2 Loaded Shotguns Found In Vehicle During Suffolk Hunting Investigation: DEC

MOUNT SINAI, NY — State Department of Environmental Control Officers found a pair of shotguns in a hunting investigation in Mount Sinai and busted a deer baiter in Setauket over the span of two days, the agency said.

In the first incident, an officer conducting a compliance check of waterfowl hunters in a vessel at Mount Sinai Inlet on Dec. 26, found two people with loaded 12-gauge and 20-gauge shotguns in their car, according to the agency.

Both firearms belonged to the operator of the vessel, and the officer issued a ticket for two counts of possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle, a misdemeanor, an agency spokeswoman said.

The next day, on Dec. 27, an officer received a call about a deer carcass with an arrow wound in the backyard of a home near Route 25A in Setauket, and followed a blood trail into nearby woods that are closed to hunting, according to the agency.

The officer found an unoccupied tree stand camouflaged in a pine tree and a fresh pile of bait within 20 yards, and upon returning to the stand the next night, officers found a fresh pile of sweet feed and a grey squirrel impaled to the ground by an arrow, the agency said.

The hunter at the location denied any association with the deer previously found shot and the fresh feed at the location, but admitted to hunting near an adjacent home without permission, according to the agency.

Officers escorted the hunter from the area and ticketed him for hunting with the aid of bait, trespassing, feeding deer within 300 feet of a road, failure to wear a back tag, failure to carry his hunting license, and discharging a bow within 150 feet of a home, all violations, the agency said.