Down Right Meanness!
 

I am very thankful that most of you my fellow Hunters are moral and ethical in your aproach to our lifestyle and sport and would never endanger willfully another hunters life. But something happened this weekend at one of my hunting areas that is down right wicked and mean. A neighbor hunter had his stand vandlized one that has been used by his father and himself for years. Also someone had strung a pieace of wire about the height of a man siting on a four wheeler with the intent of hurting or killing someone on his property. This property is next to where I hunt and we have an agreement and permission to recover any deer shot which crosses over on either line. Poaching,tresspassing and trashing a person property is bad enough but desiring to injure a person or kill them because they will not let you hunt their property is outrageous! This happened in Memphis Indiana near Crone and Ebenezer church roads and If anyone on the site hears of anyone in this area speaking of this incident please let me know. I doubt that such people are on our forum but if you have ever considered doing anything like this because you do not like not being able to hunt anothers property banish such thoughts from your mind and heart. This is what ruins many of us having opportunities to hunt on private land. It makes me want to avoid going out there now to kept from geting hurt but then they would win and I would loose and that ain't happening. Lets not let this kind of mindless nonscense go unchecked anywhere we hunt guys it ruins it for us all. Had to vent a little I hope you all understand your my hunting family. Thanks

Call the Game Warden and the State Police.

Let them take care of it.

For all you know, it could be the neighbor who put up the booby traps.

Greed makes people do all sorts of crazy things.

I would bet it was an animal rights activist rather than another hunter.

Let the local authorities know about it so that there is a record of intent by the guilty party.

Do a google search on ELF and ALF. I work in law enforcement and know they are active in southern IN. I know you are a ways from Bloomington but that is a hotbed for them. More then likely it is either somebody who lives close by the area. There are some many places to hunt from these days there would be no reason for a person to travel a long distance. It was probably somebody walking around, saw the stand, and decided to do the deed. As mentioned above I would report it to the DNR in that area, you never know you might not be the only victim of this in that area.

Its either a random idiot, or a neighbor kid that wants the deer to himself. Has the neighbor been approached lately for hunting permission?

I'd tell your neighbor to talk to all of his neighbors about this. Everyone needs to be aware of the potential for these kinds of things.

pretty soon those game cameras are gonna be for security, gonna need motion video cameras just to see who's on your property etc...

I would definitely contact the authorities as that is a very serious situation.

contact the FBI damn, people coulda been killed. hell right your congressman, go on TV, stand naked in the middle of the road this is serious crap here. and I don't take sabotage lightly, theivery is one thing but not try and hurt someone.

we have a remote farm that is bout 10 min down the road from the main farm, we all went in and got a moultrie with e-mail cpability just to watch the road. 2 arrest this summer. tag #'s don't lie. should a seen the look on their face when they came to leave and out poppa warden.

I have a Ranching Buddy who had a problem with hunters tresspassing.He owned a stretch of road that about 150 meters long that led to huge crown land acherage and it was crown on the other side .He shouldn't have really cared personally.It was directly parrellel to a major power line that was crown. But he us very very controlling of his property ,laid spike belts down. They must of worked cause about 2 weeks later because a fence line about over 100 meters long was ripped down.But what happens is these hunters access through public land and sometimes have a problem getting back out, I know cause I've had problems with both mud and ice.It is one of those areas that can be great going down, but if it rained or snowed during that day it was hell getting out.All he had to do is post his property for no hunting, it was just a drive through anyway that lead to the main forestry road.You couldn't look ten feet into the bush it is thick thick but allow vehicals to access out in an emergency.Nope, any time some asked him if they could access he said no.He had no problem letting close personal friends go through but that's it.Well somebody to exception when tires got flat. I told him he deserved it.He bitched about his cattle not stressing out and every other excuse.This was during the few years That Canada had that huge mad cow disease problem and nothing was getting exported.I reminded him that the only person killing cows on his property was him himself.
Thats the most extemely I seen.This takes the cake,I'd set up a video cam myself and find out who resposible.I honestly don't believe it's activists.More likely a hunter or ranching family memberwho wants it
for himself or doesn't want tresspassers.

This seems to be escalating and the person(s) won't stop until someone is hurt or killed.I'd use every effort I could to find and prosecute the culprit before some innocent is hurt.Best of luck!(May be easier said than done but the seriousness of this matter can't
be understated)

Not to freak you out or anything, but when I was 14 or so, there were some kids that I knew that would ride their 4 wheelers across this old mans property every weekend. The old man had told them to stop ring on his property, but they continued anyway. The old man strung up some wire about head high and the kids went riding thru there, and one of the kids head was cut clean off. I actually knew a guy that was riding with him that day, so I know this story to be true. Not sure what ever happened to the old man.

I had a meeting with the neighbor that had this happen to him and after I reasured him that neither I nor two other people who hunt the property next to him had anything to do with this he warmed up to me and eased up. I did not realize that he considered us as the ones possiblely responsible for these incidents. We walked his property line to reafirm what was his and what was a neighbors line and I once again received permission to recover any animal shot that crosses over onto his land. I likewise gave him the same right with the property owners permission. He is rather quick tempered but once he calms down and begins to think soberly he is quite accomodating. I also went around to neighboring property owners and tried to let them know what had happened to see if I could detect any guilt or motive for such an act. Since I do not live in the area I have no knowledge of what relations in the area are like between him and his neighbors. I did find it odd that he would not get the law involved and have this event documented. Mr Deer Hunter suggested that maybe he put the wire up himself to strengthen his legal options or justification for taking vengence I guess or some other motive,this I do not know. But I do not believe he destroyed his own stand,but once again who knows for sure. I do not know how doing these things would benefit him one bit. And like I said he was very friendly toward me and gave us the right to recover a down animal again.

Couple things.

Do you know for a fact that these events actually happened? Some possibility that he could say these things happened to bolster any denial for others on his property. Just saying.

Now if these things did happen then you need to face the fact that there may be sililar suprises awaiting on the property you are on! Something like a wire in the early darkness could be a bad wake up call!

Why he didn't get LE involved is anyones guess. But sometimes people want to deal with things themselves and in their own ways.

I personally would get the law involved. I would also do my own detective work such as keeping a sample of the wire, pay attention to the way it was tied or attached to the trees, look for prints in the dirt around the trees and on trails. Any prints not known to belong I would photograph. Stuff like that.

You need to be very careful from here on out. I mean sneeking around the deer woods takes a keen sense and gentle foot but it blows that you now have to act like there could be a claymore trip wire anywhere and your next step could be your last.

Now of course I cannot condone such behavior, but if the pranster should be caught, it would be hard to not bash some teeth out. (Of course people are known to trip from time to time. I mean who hasn't ever tripped?)

Yes the stand was destroyed and the wire strung and I did look for footprints on my side of his line and did find tennis shoe prints not far away on a path I cut but I could not find his ladder in the woods.

a few years back in OK a guy was having troubles with his neighbor cutting their fence line. He was out one day with a state biologist when the angry neighbor came up on horseback. long story, but the neighbor killed him, and almost killed the state biologist.

The point is, people go nuts over land and hunting. It's crazy to me that one would take someone's life over a small dispute.

It hasn't been stated outright yet, but that wire across a trail is a criminal act!! It should be reported, if for no other reason than to cover the land owner's a$$. If someone hit that wire and was seriously hurt or even killed it would be murder !!!

Some people....i cant believe someone would try to kill someone just because they were not allowed to hunt there.