The shotgun season is here in Iowa and that means no bow hunting until after the close of the boom stick season on December 21. We can then take to the woods again with bow and arrow until January 10. (We Iowans can continue to bow hunt in city doe hunts - no guns allowed in town.)
Most of our brother hunters respect private property and trespass laws, but to keep the few bad apples out of our favorite bow hunting spots can be a challenge. Signs help but here is one of the other methods I employ on my little 40 acres.
Before:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/shaunw/notress002.jpg)
After:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/shaunw/notress005.jpg)
Telephoto view:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/shaunw/notress004.jpg)
This idea was passed on to me by a friend. Gun hunters are required to wear orange afield and a cheap vest stapled to a hanger...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/shaunw/notress001.jpg)
and hung on a branch about 100 yards into the woods...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/shaunw/notress003.jpg)
Looks like a person is already in the spot. A quick glimpse of color will deter or at least make them think twice.
Another spot on my place seen from the popular access field:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/shaunw/notress007.jpg)
Share your ideas and/or experience?
Good one i hate gun season.
I've done much the same thing here in IL, except I put a vest and hat in a tree stand, visible from the road, but far enuf in to make it hard to see that it is fake. Seems to work fairly well.
Shaun,
That is an excellent tactic. One that my friend also uses of his farm. He and his wife are great deer hunters and manage their farm for it. They have a few orange vests that they move around the property lines to discourage people sneaking in and pushing their timber out. They move them to different locations and just like a padlock, it doesn't keep out a thief, but does help the honest people stay honest.
Chris
A Guard tower and a nice 300 yd Kill zone works....
We discovered this a few years ago on our club when one of the members inadvertently left his orange vest wrapped around the tree his tree stand was in. We noticed it by accident when we thought a poacher was out there and went to investigate. Has worked well for us over the last few years. Pat
Set your signs out clearly, and then lay charges on the first one you catch. Don't threaten...charge but be nice about it, and describe why you have to do it...come out as the good guy. The word will spread quickly.
I have an old pair of coveralls that I stuffed with hay and put orange on, that I set up.I move it around,works very well.I absoulutely loathe trespassers on my place!!!!Found people will tread on you for morel mushrooms too. :mad:
I've been using them cheap blaze oragne vest to re-route others for years. Works most of the time BUT, some guys just don't care and will walk in anyway.
best afield
Shaun,
Having dial up and waiting for the pictures, I imagined a mound of dirt about a foot high and six feet long with a cross at one end and the words "Traspasser" on it. I think it just might have the "Desired Effect".
However, what you came up with was great.
[ by the way, I treaded the Cherokee you were interested in for a Morrison Dakota and a little cash. ] Hope you'll forgive me.
Gene
CLAYMORE :scared:
Good idea - but add prosecution each and every time. Word gets out fast.
Steve
Talk to your local game warden such as we did and have him on speed dial in your cell, have 1 person escorted off the property with a big fine and no hunting for a year and the word gets out quick not to go there, we hated to do it but, nobody takes the chance now, we pay the taxes and we want it to ourselves give my dad and uncle the 9000 dollars taxes and 1200 dollars for our lease and you can hunt it all you want!!
Also use that tactic to direct deer to where YOU WANT THEM TO GO .Great ideal
Sign that says.....
Can you see your truck from where your hunting?????
I've found claymores with a trip wire to be somewhat effective. :bigsmyl:
Post the following sign:
TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT
SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN
AND AGAIN IF NECESSARY
a friend of mine lives on a farm in eastern NY. its 1000 acres of probably the best deer woods i have ever seen. they manage the heard and grow food plots. and only shoot deer 8 pts or larger, and must be wider than its ears.
there is signs every 50-75 ft along the road that say, "you shoot, i'll shoot back!" and they take the first week off of rifle season to walk the border and patrol it.
people are scared to go near that farm! because of the "crazy landowner"!!! hey, it works...
The places I've hunted in IA feature some of the worst trespassing I've ever seen. Just blatant, in-your-face, no apology, ATV-driving, let the dogs loose, kid in the back of the pickup with a rifle, etc. Seriously. Sometimes every third or fourth hunt I had to deal with something like this on land that was heavily posted.
Carrying a video camera helps them find their manners usually, but my brother-in-law struggles with these arseholes. Unfortunately, he's too nice a guy. If it was me, I'd call the cops every single time.
