Thieves and Poachers
 

What do you guys do or how do you handle this menacing group of individuals?
Out here in Eastern Mass. we are slowly running out of land. Building is out of control and whats ironic is, no one can afford anything.
I have had 2 stands tampered with this year. One was a ladder stand set up on my aunts property that someone cut the guide ropes to secure the stand to the tree. 2nd was a lock on that someone cut my hoist rope to pull up the bow or gun. Neither stand was damaged or stolen. What really bothers me is arriveing at your stand after you feel that you have given that stand a rest for a few weeks, and knowing someone else has been in the area. Or arriveing on stand that you know you have personally have everything just right, to find out that something is wrong.
I thought about putting a trail cam up, but thought the intruders would just smash that to pieces.
Game Warden say, "theres not much we can do unless we catch them in the act."
Looking for some advice.
As I write this, it is 6:15am on a Sunday morning in Ma. Hunting is illegal on Sundays. I live in the woods in my town. We had our first snowfall last night. Just heard a 2 shots ring out. Those are the guys that ride around with the Buck on the back of the truck the next day and head down the diner and tell everyone "they know how to hunt."
Really P's me off.

There is vandalism of tree stands and poaching here in OK too. I often hunt on a huge place that is US government property. Have seen tree stands that were vandalized there by other hunters.

In this part of OK you seldom see a buck with a nice rack. When a deer becomes a fork horn it usually gets spotlighted or shot out of season. One perp here poached a big deer on posted private property then sent the rack off to a taxidermist who is also an OK game warden. The game warden set the guy up. The poacher got charged with a felony, his gun and new truck were confiscated. The guy got banned from hunting for life.

These low life scum really **** me off. I have to agree with what the game warden told you. If you don't catch them in the act, your out s*** of luck. I personally think we should give them a good ass kicking and then smash their gun over their heards.

The ones I hate the worst are the spot lighters. Confiscate their guns, vehicles and ban them from hunting for life. If that happened enough, I think the crime would go away!

I don't mind quite as much if somebody takes a deer to eat as I do the ones that shoot them and don't even attempt to track them down. I found a pair of my nice bucks laying rotten an 8 and a 9 point, I think the were spotlighted from the road.

Skopia

It use to be that we could drive to a hunting spot, unload orselves and go hunting. Shoot most of the time I didn't even lock the truck. Today, I have make sure I lock it. cover things left in the cab - lock the tool box, and hope that no-one vandalizes the 4 wheeler in the back, oh ya? and I have to lock the tailgate to help make sure the four wheeler is still there when we get back. For most of the people that I am sharing the woods with, none of this would be needed - but there might be one individual that I do have to worry about.

Times have changed...

Few years back I was hunting this nice buck that I had seen twice. Never got a shot during bow season. I had opening week off of work for shotgun. (Use the muzzleloader) Hunted hard morning till night for 4 days. Saw the buck once, not a good shot. Then one morning saw the boys riding around town with the buck in the truck. Said they shot it the morning before at 8:00am, off the field that I was hunting. Well, like I said, I hunted morning till night and I never herd a shot for 4 days. All the sign dried up after that.
Really ticks me off.:violin:
Don't think that I'm a frustrated hunter. I have been very blessed with a couple of deer a year for quite a few years now. Just can't tolerate thieves and poachers!
Like golf, we are supposed to govern our own sport and call fouls against ourselves.

I guess this situation is not isolated to just my part of the country!!

I think we have more poachers here than we do hunters who abide by the game laws.

