Have you ever found someone in your hunting spot?

Never found anyone in my actual stand but I have had a couple encounters with hunters hunting on our property because they did not have good knowledge of were the property lines were for the property they had permission to hunt on. The best was a very belligerent bow hunter in a climbing stand that was about 400 yards past the property line for the property he had permission to hunt on. He was pissed at us for blowing his hunt, we were grouse hunting. My father patiently listed to his rant. Then calmly told him he was welcome to spend the rest of the afternoon there hunting but that the property line was that fence he crossed getting to were he was. He continued to vehemently insist he was on the property he had permission for as we walked away and continued our hunt. Never saw him again thankfully. We get a lot more ATV/UTV crossing our property than hunters without permission but both are thankfully rare occurrences. I am always polite but firm in informing them who's property they are on. I also have the property lines well document in my GPS and can point out the corner stakes and fences lines that clearly delineate property boarders. 9/10 its an honest mistake and turns into a pleasant conversation and a chance to meet a friend of a neighbor.
 
Countless times...
I've found people I didn't know on my propertyhunting. Never in my stand that I recall but certainly around my stands. So long as they don't try to lie and say they didn't know (or worse, act like I am the one trespassing) I just grit my teeth and go along my way. I try to remember that not everyone has land. I usually just wave and go on. If im sawing wood or feeding then I make no effort to be more quiet. Lol. I may even make an extra trip on my race quad or bike.
 
Yes, both on private and public land. While it can be expected on public land, on private land, you would think that folks would be more considerate. But neighbors and relatives of land owners are not always that way, even if they are not technically "trespassing". Down on my son's land we have a neighbor that if we are not there, thinks he is welcome to hunt. He claims we can do the same on his if we want. We do not and have politely asked him to stay off, whether it's hunting or gathering mushrooms. Still we find his footprints and get him on our game cams all the time. Being "neighborly", and since he is a pretty good neighbor otherwise, we don't get in his face.
 
The one spot i go to. There is mounds from them strip mining. I like to sit on the mounds. The 1 mound i like. There was a guy sitting at the bottom of it. So i moved to another one. There was a big doe that was heading towards us. I was hunting with my SBH. The guy gets up to leave then. And chases the deer away. I said thanks for scaring the deer. He goes i didn't see it. Other wise if i had my rifle i would have shot it further out.
 
We had two armed guys on horseback show up on one of our pieces of property that is detached from the majority of our land, it’s in the “bottoms” and is a known spot to kill pigs. They asked my friends and I what we were doing there in an unfriendly way (we were armed hunting as well). I told them that we owned the property and what are you doing here?

They changed demeanor and said they were looking for their dog. I told them if we found it, I would call them and they left. They sent one of their significant others to recover the dog when it did show up. She was nice, haven’t seen the other two since.
 
mcb said:
Never found anyone in my actual stand but I have had a couple encounters with hunters hunting on our property because they did not have good knowledge of were the property lines were for the property they had permission to hunt on. The best was a very belligerent bow hunter in a climbing stand that was about 400 yards past the property line for the property he had permission to hunt on. He was pissed at us for blowing his hunt, we were grouse hunting. My father patiently listed to his rant. Then calmly told him he was welcome to spend the rest of the afternoon there hunting but that the property line was that fence he crossed getting to were he was. He continued to vehemently insist he was on the property he had permission for as we walked away and continued our hunt. Never saw him again thankfully. We get a lot more ATV/UTV crossing our property than hunters without permission but both are thankfully rare occurrences. I am always polite but firm in informing them who's property they are on. I also have the property lines well document in my GPS and can point out the corner stakes and fences lines that clearly delineate property boarders. 9/10 its an honest mistake and turns into a pleasant conversation and a chance to meet a friend of a neighbor.
Click to expand...
We definitely have more problems with ATV/UTV than with hunters. Most people aren't willing to walk far enough to cause us trouble.
 
I hunt public land and occasionally I find another hunter that beat me to the spot I wanted to hunt. Nothing to do but go somewhere else. I generally get far enough off the road that this isn't a problem.

But a few years ago, I had a honey-hole beaver pond that I duck hunted on. It was about a mile walk into public land and I hunted that spot several years before anyone else found it. One time I got to the pond to find a heavily modified and lifted 4X4 parked less than 20 yards from the pond.

It was public land, and I didn't mind sharing with another hunter. But I had to walk a mile to get there, and another mile back to my truck. Wearing hip boots. This guy drove over or around 2 or 3 berms with posted signs saying no vehicles allowed.

I took photos of his truck and tag. Then called our local game warden to share those photos. This was pre- cell phone, and it was pure luck that I had a camera with me. Had to go to Walmart and get 1 hour film developing. The game warden tracked the guy down and wrote a ticket.
 
Unfortunately, someone found me in their spot many years ago. I was a guest on a lease and was told to "Go to the end of this road and hunt anywhere around there." So I did. However, the place that looked best in a small hammock (hardwoods) was not on their lease. About 2 hours later someone came up and asked rather impolitely what I was doing there. He informed me that I needed to cross the road and back out about 50 yards. I apologized and left.

I don't know if the fellow who told me where to hunt thought it was funny to send me there or not but I didn't appreciate it at all.
 
Not a private land story but somewhat relevant.

Two years ago, scouted a new to me area of public land over the summer and found what seemed like a great spot on the edge a field that sign showed a good deal of traffic passing by and bedding areas nearby. Built a ground blind around the base of a fur tree by leaning and “weaving” some deadfall together. Had it all nicely set up in Sept for a late October rifle season. Difficult to access piece of public land, requires a good deal of perseverance and stamina to get to.

