chronic trespassers

[harvey lee]

So, what you guys are doing is really working out well...

I contacted the law and that is what I'm suppose to do bwtrout. I cannot do much else.

[Musky Buck]

I hear ya Harvey, after the CO and sheriff and all of that on Saturday nothing even changed, they fired every round of ammo they had into my friends property Sunday morning at 7:00ish just to spite my friends. Do ya really think that on 3 acres you can fire 6 deer rifles that many times and all of the bullets are going to stop before flying into my best friends property when they have no backstop? It's time for the Berlin wall to be built around this 3 acres and we are seriously considering it. I don't want to lose a friend. We've tried every approach, the friendly way, the hey there's 2 chunks of seldom hunted public land less than 1/2 mile from your house, we've tried the nastier way which just fueled last weekend, we tried the CO/Sheriff way. We're like you Harvey, what's next to try, we've exhausted what we can do except the big wooden wall.

[InTheNorthwoods]

MuskyBuck - I notice that you are often saying you have trespassing issues and problems with neighbors on small tracts shooting onto your larger piece of property and field. I would suggest this, have someone come out with a bulldozer, or have a logger come in, and pile up dirt, brush, or logs about 15 feet high right along the border of the property so they can't see out into your field and so the deer won't cross into their small woodlot over it (because when it comes down to it, the deer will likely stay closer to the food and the cover available on that side.

The neighbors should finally get the hint.

HarveyLee - You could do the same thing with the box stand overlooking your land, just put a small 15' high brush pile or dirt mound right in front of the stand (with a dozer it wouldn't be that hard I wouldn't think). It wouldn't have to be that high to effectively eliminate his shooting onto your property.

[brittman]

Harvey,

Yep, the dummy or the wooden billboard ...

I have assumed you are a nonresident landowner in Richland or Ransom county. Now I am not judging you, but like I said in an earlier post - like it or not, local law enforcement may just not care especially if there is some relative tie in to the issue. Do not know if this is the case here or not.

The best route is to talk with the Game Warden and/or the District Supervisor about the issue.

Here are the Wardens with their cell phone numbers. Work your way up the list.

Division Chief/Chief Game Warden:

Robert Timian, Bismarck -- O: 328-6324, C: 400-7649

Region 1 - Southeastern North Dakota

Game Warden Supervisor:

o Corey Erck -- Jamestown -- W: 252-1793 O: 253-6477,

Wyndmere - District Game Warden

o Tim Phalen -- W: 439-2007, C: 899-0798

[harvey lee]

I have talked with Tim and I will see him this weekend unless he is swamped with calls. My son talked with him today.

I know Tim very well and have know him for approx 15 years.

I had the numbers but thanks anyways for the help.

Isn't Tim from Whapeton or did he move?

Corrected, Tim is from Wyndmere. You were correct.

[Musky Buck]

You are exactly right inthenorth. That is what it has come to. The clincher is when you don't feel safe on the land you bought to hunt. Typing this I can still hear the sound of bullets sizzling past me, not a good feeling. Time to put some dudes out of business. In the north they don't even have a woodlot, it's open knee high grass baited with birdseed etc. The deer flocked to it this past weekend and no one else was seeing hardly a deer. I rarely hunt it because it's not a mature buck area as every deer is shot on neighboring land regardless of what it is. It used to be and that's part of what all these fringe hunters want a part of, well those days are over so any deer will do. It's chronic like RK stated, year in year out and when we aren't around I can only imagine what's going on during the week there.

[bottom-bouncer]

[Note from admin: Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

[rangerforme]

Sounds like owning land is not all its cracked up to be anymore with the price and amount of hunters without their own land that feel the need to borrow yours. I was really thinking it would be great now I'm thinking that 2500-3000 an acre for 80 acres can buy a lot of trips out west to shoot hopefully at something big every year.

[Musky Buck]

You are correct rangerforme. 99% of quality land is either already owned or priced out of my league anyway. It's hard to afford enough land that you can manage better. Every chunk I own has shooting lanes from the neighbors going right down the fenceline or property line so I'm boxed in wherever I go which oh well the worst part is these fringe hunters have 0 deer on the land they are hunting, but they can catch them crossing through or just shoot into my area but now it's shooting into my land, trespassing, tracking wounded ones, baiting, etc. I am thankful I had at least 15 years of peaceful deer hunting. What happened to old zone 4A and 4B ? It split us up better, now 9 days straight everyone is never done hunting really because they buy tags for the wives and etc., use them first, if not filled their own then they can buy a muzzleloader tag for later. Stinks.

[harvey lee]

We need more education with our younger or beginner hunters and a few new trespass laws. This will take years to correct but I'm sure it can be done.

Everyone just needs to work together and the landowner and hunter relationship needs to improve.

[TR21]

And you know as well as I, Harvey, that not only education is needed but fathers and or mothers setting the proper examples for their kids.

[MNfan]

Or get trail pics of them doing it. and send it to them and the cops. theaten them with submitting it in the paper and posting it on line for everyone to see. Maybe that will change their mind.

I tried the trail cam bit they stole my camera and said they did not do it.