Another thing you can count on, is that if you get permission to hunt a place that didn't allow hunting before...you will find out that place was being trespassed on, and all the locals who've been doing it will scream bloody murder that you got permission on this ground, or "leased" it, etc. When all you did was actually develop a relationship with the owner, and he let you hunt, and now you have to deal with all the idiots who have been cheating for years and their jealousy.
I find some of this to be true in my home state of NE, but especially so in western IA.
Hunt naked. And hunt on a bare tree in the middle of an open field... You won't have people tresspass after that! :eek:
We have 100+ acres here on Buffalo Mountain and it's never been posted. There are folks who hunt there but it has never been disrespected. My 94 year old father-in-law was asked why he didn't post it and he said, "what if Jesus wants to walk on my land?"
Thank God for people like Buck, and the public land. If everthing was privately owned, no one would hunt except those who "owned?" the land.
A sign really got my attention once, a looong time ago...on an old piece of tin tacked to a tree it read (painted in a very uneven hand) "life is uncertain death is sure (the "s" was backwards) KEEP OUT
We have taken an orange vest and a orange hat and stapled in 10' in a tree. 500 yds from the road, it looks like a hunter. We have also moved it during the week. We have also parked a car and left it, so it looks like someone is hunting the section. It keeps most of the people out that do not have permission to hunt.
Lots of good ideas here, Ive been fighting this as well since I leased 500 acres in SE Iowa. So true that the locals who "WERE" trespassing were the ones that were the most ticked off over me obtaining legal access to the property. Ive chased numerous people off the land over the last 5 years, some were very understanding and some were completly rude. Ive posted signs and had them torn down, Ive had them drive past my vehicles and camp with loaded guns in the trucks as they "Hunted" the property. Im going to talk to the owner about putting in a nice locked gate at the entrances ( my expense)but that will only stop so many I suppose. I plan to prosecute the next rude person to the legal limits for criminal trespass and if I can manage it I would like to take them to civil court for the cost of my lease since I pay my lease in hopes of taking deer off the property same as they are attempting to do, why should I be the only one paying?
This all may seem extreme but Im fed up with the lack of ethics I have run across. Again this year I used a tag on a BUTT SHOT deer because I cant let a cripple walk, again this year I had to chase people off the property that were (ahem) tracking a wounded deer. And honest to Goodness here folks the guy said to me when I asked him what he was tracking "that he had shot a huge 8" and "his whole arsehole was hanging out so he knew it was dead so he turned to shoot at a pack of does that were running away". Can anyone here tell me what part of the deers butt is the vital zone???
I understand that not everyone hunts the same as everyone else, I wont stand and say that there is not a place for pushing deer as a viable means of hunting but I will dang sure say that I find attempting to kill a running deer by shooting at the white bounding rump of said fleeing deer by putting 5 slugs in the air in the general direction of travel in 3 seconds flat a deplorable practice that truly should never actually be attempted, let alone classified as hunting!!!! (Note this run on sentence / rambling diatribe brought to you by one fed up redneck)
P.S. Just had to add this little edit, Ive recently been finding evidence that they are taking a liking to my stand locations since I find all of their trash thrown under my tree stands when I go down to hunt. Why bother with the expense of having your own equipment and lease when Ill pay for it I guess.
If they're on ATVs, piano wire stretched tight at neck level generally gets the message across. :bigsmyl: (I did NOT say that. This is a forgery!)
:bigsmyl:
prosecution? Ha...here in the south you stand a good chance of having the locals (thats who is nearly ALWAYS the trespasser " My DADDY -pronounced DEEDDY hunted them woods and I'm gonna hunt where I dang well please too) they set fire to your cabin, or house, or worse, your woods.
Prosecution? If they don't do that, they break the door down and tear the crap out of your place.
Sometimes they catch em, sometimes the deputy is in on it, and sometimes they don't.
Piano wire? My best friend in junior high school had his head cut off by a chain strung across a road by a turkey hatchery while he was riding a trail bike..he was the lead bike, and the chain was rusty and they hadnt flagged it or marked it with a pvc pipe or anything.
The turkey company went out of business a year later.
Offer to contribute $500 to the Game Warden's favorite charity for every arrest and prosecution he makes on your place. You might have to pay a couple times, but the word will get out.
