Skopia

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.

falcon

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.

rafsob

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!

lemoyne

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.

sabotloader

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...

Skopia

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.
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.

Skopia

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

mountaineer magic

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

his guzzi

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

saxman1

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