Problem With Hunters???

I see a lot of problems with hunters post on here.Wanted to throw in my two cents.I guess I am a lucky one.I have 18ac. here in NY southern tier.Surrounded by hundreds of other acres.Been here 14 yrs.and seen one hunter on my property.The other day wife was walking are Dobie and she spotted a hunter walking property line.Dobie made a bee line for the hunter,went outta sight came back couple minutes later.Just my neighbor hunting his property.Anyways just wanted to say too bad all the bad expieriences so many have.

Good Luck

Stan

Consider yourself one of the lucky ones. I think I may have worked into a good situation with the guy that hunts ours this year. He does what he says he will do versus some of the other people that ask if they can finish something on us if it was started on their side then start putting stands up on us. The new guy (who I have known since high school) parks where the two of us agree he should where the people who have no permission whatsoever make sure we are at the house and out of view of the other farm and then drive around the gate down into the field digging ruts along the way.
I guess we are more lucky here that we don't have would-be marijuana farmers starting operations in other people's fields and woods. I hear from friends in law enforcement that is a problem in the Southern Tier to the point where a person does not want to go out of view off the road down there.

You are indeed lucky. I'm 40 miles south of Atlanta and we have had numerous problems. They cut your fence to drag out the deer. My brother was hunting one day and saw a large buck way off accross the field. It slowly made it s way to him and when he started raising his rifle, some idiot shoots the deer on our property. Coon hunters leave their beer cans and leave the gates open. If I'm not around my 80 year old mom has to get them back in.

A lot of the problems in our area are cause by former farm kids who decided to leave the farm as soon as they could. Now thier parents have retired and sold off that farm the kids didn't want so they have no place to hunt. But because they are locals they think it's their right to hunt any place they want to to included from the road.

The good hunters have found a place to hunt and are not out tresspassing and shooting up farm animals and tractors. Thats why us land owners never see the good hunters....just the jerks as we are chasing em off the property!

Rick

It has been an eye opener for me - the level of animosity towards hunters I find on this mostly rural board. I can't say I believe all of the dumb hunter posts I have read here.
But I have also come to understand there must be some stupid, lawless, inconsiderate hunters out there too.
Ultimately though I will keep harkening back to the fact that 350K Minnesota hunters took to the woods and fields this year and only a couple had mishaps. It is an incredible record for hunter safety.
I'll bet of those same 350K more than a couple were in an accident on the way to GO hunting.
But
It would be interesting to read some of the CO, Sheriff, Highway and Local reports of confrontations between land owners and hunter/tresspassers. Get a feel for how frequent it is. Are guns involved? I suppose they are during hunting...
I think the local news would get ahold of any faceoffs where guns were brandished though. (edit) Or tractors shot up or livestock/pets killed, etc.
Maybe not.

Being a Minnesota hunter, I've been watching wondering same thing. Wondering if larger quantity of public land in state doesn't have a lot to do with it. Googled "States with largest public land ownership" I found out how just how lucky we are living here in MN. The hunter behavior these guys describe is irritating and sickening to say the least.

UltraDog,
You might check with your DNR if you want to read all the stupid things hunters do to see if department prints or posts their reports.

Here in Michigan, you can read the monthly "Cuffs and Collars" summary of all the reports from the Conservation Officers. Trust me, you would not think there are that many stupid people out in the field, BUT there are. And I am sure they are not all just in Michigan.

There are probably 30 reports each month. Some just make me laugh. Others make me real scared that I actually out in the woods with some of these other people that are allowed to have a loaded weapon.

Rick

It might have something to do with your location. In my area, (Southern Illinois) we are probably the closest public hunting area to the St. Louis metro population. That brings out some questionable people who have absolutely no respect for private property. I've had problems with one group for over 20 years, and the next time I run onto them, I'm dialing the federal conservation officer, and I'm going to follow through with whatever it takes to press charges for trespassing (and possibly more). These people always have the same excuses - "I thought this was federal land" - "is this private property?" - "Mr.XXXX (long deceased father-in-law) gave me permission to hunt", etc. I have had No Trespassing signs torn down, stands erected, hide/gut dumping, fences cut, theft - you name it. One time the old patriarc of the group informed me that he was going to camp under a big oak tree in my front yard. I told him to pack up and move a quarter mile to federal land. That evening a game warden drove by his camp and found him burning the post off of a stop sign (with the stop sign still attached) in his campfire. You can imagine how that turned out - and the old man was mad at me over it. Another time I was pulling a load of round bales behind my tractor, going down a steep hill, when these fools came up the hill meeting me in a four wheel drive truck, thinking I would pull off in the ditch to let them through. I stood up and waved them out of the way, hollering, "No brakes". They took to the woods to get out of the way. Why they couldn't wait two minutes for me to pass? Anyhow - this is the mentality that we deal with around the fringes of the Shawnee National Forest. Mind you - these people are no doubt in the minority, but unfortunately they are the ones that get noticed. I have adopted my neighbors philosophy - "It's easier to run them all off than to cull the bad ones from the good ones". I can stand a hunter straying onto our private property, and I'm very tolerant of hunters, in fact, I have a family from Edwardsville who have hunting rights on our entire acreage, but I can't stand a liar or a conniver. I put up all new signs this fall, and so far it appears they have all survived, but I did notice a new hide/gut pile along the lane. The coyotes will clean it up - it's the disrespect that burns me.

