Someone is watching me!
 

I built a big wooden treestand on my land about a half mile south of my house. Its a pretty darn good location i usually use it for elk and deer hunting. I got my elk in august and my deer in early november. One day in november i find a hawk with the head shot off it in my stand but didn't say anything to anyone about it. We had some folks come up from ontario hutning deer at the end of november and they stopped in at my place for permision to hunt. I was away by that time in university so i told dad to let them to go ahead and that they could use my stands if they wanted. Well the one fellow finds this threatening note in my stand when he climbed into it. He wouldn't tell my dad what the note said because i guess it was that bad. The thing i don't understand is that this is on my own land which is posted hunting with permission only. Second i never hunted on anyone elses land this year or never even met another hunter when i was hunting. So i am left with the question who was the knob that did this? and what do they have against me? I think it was a pretty immature thing for them to do but obviously they don't have the jam to come and say it to my face. Just want to know if you guys have ever had soemthin like this happen to you and what did you do about it? thanks

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

They just tore down my signs, put bullet holes through them and put them by my trailer. I called the OPP to file a report so there was a paper trail if problems escalated. They had vandalized buildings and blocked paths by cutting down trees when the previous owner tore down a tree stand.

The local CO explained the situation to me this way: people have hunted your property for 50 years without asking for permission. They think they own it. Make yourself seen on a regular basis throughout the property. Ask the neighbours to keep an eye out for problems. In a few years most of these people will go find a new place to tresspass.

Dan O.

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

The farm I bow/muzzleloader hunt has had real bad problems with tresspassing for years. Starting to change,, everything is posted and enforced now. We tossed 4 guys off during the first muzzleloader season,, 1 had a bait pile out and his ladder stand in one area. He was told to get it out immediately on the first morning of the gun season. Over the X-mas holidays his stand was found in another set of timber owned by the same farmer. No second chances,, anyone want to buy a nice ladder stand?!!

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

Hiawatha,

Sorry to hear about that kind of behaviour coming fom anyone associated with hunting.

Was you land always posted??

If not maybe it is someone that hunted there in the past and now is ticked off at the " HUNTING With Permission only" signs. It may even be a ticked off neighbour?? Did you deny anyone access to your land??

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

well our land has been posted hunting with permission only, for about 5 years now. I only have one neighbor and i get along with him pretty good. We didn't deny anyone permission this year but we did last year a few times. We are fine with letting people out on our land hunting but we would like to know who they are and how many hunters are out there and which field they will be hunting. Then when the next hunting party comes along we tell them that they need to hunt a mile south or whatever so that they don't run into the other hunters. People see hunting with permission only and usually don't even ask and hunt anyways or else just give up and go someplace else. It never hurts to ask. If nobody is hunting the land at the moment the land owner will probably let u on.

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

Hiawatha,

That sucks I would be calling the DNR if it happens again, might as well log a complaint. It sounds like your very fair landowners and really aren't limiting access, hard to believe somebody would be ticked off with your type of landowner. I would suggest you put up new signs that say "Hunting with Written Permission Only", this may deter some individuals from thinking about not obtaining permission first. More than likely it is a local, as they know who you are, your setup and feel they have access to anybodies land just because they live in the same RM, this is not true legally nor is it ethical but happens lots (as I am sure you are aware). I hope you can find out who did this and have a chat with them about their illegal behaviour. They would be charged with tresspassing and killing of a hawk, while it maybe a slap on the wrist the loss of license, fine and record would result.

Good luck, hope it stops or you get these losers caught[:@]

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

The shooting of a hawk shows just what type of hunters you have sneaking onto your property. Who knows what they'll stop at so you should really consider contacting your local DNR and put in a complaint. Just to put the wasteful shooting of a hawk into perspective: In our local paper tonight one fellow from Timmins Ont was fined $5000 for shooting and wounding a Bald Eagle. As well he had his shotgun seized and one years hunting ban.

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

In NB where my parents live they have this system where if you don't post, anyone can hunt your land. If you post then you have tow choices, if you sellect "non-hunting", then you can't hunt there either. If you sellect any status between open and closed you have to display a sign with your phone number on it so people can call you to ask permision. Of course you don't have to grant permision, but then there are plenty of reasons not to want to have to put your phone number on posts ringing your property.

Is this typical? It seems to infringe the right to enjoyment of one's own property. Not to say any such right is actualy recognized in NB.

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

i would try a trail cam of some kind

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

oh man its slow in here this week

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

its probably some damn tree hugger and that happend to my grandpa one time he left his little steel duck hunting boat out in the lake on night and came bak that morning and there was like 50 .22 holes in the bottom of it

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

You could be right, but on the surface of it, a guy wandering in the woods with a 22 doesn't sound like a treehugger.

RE: Someone is watching me!
 

Have you thought about putting 1 of them trail cameras out .Maybe you could catch the offending individual in the act.Another thing I would'nt be in such a big hurry to just climb in one of those stands.There could be some kind of sabatoge thats been done to them.