Ideas to discourage trespassers

[Trooper]

Morning Star has the idea.  I'm a cop here in Louisiana and have permission to hunt, bow only, on about 500 acres of woods.  All I have to do is keep the land posted and keep the tresspassers out and I hunt for free; about 9 miles from my house.  It works having a couple of cops hunting your woods.  This guy's woods had tresspassers hunting in there regularly.  Once I got in there and handled a couple of them the tresspasser problem has stopped.  I also like the orange vest idea.  I'll try that one.

[donw]

i'll go along with claymores....  :rolleyes:    :eek:      

not really, though...the vest seems like a good idea...

[ChristopherO]

Remember, fellas, it's not just gun hunters who overstep their bounds.  I've been in the woods in archery season to hear an awful commotion.  Turned out a man was pulling his ladder stand to a favorite tree.  Only thing is it was on posted land that only I had permission to access.  Bow hunters get away with it many times as we don't make noise or wear orange to be seen by.  Gun season is much shorter, condensed, noisier and more populated which allows for the boneheaded bums to create a bigger hubbub.  Good thing there is good men and women in both camps.

[razorsharptokill]

I've heard of 3/8" re bar driven into atv tracks where they have cut your fence. Just leave it down for them to come back. Make sure the re bar is far enough onto the property that they can't push the ATV back out then call the law when you find it. Of course then you have to worry about all the stuff previously mentioned.

[Flinttim]

Several years ago, my ex wife's Uncle farmed several hundred acres in the river bottoms. He was having an increasing problem with 4x4 trucks coming from town and muddin' in his bottoms. They were creating tracks that it would near impossible to close without a dozer. He warned and warned- nothing helped. Finally he turned an old spring tooth harrow upside down in a low crossing, covered it with leaves he gathered in the woods and viola ! 6 trucks the first weekend. He met the wrecker operator at the gate and informed him there was a $20 fee per vehicle towed from his place. Operator just smiled and said he would add it to the owner's bill.Things got better after that.

[John Nail]

deleted

[Pruneemac]

yea but it would be worth it!

[eric sechrist]

I've enjoyed the stories & suggestions on this post. Here in N.C., we are supposed to be having gun season starting in sept. when bow only usually starts. That don't sit well w/ me. I have not had a good season this year anyway. This don't help much.

[KentuckyTJ]

No trespassing signs didn't seem to work on our farm, but signs saying Hunting rights leased worked much better. Hang them out of reach or they will be torn down.

May the fight to protect your land begin. It's an endless battle here during lead slinger seasons.

Good luck

[k. sisco]

Wow I don't like trespassers either,but i would never treat trespassers like some suggest on here.
I have found if your nice to them and explain it's private property they won't come back.
I did catch one guy twice but have not seen him after that,and I was still nice about it.
Treating people nice usually works in my opinion.

[-Achilles-]

As long as they dont destroy my property in some way I dont mind someone hunting...no place to hunt=no hunting/hunters period...we have to get over this hump or hunting will only be for the rich like in other countries

[Orion]

If you do decide you want to initiate legal proceedings, you need to make sure you call the right authorities to make the arrest.  For example, game wardens do not have the authority to arrest trespassers in Wisconsin.  That authority is granted to the County Sheriff's offices.

[Flinttim]

That's very noble sisco. But, I imagine once you find deer carcasses (and other game), beer cans,remains of a meth lab,lumber grade walnuts ruined with screw in steps,your pond fished extinct,an acre of corn ruined by 4x4 trucks, and other things I have found, you'll likely change your mind.Glad it's not happened to you .......yet.

[CBH]

Being nice doesn't work on everyone. One day I found 4 guys bow hunting on my property, probably aging from 18 to 40, and two of them were using my tree stands! I talked to all of them and told them where the property lines were and they semi-politely left.  A few days later 3 of them were back! I ran them off again. About a week later I was going to one of my stands and guess what......they're BACK...and in my stands! I was ticked!!!   :mad:    :mad:    :mad:     The final encounter was a fourth time when I ran them off with a whole lot of anger, a gun on my side, and a very very close face to face threat.

