Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Dumbest Deer Hunter???

We used to have those problems but then all the Timber companies started locking gates and making people pay for leases to hunt on their property. One would think that smaller private landowners would have then been flooded with people enroaching on their property to hunt. But instead, it seems to have had the opposite effect.

It seems that once people started paying a little to hunt, they became more conscious of "landowner's rights" as that they all became landowners of sorts. Now, it seems that trespassing on our place is much rarer than it used to be. It seems that when people pay to hunt somewhere, they want to make sure that they are actually hunting there instead of trying to sneak in on somebody else's place.

For years we wanted the transition to leases to happen, but we thought it would be much rougher than it has been. People adjusted pretty quickly and we have more and bigger deer than ever. What would have been a giant trophy 15 years ago in our area, is now an average deer while lots of deer are being killed every year that used to only be seen in magazines. The locked gates and people being mindful of property rights really cut down on spotlighting and other poaching. Deer now have a chance to get bigger and people have a chance to hunt on property where they know they'll be the only ones there.

When I was in college working on my wildlife management degree we ran game cameras on a lot of land.

We routinely got photos of people walking by with guns that had no business being on the property. Many were just coon hunters because you'd see the big headlight and there would be several of them or we would catch the dogs too.

But we got pics of guys by themselves with a big spotlight and a rifle.

What always amazed me is nobody EVER located the camera that took their picture with a flash and took it with them.....

Tried the camera idea and even put out a decoy camera with an infared flash camera above it to catch them and they got them both.....They lifted a 12,000lb camper in the middle of nowhere to steal the 6 aluminum wheels and tires and then dropped it on ot;s frame.......State Farm paid $8,000 to have it removed from the property and repaired.....These folks are creative to say the least.

Through all of this only 1 thing has made me angry....They slept in my camper and destroyed my kids toys and coloring books for absolutely NO REASON....That pissed me off. I can understand someone stealing to feed their family.......Don't agree with it and would never do it myself but I CAN understand the motivation.....Why would anyone destroy a kids toys? Idiots.

Bruz

Thank God for stupid criminals. too bad no one arrested him

When I got fed up with finding deer that had been shot and just the backstraps removed and posted my place, the locals thought I was just kidding. And then when I found a deer big as a Clydesdale with just his head cut off, I got really pissed and put the word out that I was gonna be spending some more time in the woods. The locals were smart tho and watched my place so I had a buddy drive my truck off. And here they came. I caught 4 in one day. I took their rifles and wallets and told them they could pick them up from the sheriff. I wrote their names down in my note book and told them that if they came back, it wouldn't be a police matter.
I caught a total of six and gave the rifles and wallets to the sheriff and told him I wasn't filing charges because I knew it wouldn't do any good but I was tired of it and I wasn't gonna put up with it anymore. And I'd appreciate it if he'd explain that to the law breakers. That pretty well got the word out. I had one repeat violation where I caught the guy. I started a fire and burned his clothes and rifle and left him naked in the woods. In Nov with snow on the ground. I did leave him his boots but I told him "this is what I mean by it not being a police matter. If you come back, you'll spend a week or two chained to one of these trees."
It's kinda hard to stomach to have some green-tooth sob stand there in a pair of $200 boots with a Remington CDL with a top end Leuy on it and whine "Ah'm just tryin' to feed mah family."

Now that there is creative, down right funny, and would seem to be effective. Good on you.

Need to do a remake of modern day Deliverance...

But dont violate their civil rights,OK

Well, he may spotlight at 2 in the morning but I'm sure his morals would not allow him to hunt a "high fenced" area.

I have honestly thought about pointing my gun directly at them, taking all their gear, including weapon and wallets and then turning over to Sheriff.

I'm just so fearful of the courts here. They would honestly probably arrest me for assault, brandishing a weapon, false arrest, and theft if I followed your lead. The judges here like to home school us "gentlemen" ranchers who "just don't understand how things are done 'round here". They practically give free passes to hay thieves, meth dealers, salt water haulers who dump their loads on rural roads, poachers, etc. It's just plain crap how they love their own.

We even had a renter in one of our old farm houses that hadn't paid rent in 6 months. We properly filed deamnd notice and eviction papers and the judges quote was, "I don't care what the law is, I'm not putting a woman with a kid out in the cold". We jokingly laugh about the courts here now, calling it the Garvin County Fairness Doctrine. How the judge feels is way more important than the letter of the law. We also were cited for contempt for blocking an oil truck that refused to purchase an easment, the judge admonising us for "self help".

I'm ready to throw this law and order [bleep] out and go back to the reality of range wars.

That's why I told the Sheriff I wasn't pressing charges. I knew how the "good old boy" system of justice works. It was just a inconvience to him and a pita to them to get their stuff back. I wasn't armed with a rifle but rather a pistol and I never pointed it at anyone nor brandished it about. I did have it in my hand however. In WV you can wear a pistol as long as it's not concealed and the state is still pretty firm with regards to property rights. It's also why I told them if they came back it would not be a police matter. That one test to see if I was serious was all it took. I don't think any of them wanted to be chained to a tree for a week or two.
Would I have done it? I'm not sure but I thought about it.

Find the biggest, meanest SOB in town and give him an exclusive lease (maintaining your own hunting rights, of course) for keeping poachers out. Then get the hell out of his way.

Sadly, that would not surprise me at all. I've come to the conclusion that many treat rules as optional when it comes to deer hunting. Can't tell you how many shots I hear at dawn and dusk during archery only season. Now, admittedly, I haven't heard shots at 2:00am, so maybe this is in fact the biggest loser.

The disregard for rules when it comes to deer hunting mirrors my own experiences. But it has generally gotten better around here as far as tresspassing and poaching. (Not much better with a-holes road hunting and spotlighting, but that has always been limited to a few twits. Found a big buck road shot and left at one club this year though. A 223 or 22-250 or something, at night. Deer was still warm in the am.)

On the other hand, at one of my hunting clubs, where we own the land, adjacent to Blackwater National Wildlife refuge, where some deer hunting is permitted, there was an awful lot of shooting every morning and evening during archery season.

JPK

Two years ago a guy with a house that adjoins my hunting land shot a 10 pointer off my land. Didn't catch him, but heard about the deer from the neighbors. Last year he shot an 11 pointer. We got him for a tresspass, an ATV tresspass, (different crime in Wi.) and obstruction of justice for lying to the DNR agent. This year we got him for a tresspass when he had his trail cam on another neighbor's property. We almost got him night hunting a couple of weeks ago, but a neighbor scared him off before the sheriff got there. I put up a fence bordering his land and put trail cams on all the access points to my land. I am guessing I will get him again yet this year. Some guys never learn.

He hunts wherever he feels like hunting. All the neighbors are watching him. The sheriffs are watching him. The DNR is watching him. He is bragging at work that he will continue to tresspass whenever he feels like it. A real dope. And a real jack.

Fast Ed

Hammer that SOB Ed.
So discouraging to pass bucks year in and year out, managing your property for good ones only to have thieves stealing your deer.
Get a rope...

I get a kick outta the American hunter who drove through northern British Columbia with a horse strapped to the top of his R.V.Must hear that one at least once every couple of years.

Nobody can be that retarded.

Or strong enough to put it up there.

Bruce

Someone here or another forum mentioned giving hunting rights on their land to the local LEO. That stopped all the other trespassing and vandalism.

Bruce

Sounds a lot like the way some people regard traffic laws.

No doubt.
I never believed it. Just one of the folk myths that hasn't gone away.