Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Gone............

Wow that sucks! I agree it sounds like an inside job to me as well.

I'm thinking they should hang the mongrel from the closest flagpole.

Bwinters: I am so very sorry for your ruined trip, your loss and the hard feelings you have.
I wish there were something I could do to alleviate your troubles.
There's not though.
Don't take this as a "lecture" but take it as advice that has worked perfectly for me for a very long time - I have transported firearms all across this nation from Alaska to Florida, to gunshows, to big game Hunts, to Varmint Hunts to competitions etc etc etc!
The guns go with me into the hotel rooms, the motel rooms, the camper what ever - I could care less what any personnel of any business might suggest to me/you!
If you are to lazy or to trusting to take your guns into the room with you at the end of the day then you are risking the chance of loosing them!
PERIOD!
NEVER leave a firearm in a car, truck, boat, airplane, car's trunk or what ever!
The sleaze balls make a living off of folks who disregard this policy.
Again I wish there was something I could do to alleviate your loss - sadly theres probably not much I can do other than reiterate what has served me well for more than a half century now.
I hope you can revive the trip and good luck if you do.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I looked up my specs for my 2017, F250, diesel and the specs say the truck will not start without the assigned key fob in the ignition. So I called the local Ford dealership this morning and they told me that was true. They said they are advising people that are still concerned, to place stickers on the windows that say the truck was protected by a GPS tracking device and that should help keep thieves from breaking in. The service manager said that even if the thieves do break in and remove the key hole and have direct access to the wiring, the truck will not start without that Fob. He said that most crooks know this and that was why almost all of the trucks stolen where pre-2009. Then he said that if they have a trailer with winch that there is nothing we could do to protect it. He told me not to worry about it.

I then asked about wheel chock locks. He said all it took to get around those was a screw driver and large hammer. He said one hit and the lock would pop open.

Was this just Ford talking or have others found this to be true? Would think if someone got to the wiring the truck would start.

No, the ecm is locked. You can play with the wires and get all of the accessories to work but the engine will not fire. It's like a password protect on a computer. The key is the password.

Thanks. That's what the service manager said. Just didn't know if it was true or not. Appreciate you putting my mind at ease.

VG - didn't take your post as a lecture. It is good advise. My only but is that I too have been traveling west for alot of years. Took my first trip in 1982. Missed a bunch of years in the 1980's and early 1990s due to college, marriage, and a few kids but have been going pretty regular since mid-late 1990's. I've never had an issue until now using the same technique - hide guns, park under a lamp, as close to the front door as possible, within sight of the door, etc. Learned a few things from this thread and a couple folks I've talked to outside the 'Fire about engine blocks devices.

A relatively dumb question - my current truck has an 'alarm system'. Is there any way to disarm the system before it goes off?

Doesn't matter the year model either. When I am in the same type situation I remove the Starter Relay and carry it inside with me. It's a bit of a hassle but it works.

I am sorry to hear of this. What can I do for you? Send you a gun or two? I have a spare set of Swarovski 10x42's you can borrow indefinitely.



For theft prevention I use a remote operated starter relay that works great. No remote, no start.

This is what I use & trust: http://www.emergingent.com/retail/cyclops/index.html

Re28 - thank you for the offer! I'm kind of treading water till I see what insurance will cover but will have the bare essentials by the time I go to West Tennessee to hunt.

I'll look into the remote starter relay idea.

Thank you again!

Sorry for the long delay in posting much related to this. I'm been fairly consumed trying to get my truck back after being recovered by KCPD, then getting multiple insurance claims started for the losses. Anyway the truck is not heavily damaged, relative to many stolen recoveries as I understand, and certainly not to bad when compared to many of the vehicles I seen in the impound lot.

Here's some pics of the truck, and the first one hit the three of us and our hearts sank after hearing the truck was recovered but the bed was empty.


Busted rear glass, with my temp window replacement made from cardboard, that I "rescued" from a dumpster at the mall and some gorilla tape from walmart to get us home, thankful it didn't rain on us while traveling back or the truck while it was in impound.


Steering column, it appears the thief had a lot of effort in the getting the steering column unlocked #1 for the steering wheel to turn and #2 for the shifter to come out of park.


The total damage on the truck came to a little over $2k on the estimate. Hopefully I'll get it back from the shop before the muzzy opener for whitetails here in TN.

So elk hunting was shelved for this year and that sucks enough, because ... well you know why. But at 58 backpack hunts like we had planned this year with my son are limited just don't know how many of those I have left and that really stinks. As bwinters said this is something we plan for and get one "at bat" per year, so it's 12 months before we try again.

Going forward, I'm already thinking of ways to easily disable the truck discretely. Because if it isn't easy, the less chance of it being used. Thinking along the lines of a switch (or switches) to disable HP fuel pump, starter, fuel solenoid, etc. Maybe steering wheel lock.

I actually did looking into getting a baby monitor, putting the transmitter in the truck and taking the receiver to the room. But it seems the range is limited on those, and if your stuck on the other side the building from the vehicle it likely wouldn't work very well. It also depends on someone who is very tired being able to wake up at the disturbance.

Be Safe,

Guys--sorry for your loss and missed hunting opportunity, I really hate thieves! Any idea what they are going to do to the crackhead? One time in Colorado we met a guy at the coffee shop that had his Suburban, horse trailer (no horses) and everything in them stolen from a little no name hotel in Craig, Colorado. The guy was in a daze, said the thieves got $100K worth of stuff and he didn't know how he was getting home. Hopefully, everything will work out.

[i][/i]Absolute nightmare. I can't imagine having a trip I plan for all year destroyed like that. As one who travels out of state to hunt, a lot, I suppose it is only a matter of time before I get hit.

I was on my way to Montana the week before last and carried my long guns into a hotel lobby in a small town in rural IA. One guy ran up to me and it alarmed me but he just wanted to talk hunting. He and some buddies were going to SD for a pheasant hunt. He then finished the conversation joking that bringing guns into a motel has changed since the shooting in LV and walked away saying "Thank God for flyover country."

Probably not enough.

That sucks!

Sorry for your loss, bad experience for sure. Had my house broken into years ago. Lost about 20 guns. I was lucky to have pics and receipts. They took other things too, but I didn’t care about those things.

Thanks, we were kind of in that state (of mind) for a little while after the initial efforts and police contact, do we hang around hoping they might find it in a little while?, how long do we wait? (really just some wishful thinking that the truck might be recovered with the contents intact after a short joy ride). But we came back to reality after just a few minutes and started hunting a one way rental car and started back. But I did get a the call the next that they did recover the truck, so wife and I turned around a headed back with the same rental car and returned it back to the same place.

I travel and trap shoot during the summer, most of the time we are our 5'er and camp on the grounds of the shoot. But we have used rooms before and yes those guns always go in the room. Don't get me wrong I loved my Montana and had no plans to part with it, as it was a great fit for what I got it for. I've never been questioned has to what was in there, they are not as obvious as cased guns would be, the guns are broken down, so the cases are much shorter than they would be otherwise.

Thanks, I agree BIG TIME!

Thanks, very good planning/record keeping on your part. I have photos of all of mine, one of each side and a close up of the serial number. You're also lucky that you had enough ins coverage to take care of 20 guns.

Wow. Having just returned from a trip where I parked in hotels just as you did, this is sobering. I'm angry and it wasn't even my stuff. I can only imagine how you must have felt, and still do. I will reconsider how I travel and come up with some deterrents. Thanks for sharing though. Any news on recovering your stuff?