Deer Hunter Etiquette

What is wrong with you? Maybe that ain't what you wanted for Christmas but - someone gives you a deer feeder for Christmas and you complain about it?

When I had my farm I did not let people I didn't know hunt on my land because I did not know whether or not they were responsible in handling guns. Neighbors could come in if something they shot crossed over on to my property, of course. If they asked and I trusted their expertise I would consider letting them and those who did would let me know what days they were out there.

My place was about 2 hours north of a major city and come hunting season I would get a steady stream of people pulling in the drive asking if they could hunt and most of them were angry when I said no.

One guy berated me and told me I had to right to keep people off my land just because I owned it because he had a hunting license. I was a greedy land owner trying to keep things for myself...and on and on. I told him it was time for him to leave and he said he was going to come back with a friend and explain it all to me. Sure enough, he did. The two of them came back and I met them in the drive with my farm dogs. One in particular had a real edge to her. "If I get out of my truck to explain things to you is your dog going to bite me?" "She might." "Has she bitten anyone?" "Not today." (Yeah, shamelessly stolen from some movie I can't remember the name of.) As a woman alone in the middle of a very rural community, people like that were simply the worst to deal with...mainly city people who didn't regularly handle firearms who thought they owned the world. Like I would really want some jerk like that on my property.

I once found out someone was hunting my land when a round came right by my head as I was walking up to the house. I was only about 60 feet from the house, too. I hit the ground and scrambled behind an old concrete silo.

For me it was a safety and liability issue. I had not moved to the country to have strangers with guns walking all over my place. Neighbors who asked were another matter and I usually got a nice piece or two of venison out of it. Courtesy goes a long way.

Interesting philosophy. Several years back hubby was working in our apple orchard. BOOM! He didn't know that a trespassing hunter was there, on the other side of the tree. And the trespassing hunter didn't know that the owner of the land was right on the other side of that same tree. He nearly filled hubby with bird shot. Instead, he filled the bird, the tree and the apples with bird shot. Hubby doesn't carry a shotgun when he goes to work on our ranch. He carries a glock.

It's a good thing that it was hubby, and not me. I would have returned fire.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

No excuse for slob hunters. I have a neighbor who has some woods next to a piece of property I hunt. Every couple of years I ask permission to hunt his woods and every time he says no. Someday he will, maybe. Anyways, he's a good guy and I enjoy talking to him. What gets me is that this area is loaded with public land open to hunting. Thousands of acres of it, and still people trespass or hunt without permission. It's not hard to ask.

I've been trying to avoid getting back into this conversation but this is eating at me. Some people don't care if you hunt and that's ok and some don't want any hunting and that's ok too.Some or I'd say most that don't care if you hunt don't hunt themselves. Many of those that do care if you hunt don't want you hunting because they hunt.
With all that said,some like me don't want you to hunt because I hunt.I do not however hunt for sport. I hunt for food and the reason I do is that yes I enjoy hunting but i also enjoy knowing what I'm eating..Just sitting here thinking about it I can only guess but the game and fish I bring into my house makes up about 70% of the meat and fish that we eat.Now with that in mind why would I want you to come on me and hunt when every step you take on my property signals to that deer or turkey that he's not alone but rather that he can not feel secure in the environment that he has chosen to live. The environment by the way that I have provided for them thru endless work and expense over 25 years.So just crossing my land is a henderance to me feeding my family.
Now to carry this a bit further,since I have purchased this land and pay the taxes on this land and the insurance on this land and provided all of the income and labor to build this habitat and you come on my property and shoot a deer how then is that any less that theft? If you come into my barn and take 3 goats that's about the same amount of meat you have take out of my families mouth and that is theft. If you come on my place and kill the limit of 5 squirrels on a given day that's the same as you coming into my hen house and taking 2 hens. That is also considered theft.
How could you ever justify letting unknowns have free range of your property when it is at the expense of the welfare of your own family.If you have a hard time wrapping your head around this concept (not to sound offensive here) you have had a pretty soft life.I've had to find ways to provide for me and mine and that continues to this day. It's a part of life.At least the life that I think most of us here have had to live.


Wade

Wade I see your point but unless you have some very tall fences those turkey and deer are not on your property all of the time. Those wild critters are not like the goats in the barn as you do not own or control there movements. It is good to provide habitat for there well being but that means nothing to others when they leave your property. We all share in the bounty and we all should abide by the rules which includes not hunting on property without permission.

