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Old 10-24-2013, 10:42 PM
  #10  
hardwoodhank
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: Rockville, VA
Posts: 59
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Ive been dealing with this since buying some land out in a rural part of VA so I could hunt closer to my home. Its not unusual for dogs to be running at midnight through my land or sitting out on my deck and seeing hounds strolling through daily...until my dog chases them off.

My biggest issue was a couple years ago when I got a lease on 100 acres in a very undeveloped area that I took a weekend walking the perimeter putting up no trespassing signs. It was turkey season and if you turkey hunt, you know it involves roosting a bird the night before to know where to set up in the morning, and getting set up before the sun comes up. I set up my decoys and called my Tom out of his roost and as he was strutting towards my decoys....4-5 hounds come busting out of the tree line and my hunt was done. This happened more than a few times that season so I was able to snag one of the dogs, bring him home, and had animal control put him in doggy jail. The owners had to pay $300 to get him out. Then since I had his name and address I would write a note every day before I hunted and put it in his mailbox reminding him of my lease, and if his dogs came through again, I would keep doing what I did. It stopped!

Well, until archery season. I understand keeping the dogs in shape for firearms season, but to me I took it like they purposely were trying to drive all the deer off my lease so I wouldn't have a chance at the ones I had scouted all summer with trail cameras, setting stands, planting food plots, etc. so I had the best chance at getting the big racks. I finally made friends with my local warden who made a visit to the SAME guys house, which ultimately caused such childish nonsense like flattened tires on my truck and vandalized stands, which I had evidence on trail cams that I passed on the lease the next season. I guess he won.

They will always be out running off season, no matter what private land you hunt around where I live, so I have just learned to find ways of dealing with it. All this bragging of heritage, and how long its been in VA, is cool history, but it doesn't make up for ethics and sportsmanship...much less common courtesy.
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