Woke up early Saturday morning to take care of a full bladder and had all intentions of going back to bed. I grabbed the phone to look at camera pics and even half asleep I noticed people on one of my cameras. Further inspection revealed turkey hunters. Only problem is we’re done turkey hunting and there isn’t but three of us that hunt.

This camera is on an opening to the bordering property where they’ve clearcut. I figured it would be a great place to see if coyotes were working that clearcut and crossing over. All that’s there is a chain stretched across two T posts they can go under or around. I figure if the deer have no issue then they wouldn’t either.

I speed out there and start making calls to the manager as I sent him the pics. He started making calls as I investigated. I found the gate they parked at which is an easement to their property. They parked a 4-wheeler and jumped the gate…all legal. They walked the road which ends about 125yds away with a big sign designating their property to the right and ours to the left…still legal. **we have a dummy camera on that road**

Where they crossed the line is where my camera is. I got the pics at 0630 so it’s definitely light enough to see the plantation and no trespassing signs. They crossed the chain and spent a little bit on our side then realized it was probably too open to risk it.

I know the gobbler they were after and where he roosts. He uses that burn to his advantage and doesn’t leave it. He’s a smart one.

So the manager called the lease hunters on that property and they said it’s none of them. He then called the overseer of that property and he gives him a name of the man who’s a member, his boy and a friend were out hunting. Apparently a group of guys leased the land with half taking the West property and the others taking the East property. He was a West member and according to the East members that border our property they aren’t even supposed to be on their side.

The manager asks if he could have the guy call him. Well here’s where attitude and owning up to your mistakes pays off or makes it worse.

The guy calls and said yeah it was his son and said it wasn’t a big deal they’d got lost. The manager asked if he could have his son call him and the guys basically told him to pound sand. All the manager was wanting is a “Yeah, we screwed up, sorry and it won’t happen again.

Since the guy was jerk and both the son and other hunter are both in their 20’s and adults, so he called the GW who also got the pics and videos of the parking and tracks of waking in. The GW called the father for the boys number and apparently got the same attitude but did get their numbers. Both were issued hunting without permission and trespassing charges. The father was irate and said they’d fight it in court because the camera that got them was on the easement (dummy camera.) What he doesn’t know is the GW is coming to get pics of that camera and my camera on the gate where the pics clearly show they crossed and all the plantation/no trespassing signs. I’m going to assume if he wrote them tickets that they admitted to crossing…especially if he showed them the pics we had.

Come to find out, Daddy is some bigwig in a company and thinks laws don’t apply to him or his son and money is nothing to them.

For the record the last trespassers I caught on camera all called when their pics were posted on FB by the managers wife. She asked if anyone knew them and one messaged her and she gave him the managers number and each and everyone of them called and apologized and said it wouldn’t happen again. No deputies or GW were ever involved.

Glad The GW gave them Tickets

So what I got out of this story is someone got their panties in a wad because someone stepped over a chain gate for "a little bit of time", someone that doesnt even own the land then got the landowner, Gws involved and wasted a bunch of peoples time and energy, created enough animosity to last a lifetime for a father and son. Reading stories like this make me really hope there is Karma .

I'm having a hard time understand your position on this. It wasn't like they were out on a hike.

They were actively hunting with the intent of harvesting an animal off property that they do not own or have permission on.

My take is that they are hunters, right, like you and me. One guy gets a pics on a cell camera, immediately judges them as the lowest people on earth, goes to great lengths to make their lives a living heck, for one "little" transgression, innocent or not, even the OP doesnt know. But because he pays a little lease he is now empowered and he is going to use it. Even you assume that they were "actively hunting with intent" to do wrong, Yet he said he got lost. and now we should hate anyone who has a "daddy who is a bigshot". I guess down south you dont treat others as you would want to be treated.

Diggerman,

Regardless of the wording used in the post, the action matters.

Someone, knowingly (most likely) crossed a property line with the intent to harvest an animal.

We all have access to county GIS maps, OnX, etc. Service may be spotty, but you should know where you are while hunting. In the south, property lines are usually pretty obvious.

