Montana game wardens remain baffled by the case of a yearling mule deer being killed with a blow dart in the town of Roundup, north of Billings.
Meanwhile in Billings, ducks in municipal park ponds keep getting shot with darts from blowguns as well.
Many of the birds survived and have been spotted swimming around with darts sticking out of their backs.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) is seeking tips to nab the blow dart bandit or bandits. It remains unclear whether there’s any connection between the deer killing in Roundup and waterfowl getting darted in Billings.
As in Wyoming, it’s illegal to hunt in Montana with blowguns. These are tube-shaped weapons with ancient roots that use the shooter’s breath to propel darts or spikes at high velocity.
Deer Dies
On March 23, the Musselshell County, Montana, Sheriff’s Office received a report that a deer had been killed with a blow dart in the 100 block of 5th Street West in Roundup, and the case was turned over to FWP.
The deer was a yearling, Region 5 game warden Sgt. Connor Langel told Cowboy State Daily.
It’s also likely that the animal suffered, he added.
It wasn’t clear whether the deer had bled out over a long period of time or developed a lethal infection in the blow dart wound, he said.
So far, the case has game wardens stumped, and they hope to develop solid leads through tips, he said.
“Our tips in the case just seem to ebb and flow. I don’t know if there’s any rhyme or reason to how tips come in,” he said.
The case went quiet for a while, but there seems to be renewed interest in it, Langel said.
“It’s really resurged in social media,” he said.
When the perpetrator or perpetrators are caught, they could face charges of hunting deer during a closed season, hunting with unlawful equipment and possibly unlawfully hunting within city limits, he said.
Darted Ducks
Leads are likewise sparse in the case of ducks being blow-darted in Billings, he said.
Last year and so far this year, there have been multiple reported instances of ducks being shot and wounded with blow darts. The shootings have happened in the Shiloh Conservation Ponds and ponds in Rose Park, FWP reported.
Anyone with information about the wildlife blow-darting can report to FWP at tipmont, and could be eligible for a $1,000 reward.
Boosted With Poison
Blowguns don’t measure up to bows, rifles, shotguns or other more modern, legal hunting weapons used for big game, retired University of Wyoming archaeology professor Robert Kelly told Cowboy State Daily.
Historically, blowguns were used to hunt only small game and birds.
“Sometimes (darts were laced) with poison; the darts are usually way too small to stop a critter the size of a mule deer,” Kelly said.
“In Madagascar they hunted birds with large darts, about 65 centimeters (roughly 26 inches) long, but no poison,” he said. “They relied on the size of the dart to drag the bird down.
"So, I’d say it’s not possible to take down a deer with a blowgun unless you’re using poison. And then you’d probably have a considerable tracking job."
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
