Autumn and winter are times when poaching is more likely, Spowart said. The bulls and bucks have their antlers and have moved to the lower elevations, he noted. In the spring when they shed their antlers they are less desirable to poachers, and in summer when they move to the higher elevations, particularly in Rocky Mountain National Park, they are more difficult to hunt. Be a good neighbor Hunting that is occurring on a property owner's land without his or her permission is illegal and should be reported, Spowart said. Spowart said neighbors should keep an eye on other properties in their area, and if they are going to hunt on their land themselves or have given a particular hunter permission to use their land, they should let their neighbors know.
Neighbors can then keep an eye on adjoining properties.
Estes is pretty good about this one. He kind of chewed me out for being on his neighbor's property. Within the Estes Valley, it is against the law for a bullet to leave a property on which the hunter is hunting, so that too should be reported. An elk that doesn't look right or move right should also be reported, because it may have been injured by a poacher. Spowart's wife caught another poacher in the act of field-dressing one of three illegally killed elk on Nov. 11 when she followed a trail of blood from an injured one in the Grey Fox Estates area near Carriage Hills.