I have numerous properties than I hunt and trap where I look after the property for the landowner (usually someone older in age).

I have caught people who have poached deer, ducks, turkey, etc. I have caught people illegally dumping trash, stealing hunting equipment, and stripping campers and cabins for scrap.

All of that would not have occurred if I wasn't out there and the landowner never would have known.

WannaBe's landowner is lucky to have someone like him to look after the place.

Lot of drama over a turkey. But sadly, stories like that are becoming common. Place across the road from me has absentee owners that don't hunt. Local guys now 3 deep and feuding over who has control over it, and that does not include guys on other properties all around it that lurk on the fence rows. When there is a big buck on the place, there are at least 10 guys that know it and all of them are after him. Was thinking same was not the case 100 miles from here on our farms, but then remembered all the incidents up there too. All manner of trespass, and bad choices made over desire to put self first and what is right second.

1) Very obvious who manages/assists with management of hunting property with an investment in time, money, and labor.

2) Also very obvious who doesn't give a crap about any kind of management and only wants to take and believes no one should stand in their way.

During my career, I enjoyed speaking with the #1 type and really liked handling business with the #2 type.

Ohioboy, those days are long gone unfortunately. The rich folks have bought up land or leased the land out for hunting which has in my opinion ruined hunting. I'm fortunate I have one chunk of private land to hunt on. I used to have 4 or 5 large parcels. Land gets sold or leased out to the elite and the regular folks are left out. I won't pay thousands of dollars for the chance to shoot a deer let alone a turkey. 50 pounds of meat off a deer isn't worth a $1000 dollars or $500 dollars. Hunting isn't a cheap hobby as it is without paying for a lease.

If but most likely when I don't have that one private piece of ground to hunt on I'll try public ground but most likely will wind up being done with hunting. Wisconsin has a lot of public ground in my area of the state but you wind up competing with a lot of people who are on it. It's not a lot of fun.Also most of it is extremly steep ground along the Wisconsin river. The deer densities aren't close compared to neighboring private land because the DNR in all their wisdom doesn't let the hundreds of acres of prime ridge ground get planted in corn, alfalfa or beans. They have it in tall natural grass and weeds that dies off the end of summer. If you're a deer what would you rather eat crops or dead grass? It's an easy answer. Compared to Iowa the Sny McGill recreation area or the Yellow river recreation area has farmers plant corn in the fields and the deer hold in those areas. It makes a big difference.

Spouse dealt with the same type of thing up here. Found an illegal truck parked ion the ranch we manage, owner wants us to take care of access and we know his rules.
Called it in, they had also driven on an atv road and broke down sometime before- found the truck parts they had to fix.
GW talked with the Dad of the guy, yep he was 20 something year old as well.
Dad said we used to have access along that "trail" years back. GW asked if they still did, well no new owners. New owners were 25 years back, lol. Dad got (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) when GW said ticket was coming to his son.
Guess what no more trespassing by those guys.

Respect the land and the owners, not your land stay off unless you have permission.
Folks trespassing are not doing some little transgression, especially with a gun.
Innocent mistake usually gets an apology not an entitled response.

Didn’t mean to offend anyone, but when you cross a property line that’s clearly posted with umpteen signs to chase an animal that you KNOW you shouldn’t be chasing, well that’s called trespassing.
When the sole purpose of that property is hunting and that’s how the money is made, yeah, that makes it our business to address the issue.
When there’s a possibility of other hunters out there, that really makes it our business.
Guess I failed to mention I’m an employee of that property, so yeah it’s my business too.
When this property is extensively managed, that really makes it my business.
And all we wanted was an admission and apology and things would never have gone the way they did. To blow it off as so what, they gave up on that bird and I got nothing else to say, well that’s unacceptable.
Generally a ticket means they won’t do it again.