[White Oak]

Guys, when you find the answer to this problem PLEASE let me know. We have fought it for years.
Poaching and trespassing both. You are right. It has generally been locals.
Our property is fairly secluded. No county roads which can be a blessing but makes it very difficult for law enforcement to patrol.Access is a permanent easement though a neighbors pasture with our property laying on both sides of a river.
The place is posted on all sides. It makes no difference.
Our local conservation officer has a key to our gate and an open invitation to hunt any time.And by the way, my son is a cop.
ANYONE caught trespassing will and has been charged with the offense.
We have dealt with similar problems that Flinttim mentioned.That is why the place is off limits. Believe me, these people are not bothering to ask permission.
 One possible answer I see is stiffer penalties.Here in Nebraska most fines for game law violations and trespassing are a slap on the wrist. I would like to see fines increased and  equipment including vehicles confiscated. We now have some type of deer season open from Sept. 15 thru the second week in January with far to few wardens in the field although I believe record numbers of permits are being sold.These guys are spread to thin and our deputies in the eastern part of the state are kept plenty busy with other matters.
For now I am going to try the orange vest idea.
If anyone knows where I can purchase some bear traps let me know.

             Take care,
                       Ed  

[ChuckC]

Didn't read all of the posts.   Maybe allow one or two locals, that you trust, to hunt there and let them watch it for you.   Make sure you get something in writing, including what sort of response you expect, or maybe don't expect if they have an encounter.  Someone there a often might help keep others away.
ChuckC

[Sam McMichael]

Good idea - I wish I had thought of something like that beofre some low rent stole my lock on stand in spite of the no trespassing signs. I agree that you should prosecute all trespassers aggressively. Don't you miss the old days when this sort of thing was not so common?

[Jsthnt]

Shaun,
I can sympathize with you.  I own 40 acres down by Bussey.  This year my son wanted to shotgun hunt with his grandpa so I bought he and I a tag.  We stood for about an hour waiting on deer to feed in my clover field.  Nothing comes out so I moved down to see how Grandpa was holding up in the weather.  He said that 3 guys had just walked by them before I got there.   When Grandpa stopped them and asked what they were doing on my land they responded that they had hunted the land for years.  Grandpa proceeded to inform them that he had owned the land for 50 years and he had never given permission.  They said "I guess that's tough 'cause we're huntin' it anyway".  We headed for the house and decided bow hunting was much safer.  The saddest part of the story...the 3 guys were my cousins that I grew up with.  We have purchased signs and contacted the Sheriff in preparation for next year.

[R.V.T.B.]

I have access to bow hunt a great piece of property here in town. The owner doesn't hunt and he actually sought me out to see if I wanted to hunt his property as he knows I am a police officer.  He has had so many problems over the years with trespassers that he asked me to hunt it whenever I could in order to help get it under control.

I used to hunt a farm that the owner owned or leased almost 5,000 acres. He had a problem with this guy on a dirt bike sneaking in off of a access road across the mountain.  You could hear his bike "putting" around but we could never catch him. One day the farmer and I were riding around the mountian in his truck when I spotted a camoflage netting across a ditch. We stopped and pulled it back and the dirt bike was beneath it. I told him that we ought to take the bike off of the mountain and turn it over to the sheriffs office. He just picked up a big rock and broke off the spark plug in the engine, got back in the truck and drove off. Nearest hard surface road was about 5 miles away. Haven't heard the bike back since.

[Burnsie]

Times are obviously different now, but I long for the days when I was young (teens and 20's), hunting the woods of NW Wisconsin.  In those days posted property was rare.  Every farm kid pretty much knew every other farmer for miles around and we just hunted, nobody was ever uptight about us being on thier land and we didn't care if they were on ours.  Many times me and friends would go hunting from sun up to sun down cutting though one section to the other, often ending up miles from where we started.
Thing is, we respected everyones property,  we never wrecked fences, tore up ruts..etc.  When we did run across some posted land, we just avoided it or went and asked for permission.
As far as getting others to respect your land now days, I agree that continued and consistant prosection is about the only way. If there are no consequences then there is no reason for them to stop.  Once word gets out, things will change. It won't win you a popularity contest,  but hey.  If the law is part of the problem, then I'm not sure what you do.