Ray hit it on the head. It has been my observation that there is so much good-ole-boy politics and antics here in the south that more often than not you can't trust the law in these situations. Family relations and friendships mean more in this climate than your rights ever will. I've been a victim of burn out, having my pets killed in the yard and having various other forms of property damage and threats. Usually winds up being the warden/constable's/sherrif's/judge's brother in law.
The worst of it is that I will let folks hunt. I just want them to ask and obey the rules. Too much for some to abide by. I do like some of the responses here though.
I would just hang up the trespassers from previous years. Kidding of course.
Afriend of mine father drove around the county with 7 "Bear Traps" in his truck. When asked what they were for, he'd reply that he was setting them out on his hunting lease. After hunting season started he posted a sign "Danger Bear Traps" around the place. The local Warden told him he had to dig 'em up, but he told the warden, "you want them, you go find them." Warden never came back and had no more poachers. 'Course ya gtta be known to be a little crazy for that to work!
Probably work for me!!!!
i dont feel we need to contribute to the conservation officers fund for them to do there job.i am fortunate to be friends with the local sheriff officers.they told me to call anytime i saw a trespasser,they would come deal with them.anyone can become friends with a law enforcement agent,offer them some game as a thank you or a good ol handshake and tell him thanks,and if that doesnt work,shoot on sight................................
I have inadvertently developed into the crazy guy that will shoot trespassers on sight.At least that's what I heard from a guy with the county road crew. The fact that I shoot center fire rifles and handguns quite a bit on the weekends may be why folks think I'll shoot first and ask questions later.
All I had to do was go to the offender's house( he's a neighbor down the road) and confront him. I wasn't even mean about it. In fact I told him if he shoots one on his dad's place and it hops the fence , to come get me and I'd help him drag it out.
He tried to give me the 'ol " Man , I've been hunting that area for years when your grandad owned it" He never asked my grandad for permission either. Caught the same guy shrooming on my place once. He left his truck parked on the road with the doors unlocked. The kicker was there was a bank envelope on the seat with 5 $100 bills in it. Shoulda called that his tresspass fee, huh?
The only thing I worry about is some idiot shooting me first because they are afraid I'm gonna get the drop on 'em.
Seriously you can't be shooting folks for trespassing but it sure would be nice to cut a switch and give 'em a hell of a hide warming all the way to the property line.
We just got to stop the stupid people from breeding...
Just get some yellow Police investigation tape and wrap that around your property....Should keep everyone out I would think... :eek:
(http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g56/huntit/TexasSweat07062-1.jpg)
One of these on each fence post might do the trick!!
You guys just need to find a local deputy that hunts and exchange some access for a little extra watchdog duty. When word gets around a deputy hunts and gives an extra eye on the place.....many of your worry's will go away quick. I've seen this work first hand.
Maybe I shoulda been a deputy. :)
I ran across a sign this summer that read,
"NO TRESPASSING. YOU MAY TRACK A WOUNDED ANIMAL ONTO THIS PROPERTY BUT IF YOU CAN'T POINT TO BLOOD YOU'RE TRESPASSING."
I thought that was a pretty fair deal.
Morning Star has the idea. I'm a cop here in Louisiana and have permission to hunt, bow only, on about 500 acres of woods. All I have to do is keep the land posted and keep the tresspassers out and I hunt for free; about 9 miles from my house. It works having a couple of cops hunting your woods. This guy's woods had tresspassers hunting in there regularly. Once I got in there and handled a couple of them the tresspasser problem has stopped. I also like the orange vest idea. I'll try that one.
i'll go along with claymores.... :rolleyes: :eek: :biglaugh:
not really, though...the vest seems like a good idea...
Remember, fellas, it's not just gun hunters who overstep their bounds. I've been in the woods in archery season to hear an awful commotion. Turned out a man was pulling his ladder stand to a favorite tree. Only thing is it was on posted land that only I had permission to access. Bow hunters get away with it many times as we don't make noise or wear orange to be seen by. Gun season is much shorter, condensed, noisier and more populated which allows for the boneheaded bums to create a bigger hubbub. Good thing there is good men and women in both camps.
