbor of mine filmed two guys breaking into his truck while he was sitting in a tree-stand a few years back. He just happens to carry a digital camera with him and it has digital movie capabilities (most do).
He got both positive ID's and the vehicle tag number on film. Turned out that they lived just down the road from where he parked his truck when hunting and had been 'scoping' it out for a while.
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I think the hunters did the right thing.
The immediate concern is getting stranded in the middle of the desert (Not sure how far from civilization they were). Those smugglers either stealing their trucks or ransacking them to the point of being inoperable could be a real life threatening predicament.......
Not sure if I would have tried to intercept them and perhaps get into a fight over the trucks. Perhaps staying back and out of sight would have been better. They could have always fired the proverbial "shot across the bow" if the smugglers tried to mess with their vehicles. A few warning shots probably would have caused them to beat feet, and at the same time kept the hunters at a distance from the situation.
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Their tending their business and I'm doing the same , If they want to make an issue of it that's OK too.
The only time I WOULD interact with them would be if it were MY land .
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Cooler heads prevailed, and a bad situation did not get worse. They did the right thing.
But I still would have thought about them dancing,....but NOT in Mexico. Unless they were directly going after my only means of getting out of there..