ORIGINAL: thompsgs
My family used to own a little "shotgun" camp on 500 acres of our own land in northeastern LA. Problem was that we were one of the last private land holdouts in the middle of a pretty large WMA.Needless to say, vandalism was very rampant. Home was nearly 2hrs away so we weren't there very often unless it was hunting season. We had busted gates, broken doors, looted camps, atv tracks everywhere, and all the other usual crap. We put up multiple cameras and it wasn't long before we had a few pictures of drunk bubba rednecks breaking down a gate with the old pickup and relieving themselves on the front door. The liscense plate # and clear pictures were enough to have the 2 arrested and charged. Didn't take long before the camp was nothing but ashes and we had no evidence that the same 2 did it. We sadly sold the land because no one wanted to fight it anymore and now hunt private leases near the area. I also encourage you to be careful with the spike strips. A good friend of my brother set a few out on some atv trails that ledaround his main gate. When the bad guyrode up to the gate, he gotoffto take a leak anda spike went right through his foot. Hewas able to sue the landowner becausethe posted signs near the gate were over 100yds apart (i think around 125yds.)Luckily the landowner happened to know the judge and all he had to do was pay the medical bills. There was a posted sign right in front of the man when it happened but the nearest one to it was 125yds away. What a technicality! I hate lawyers! I would love to be able to do as SwampTHING suggested above, but here in the states we have something called liability. In my experience, at least with the sorry rednecks from where I hale, people are just sorry enough to have a kid break a leg on your property and end up owning it after the lawsuit. I wish people would take a lesson or two from Canadians so it would work here.
something a farmer friend of mine would do in the rutted out portions of his property where the lovely local tresspassers would ride their 4 wheelers and drive their 4x4 trucks through. he would dump a couple lbs of nails in the soupy water filled rutts after awhile I guess people got the idea and got sick of pulling nails from their tires.
spike strips are too intentional and I know it could get ugly in a court battle. but nails.. LOL the ol' farmer could just say well heck I dont know how nails got in there a box of'em must have fell off the back of my or someone else's pick up.
My family has 1200+ acres in central missouri, we've have alot of problems with tresspassers ive always figured one day id build a cabin out there for hunting. but with the tresspassers and possible vandilism a camper trailer I can truck in and out as needed is really the best. With all the morons out there these days that just cant respect other peoples stuff a mobile deer camp is really the best way to go especially if you only visit your property a couple weeks during the fall for hunting. the other option if you have the money or can figure out something with a care taker to live on your property full time that seems to work well for my friend chad and his families hunting land.