Sorry for the rant. It's a sore subject in our neighborhood.

I'll most likely get toasted for this.

It goes both ways. I have issue with "some" land owners. Only a small portion of the woods we hunt are controled by me. Most of it is by permission from other farmers.

At one place, there are exactly 4 guys allowed to hunt. It has three sides that are own by "do as I say, not as I do" owners. They and all their buddies hunt where we are allowed but scream bloddy murder if we stray 1 inch. All have been told to stay off by the owner. One guy is the worst. He will march 100 yards onto the property we have permission to hunt and chew but for getting "to close" to the property line. Then gather up several buddies and "drive" the woods to his property crossing all 100a of it. Son caught him in one of our stands just this year.

I carry and provide all hunters with maps of the places we hunt. Every year someone comes along and challenges our permission (usally a neighbor). Couple years ago I was treed by a dog and a neighbor showed up with a gun (bow season). After a few impolite words and being accused of poaching from him I got on the phone with the owner and produced my map. The owner, in even less polite words, told him to walk 200 yards south and #itch from there. (owners get maps of all stands and blinds so they know exactly where we are).

Good for you Errin - that's the thinking way to handle things.

By contrast, I gave a guy permission to cross our property as a shortcut to place his stand on Shawnee Forest land. A few days later I was back in that area and noticed that he had placed his stand on the back side of my neighbor's property, instead of on the forestry. My neighbor allows no outside hunting, and knows that I will respect his wishes, but this stand is clearly accessed from my property, making it look like I am condoning this guy hunting on the neighbor. I called the hunter and told him to either move his stand from the neighbor's property immediately, or I was going to call the neighbor and clarify the situation with him. He moved it, but instead of moving it to the federal land like his original story, he moved it over on my property. I just let it go, and a couple weeks later I noticed the stand was gone. Being now suspicious of this guy, I took a night-time stroll that evening, and sure enough, there were little stickpin reflectors leading down through the woods and back onto the neighbor's property. That rascal was accessing the neighbor's No Hunting property through my place, making me complicent to his actions. I ran him and his wife both off. Schemers, connivers, manipulators, liars - I can't stand them. Later, I learned that this guy is a felon, convicted of child molestation, and I think that felons aren't supposed to be handling firearms. I might be wrong about that, and it doesn't matter - he's gone.

I DO have some GOOD people who hunt our property. You can bank on their word, and they have free run of the place.

(quoted from post at 18:03:58 12/05/11) It has been an eye opener for me - the level of animosity towards hunters I find on this mostly rural board. I can't say I believe all of the dumb hunter posts I have read here.
But I have also come to understand there must be some stupid, lawless, inconsiderate hunters out there too.
Ultimately though I will keep harkening back to the fact that 350K Minnesota hunters took to the woods and fields this year and only a couple had mishaps. It is an incredible record for hunter safety.
I'll bet of those same 350K more than a couple were in an accident on the way to GO hunting.
But
It would be interesting to read some of the CO, Sheriff, Highway and Local reports of confrontations between land owners and hunter/tresspassers. Get a feel for how frequent it is. Are guns involved? I suppose they are during hunting...
I think the local news would get ahold of any faceoffs where guns were brandished though. (edit) Or tractors shot up or livestock/pets killed, etc.
Maybe not.

Click to expand...

