harrassment today

[Hammer Handle]

I am glad that I hunt with all family on private land (our own). We also have great nieghbors.

[Neiko]

I had a similar incident this weekend. I was hunting out of my portable and decided to explore East and try some rattling.As I thought it was new frontier. Well I get about 300 yards down and see a guy in the stand so I wave and head back the way I came. I got out of his area and try some rattling. Well about 10 minutes a guy comes asking whose camp I was with and all that where he proceeds to tell me they have been hunting this area for 25 years blah blah. He wasn't trying to be a dink but this is what I heard and appreciate he tried to sugar coat it. I should of said right away if this was private property to shut him up. Maybe I will have to jump in his stand next year to tweak him a little.

[Surface Tension]

Mike, How has your season been?

Sorry to hear you had to run in with that type.

Some guys fail to realize that the outdoor world doesn't revolve around just their interests. I hope the remainder of your Grouse season be a great one.

[CodyDawg]

"Maybe I will have to jump in his stand next year to tweak him a little."

This sure isn't in my definition of sportsmanship. He comes over and has a nice talk with you and you wanna "tweak him"? How about respect for our fellow hunter?

[Neiko]

If he wanted to respect a fellow hunter he should have stayed away when I was rattling. His intent was to claim his area and he did it very subtle IMO.

[Mike Sertich]

Frank, season has been pretty good. Dog makes a difference for me. Great partner.How about you? Haven't seen you since the gas station in Twig. Seen some nice whitetails in my travels. Lots of different wild life. Lots of wolf sign too. Interesting. Keep up the great work.

[Hammer Handle]

He was disgruntled for his "old" spot now has you in it. He was just checking where you were and who you are...what is wrong with that? Did he get really upset and try to kick you out? Did he try to claim your spot? Did he interfere with your hunting besides coming and talking to you?

If he just came up to say he was hunting there for many years and was a little frustrated to see you there...and left...that is the same thing I would do...but then move on and get back to hunting. I assume you were sitting on the same deer path too? Nothing he could do other than that.

Just let it go.... Why start trouble?

[ozzie]

I hunted with a group last year that hunts public land and for the most part over the last 15 years they have basically controlled this area.......the thing that made me laugh was we went to check a few stands and there is a guy and his son in the area and they are going towards those stands.....well one of the owners of the cabin I am at approaches them and asks them where they are from and what they are doing.....he then says go ahead and hunt this area tonightbut they usually are out there and points out where the stands are........Some people think the state land is theirs if they have hunted the area long enough and that to me is funny!!!

[Wensel]

Had one this weekend too in Cromwell, my cousin climbed in a stand we had built 5 years ago, when he got to the stand he noticed an aluminium ladder there, certanly not our style, anyway its 215 pm and a big guy and his kid ride a wheeler right to the base of the stand, certainly not our style, the big guys says "well thats not very considerate" my cousin replys "what" the big guys say I've been hunting there all weekend" my cousin says "when I walked across the swamp no one was here so I came in and sat down, if someone was in the stand I would have went elese where" the big guy gets puffy and says "well can I have my rope" my cousin replies "sure" then the guy gets [PoorWordUsage]y again and mentions being considerate, my cousin says "not being considerate would be running an ATV after 2pm. well long story short the guy left in a tussle, and the funny thing it was a stand we had built...............

Good god.................

[efgh]

I was hunting deer on a 80 acre tract I own which is posted, no hunting without written permission, when a hunter came up to me and said, you have to leave, I have exclusive permission to hunt this area from the land owner. I replied, and do you know the land owner very well. he replied ,yes. My reply was, I own this 8o acres of woods and I never seen you before in my life. This happened in LeSueur co. Mn., He made a hasty retreat. It seems some hunters will try anything. I have given written Permission to quite a few hunters and trappers over the years when I had my deer.

[bubs]

thank god we havn't had anything happen like in wisc. YET!! It seems that the confrontiations are escalating. what happend to respect. my friend had a bad ordeal with a drunk hunter that he had to go to court over. my friend was walking out of the woods when this guy came by and threatend him because he walked out on the trail where the guys deer stand was. It was getting scary for my friend the guy was threatening to shoot him. My friends dad came by just then to pick him up. they then went to the local store and called the co. It went to court in jan I rode up with my buddy and sat in court the whole time the guy brought the bottle with saying he had only a little but it was 1/3 gone out of a liter. plus he amitted to having three to four beers. It was comical to what this guy thought was ok. He ended up loosing his hunting priveleges for 3 yrs.

[Muddog]

It sounds to me like the way the hunting shootouts happen.

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

I saw some Deer hunters getting ready to drive an area near a river fishing spot I was heading to. So I stoped and talked to them to make sure we didn't get in each others way. Good thing for us we were heading to the up wind side of there drive and we could all stay out of one anothers way.