I've heard of 3/8" re bar driven into atv tracks where they have cut your fence. Just leave it down for them to come back. Make sure the re bar is far enough onto the property that they can't push the ATV back out then call the law when you find it. Of course then you have to worry about all the stuff previously mentioned.
Several years ago, my ex wife's Uncle farmed several hundred acres in the river bottoms. He was having an increasing problem with 4x4 trucks coming from town and muddin' in his bottoms. They were creating tracks that it would near impossible to close without a dozer. He warned and warned- nothing helped. Finally he turned an old spring tooth harrow upside down in a low crossing, covered it with leaves he gathered in the woods and viola ! 6 trucks the first weekend. He met the wrecker operator at the gate and informed him there was a $20 fee per vehicle towed from his place. Operator just smiled and said he would add it to the owner's bill.Things got better after that.
deleted
yea but it would be worth it!
I've enjoyed the stories & suggestions on this post. Here in N.C., we are supposed to be having gun season starting in sept. when bow only usually starts. That don't sit well w/ me. I have not had a good season this year anyway. This don't help much.
No trespassing signs didn't seem to work on our farm, but signs saying Hunting rights leased worked much better. Hang them out of reach or they will be torn down.
May the fight to protect your land begin. It's an endless battle here during lead slinger seasons.
Good luck
Wow I don't like trespassers either,but i would never treat trespassers like some suggest on here.
I have found if your nice to them and explain it's private property they won't come back.
I did catch one guy twice but have not seen him after that,and I was still nice about it.
Treating people nice usually works in my opinion.
As long as they dont destroy my property in some way I dont mind someone hunting...no place to hunt=no hunting/hunters period...we have to get over this hump or hunting will only be for the rich like in other countries
If you do decide you want to initiate legal proceedings, you need to make sure you call the right authorities to make the arrest. For example, game wardens do not have the authority to arrest trespassers in Wisconsin. That authority is granted to the County Sheriff's offices.
That's very noble sisco. But, I imagine once you find deer carcasses (and other game), beer cans,remains of a meth lab,lumber grade walnuts ruined with screw in steps,your pond fished extinct,an acre of corn ruined by 4x4 trucks, and other things I have found, you'll likely change your mind.Glad it's not happened to you .......yet.
Being nice doesn't work on everyone. One day I found 4 guys bow hunting on my property, probably aging from 18 to 40, and two of them were using my tree stands! I talked to all of them and told them where the property lines were and they semi-politely left. A few days later 3 of them were back! I ran them off again. About a week later I was going to one of my stands and guess what......they're BACK...and in my stands! I was ticked!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: The final encounter was a fourth time when I ran them off with a whole lot of anger, a gun on my side, and a very very close face to face threat.
Guys, when you find the answer to this problem PLEASE let me know. We have fought it for years.
Poaching and trespassing both. You are right. It has generally been locals.
Our property is fairly secluded. No county roads which can be a blessing but makes it very difficult for law enforcement to patrol.Access is a permanent easement though a neighbors pasture with our property laying on both sides of a river.
The place is posted on all sides. It makes no difference.
Our local conservation officer has a key to our gate and an open invitation to hunt any time.And by the way, my son is a cop.
ANYONE caught trespassing will and has been charged with the offense.
We have dealt with similar problems that Flinttim mentioned.That is why the place is off limits. Believe me, these people are not bothering to ask permission.
One possible answer I see is stiffer penalties.Here in Nebraska most fines for game law violations and trespassing are a slap on the wrist. I would like to see fines increased and equipment including vehicles confiscated. We now have some type of deer season open from Sept. 15 thru the second week in January with far to few wardens in the field although I believe record numbers of permits are being sold.These guys are spread to thin and our deputies in the eastern part of the state are kept plenty busy with other matters.
For now I am going to try the orange vest idea.
If anyone knows where I can purchase some bear traps let me know.
Take care,
Ed :campfire:
Didn't read all of the posts. Maybe allow one or two locals, that you trust, to hunt there and let them watch it for you. Make sure you get something in writing, including what sort of response you expect, or maybe don't expect if they have an encounter. Someone there a often might help keep others away.
ChuckC
Good idea - I wish I had thought of something like that beofre some low rent stole my lock on stand in spite of the no trespassing signs. I agree that you should prosecute all trespassers aggressively. Don't you miss the old days when this sort of thing was not so common?
