Great points SteveB and R. Fletcher. That makes a big difference. Often I think people doing the right thing pay for all those that came before you, who didn’t do the right thing.
I once shot a buck on our property and went to get it off our property. I had hunting access to the property the deer went on. The property owner didn’t live on the property most of the year and didn’t hunt. It was my first buck. One of the guys hunting there flesh wounded it with a rifle after it had already gone down once and was trying to get fully back on it’s feet. This was a non rifle hunting area. I had hit it with a high double lung shot. I got to the deer and was going to tag it. I had heard a shot a long way off, but didn’t know they were shooting at my deer. I got run off by five grown men. I was just a kid. I got a DNR officer and they paid big given some had rifles, untagged deer and so on.
We used to know all our neighbors. Never had an issue with them. Everyone respected each other and did the right things. But we used to get trespassers that would park on the road and come in our farm or cut across other farms to get into parts of ours. They always had the same story. “We shot a deer and are just tracking it.” I will bet we threw off 2-3 people a year over the years I grew up there, and never once did they ever have a blood trail. Most times they were not even close to or walking a track. Looking for a deer you shot is the standard excuse to get away with trespassing when caught were you don’t belong. I think once in all the years I can recall, I had a guy say he got lost and wasn’t’ sure where he was. He had come out of the swamp and looked a little confused. He was really happy to get headed in the right direction. He was a real good actor or honest.
Then things changed with some property sales and splits. We get line hunters all the time now. Hanging stands on trees right on the fence and shooting over the line. Even had one guy put a blind with the only window in the blind facing us and 6’ off the fence. I tell them all that they will not come on unless they call for access and then show me a blood trail coming off their land or some evidence of a hit where they should be hunting. I hate to be difficult, but it gets old year after year putting up with people. I did get one good laugh out of these fence hunters the year the sun came up on opening day of gun season, and I had a guy and his son setting a few hundred yards from me right in plain view of me. They were max. 20 yd. off the fence and setting in tree stands facing me. I thing they were hunting a clearing in our pine screen we planted along our property line. The trees were not so tall yet you couldn’t see the deer in the pines, and the deer traveled in there all the time. I watched a nice buck go right behind them on a little hill in an open area of the land they were on. It circles onto our land. By time they saw the buck it was well over the property line and headed my way. They didn’t plan on me being where I was and being able to watch everything they were doing. I shot that buck with my muzzle loader while they watched. Then a little later four does came right down the pines and turned and came my way. I shot the largest doe I have ever seen out of that group. All while they watched. They got down and left. The next day the stands were moved.
Last year hunting a little parcel near my town I had two guys wondering all over the woods one morning. One saw me and they took off. No hunting cloths or bows so I thought they were scouting for gun season or something. A couple hours later they showed up again with four more people and tromped all over the place on the adjacent property, which is property only I have permission to hunt. By then I figured they were looking for a deer, but I had only seen one spike that morning and he looked fine. Didn’t even see anything wrong when he came past at about 25 yd. One of the new guys said he was on blood and sure enough he traced that spike. The buck had wondered around feeding, checking a scrape and just messing around. He bedded about 50 yd. from me. Even with one guy on a trail the rest wondered all over stinking up all the cover. When they got to me, I found out they had shot it about 250 yd. away and had already trespassed on two other properties to get to me. They didn’t ask permission to enter, didn’t offer any apology for ending my hunt, and ignored my request to follow the tracker and not wonder all over my beading area. I had seen the buck jump up when they got within 75 yd. of it. He ran out through a clearing onto another property through an open field and looked to be circling back to where he had been when shot. I asked them to follow an old logging trail the buck had used and stay out of the cover, but they ignored me. Knowing they had shot a deer where they belonged and were on blood I bit my tongue and let them go of on their way, but next time I don’t think I will be so cooperative given their complete lack of respect for another hunter or other property owners.
The year before last I shot a nice doe the first weekend of bow season. It ran onto a property I have had permission to hunt for 40 years, but due to the number of the owner’s family hunting the land, I have not hunted there for the last 10 or so years. I have not seen the owner, who is now about 80, in a couple years. I still called him, but didn’t reach him. I then drove over to find him in his barn to make double sure it was still alright to go looking. He laughed at me asking. We talked and caught up a little. Funny thing was he didn’t even recognize me when I drove up because I had a beard and different truck. Sure he thought it was funny I would think I needed to ask him, but I bet it wouldn’t have started off so funny if he caught a guy he didn’t recognized on his land.
So next time you have an issue with someone not letting you on their land, just figure it is not you, but those who messed up in the past. Like SteveB and R. Fletcher said, talk to the property owners before you have an issue, stay off the line, and go ask if you need access. If someone comes to me before the season, tells me they will be hunting next door, will stay off the line, and will call if they need to come looking, they will likely get “just come on over for your deer if you need to and don’t bother calling.”
Topic: Ever denied permission to retrieve an animal? (Read 871 times)