[Musky Buck]

True enough guys. I think a bit to in my area the hunters are not in a way hunters I can say this because I know them. They hunt 9 days of rifle and that's that, no duck,goose,grouse,pheasant, etc. They haul the stands out a night or 2 before season, I've never seen them sighting in their gun although they might at a range. There's no scouting. It's more of an event then a hunt. The way the deer are shot, full of holes, hit wherever etc. They just weren't brought up hunting lots of them, they don't understand everything fully. It's see a deer blast it and keep blasting, they lose their minds, it's deer fever more than buck fever. According to tag limits in my area at least 1 group should be done, call dad and they're still out which means they had their wives get tags or found someone to come over to tag them etc. so they can still blast away. This "finding tags" has really hurt where I hunt and has really contributed to the low deer numbers in the area. But, it's 2009 and I call it a free for all where I hunt.

[Musky Buck]

But true enough, it's just my style of hunting is either outdated or being lawful and considerate of others just isn't the norm in the section I hunt in. People were shooting early again in my section, baiting, shooting onto others property etc. It's a new day in age, it is what it is. Don't hammer me for calling these hunters not hunters, they are shooters that shoot whatever deer comes out regardless of where it is or safety or where they hit the animal, doesn't matter as long as they get some shooting in and they are smart enough to realize if we have someone tag our deer we can still go.

[candiru]

I know in my area (old zone4) they upped the doe permits to where I thought I had a reasonable chance at one. Out of 12-15 hunters I talked to only one had a doe permit. My thoughts are that someones Gramma got mine.

[Musky Buck]

Or my neighbors who come out to tag their husbands deer, "but we were party hunting". No, you are there for tagging and registering to save their tag for later or muzzleloading. I wish just once I could line up all these ladies and hand them my 30-06 and see if their 3 inch fingernails would cause problems with shooting a target, but we'll never know because they were "party hunting". I'm done playing devils advocate. My hunting area is a big mess with most groups bending or breaking the rules. They play by their own rules because in 30 years I have yet to see the CO truck drive by or check anyone in my area, 30 years !

[TrophyEyes]

We had someone shoot across our property at an eight pointer. it was 100 yards on our 40 acres. Absolutely unbelievable. We got the DNR involved and are planning on pressing charges.

[scsavre]

I just wish i could get up to my property more to enforce. I just know there are people sitting in my land right now. urkks the heck out of me.

The funny thing is, if someone woulda just asked to hunt, and i knew i wasnt going to go, i woulda let them hunt. Anything is better than the people sneaking out there now. I cant believe that they leave dead geese, ducks etc just sitting there. What they heck is the point of hunting if they leave the birds there.

I guess i will just rely on the wife's 4 family farms in ND.

[picksbigwagon]

Musky buck, it sounds to me like you need to call the CO. if you have concerns over your neighbors questionable tagging proceedures, you should contact the DNR.

[Musky Buck]

I hear ya picksbig. We did contact the dnr for my friends mess with his neighbors and being in the same area, I told him about my situation. He said most of those things are tough to enforce. If you ask them they'll lie about it right? I said of course. Just last night a guy showed me a 12 pointer he got, I said time to sleep in, he said no the wife came out and tagged it, now I can try for the split brow tine 14 pt. we have on Tcam or muzzleload. There's a lot of tag saving going on, then again, there always has been especially when multi-zone buck or all-season tags came on board.

[CRAZYEYES]

One of the biggest things that bothers farmers is that people simply don't ask. Yesterday a buddy and I went pounding around a big wma near litchfield. We ended up way on the backside of it and realized that we would have to get very wet or trespass to get back to the vehicle unless we walked almost an hour back where we just came from. Fortunately the farmer was out tilling the beanfield that he just picked. We walked up and asked him if we could walk through his chunk of land to get back to the road. He said thanks for asking! He told us no one has ever asked him to walk there and people just trespass there all the time. He was a real nice guy and most of them are if you show a little respect. I think if people were a little more respectful some of us hunters would not have the problem getting access to private land. I've learned being polite goes a long way even if you get denied. It's sad that people should need to "enforce" trespass laws.

[Musky Buck]

Bingo crazyeyes.

[Farley]

Went to drive my aunt and uncles 20 acre woods on friday, my aunt called and said one of the neighbors saw a really big deer run into the woods. When we got down there we noticed a nice 2 person ladder stand about 30 feet into the woods. No one but me has permission to be down there. Got a little further and found hang on stand up in the tree I usually hunt from. Went and talked to the aunt and uncle and they said they didnt give anyone permission to hunt down there, but said they talked to the neighbor who saw the deer and he talked to the guys who were trespassing and they were not wearing orange and told them to go ask permission. They didnt and now we have 2 new stands to hunt from. Thanks trespassers, we'll put em to good use.

[Heartman]

Well done, Farley. Might need to give'm back if they ask, but I say cross that bridge if and when you come to it.

[dirtking]

My old man saw a four wheeler on the road and found two kids putting up a stand in his woods - the one kid informed my dad that he had permission and had bow hunted there all year. The only reason he was putting the stand back up is he took it down to go north gun hunting. Dad said the kid was a smartazz and it was like he still thought he had every right to be there. The old man kept telling him that no one could give him permission except for him, as he owned the land. Maybe the stand will be back up around thanksgiving and I can score my self a new stand too!

Heartman - we asked the local CO - If there is a stand in a tree on our property can we take it? And he shrugged and said - ya it's in your tree on your property.

I knew another local that would break out the chainsaw and whack the tree (with satnd in it and all) everytime he found a stand on his property