Shaun,
I can sympathize with you. I own 40 acres down by Bussey. This year my son wanted to shotgun hunt with his grandpa so I bought he and I a tag. We stood for about an hour waiting on deer to feed in my clover field. Nothing comes out so I moved down to see how Grandpa was holding up in the weather. He said that 3 guys had just walked by them before I got there. When Grandpa stopped them and asked what they were doing on my land they responded that they had hunted the land for years. Grandpa proceeded to inform them that he had owned the land for 50 years and he had never given permission. They said "I guess that's tough 'cause we're huntin' it anyway". We headed for the house and decided bow hunting was much safer. The saddest part of the story...the 3 guys were my cousins that I grew up with. We have purchased signs and contacted the Sheriff in preparation for next year.
I have access to bow hunt a great piece of property here in town. The owner doesn't hunt and he actually sought me out to see if I wanted to hunt his property as he knows I am a police officer. He has had so many problems over the years with trespassers that he asked me to hunt it whenever I could in order to help get it under control.
I used to hunt a farm that the owner owned or leased almost 5,000 acres. He had a problem with this guy on a dirt bike sneaking in off of a access road across the mountain. You could hear his bike "putting" around but we could never catch him. One day the farmer and I were riding around the mountian in his truck when I spotted a camoflage netting across a ditch. We stopped and pulled it back and the dirt bike was beneath it. I told him that we ought to take the bike off of the mountain and turn it over to the sheriffs office. He just picked up a big rock and broke off the spark plug in the engine, got back in the truck and drove off. Nearest hard surface road was about 5 miles away. Haven't heard the bike back since.
Times are obviously different now, but I long for the days when I was young (teens and 20's), hunting the woods of NW Wisconsin. In those days posted property was rare. Every farm kid pretty much knew every other farmer for miles around and we just hunted, nobody was ever uptight about us being on thier land and we didn't care if they were on ours. Many times me and friends would go hunting from sun up to sun down cutting though one section to the other, often ending up miles from where we started.
Thing is, we respected everyones property, we never wrecked fences, tore up ruts..etc. When we did run across some posted land, we just avoided it or went and asked for permission.
As far as getting others to respect your land now days, I agree that continued and consistant prosection is about the only way. If there are no consequences then there is no reason for them to stop. Once word gets out, things will change. It won't win you a popularity contest, but hey. If the law is part of the problem, then I'm not sure what you do.
our farm 586 acres was heavily hunted one year when I was a kid. My father decided to re-post it, barbwire it throughout, and went to the sheriffs office and the local wardens office to let them have privy to hunt it as long as they parked a marked vehicle or two around the property during the entire season. Seemed to work pretty well after that. a few years later we sold ten acres to a game warden so he could live in the county. That really seemed to help with him around.
I expect LEO's to enforce the laws without having to invite them to hunt my land.
Steve
One thing that happens is the landowner wants the CO to be his "watchman" . Many times the CO gets a call from a landowner about a trespasser. CO shows up and tells the owner he needs to press charges. Owner, not wanting to appear as the bad guy, let's the trespasser off the hook. He wants the CO to be the "bad guy", not himself.I talked to our local CO about trespassers if I found any, and he advised he'd show up but I HAD to press charges. No problem, said I.
Asshats have discovered the "Deer drive" now. They will drive across your place and onto public ground or a place where they aren't prosecuted. They just keep making better thieves...
QuoteOriginally posted by Dave2old:
If they're on ATVs, piano wire stretched tight at neck level generally gets the message across. :bigsmyl: (I did NOT say that. This is a forgery!)
I seriously hope this is a joke. :eek:
Being a land owner of several thousands of acres I understand completely the frustration of trespassers. I agree completely with Ray, from past experiences, on the threats, burned land, and vandalism from prosecuting trespassing 'Good Ole Boys'.
But here in Alabama, and the current law suits, despite how backwards it is, if a trespasser gets hurt on your land, the landowner has a potential to lose a court case to the trespasser.
Setting up something to harm someone else is a totally different subject. Yes, I know some people are not worth much, and I wouldn't want to be associated with them, but to place land value or animal life above a human being is just totally wrong in my opinion. What if a child happens to ride into that piano wire? What if that child dies from it?
Dave, I know your a well respected man, but I gotta disagree with you here.