Diggerman, go ahead and post up coordinates to your property and I’ll let folks no you don’t care if anyone trespasses or shoots the game on your land. I’m not in a lease. I’m an employee with a few benefits. I remove unwanted’s from the property. I clean kennels. I feed kennels. I use vacation days of my full time job to help burn. I help on hunts. I guide on deer and waterfowl hunts if clients want to do that. I invest a lot of time to help on whatever way possible. This is a working wild bird plantation. It’s a property that requires management and a full 365 days and it’s only run by the manager and his wife and two “part time” employees. So yeah, I look at it as I’m invested in this property and look after it like my own home. Word gets around you don’t play if caught deters others from thinking about it.

1)Its very obvious who real hunters are.
2) its real obvious who "managers" are.
I enjoy speaking to those1) and wouldnt give the time aday to type 2

It is always discouraging to read or see the cavalier attitude of too many in the hunting community towards trespass on private property. I am a retired federal wildlife biologist and my wife a registered nurse. We worked hard all of our lives to own 20 acres with running water adjacent to the National Forest. I've hunted and trapped this mountain range where we live since I finished military service back in the 70s. My then wife to be would run traplines with me up here during our college days. We're not so called carpet baggers. We usually have very little problem with big game hunters since we have a small property, but spring turkey hunters are the bane of our lives. This applies to both in and out of state hunters. Due to our aggressive habitat management specifically for turkeys we always have birds while the adjacent mis-managed National Forest doesn't. Guess where the turkey hunters want to hunt? No one has ever asked (although we give priority to neighbors and friends kids). We routinely have the state's150 yard prohibition against shooting near a building violated. We also have hunters jump the brand new posted fence and shoot birds in the middle of the day with us in the yard. Being older now, they usually can hide or simply out walk me to get away. We just had three so called turkey hunters shoot a bird 50 yards from our neighbors house with him taking pictures. Due to not getting a vehicle license number they were not apprehended. I have come to the conclusion after a long career in wildlife management and having been involved in private property owned by both us and family that hunting violations today are as common as traffic violations. Unfortunately the violators in both overwhelmingly get away with it. Another symptom of the increasing lack of common courtesy and basic respect for others in our society today.

Diggerman, I think you're offbase brother.

Property lines and boundaries exist for a reason. Assuming that Wanne Be is telling the whole story, the violators were phoned and acted a fool. Again, assuming that Wanna Be stated facts, seems like a small piece of humble pie and admittion of error would have went a long ways on the phone and this would have all went away. Show your buttocks and you get treated like one.

All boils down to how much hunting means to you and if you hold a strong desire to have access to a quality place to hunt. If you can just up and quit hunting then it never meant much to you in the first place.

I don't own any hunting land of my own or owned by family. I lease three tracts in two counties that total 2,266 acres. One of those tracts is my personal 400 acres (I control all the access and do all the management work). The 866 acre tract (I have 9 members...most are police officers from central Florida.) The 1000 acre tract is a special place that myself and only two others have legal access to.

I am close friends with a couple local landowners that allow me to hunt...under their rules for when, what species and size is harvested. They do the management work and it's their land.


I've hunted a lot of public land over the years, but usually only those areas that are low quota limited or have tight antler restrictions.

To each his own. But, I, for one, can never quit hunting...ever!

Preach on and let everyone know how you feel and really are!!!

WB,
You ain't offending anyone.

Poaching is poaching! It's stealing in every sense of the word.

And, most of us know that.

Sounds You'all outa get some fencing tools, then you can Manage "your" critters. I am NOT ok with trespassing, I would not waste a real LEOs time unless it was a persistent. problem,. Southern hospitality, SMH. Anyways, I got to get back to managing my cattle and chickens.

all i have to say is try and understand the situation first cause maybe they where looking for the turkey they shot cause they made a bad shot and you wouldn't want a wounded bird running around also try and give them a little grace cause you never know what the scenario is

I might have missed it but DID THEY HUNT OR KILL ONE on your land? OR did once it got daylight they realized they were on the wrong property.? That would make the difference in how I reacted. Just because you see a sign (because you know where it is) doesn't mean the other guy walking in the dark spotted it.
But with that said. IF you wait on an apology from ANY young person good luck !!! The young men might have gotten bad instructions on what they could hunt.
He did return your call but sounds like a douche about it. If tickets were written because of his mouth , that's on him......