Conservation Law Enforcement Corner – January 2019

Effingham County: Whether you keep your hunting license on your phone app, or if you have a paper version in your wallet, stop what you’re doing right now and check to make sure you have a valid hunting license. And make a note of when it expires.

Here’s another case of a big Georgia buck—one of the best ever from Effingham County—confiscated because the hunter didn’t have the proper hunting licenses.

Game Warden First Class Jordan Crawford said, “In early December 2017, I received several calls regarding a large buck killed in Effingham County.

“All the tips received about the deer questioned its legality. I then began to gather as much information that I could on the suspect. My investigation found that Kevin Shuman, a local hunter, had killed the deer. I was also able to find during my investigation that Shuman had purchased a license the same day that he killed the deer.

“Several Facebook posts about the deer showed the deer was killed on the afternoon of Nov. 26, 2017, however Shuman did not purchase his license until nearly 9 p.m. that night.

“I then interviewed the owner of the processing center to which the buck was taken. The owner stated that Shuman did indeed drop the deer off on the evening of the 26th at around 7 p.m. Shuman also had not provided a DNR confirmation number (harvest record) when he dropped that deer off.

“On the day of Dec. 19, 2017, I met with Shuman at his place of employment to discuss that case. I asked Shuman if he knew why we need to talk, and he stated that he believed “it was about the big buck he killed.”

Game warden Jordan Crawford with the 161-inch Effingham County buck confiscated.

I told him that it was, and I then asked him if he had a hunting license at the time when he killed that deer. I then showed him a printout of the time stamp of when he bought his license and when he had posted pictures of the deer on Facebook. I also told Shuman about my conversation with the deer processor. Shuman admitted to not having any licenses or harvest record when he killed the deer. I charged Shuman with hunting without a license, hunting without a big game license and hunting without obtaining a deer harvest record. I also confiscated the rack of the deer in question. The deer was later green scored at 161 B&C.”

According to Effingham County State Court records, on Jan. 25, 2018, Shuman was fined $500.