Too bad that happens where you live. Here we don't have that problem at all. I used to have to lock up stands on public land but not here. We are one of the least populated county's in Iowa. Nothing but deer and farmers who want more shot. Don't think anybody here would put up with theives. I wouldn't be beyond takeing a shot at one as a warning. I lock my stands but only in case some kid comes along with a bad idea. Never had a stand stolen and we have a lot of deer here so i am blessed that way. I only shoot doe's as they taste better. Have let some nice bucks go. One place i hunted the farmer caught a guy on his land with a stand and told him to get out. Guy gave him crapp so the farmer went and got his chainsaw and cut the tree down with the stand still on it. Guy never tresspassed again. I laugh every time i see the stand all smashed under the tree. We don't have a lot of poachers that i know about. Can't blame someone here that is just hungry. I moved from a larger city life to the sticks and would never go back. Like going back 20 years in time when people treated each other right. I used to lay a stick on my ladder stand step just to see if someone moved it to get in it. Too bad you have those problems. Comes with population i think. good luck

It is bad down here also.
I lost a stand and a couple blinds last season.
Nothing so far this season.

So my question is this. What do you guys do? Do you let these people move you out of your area? Do you pull your stand after each use? Do you abandon stands and use natural ground blinds?
Today, after church, I went for a walk and locked in 2 lock on stands that I have on private property. Been hunting there for about 8 years. I have never locked a stand in nor taken the last 4-5 pegs out because I was on private property and never saw a need. Things have changed now I guess.

I reckon I'm one of the lucky ones. My cabin is located 1 mile from the highway. Have to unlock a gate at the hwy drive 3/4 mile to another gate and then a quarter to the cabin. The north and west boundary is bordered by a Wildlife management area and its over a mile to the nearest road from there. The south boundary is owned by a person who does not allow hunting. Only have a family group who hunts the east side and there nice folks never have any problems with them. Its back in the sticks.

We've been lucky too. Our hunting club campground is only two hundred yards off of a blacktop highway, with a pipe gate at the highway. We have nine shacks/campers there and lots of gear. Some of the guys even leave their 4-wheelers there during the hunting season. Nothing has "walked" in the ten years we've been there.

I would not let anyone move me off my hunting property. Even if I had to change the manner in which I hunt. Maybe I have to go to a environment made ground blind instead of a store purchased one. Well then so be it. But I would still be hunting there.

The overall character of the "hunter" has changed. Gone are the days that when we met a hunter in the woods, all were friendly and cooperative and understood if they were putting pressure on another hunter. A total stranger would even help you drag out sometimes. There was no vandalism to cars, or threating notes left on windshields. It was have a chat with a stranger, maybe a cup of coffee, some good wishes and we hunted. Now its more of a take what you can, its my woods, and to heck with the other hunters.

I wonder if a lot of that has to do with the QDMA/Trophy hunter mentality that is so pervasive today. Maybe folks used to value the act of hunting, but now they only care about the product of it. As a result, instead of seeing other hunters as kindred spirits enjoying the same passtime, they see them as competitors for the "big bucks" that they feel they deserve. Maybe I'm way off base here, but I see what you see with some folks, and most of the real ***holes are the ones who seem to care only about the antlers.

This is another reason for me to teach my kids that the value of hunting is in the hunt itself, regardless of the outcome. Big racks are the icing, not the cake.

Mike

If they are shooting deer here is what Missouri is doing and have caught a great number of idiots shooting from roads. They set up deer decoys made by the University of Missouri that have remote control and move their heads tails, etc and film these guys shooting at the decoys. Here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...rch_type=&aq=f

It does suck to see what is happening nowadays but wardens are out there and like you said they have to get caught first. We have a lot of spotlighting around here and there are reports of wardens getting the upper hand as spotlighting is fairly easy to see and apprehend someone at night. If you get a trailcam they do make some that have an infrared sensor and do not flash so that maybe a possiblility for you. Other than being on the stand each day to catch these bums there is nothing that can be done unless you know the art of boobytraps which could be another way to capture the idiots, you could claim it was for hunting and I'm sure the game warden would agree.:s2:

Setting a booby trap is an instant felony if someone gets hurt and/or trapped (kidnapping/false imprisonment). Get evidence and let law enforcement take care of it.

Mike

Yea, boobytrapping could be wrong considering these SOBS would probably sue for getting hurt on land they trepassed on and would win in court nowadays.