THIS^^^^^ (1shotwade's post) is why even though I could use the help in eliminating the raccoons I won't let anyone else trap on my property. Even if I'm not trapping them right now I might need to later.
I too, have created and am constantly improving on the habitat for critters that at some point in time will be needed to prevent my and my family's starvation. No others need apply. You want to hunt, you spend the time and money to buy and build your own habitat and leave mine alone.

My grandpa had many problems with poachers on his property. So much so that he considered cutting the woods and filling in the pond. It really made him mad that other people were stealing his fish and his game. It broke my heart to see that in his last few years slobs were trashing his woods and taking game we could have been eating.

Letting someone clear a path or cross your property to get to theirs can bite you on the hiney. My aunt and uncle bought a ranch, and a neighbor asked if he could cross a corner of the ranch to reach his property 'so he didn't have to go all the way around'. He knew exactly what he was doing, and after doing it for seven years, filed a claim for the corner of land he was crossing and GOT IT. Eminent domain, I think? Anyway, the judge in the little town agreed that he was legally entitled to it. So much for being a nice neighbor.

Due to terrain paint color and foliage, the main house at our ranch isn't too visible from the orchard. If someone gets permission to hunt my place, they sign a release of liability. And I show them around and make sure they know where everything is. The structures, propane tanks, water tanks, livestock. To be sure they don't shoot in the direction of any of them. And I need to be notified in advance of when they will be there. I don't want any surprises.

If a hunter trespasses, I have no idea they are there until bullets fly. I'm in California. Our state law says that hunters must have written permission to hunt on private land. Without it, they are breaking the law and violating my rights. They are putting my life, and the lives of my friends and family at risk.

I'm not anti hunter by any stretch. I have allowed hunters on my property, if they are respectful of my wishes. If they aren't respectful of my wishes, they will find themselves in deep trouble.

Edited to add:

No one should ever have to confront armed trespassers on their own land. Some of the responses here truly amaze me. In this day and age, why would you ever want to put a land owner into the unenviable position of having to decide if you are there to poach game or if he is there to kill you and your family. Either way, a trespassing hunter is bad news.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

Exactly. When you live in a very remote area, this becomes even more critical.

In some areas, what with meth cookers, squatters, and sundry others, it's often considered wisest to shoot first and deal with the rest later, for the safety of your own kith and kin, and to avoid retaliation from those who feel entitled to what is rightfully the landowner's.

I wonder if those who are posting to the contrary are either poachers, or do not live far beyond the sidewalks. Once you've been accosted by trespassers on your own property, it's hard to believe you'd come up with some story about allowing veterans and others free egress on your property.

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

My 14 year old nephew just tracked down an absentee land owner in a different state to ask if he could bow hunt on his property. The guy was so impressed that he gave him permission ( he doesn't let anyone else hunt there) on the condition that as he is hunting he has to pick up any litter that he sees. His Dad isn't even allowed to hunt there. He can go with but can't hunt. I thought that was very responsible of him.

Someone did that to me on the back side of my property last year. Three days before season, I carried 100lbs of offal over and dumped it on my property, ten feet from their stand. Day before, did the same thing, but to make the buzzards work for it, hung long strips of decaying meat in the trees (their stand was in the only spot with a clear view of my cleared off patch back there). First day of season, I drove nearby to where I could see the stand, and there were several dozen buzzards hanging out in the trees, working over the grub, and several were preening on top of his stand...

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

LOL great idea, texican.

Phil, you are very creative!

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

I think we ar getting a bit far a'field when we go from a neighbor setting up a corn feeder on your property to strangers with guns on your property.
Like them or not, they're still neighbors. As partners in your community, you are often better off handling it in a way that prevents making a neighbor an enemy.

+ + + + + +
Adverse possession.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession

I'm sorry but I want to know what is NUDE enough to hunt on your place, Wade?

(Sorry, couldn't resist )

Don't you think the neighbor intended to shoot into the OP's property? And if he hit an animal, wouldn't he have tracked it on the OP's property? Would he have left his rifle behind? No? He almost certainly would have brought it with him.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

ehehehehe darn I missed that. Have to pay closer attention.

If you view your neighbors as "strangers with guns", you need to get out more. Maybe a plate of cookies taken over to a few strangers that live nearby.
The neighbor was wrong. Perhaps the neighbor is a jerk, too. You know he owns a rifle and knows how to use it. I'd want to build a friendship that would allow me to speak to him without concern that it would go sideways. True strangers with guns, that's different, IMHO.