“Egregious” Hunting Violations Reported Last Week

Officials with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources say deer hunting activity stayed steady last week. 

Conservation Officer Coby Fontes in Warroad reports a busy week of “predominantly egregious after-dark violations”. Fontes says two separate illegal shining and shooting cases were made, one of which involved alcohol. Additional violations encountered included second-degree DWI, driving after cancellation, open bottle, reckless use of a firearm, failure to register deer, and illegal big-game transport.

Conservation Officer Tony Hams in Warroad says violations encountered were no blaze orange, shooting from the roadway, shining, trespassing, and an unsecure load.

Conservation Officer Ben Huener in Roseau says many hunters reported having multiple opportunities to harvest a deer. Enforcement action taken this week included hunting deer over bait, transporting loaded firearms, failure to validate a tag, unregistered deer, DWI, and gross misdemeanor shining, which involved two deer being illegally taken.

Conservation Officer Jeremy Woinarowicz in Thief River Falls says enforcement action was taken for discharging a firearm at big game in the roadway, untagged deer, failure to validate a deer site tag, unlawful party hunting, allowing a juvenile to commit a game and fish violation, failure to register deer, and transporting a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle. 

Conservation Officer Sarah Jahn in Thief River Falls says time was spent working shining complaints and a detail was worked with area officers resulting in enforcement action being taken for five juveniles shining deer. Other enforcement action was taken for a second-degree DWI, transporting loaded firearms, non-validated tags, and transporting untagged deer.

Conservation Officer Nick Bruesewitz in Karlstad reports that enforcement action was taken for hunting deer over bait, transporting a loaded firearm in a vehicle, shooting after hours, and gross misdemeanor shining.