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FARGO, ND - State police and officers from North Dakota Game and Fish Department questioned and then released a Streeter man this week after he admitted to “smoking” a trophy eight-point buck during the closing days of the state’s firearm deer season.

“These days, our office gets concerned whenever we hear about somebody smoking something,” says a detective for the North Dakota State Police who requested anonymity while the inquiry continues. “Since this case potentially involves the misuse of natural resources, it was a joint operation with conservation officers from Fish and Game.”

According to notes taken by the detective close to the case, the hunter boasted to friends and, later, on the internet that he “didn’t have a clue” there was a big buck anywhere near the farm he was hunting on the afternoon of November 23rd.

“The man told us he was just sitting there along the edge of a cut cornfield ‘bored witless’ and thinking about calling it a day when the eight point whitetail appeared,” says the officer quoting his report. “Right away he recognized the animal as ‘a good one’ and ‘smoked that hog-daddy’ right on the spot.”

Since there are no laws currently on the books against smoking anything where wildlife is concerned, charges were not filed against the hunter. Nor can the individual’s name be released.

But even more disturbing, according to officials close to the case, is that the investigation revealed that smoking wildlife is more prevalent and wide spread than this seemingly isolated incident on a remote farm in central North Dakota.  Some are even calling it the latest in a series of disturbing new trends among both rifle and bowhunters.

On the website www.druryoutdoors.com, Joseph Gizdic, a bowhunter describing himself as “a Freshman Drury Team member” posted pictures and a detailed account of smoking a “velvet 150+ buck.” It reads in part:

He stepped out and we knew he was a shooter.  Another velvet 135″ 8-pt was with him. When he came in, the bigger buck stopped at 35 yds, and I smoked him with a Rage and the New Dream Season X-Force by PSE.

While the practice seems primarily focused on whitetail deer, on the internet and television hunters are now flagrantly admitting to smoking groundhogs and, even, wild turkeys.

“I’d been hunting that longbeard for two sleasons [sic] so when I finally had him in range I not only smoked his ass I did a little dance over him when I was done,” reads the post on a popular website devoted to turkey hunting.

“I was like whose [sic] the man! Who’s your daddy! He wasn’t quite dead and he’s a turkey so, you know, it wasn’t like he could talk. But I could see it in his eyes. That bastard knew I owned him.”

On other forums, such as www.bowcountry.com, hunters are actually offering opinions on weather the “hunter’s high” one experiences when smoking a trophy buck is better with rifle or bow.

I have attached a picture of a deer that I killed back on the 6th of November. He is a nice 18 inch wide 9 point. Not the biggest but not the smallest. Nice trophy for these parts. I was unable to take him with a bow so I shot him with my gun, I just could not let him go. Now the dilemma is since I smoked him another has come along to tend his doe’s. I vowed I would not take him with a gun and I won’t however would you kill this deer with a bow?

Right now, it’s unclear where all this is headed or what it all means. But conventional law enforcement officials and wildlife experts at North Dakota Fish and Game are worried and believe it might take federal involvement to fully understand what appears to be, at best, a questionable practice and, at worst, potentially illicit new trend.