Trespassers

[reubenpa]

Steve I don't think that you are selfish.

Now days it is getting harder and harder to find a good place to hunt. I hate seeing posted signs and not being able to find a good place to hunt. But when I think about it, if I owned land or had exclusive right to it, I woul post it and enforce it. If a few came to ask, I would probably allow some on it, number would depend on size of land, but I would ask them to stay away from a certain area, which would be my area.  I would want to manage the deer there so I could have a trophy, not so all my neighbors could brag...  I would need a few more hunters than myself to keep the deer population in check, but I would protect my specific areas. 

The story of the landowners that were idiots and stole the deer were going WAY TO FAR!!!  If a person had shot a deer and it ran onto my land, I would help them find it if I could, but at least let them on to get the deer...   Other than that, protect your hunting rights because hunting areas are getting fewer/.......     my 2 cents

[Bobman]

Steve - I don't think it's selfish to post your land and keep people off.  I agree with you that each situation is different and I was just pointing out that trying to be a harda** and build a reputation on that can backfire on you and may not be necessary.  Don't get me wrong, we've had our shared of scumbags that were physically removed from our property (especially the one I found opening morning sitting in my tree stand) as well as repeat offenders who were turned in to the proper authorities.  My family used to have exclusive or nearly exclusive access to about 1500 contiguous acres in the Southern Tier of WNY (which is a very large amount of property for that area) that was bordered another 2000 acres of stateland.  We had our food plots planted, built a lot of permanent tree stands for any situation and did a lot of pre-season scouting; in other words, we did a lot of work trying to get the best hunting possible.  I understand how hard it is to patrol that much area and we did have a couple of trophy bucks that we were watching shot out from under us, but that's hunting.  Roadhunters that were trespassing were the ones that always prompted a call to the State Troopers because besides being trespassers it was unsafe and they needed to be taught a hard lesson. 

Just trying to present another viewpoint, not question your motives.

[BuckShotJon]

PA Bowhunter,

The problem I run into is that when I confront a trespasser, if I were to immediately start to my truck and then drive to a phone to call (no cell service) it would be 45 mins. to an hour.  Then by the time I got ahold of the proper authorities and got them back to the scene I have no idea where the offender may be.  Makes it kind of hard for the officer to see the offense first hand.  Is there anything that can be done by calling in the individuals back tag #?  I'm very frustrated with this situation and last year came very close to physically beating a cocky trespasser.  I don't want to end up in that position again and would rather let the proper resources handle it, that is what they are for anyway.

I would assume you are from PA? I don't know a single thing about PA Law.

But if you are talking NY, yes you could still get something done.  Tag the back tag number and license number.
Record all features about the person, what they look like, what they are wearing, and any other identifying characteristic.

Then contact the DEC or Sheriffs office. They may allow you to sign a deposition and have the person arrested. It is sure to get them a visit, which is enough alot of times to scare the living sh!t out of a person. They may also send in the mail a card saying busted don't do it again.

Trespassers bank on "getting a warning". They will keep doing it until they are arrested.

Jon

[PA_BOWHUNTER]

Yes Jon, I am in PA.  I am going to research the details of the regulations in my area and be prepared for the upcoming season/invasion.

Josh

[MASTERGUIDE]

My family has lived in same spot for 25 years, and all the same people have owned land around our place, and we don't own much because we can't afford it, or we would.  Now in the last 2 years, I went from being able to hunt the surrounding 1200 acres, they are 1 square mile by 1 square mile,  each square mile=640 acres to being able to hunt 80 acres on a very limited basis.  I grew up on the land, all I ever did was hunt, fish, and trap, and I know all of the landowners, WHAT HAPPENED!  one guy who owns 400 of it, just decided he didn't want me hunting "his" deer, or fox, or anything.  And he doesn't even hunt, the next guy the only new landowner in the area who bought 40 acres right behind the house, so I have to go around his place to get to all the other land, is acting like he owns it all.  he doesn't like my dogs, and everything else, he is an A---h----and won't let me touch his land.  and there isn't even woods there, just a field.  He deer hunts it, and thats it.  all the other land is just not any good, because you have someone in your ear for being there, even if they gave you permission to hunt it.  I have a diff view than most, what happened to the good old days, when you could just plain old go hunting theres woods, go hunting.  I think things should be in individual cases, if its a repeat offender with an attitude, nail him, but gosh, backstabbing the little guy, I am sick of a....h... landowners, where's the common sense, they aren't "your" deer, they aren't anybody's

[deerhunter]

right on masterguide. you took the words right out of my mouth.

[MASTERGUIDE]

thanks for the support, there are too many lock em up and screw em over types over something stupid or just because they feel big and powerful owning the land thanks again
MASTERGUIDE

[shrub]

i agree with you guys i dont like tresspassers but i also dont like people who dont have any sinds on there land and get mad at people when they accedentuly come out on it, and examplel is this past black powder seson in V.T me and my friend where hunting behind his house and we accedently came out closer to somebody house than we wanted to be  so we stared walking up the hill into the woods and she came out and stared to yell at us that it was privet property so we kep on walking trying to avoid confrentation and she kept yelling so i yelled "sorry were leaving" you can only climb a steep hill so fast. that jus ticked me of

[bussman]

If you can afford all the toys but do not own land then you shouldn't be commenting on us landowners who work all year long to pay large mortgages. I know many guys who wouldn't spend a penny on land yet own tens of thousands of dollars of toys that I can't afford because I own land.

