DEC Officers On The Hunt For Illegal Roadside Hunters In New York

Hoping to get some hunting in over the next couple of days while you're off? Make sure you're following the law because DEC Officers are looking for those who aren't.

Hunting can be great. It's a good way to spend time with your friends. It gets you out of the house, and if you're good, it can fill your freezer for the winter. You just need to make sure you know the rules before you set out on your trip.

The DEC is cracking down on people who are hunting illegally in New York

According to WIVB, The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) was on the lookout for people who were hunting illegally from the roadside in Cattaraugus County. In just one week, they found a number of people who were breaking the law.

They issued over 20 tickets to five different people from December 2nd to the 10th who were illegally road hunting. That means they took a shot at something while they were still on the road. That "something" was a decoy that they had deployed just to catch them.

What laws were being broken?

Several laws were broken here. First and foremost was discharging a firearm from a public highway. They were also charged with possessing a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, failure to wear fluorescent orange or pink, and failure to wear back tags. According to the DEC, the rules for wearing specific color clothing and tags are:

Any person hunting deer or bear with a firearm or a person who is accompanying someone hunting deer or bear with a firearm shall wear:

a minimum total of two hundred fifty square inches of solid fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink material worn above the waist and visible from all directions; or
a minimum total of two hundred fifty square inches of patterned fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink consisting of no less than fifty percent fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink worn above the waist and visible from all directions; or
a hat or cap with no less than fifty percent of the exterior consisting of solid fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink material and visible from all directions.

For more rules on where you are legally allowed to hunt, click here.