Jerry I think it depends on the area. Here near Battle lake there are problems. One land owner I know caught a kid hunting on her land. I'm talking a kid thats old enough to hunt by himself for the first time. I know he learned that from his dad. In the past we had a guy build a free standing wooden stand on our place. A friend caught the same guy selling hunting rights on the friends property. Another guy had a neighbor build a stand right on the property line then cut a shoot lane onto the others land.....keep in mind in MN it's illegal to shoot across property lines. Another friend of mine last fall was waiting for a shot at a deer behind some brush. He could see it but wanted a clear shot. My wife's cousin pulled up on the road not too far away and shot that deer from his truck and then drives into the posted field to get it. Friend rents land from the cousins family so he wasn't turned in......guy can't afford to lose that land.

And the list goes on. Yea there is a lot of public land in MN. But a lot isn't open to hunting. Near me there is one 160 piece thats open to hunting without having to jump through hoops. I have a few people who ask about hunting my place every year but I've got my own kids and 2 BIL's and myself so don't really have room for more.

Was a great year for hunter safety in MN!!!!! But boater safety wasn't so good this summer.

Rick

Ditto on Ultradog's observance. Yep, there are some dangerous hunter's but it seems to me there are about as many dangerous land owner's. Reckon that makes it a toss up.

My farms are in SW ND and I have been managing for pheasants for about 8 years . The pheasant numbers are excellent as are the deer, grouse, partridge and sometimes ducks and geese. A few years back Pheasants Forever named me land owner of the year. I let everyone on it. Not any more. To much slob behaviour. How come everyone has time to be out there in Oct when it is time to hunt pheasants but no one has any time when the fence needs work or I have to move farm equipment around ? If hunters want places to hunt they should buy their own land. For those that say I leave more ruts than any one I say it is mine I will do as I please and I encourage you to do as you please on your land. I worked hard to buy and improve my land, I didn't do that so someone else can have a playground.

It seems We handle Hunters differently than most.
We us a rule of Reciprical Rights.
My Son and I own a total of 75 acres between us. An entire Hillside of hardwood forest.
None of it is Posted, we allow most anyone to hunt it, with one requirement. We allow you to hunt on our land, You MUST allow us to hunt (or fish) on Your land. Any one that refuses gets escorted off the property. only ever had one guy refuse to leave, But He changed his mind once He saw the .44 mag I was carrying.

By the way SJ, I'm in the Southern tier also, just outside of Painted post.

Yes, some hunters are good, respectful and treat land owners real well - but so many do not. We used to let a few known people hunt our place with the understanding that they must stop and get permission EACH time... so our kids wouldn't get shot while out playing. Anyway, a "buddy" of one of the known hunters showed up at our place one day (by himself, not with the guy we knew)...he knocked, but I did not answer as my husband was not home and he was some long-haired freaky lookin' guy)...so that ding-head just pulled out back and got his rifle out anyway, even though he did NOT get permission that day. I promptly called the sheriff and got rid of him. After that incident we stopped allowing anyone to hunt here. Since then, we've had A LOT of hunters trespass on our land over the years even though it is CLEARLY posted as "No Hunting - No Trespassing". So when we see someone trespassing, we call the game warden ASAP. He's busted a few. Anyway, JUST ONCE, my husband and I would like to show up at some trespassering hunter's home and just walk out to their backyard with a cooler and some steaks - sit down have a cold one while lounging on their patio furniture, use their grill to cook us up some steaks, and maybe even take a nice relaxing soak in their hot-tub. Can you imagine how indignant they would be if we just went and "played" in their backyard without asking??? Or even if one asked permission... I'm positive they'd be thinking, "What the heck makes these people think they can just come to our place and ask to hang out here???!!!". Never will do it - for obvious legal reasons - but it sure would be funny!

You wouldn't believe the bunch of whiny crybabies hunting my parents' place. My brother-in-law can't even go out hunting without being approached by at least one other hunter crying about some other hunter encroaching on "his territory." They know he's married to the boss's daughter, and think he has a say in who hunts the place.

Most of them don't even have permission to be there.

biggest problems I see are kids of farmers who
spend more time hunting than farming. I have a
certain area that I allow some friends to hunt on
but I tell them up front I dont want to see any
bucks taken the first second or fourth years (
when I see deer in my fields I rarely see nice
bucks). Thats a good place to start for me. I
could care less if they back out or would rather
not hunt it because of my rule. I dont hunt myself
so Im not trying to raise a monster for myself or
anything. I hear some of the farm kids saying they
have hunting rights if daddy rents the tillable
acres, I dont think thats the case, I maybe wrong,
but they generally spend 30 minutes in the woods
and then pile in the truck and head to the next
woods so on and so forth. I agree with the other
guy I didnt buy land for somebody to hunt it, and
from what I can tell trespassing hunters can do as
much damage as the wildlife some years. I dont
have a problem with hunters but I do with
entitlement.