[shrub]

bussman, im not complaing about people who post their land, im complaing about people who post their land without signs and then get mad at people for tresspasing even thought they dident know it was posted and my parents do own land we have 8 acers behind our house but i cant rifle hunt it because of the highwas and we do have a hunting camp but i couldne get up there that weekend so i hunted with my buddies,  and yes we do have some toys but not tens of thousands of dollers worth

[archbishop]

there are Some fine points here yes if your an ass people are going to screw with your land and stuff to be asses back (it goes back to 2nd grade and continues through adulthood) almost all the people with problems on there land are asses and think the deer come with the property and hunt for antlers only but like bussman said NO TRESSPASSING signs meen NO TRESSPASSING no excuses and yes in PA you can take down all the personally info (licence# description any name thats overheard etc) but as someones whos family owns property in potter county pa and cattaraugus county ny the outcome is also the same damed if you do damed if you dont and if you live in a rural area theres no local police troopers take there time bacause its not an emergency if you can even get one to come out dec will come to get the description and sherrifs dont respond to those calls and you cant take the law into your own hands so what then?

[MASTERGUIDE]

Ok, I never said I have toys, I am saving for land too, a big freakin ranch in montana to get away from you people,  80 acres isn't jack, if you think 350 acres is a BIG mortgage, and alot to pay for in land, well its not, and your not a big shot.  And I am not going to be a nail em! he crossed my little property line type of person.  Anyway, I don't want to go further on that unless anyone wants an elaboration.  Next thought, how about coon hunters, and coyote hunters, etc. that hunt with hounds.  The dogs can't read signs! if you have a situation like mine where I recently gained permission on a 900 acre farm, and there is a little guy with 50 acres on the edge of it that is totally against my hound hunting, becuase he is one of those deer freaks, and thinks hounds will make deer leave the country, how do I hunt that 900 acres without the possibility of my dogs running on to his land and him freaking out.  this has happened, I would avoid it if I could.  but if you know anything about hound hunting, the dogs can be here one minute, and 2 miles away treeing a coon the next.  My dogs are proffesional dogs, I hunt them 7 nights a week through the spring and summer, they aren't trash runners and for sure don't run deer, I just can't control the fact  that my hound did its job by finding a coon and chasing it up a tree, and it happened to end up on his land!  What do you think about that  Is there a whole heck of a lot that I could do about it NO  Thats why I call the police and have them escort me to my dogs when this happens to make sure no one pulls any of that bs that some of you like to, in addition to that there is also the leash law that protects hound hunters, this law makes it legal for me to waltz on to your land and get my dog whether you like it or not.  I can't shoot the coon or anything, but I am allowed to go get my dog.  You should see some of the hunters in my area, they just avoid certain areas because of a.. h... land owners, there was one guy whose dog was on a bear track, it was a bear that was hard to tree, it eventually gave up, and the dog wondered onto this guys land, the guy was nice, and led it to the house and kept care of it.  he said he saw the hunter whose dog it was, going up and down the road all day because he was too scared to go get his dog in fear of retalliation by the landowner, (the hunter had a tracker on the dog, that is how he knew where it was)  thats terrible, the guy eventually got a hold of the hunter and said hey, you could have at least stopped and had drink and swapped hunting stories with me, next time your dog comes here remember to do that. we laughed, we were talking to the landowner.  Thats how it should be, is it that hard to be nice to people when things like that happen.

[archbishop]

i see what you mean but i think most of the problem isnt the land owners, its the hunters that think they have the right to do what they want, where, like in your last example if they just ask the landowners permission 90% of the time they can get access. from what i know most landowners dont mind hunters, hikers or horseback riders its the atv's and snowmobiles most want off there land, ecspecially during hunting seasons. also i am sure they just like to know who is on there land and why. if a landowners is an ass its probably because he has had bad experiances with others and its being taken out on you which is unfortunate but like in everything else it only takes 1 bad apple to spoil the bunch. i remember 1 year hunting we came upon a guy walking out of the woods with his rifle, so we stopped him to ask who he was. he told us he was david l. we all started laughing because that was my uncle's name and he was the one who asked the tresspassers name and he is the one who owns the 1,000 acres we were on and we were related to all the landowners around with the other 1,500 acres so he just asked him to leave and said if you want to hunt here again stop by my house and ask first.

[MASTERGUIDE]

Yeah, it must be that there have been alot of bad experiences, I swung by a county south of here and seemed to be able to get permission 50-90 percent of the time, but around here its one in 15 that allow you to hunt, and I ask everyone, and I tell them exactly what I do and how much I do it, and I don't ride four wheelers or anything, but it must be a bunch of bad experiences then, I guess that must be the explanation then.  I just get frustrated every once in a while because it seems as if the world is against coon hunters, anyway its nice to get an understanding response like that, I thought I might get attacked by a deer horder, which I do deer hunt too, quite obsessively, but I also know two kinds of hunting can coexist.

MASTERGUIDE

[Pikeguy]

All I'm gonna say right now is this. If anybody on this site finds somebody tresspassing on their land this year, my advice is to handly it gently at first. Many of you probably heard about the tragedy here in WI last gun season where some guys approached a tresspassing hmong and he freaked out and killed like 6 people from the treestand. I don't want to hear another one like that so watch your step. People are nuts nowdays.