MECHANICAL DEER, BUCKY, IS NO ORDINARY BUCK TO BUSTED POACHERS.

Byline: Dave Strege Orange County Register

The headlights froze the deer, and the deer froze the hunter.

``Get the gun, get the gun, it's a four-pointer!'' one hunter said to the other as they stopped the car on the side of the Angeles National Forest road.

The hunter fumbled for his gun to get a shot at this trophy buck in the darkness.

He fired. He missed.

It wouldn't have done this would-be poacher much good had he hit the target. The deer, named Bucky, is an undercover robot. Not a Superdeer, mind you. Bullets don't bounce off it; they pass right through its foam body and it keeps standing like a trooper.

Bucky works for the California Department of Fish and Game. It is the first mechanical deer used by Region 5 - which covers Southern California and the Eastern Sierra - to help nab those who are predisposed to poach deer or break state hunting and shooting laws.

Game wardens in Ventura County have a similar high-tech hunk of electronic venison.

Hunting at night is illegal, as is shooting from the road and shooting from the car and carrying a passenger with a loaded gun in a vehicle.

Five men were charged with one or more of these violations the first night Los Angeles County Game Warden Mark Jeter and his crew set up the deer decoy in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Among them was the hunter who thought he saw a four-pointer. Bucky is a two-pointer.

``He was seeing double he was so excited,'' said Jeter, who set up Bucky in the field on Oct. 11, the night before the buck-season opener for hunters with Zone D11 tags.

Jeter is just as excited about the prospects of cutting down on the number of poachers.

The DFG estimates more deer are taken illegally throughout the state than are taken legally. Last year, the deer harvest was 48,000, so at least that many were taken illegally.

With limited funds and resources, the DFG can't possibly nab every perpetrator. To catch just one hunter shooting at night would take hundreds of man hours, Jeter said.

``You have to be at the right time and right place, and that is a hard thing to do,'' he said.

That is where Bucky comes in.

``This becomes a time-saver,'' Jeter said. ``It allows the bad guys to come to us. Hopefully, everybody sees decoys in the middle of the night and waits for the legal hunting hours. That's what we're shooting for.''

The mechanical deer cost $575. It was paid for by funds from the Mule Deer Foundation of Nevada. When they find out what Bucky really is, legitimate hunters laugh about it and think it a great idea, Jeter said.

Bucky is put 40 yards from the road. A crew member periodically turns the decoy's head and twitches the tail by a radio-control transmitter. Of the 60-plus hunters who spotted Bucky, only five shot at it.

And of the group that was busted, only one of seven shots hit the target, prompting officers to rename the decoy Dodger.

The DFG continued staking out areas in the region throughout the general buck-hunting season, which ended locally Nov. 10.

The five men cited recently could face fines of up to $850. The five firearms taken are subject to forfeiture and are likely to be confiscated permanently by the court.

``Ninety-nine percent of the hunters are law-abiding hunters,'' Jeter said. ``It's that one percent we're trying to target.''

Thirty-eight states and four Canadian provinces have bought Buckys, along with elk, moose and turkeys manufactured by Custom Robotic Wildlife in Wausau, Wisc. Brian Wolslegel, the taxidermist who owns the company, is girding for the holiday rush; he expects to use another 300 to 400 deer skins by year's end.

``We mount them on a polyurethane Styrofoam form,'' he said. ``After they dry, we install the tails and robotic heads so they can turn 130 degrees either way. We even sell a track system so the deer will look like it's walking through the woods.''

Wolslegel has been in the decoy business for seven years. About three years ago, he heard that hunters had gotten wise to the idea that paralyzed animals might be phonies. The twitching and shaking started about three years ago.

He strives for realism. Soon Wolslegel's turkeys might even gobble, thanks to an embedded recorder.

It appears to be working well.

``We're not trying to entrap anyone,'' Jeter explained, ``but if you are predisposed to break the law, be forewarned.''

Poaching hot line update: The telephone number for CalTip, the DFG's witness program better known as Californians Turn In Poachers, has been changed. To report poaching or polluting violations call toll free, [phone].

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Photo

Photo: (color) Los Angeles County Game Warden Mark Jeter uses a remote control and a mechanical deer, Bucky, to snare poachers in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Tina Gerson / Daily News