I dont have a lot of problems,but the family has had the same policy for years on these places and it doesnt get tried much anymore. Weve had cattle shot,and some butchered,over the years. And in fact thats what started us limiting hunting to only a very few. Grandad and I were carrying water up to the house from the well accross the road one noon,when a truck load of drunk hunters nearly ran over him,and stopped to ask to hunt. He said no, but they were welcome to ask again when they sobered up. They got all mad and tore off throwing gravel all over him and every thing else. That evening we were setting on the porch just before dark when the same pickup pulled up on the road in front of the house. Cows had come up to water as usual along with our old whiteface bull that was as tame as one could get. Naturally when he saw the truck stop he walked over thinking he would get fed and hung his head over the fence. Guys in the truck stuck a shotgun out the passenger side window and shot him right in the face,and blinded him. Grandad carried a gun for weeks after that every where he went,hoping to see those guys around but we never did. That was one of two times in my life I every saw him mad,the second,and the final straw came when one of the lifelong neighbors who liked to chase coyotes with greyhounds and follow them in a four wheel drive truck left the gates open and we hunted and sorted cattle for two days. Up to that point if there was a lock on any place i never knew it, by evening every gate, barn,and shed was locked. Before that grandad had even left the keys in all the cars ,trucks ,tractors and all in case one of the neighbors needed one while no one was home. Never again,if you were caught on the place for any reason without coming to the house,the sherriff was called. Some neighbors didnt like it and still dont but thats the rules from now on as far as i'm concerned. I figure if your man enough to hunt and fish,your man enough to stop and ask! If your lowlife enough to tresspass,your lowlife enough to steaL, and ive never cut one person any slack,freind ,relative or foe. Granddad for a long time wouldnt allow no hunting at all after that ,even by us boys. Even though we grew up hunting fishing and trapping for alot of our food. To his old world way of thinking,if you didnt allow hunting you shouldnt allow ANY hunting.One of our regular chores remained to feed the quail coveys around the place ,until he died,but he never shot another one. If he got to wanting quail he would trap a few for a meal and thats all.

I don't know what you consider Southern Tier but we have those marijuana farmers here in Ohio. Every year they take to the air to hunt the plants.

I tell all them trigger happy so called "hunters" looking for a place to wage war,you guys seem to have plenty money to buy these 4 wh drives,quads ,argo's and rifles + all that other gear you carry just to hunt a deer or moose a yr, now go save some more money and go buy your own land if you wanna hunt,or go to public land.

Here's one from the 'big brass ones' department. While walking back to my place from a neighbor's house I noticed something odd along the fenceline to a third landowners property. I walked over and found a game camera straped to a tree. It was pointed to a small pond on the first neighbor's land. Now it was one thing for someone to put out a camera on someone else's land without asking; pictures are pretty harmless. But, here's the corker; the same owner that had trespassed with the camera also had a tree stand; 3 feet off the ground, 3 feet from the woven wire fence between the property line, and facing over the line. I honestly believe that if they sat in the stand and pointed the rifle that the muzzle would hav crossed the line. On top of that they would shoot directly towards a house some 75 yards off. When confronted the trespasser was enraged that anyone would question the camera since it was 'a gift' [despite the fact that they installed it on someone else's land] and 'nobody could tell them where to hunt/shoot'. It makes you consider application of 5 gallons of fuel and a road flare.

have a local kid that asked me if he could go fishing, I let him in to one of our ponds that some of the locals sneak into every once in awhile, I stopped by about three hours later to see if he was catching anything, and he said that he hadn't started to fish---he had driven back to town and picked up trash bags and cleaned the pond up--about a 15 acre pond, it took the bed of his truck to carry all the trash that he picked up--not only does he have a key to the place, he is the only person allowed to hunt the place too, there are some good hunters out there-we have an agreement that he will be the only person out there and so far (8 yrs and counting he is good as his word) I have never had to fix the fence in that pasture and never had to pick up trash either.

LOL just talked to the guy I share a property line this year, 81 years old, retired cop and a very good guy. I ask him how many deer they took off of his place. He told me none, he didn't allow any hunting on his land this year because a guy he had invited out to hunt a few years ago kept showing up every years with more and more friends, 8 at last count! He found another place to hunt this year and had no hunters on his land.

Rick