Originally Posted by
MountainHunter
BMRob: You're not just trespassing. You're stealing. Those deer are on someone else's land. That makes them their property while they're on that land. You're taking their property when you harvest their deer. It's like going into a field while they're on vacation and harvesting their corn.
No, it's not STEALING, it's recovering a game animal you killed because you owe that animal that respect. Deer are free-roaming animals, CORN is a PLANTED RESOURCES intentionally placed there by the land-owner the deer wasn't. Sorry, but that's about as ignorant an argument as I've seen on it!!!! So because a bird lands on one of my trees it's now my property??? Lifeflight helicoptor lands on the flat part in my front yard because there's and accident and it belongs to me now??? A kid hit's a ball over a fence, and it now belongs to the neighbor???? Not quite.....common courtesy, a kid hits a ball into my yard he's free to retrieve it, a hunter shoots an animal that runs onto my land, likewise within reason, he's free to retrieve it. I will say that if the deer ran onto my land with 30minutes of light left, he'd better sit tight until after shooting hours, if I'm hunting, but otherwise, I would EXPECT that hunter to make every "reasonable" effort to recover his game, as I would likewise do, but at the same time I grant the landowner the same courtesy I'd expect by not destroying anything on their property and not do anything but recovering my game.
Originally Posted by
Schultzy
Doug,
What's wrong with asking the land owner 1st Instead of doing what you want? Do you actually believe that every person has a right to go and retrieve their deer no matter the type of person they are? I'll say this that there are a few yahoo's In my section where I hunt on my dads land that I can gaurantee you that If they went on to this land without our knowing about It they'd be shooting whatever they see fit. There's reasons for laws, not everyone's a saint in the woods. No one goes on my dads land without one of us with, no one!!! The bad unethical hunters ruin It for everyone.
Steve,
I hear what you're saying, and agree in some ways, but I think in this specific situation, asking a woman who you've been told is an anti-hunter, rather than just jumping a fence and getting an animal she'll NEVER KNOW was ever there just makes more sense. I don't see it as any "invasion of privacy" or "trampling of a landowner's rights" at all, because I'd be open to someone LEGITIMATELY coming on my land if they killed an animal that ran onto my property. I see it as a common courtesy I suppose, but that's just the way some of us "nice" rednecks are around here, too, I guess. But at the same time, be it a doe or a WR NT Buck, I'm gonna go get it, because I believe I OWE that animal that effort, but I'm also not gonna go running around on someone's property scoping out their house and what's in their barn I could potentially come back after, etc, like there are some people out there who would do. I don't use an ATV to recover deer, I DRAG a deer out of everywhere I hunt except my in-laws, because it's easy enough to get one in at their place. I understand the issue with unethical people trespassing all over and shooting up everything they can, I've seen it as well, but I believe often times what they don't know will certainly never hurt them in this such case, and I'm not the type of guy who's going to mess with anything on their land, I'm just going in, getting the deer I killed, and getting out. Been there, done that a couple times, and I was even nice enough to bring it back before I gutted it, so they didn't have a mess along one of their trails........
Fortunately, I only hunt ONE place where it would EVER be an issue, and that OLD 80-something year old woman would never know I was ever there, and in all honesty, she really don't need to know, I ain't doing anything but recovering a deer that deserves that respect, and
I believe ALL states should allow a hunter a "REASONABLE RIGHT TO TRESPASS" as long as he is "LEGITIMATELY" tracking an animal.