I've been shot at to many time to go for a walk when gun Deer season is on. You are a BRAVE MAN or a fool in my eyes. I'm not saying they were right. I'm saying at Deer season the woods are full of trigger happy (Contact Us Please). Treat it that way. There are good hunters out there too but it only takes one for the story to end.

We cought 2 Walleyes, 1 Catfish and a 10" Mudpuppy.

As for the State Hunting land. In the area of the state where I live it is getting harder and harder to find state land that doesn't have homes near the fence line. I don't know what these people are thinking. Either they want nature right out there back door or hunters in there back yard? It dosen't make a good hunting trip when someone can sit on there back yard deck and watch you hunt.

[northerndave]

Well, saturday evening I experienced some harrassment myself.

I own 50 acreswith some state bordering 2 sides & because of an od shape to the north of my land I border a neighbors property, 2 sides of his smaller property. he is boxed in completely by private land. I was set up on my property, close to his south west corner of his property but I was on my own & set up with my back facing there property. I'm set up watching trails to my south on my land & a clearing I cut west of my stand also of course on my own property.

evedently a couple of hunterst that stay with my neighbor to the north have been sitting close to where I set up, on my neighbors property but facing south watching my property.

They are obviously upset that I am occupying my own land & have chose to hunt that portion of my land.

So, I'm in my stand sat night & this guy comes wrestling his portable & a bunch of screw in steps, a saw & god only knows what else to a tree right on my north property line (land has been recently surveyed & is clearly posted) he's seting up less than 50 yards from me & he takes almost all night to do a 10 minute job & he does it as loudly as he can.

he finally gets up into his stand behind me & I turn around to see which way he is facing, he's looking at my back, facing me, looking at my back with a rifle across his lap.

he can't hunt like this, it's obvious by how his rifle is across his lap that he is right handed, his easiest shooting without standing up in his stand is to the south of his stand (my property) or he could twist a little in his seat & manage a straight forward or slightly right sided shot from his stand which would be to the west of his stand (also my property, or, my back)

I stand up in my stand, turn around & face him, I yell over to him "hey neighbor?" he answers "yeah?" I ask him "Which way are you shooting?" he pauses & finally answers "um.... I guess north & kind of east" (straight behind him I guess) to which I reply "oh, so you're left handed?" he pauses again & answers "um, no... I'm right handed, it's just the only way the tree would let me set the stand"

which was odd because it took him 2 hours to set it up & he had a saw for cutting branches.

I just shrugged & answered "huh, wierd!!" turned around, sat down & just hoped like heck he wasn't planning on shooting me in the back.

he coughed & rustled around, did his best to be noisy until he climbed down at around 5 & headed to the north east through the woods.

I waited till I didn't care to sit any longer myself then I flipped the safety off & fired one off into the dirt about 50 yards in front of my stand (safe direction) and got down & walked back to my cabin.

wanted him to think I shot one in spite of his best efforts.

I can't believe a man would sacrifice there hunting time just to screw with another hunter, just can't get over that.

[sticknstring]

If it had been me... I would've climbed down the moment he started in with his first treestep and walked to the opposite end of the property. Frustrating indeed but no reason to sit there yelling back and forth and shooting the gun off in spite.

[northerndave]

well I supose there are a lot of things I could have done, maybe some things I should have done... but I'm not sure that letting him think he can bully me off of my own property would have been the right thing either. That could be hard to reverse, and if he is able to bully the land owner and the oldest guy in the bunch away, what's going to stop him from trying the same with my kids?

I thought about inviting him to sit in the same tree with me facing the opposite direction so he could see in the direction he said he was shooting.

[bigbucks]

As hard as it is to believe he may just be that poor of a hunter. I've seen some guys that just don't have a clue. It's very unfortunate he screwed up your hunt, but I wouldn't have moved either. It is your land.

[Hammer Handle]

I know hunters that sit in open fields and face out woods with rifles.

I hope they don't shoot in the woods, but that always worries me. We do sit there hunting and do drives there at times.

[northerndave]

it doesn't really have me too bothered as I mentioned my daughter shot a deer ... maybe i didn't mention, can't remember, but, anyways, 3 kids shot deer out on my land over the weekend, 2 of the kids got there very first deer!! that made up for what ever litle mishap may have occurred. I'd much rather watch & help the kids & others hunt & have a good time anyways.

i was just sharing an exoperience as it's the only one of it's type i've ever had.

dave

[Hammer Handle]

One of my nieces shot her first deer this year.

My other niece, who just started hunting (13) was in a stand and a jumped a large doe and tried to drive it to her. Well, it was almost to her and my 17 year old nephew (her brother) shot it.

Oh well, maybe I will help her get one next year.

