RE: Dog hunting outlaws
Hi fellas. New here. Just wanted to see what the fuss was about. Grew up in the Appalachians in south western Pennsylvania. Only three seasons up there. Hunting, fishing, and trapping. And I did them all. It wouldn't be stretching things to say that I grew up with a gun in my hand. Upon graduating college, I moved to the Northern Virginia area where I felt like a duck out of water. For twenty years. Tried sub-division after sub-division and could not get comfortable. Guess it was the country boy in me. Did well for myself and bought a 50 acre farm on the Rappahannock river. I fish and hunt my property and allow friends from work to visit and do the same. I even had a shooting berm put in so we could sight in our rifles safely and I could practice my hand gunning which I compete in.
I gotta say. Hunters up north aren't quite as rude as you dog hunters. Oh sure, poaching has always been around. Heck, the preacher at my church when I was a kid got caught poaching. It was in the papers and everything! I got caught trout fishing in a reservoir when I was fourteen. My Mom had to pay $35 to get me back and I had to work that off, you better believe.
Down the road a piece was an older lady with about 600 acres. She had a reputation of not letting people hunt her land. Her husband had passed and I guess she was just distrustful of folk. One summer I knocked on her door, introduced myself, and asked her if there weren't some chores she might need done around the place in return for hunting privileges. Notice that I said "privileges". Well, that summer, I cleaned chicken coops (yuck), split wood, helped to put up hay, and learned to drive a truck (not on the roads). She worked me like a mule. I think she came to like me because she started making me sandwiches and iced tea for lunch when I would be working. That fall I had her back 400 all to myself. Including the, by then, stripped corn fields surrounded by dense woods. Sitting up on a rise, I could look out over three separate fields and wait for the bucks to come out. I was lucky to have such a nice place to hunt but, looking back, I think I was luckier to have learned a valuable lesson that summer. A little courtesy, a little hard work, and mutual respect will go a lot further than bullying and swagger. All she asked in return was that I bust any groundhog I happened to see. Consider it done, I told her.
Sure, times have changed and kids are glued to their Play Stations. But, if grown men know darn well that they are going to be running hounds across my farm, they ought to have the decency to try to get to know me first. Stop by some summer with the kids and see if I don't have some fence to repair or paint. Then you might be greeted with a warm smile and a hello and not suspicion when I catch you in my fields down by the river. I'll respect your right to tradition if I get shown a little respect. I paid for my place, I pay the taxes every year, and I pay to maintain the fields for my livestock (black Angus cattle) and for my fences. The only way you should feel O.K. about trespassing on my place is if you know me and are friends with me. Period. I may have only lived on my farm for ten years now, but I am no city slicker.
So, this coming year, I will be doing a little experiment. That engineering degree from Auburn might finally come in handy. I am looking into exactly what it will take to amplify an ultrasonic signal. I mean, really amplify it. Say 1,000 watts of 30 kHz. Not only will every dog in the area be rendered completely useless, it will also drive every deer in the area away. Anyway, as I say, I think it can be done and I do love a challenge. Money is not a problem and, what's more, nobody will know what is going on. Human children can't hear much above 20kHz and adults are even worse at about 17 kHz. How can Bubba and Cleatus react to what they cannot see or hear? I've got most of the pieces put together on paper including some really cool tweeter horns for a PA system that go to 27 kHz. Should the field version work well, there is also thoughts of a portable version that would fit in the back of a pickup truck. Did I mention that the signal cannot be heard, felt, or seen? I think the whole thing can be done for under a grand (maybe less). Chump change for a little peace of mind.
Some of you guys seem to feel that you have some 'right' to come on anyone's property any time you like? I guess I have a right to scare off predators with ultrasonic frequencies. Goose and gander anyone?