Am I missing something? It does not specifically state they were hunting deer but it does show a lot of coyotes they are whacking. If they are hunting deer with the "illegal" rifles and / or also trespassing, yes throw away the key, but if they are hunting coyotes with "legal" firearms that would be a different story. Yes they show a few deer heads on the property but all the kill shots shown seem to be coyotes. Last I checked it was legal to hunt coyotes with pretty much anything. I am not sticking up for the hunting preserve but the report doesnt tell the whole story. The thing I am looking at is if they make this a high profile case next they will use it to possibly try to take away rifles for coyotes. I know of several free range (non high fence) hunting preserves in the state. In the off season they open up coyote control hunts. On the preserve hunts basically the owners leases 100's to 1000's of acres from local farmers for the purpose of letting deer hunters come in and hunt deer. Some of these areas are full of coyotes that may be affecting the deer herd. The preserve hunters use the off season to control the coyotes and many bring in predator hunters to do so.
"imminent threat" for using high power rifles?? How many people on this forum hunt coyotes at night with rifles? I would just hate to see a trespassing case turn into a "ban all dangerous high power rifles" case. If this is a case of Felony trespass to take game so be it but it sounds like they are really centering it on the use of high power rifles.
In the article, it mentions that the investigators said "illegal hunting". COs are going to know the laws. If it is lawful to hunt coyotes with just about anything, they'll know that. My guess is that it had to do with deer. My hat goes off to someone that can take down pheasant in the middle of the night, out of the air with a rifle.
They mentioned shooting over roads. I know that on DNR/State owned property, it is illegal to shoot over roads. Don't know if that applies to private land or not.
They also mention hunting from a vehicle and spot lighting, both of which are illegal.