SALEM, Ore. -- It’s peak of the fall hunting seasons when Oregon’s game officers have their hands full with people who steal the state’s wildlife resources.

It’s a time when “bullets and greed” takes over and when the Oregon State Police game officers use one of their most effective tools to stop game violations.

“Scruffy” -- the life-sized, antler bearing deer decoy is one of the best enforcement tools that game officers have in their tool box to prevent wildlife crime.

The decoys -- there are several dozen in use across the state -- have been around for nearly twenty years.

 Slideshow: Decoys in action

They’re effective at catching people who hunt without licenses or tags, shoot from inside their vehicles or shoot from public highways – all of which are game violations.

Josh Boatner, a twenty-five year old OSP recruit, is one of a handful of state police newcomers who has spent much of this fall hunting season learning how to use the decoys to prevent bullets and greed.

He explained his reasons for joining Oregon State Police: “I love the outdoors and that's really my main passion. This is a job that I feel I can really help so that my future kids, grandkids can have the same natural resources that we enjoy.”

Boatner will work up to a year as a recruit while experienced officers like Richard Young of Albany, teach him varied wildlife crime solving techniques -- like learning how to use Scruffy.

Young explained, “It’s one of the most interesting things we do as fish and wildlife officers and I think Josh is pretty excited, maybe even a little nervous -- but he's going to do a really good job on his first operation.”

The decoys have certainly done a good job -- during the past three years, nearly 4200 vehicles drove past decoys in the state. Of those, more than 1800 people stopped to take a look -- and of those, more than 420 people were issued citations for game violations.

We watched as one operation unfolded down a lonesome back road in the Tillamook State Forest.

Two deer decoys -- one wearing antlers, the other posing as a doe deer -- were set up on an embankment a short distance from the road.

When vehicles drove down the roadway, their headlamps lit up the scene making the deer decoys impossible to miss.

If people should decide to stop and take a shot, they’d be in big trouble because it’s illegal to hunt in the dark outside of legal shooting times.

As it turned out, it didn’t take long.

We were set up watching the scene when headlamps suddenly appeared and five quick gunshots shattered the silence.

The shots were coming from a vehicle slowly moving toward the decoys.

The passenger was leaning outside of the vehicle firing at the decoys.

Officers immediately converged on the truck and stopped the shooting.

This was Boatner’s first wildlife crime case and he wasted little time interviewing the passenger and the driver.

He quickly discovers there’s more to the case. The shooter does not have a legal deer hunting tag and he is required to purchase and carry the tag while hunting.

He will be cited for shooting in the dark and for failing to carry his deer hunting tag.

Boatner ends up writing three citations to the two people on his first case.

He tells us that he hopes it’s the first of many in what he hopes will be a long career protecting Oregon’s resources from bullets and greed.

“I’d like to be the spokesperson for the animals in a way; doing all that I can to keep them safe, keep then around for other people to enjoy and keep people honest. It’s really my dream job.”

For more information check Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife