Hunting adversaries

[YORNOC]

Arraflinger's post made me think of all my unfortunate happenings of past vandalisms to my hunting areas.
  What have you guys been hit with? I had one particular stand stolen with a hangman's noose left in it's place. Another time a HUMAN went #2 under my stand, complete with TP! Good thing, I would have stepped in it if I had not seen the white paper in the dark.
 Found guy's in my stand on numerous occasions. "No one was sitting in it so I climbed up." If I find your car unlocked can I get in and drive it?   No respect!
Another guy cut a HUGE trail in and along the deer trail I was hunting and set his stand up on MY trail that I cut in downwind to get to my tree!

Another time I completely did the whole NO SCENT process . Washed, air dryed, bagged with local tree branches, sprayed everything with a scent killer, put my clothes on in the freezing cold outside AFTER I got out of my truck, etc. etc.  Made it to my stand an HOUR before light just to settle in. About 15 minutes after pink light, a beagle followed my trail right up to my tree. He never looked up, and since my trail disappeared, he plowed through my WHOLE hunting area for the next hour trying to find me!  All I could do was laugh and take pictures of him! My spot was ruined, why get depressed?  It was funny, or so I keep telling myself!!  So much for being able to hide human smell!! If Mr. Beagle easily followed me to my tree after all that...Mr. Whitetail would too. Hunt DOWNWIND!!!!!!!!!!

[Onehair]

No such thing as sent free. Just a sales pitch.

[YORNOC]

Yes sir, I learned it that day!

[GingivitisKahn]

You left your stand up on private land and found someone in it?

[SEMO_HUNTER]

During the rifle portion last November I found a great spot just under the rise of a ridge top where there were intersecting trails here and there. I had seen a big shooter 8pt. there during bowseason, but couldn't get zeroed in on him in time so this time I had the real long long bow.

I got to my spot well before daylight......settled into my natural made ground blind of dead logs and brush. I sat until 11am listening to shot after shot while everybody else was getting their bucks and I had not even seen a yearling yet. With all these trails coming together, how can I NOT see a deer here?
Finally I couldn't take it anymore and got up, walked to the top of the ridge which was only about 60 yards from where I was and to my dismay about 10 yards off our property fence sat a big huge blob of blaze orange parked right on top of my main deer trail. The very trail that I expected to kill my buck off of!
This was no ordinary blob of orange either......oh no....this was a BIG GUY maybe 350-400 pounds and he had to be wearing full blaze orange coveralls because he was so bright that it hurt my eyes to look at him!   :cool:      

Needless to say I just simply turned around and left quietly and never went back to the top of that ridge. I couldn't do anything about him being there because he was on the other side of the fence.....just barely....but my biggest let down was the fact that I sat there for over 5 hours confident that if I just stayed put sooner or later that big 8pt. would come slipping down that trail and run right into me. That whole time I was being cut off by the Blaze Orange Micheln Man!      

[adeeden]

I had a guy that I was sharing a piece of private ground with in 1996 drive me nuts!

He seemed to enjoy lighting big stinky cigars and wedging them in branches (still smoking) all around my stands.

As there was just the two of us on this piece of property I confronted him several times after finding them, He would laugh at me and tell me that he was doing it and would continue to do it everytime he found one of my stands! needless to say my buck sightings were way down and my blood pressure was way up!

I talked with the landowner about it and he wasn't amused. The next time the landowner saw his truck parked there he used a syringe and a bottle of skunk scent injecting it through the rubber molding around the guys window and into his cab! he also left him a nice note telling him he was not welcome to hunt there anymore.

I ended up taking my best buck ever on that farm in November!

[nc recurveman]

I've been real lucky to avoid any problems. The ones that find me are the tv educated crowd. I told david the other day if you her someone thats has named their deer it's generally a safe bet you can stop listening to them

[YORNOC]

Kahn, yes, a few times I've found people in my stand.

[Buckeye Trad Hunter]

I had someone steal aturkey blind from private land the day before turkey season.  I was there the day before and saw it and when I arrived on opening morning...no blind.  The sad part was the blind was less than 100 yds from my dads house.

[kill shot]

Ever hunt with really poor sports? One guy in particular I'm thinking of was really bad. If I got a deer and he did not it was miserable. If he got one and I did not it was miserable. If we both got one and his was bigger it was miserable. Or if mine was bigger it was miserable. The best thing to hope for was that niether of us got anything. Thats no way to go hunting.

[adeeden]

Kill shot, I had a hunting partner for 15 years that ultimately turned into what you just stated. Anter size just got under his skin so much that I couldn't handle it anymore.

[Bill Sant]

My dads favorite saying was........I've hunted with a lot of people................................once!!!!

[Hookeye]

Been hassled, had threats made against me, by unarmed idiots......while out gun hunting.

Amazing the level of stupidity some folks have.

[GingivitisKahn]

Originally posted by YORNOC:
Kahn, yes, a few times I've found people in my stand.

On public land or private?

[Bonebuster]

In Michigan, when hunting public land, it is completely legal for anyone to sit in your stand.
This is why I use climbers, exclusively.

Can you imagine asking someone to exit your stand so you can at least use it somewhere else, and they say "no"...and there`s not a thing you can do. Well, there IS something you can do, but  some types of assault are considered a felony.  :D

[Nate N]

We had one fella who used to hunt my dad's farm that tried to take two deer that were shot.  One by my brother and the other by me.  First one with my bro, this guy hit it in the back leg below the knee and it ran up to my brother and he dropped it in tracks with a shot to the neck.  Guy tried to tell my brother that he should get the deer since he hit it first.  Dad thought not...
On mine it was the first day of PA gun and dad being nice let this guy hunt, with an explanation of where everyone was going to be.  I was hunting our big field and right before light i see this dude come bobbling accross the bottom of the field and drop down over the ridge not 50 yards from me.  Needless to say i am POed!  I was gonna climb down and kindly explain the situation when i hear him let loose and this deer comes running accross the field.  BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!  five shots empty gun, well i think its my turn and i let the old 300 mag rip BOOOOOOM.  Deer drops, he comes running up and says did you see it go down.  I said yep right where i shot it.  He said he hit it and all that.  Dad not so kindly uninvited him from hunting right there.

[YORNOC]

Kahn, three times on different private pieces of land, and one public. Even on the public, it is legal to leave the stand in as long as it is removed 30 days from the end of the season.
But it doesn't matter in my eyes public or private. If someone went through all the work of scouting and putting up a stand, I would NEVER even think about sitting in it if I came upon it.
I don't know how these guys think. Respect your fellow hunters, you know?  I was polite in all cases, no matter how angry I was at the time. .

[B/W lvr]

Had a mineral block below my tree stand for elk and the critters had started coming around. Went in one day and found a guy in MY stand over MY lick!!!! It was public land so I decided to relieve myself with my morning dump on top of the lick. Never went back and I hope the guy had a good hunting season!! Frank

[kill shot]

How about the guy who builds a blind 40 years ago on stste land and it's his spot. Every year and forever. No one can ever hunt there or near there.

[levibear]

Found a 15 year old kid up in my tree stand on my property hunting deer with a 22 rifle. When I approached he slowly turned and started leveling the rifle at me. i steped behind the tree to obstruct his angle toward me and holered...that was a very long moment...called the sheriff