Just prior to the opening of our deer season here in WV I drove about 30 miles to a shooting range in Va. to sight in my rifle. Once I arrived the gate was closed with a sign that read closed due to vandalism. I then had to drive back to another shooting range located in my home state of WV. Once I arrived there the range was open but it looked like a trash dump with targets littering the ground every where. As hunters we take a stand against those who threaten our right to hunt yet It angers me to see these same people who call themselves sportsmen destroy what true sportsmen have fought to have and enjoy.

WV Mountaineer

You're not alone. I had a friend get his tree stand and ladder sticks stolen this year. The hunting ethincs of the younger hunters today is horrid. I would really like to put an old fashion bear trap a the base of my tree by my ladder and just wait for someone to try and steal it. It would probably stop them but then I would probably get sued.
As for poachers, I don't agree with the statement that "well if they need it for food....." Nonsense. Its flat out illegal...period. Haven't they ever heard of food for the hungry? Heck, I just gave 1/2 of my deer to my cousin becaue he can't hunt anymore. And gave some to my mother. I just kept a some steaks, about 5 lb of burger and 3 roasts.

im pretty lucky about no poachers as well. i hunt in elizabeth in which is in harrison county. my dad owns 15 acres and the farm behind ours is 160 acres that on one is allowed to hunt. neighbors also dont hunt. its in the middle of the hoosier national forest

It's not just the young folks, they had parents that raised them wrong too. The last guy that sent a shotgun slug within 20 feet of me knowing I was sitting there looked to be in his late 40s, setting a great example for his teenage son (who also shot scarily close to me).

It's not really an age thing but an overall degradation of the morals/ethics/behavior of our society.

It's not really an age thing but an overall degradation of the morals/ethics/behavior of our society.[/quote]

+1 for what Spaniel wrote!!!

I hunt in Missouri & Ohio. In Missouri I hunt public land, havent had a problem with thieves or seen signs of poachers. I lock all my stands, and remove them after the hunt.

In Ohio its another story. 3 locked Stands have been stolen in the last 5 years. Constant trespassers hanging stands on our private property, riding four wheelers, stealing salt blocks. I have found this year alone 7 dead deer with gun holes in them before gun season. 5 of them were bucks, the antlers have been cut off.

Two years ago my father and I caught a 16 year old in a stand on our Ohio land, and called the game warden to get a message. Then called the Sheriff ( we were standing right below the hunter at this point), which the sheriff (meigs county) wouldnt do anything.

The problem I have is with the law enforcement (Meigs County Sheriff) not helping out. The sheriff is a joke in our county, yet the guys from ODNR are some hard working dudes. They caught two men shining deer on our land this year. Kudos to them.

My advise is Lock stands and remove them when not in use, put up good fences and gates, post signs, post signs, post signs, and plant pine trees next to the roads along the property to stop poaching.

I lock my stands for sure using bike locks (cable)Here if they want it bad enough they will cut the tree down.
My groundblinds are what I worry about.
I have 5 of the doghouse style and 1 GroundMax Vision which is a good bit bigger.It's SO easy to steal them.Each one has a nice chair and a quality camera tripod.
Some have Cat heaters in them.It adds up to years of collecting equipment and it would be hard to replace it.

I never leave the bags or anything so if they steal it they will have to hold it shut coming out of the woods.

its usually the locals..they know when your there, they know when anyone is anywhere near there lol...if ya take a long extension ladder and put your cam in an adjacent tree, then youll get the pics.....they prolly wont even see it..gl

Ironically, at my age, I hunt to get away from it all, not to have to deal with it all. Don't get me wrong, I do live to hunt and I want to shoot an animal, but I have shot enough in my young age of 51. My wife thinks my life revolves too much around my hunting and guns. She may be right. I love my sportsman club and I love my woods. These are places where I go to put this crazy world behind, so to speak. Don't need to deal with this nonsense in a place where I'm at peace.