[palisade1kid]

I hunt public land and have built stands on county lands(tax forfeit).

I cut the trails to get back there and everything.

I have noticed others using them.I see shell casings so I know animals are beig shot there ,yet it is and always will be 1st come gets it.

I have several portables and a climber.For me it's getting easier to use them instead of making it easy for someone else to sit in a good area I've so painstakingly scouted.

Yes it bites ,but hey having all of your eggs in 1 basket is a bad deal when public lands are involved.

So now I have a couple areas and I leave early enough to switch the game plan depending on who is or is not there.

Anyone that wants to say oh I've been hunting this area for so many years needs a reality check.

It's too bad these confrontations happen.

I had a small crew working an area I wanted to hunt.Now we hunt together and you know what? They are great guys!

[Bassboy1645]

Ive been living up north for almost 2 yrs now and Im definetly noticing an "anti city" attitude among local hunters. Uncle and I were exploring new areas the other days when we ran into a local walkign on the road. he seemed tense and almost angry at our apperence. But as soon as he found out we were local too he relaxed told us a couple stories and some god spots to hunt. At the school, and around town the local guys are always ripping on the city hunters and several of them will go as far as to block public roads by cutting trees down or posting pieces of public land or even yellign at "trespassers". I really think some of the city people dont take the time to look if thyre on public land or not. Not knocking on you city guys but its a common theme I see developing up here.

[Muthagoose]

I actually had a"local" rip off one of my bobcats while trapping in the arrow heads VAST PUBLIC area ..

I met him scouting prior and he told me time and time again all he traps is beaver,otter and rats.Seeing I trap fox,yotes,fisher,marten and cats we both agreed no problem he would watch out for me and I would do the same...

I felt confident no worries kinda nice to run into your fellow trappers and shoot the breeze and if ya get stuck ya know sooner or later help may be around....

While continuing on with the remaining sets I came across tire tracks and boot prints that matched the ones from the theft site.. I took photos of both. After a little hike I came upon the locals truck. I saw the impression of the cat's fresh blood and hair/traps even the slider and stakes in the fresh snow in the back of his truck.

I waited a little while for the old boy to finish his set and walk up to the truck<he was tending a beaver set. I confronted him....OMG

This guy goes on freak about how he's the only with rights to the area. He reached into the back of his pick up and grabbed a double bit axe. Just couldnt believe this guy was willing to threaten.Never once gave him the inclination of threat from me. I had a camera in my hands and was going to show him the pictures.

Realizing theres only one thing thats is "hope" I could WALK AWAY...I have talked to 3 area CO's and a very concerned St Louis Co Sheriff..They only told me what I already knew. I did the right thing and that without any physical proof or witness its all here say. Well this guys has since died and a new thief has moved in..

Been trapping since 1966 never once have had to defend myself trapping..

I now carry My 29 in plain site at all times in the woods not that I want to ever have to defend myself or think that a recreation will turn into a life or death.

BUT I know for sure I will NEVER feel that sickening feeling of fear,knowing your in harms way..

IF its public its Public.

Bassboy have anyone call ya a "packsacker" yet???

[Scott K]

I have been hunting in Wisconsin for awhile now. I have came across a few unfriendly cheeseheads. Just the license plate on my truck telling them I am not from there, driving down the road, I came across a few people standing in the middle of the road, they were posting for a drive , they yelled at me "go home, f***ing MN's". Another time, one of my hunting party, ran across a group of people on public land, he got the we have hunted here for 20 years, isnt there any deer in MN? Why do you need to come here and wreck our hunting!

Another time I pulled up to the public land across the road from my land, because one of my hunting crew called me and said they had one down and needed help dragging it. As I pulled up, there was a group eating sandwiches, I jumped out and they harassed me, told me that this land is for local people only, I asked where they were from, they said eau clair, I told them that I owned the land across the road, and this is public land, and I had as much right to it as they did. They followed me around in the woods, until I came across my buddy, then they wanderd off. It happens all over!

[Hammer Handle]

Do COs pose as hunters and get harassed? If they do, I hope they punish these people.

Scarey when people have guns. Look what happened not too long ago in WI....

[Riverratpete]

I can tell you from personal experience that a lot of the folks living up in northern Minnesota definately get a (it's my property) mentallity and don't like to share too much with the rest of the tax paying folks...Thing I've done over the years to get away from it...stay away from big wknds (opener)..theres also plenty of land for people willing/able to do a little scouting. I think the locals up there get the "It's mine" mentality from spending too much time in the woods by themselves and never see anyone that they start to think they own it. I can honestly say that since I moved to second/third wknd that I have run into virtually nobody on public land and they folks I've run into on the roads were very pleasant..just talking deer hunting..I think it's a lot more relaxed atmosphere and not as crazy..just a thought