Opening morning, I’ve trudged through the dark and get there just as legal light is coming up. I get all set up and I’m just putting a few branches back in place when another fellow appears from a path about 50 yards away and heads straight at me. I let him know I’m there and he quietly laughs and says “I thought it was too much luck that someone had built me a blind” waves and walks off quietly. Nice guy, class act! Had he been there when I arrived, he would have got the same; public land is open to all.

That afternoon about 2pm I got a respectable mulie trotting after two does.

Scored again from the same spot this season after an opening day bump on the way out that I thought spelled disaster for the season. Didn’t see anyone else the three days I was there even though the weather was good.
 
In this region, trespassing is a common
thing. If there's nobody on the property
you're hunting full time, the neighbors
are likely as not hunting it, even if they
have their own land or hunting area.
Grass is greener I guess.
Many of the places I've hunted at are
properly and legally fenced, and the
trespassers had to cross a fence to
access the property. They can't claim
ignorance, and most will offer up a
tale of having permission from some
past owner 40 years ago, or something
similar.
" Well ol' man Johnson always let us
do whatever we wanted to do on this
here land "
Heard it many a time
The worst in this region are the hog
doggers that get belligerent about it
even though they a-well know they're
trespassing. " I go wherever my dogs
go "

I forgot to add - once as I was making
my way to a tree stand I had set up
on my hunting land, I heard some
commotion ahead, and when I got
to the stand, there was a cushion
on the ground beneath the stand
where it fell after whoever was in
the stand illegally abandoned it
quickly when I was making my way
to it. I'm sure it was a trespassing
neighbor that didn't know anybody
was there
 
Yes, since I was a kid I have caught people on our families land. Never sitting in my stand. Most times it was locals being stupid. I don't do public land hunting, I thank my lucky stars for that! We have a good neighbor policy, call and ask if it goes very far from the fence. Most times it's when we aren't around, It is a way of life around here, to help get cams, good people to let you know? A few yrs back we found a illegal growing patch, so IL has air surv, as does others! Hidden cams will help you to id those unwanted trespassers, above all think before you act! Obey the law even if others don't!
 
Yep, has happened to me a few times. Never had a problem the few times I did hunt public land.
All my instances were on private land. Had a stand in the middle of nowhere where two old logging trails met in a small clearing. Stand was just a seat and foot rest in the limbs of a huge squaty oak. The ladder was detached, made from cedar sapplings, and hidden in a big rut when not in use. Somehow this young guy who lived an hour away and supposedly had permission to hunt a neighbor's property had found my stand and ladder and was in it when I got there. My initial approach was very polite and if he had responded appropriately I may have let him stay. I have done that a time or two. His first answer was "hey, first one in the woods gets the spot". I advised him that only worked on public land. After some more dodgy answers and then some downright uncivil responses to my questions, I called his bluff and advised him I was escorting him to his truck so we could talk to the neighbor or we could wait for the game warden. His truck was on a different neighbor's property on the opposite side of my property from where said he had permission. Neither neighbor had given him permission or knew he was there, but he was a cousin of the neighbor he claimed to have permission from.:confused:
He was told by his cousin not to come back.:fire:

Another time in a river bottoms stand, a kid who was a nephew of the neighbor was on fall break from college and legitimately got confused about where he was and whose stand he was in because there was a portion of the fence missing where he came in. I'd never met him before, but he was very polite and respectfull, so I let him continue to hunt the entire month he was home and I hunted elsewhere. He ended up getting a nice 8pt and I was happy for him.:)
 
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I’ve accidentally put up a stand on someone else’s land before. I thought I was on mine. I took two deer there thinking I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Imagine my surprise when he called me to tell me (not politely) that I’d trespassed.
The difference in where this conversation went vs many others is that when made aware, I was humble about it. I apologized. That calmed him down. We figured out what I’d done wrong. It was a simple mistake that I shouldn’t have made where, having looked at a map with property lines while planning the site, I went in the real world and enacted the plan after having gotten turned around. I walked the right distance into the woods but in the wrong direction. I moved the stand at the first opportunity I had, and all was well.
That experience has made me more understanding. Honest mistakes do happen. It’s when we get an entitled or arrogant, or far too often belligerent attitude that things go poorly, and because that happens so often, we stop considering that it can be an honest mistake.
 
buck460XVR said:
Yes, both on private and public land. While it can be expected on public land, on private land, you would think that folks would be more considerate. But neighbors and relatives of land owners are not always that way, even if they are not technically "trespassing". Down on my son's land we have a neighbor that if we are not there, thinks he is welcome to hunt. He claims we can do the same on his if we want. We do not and have politely asked him to stay off, whether it's hunting or gathering mushrooms. Still we find his footprints and get him on our game cams all the time. Being "neighborly", and since he is a pretty good neighbor otherwise, we don't get in his face.
Click to expand...
If he has got a pond you'd like to fish, or a piece on his land you'd like to hunt, you just tell him, If I see you on my game cam this year, expect me on your place soon.
 
I found a deer stand on my land that wasn’t mine. Did some forensic tracking and found out he was driving into neighbors land and parking out of sight of the road and walking in and crossing my fence.
I put a stick in the wheel track so I could tell if someone drove in and checked it daily until his truck was there. The tailgate was down and a bow case was there with a bottle of scent blocker spray.
I emptied the spray bottle and refilled it with bladder fluid.
A couple days later I took the stand down and left a note telling him to come see me if he wanted it back.
I still have the tree stand in my barn.
 
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Around here private landowners will frequently have people trespassing, poaching, stealing, and vandalizing. You'll find their boot tracks coming across the property line, sometimes you'll observe them from a stand while you're hunting, other times you bump into them while out moving around. Tons of country folks buy horses and ATV's but have no land upon which to ride them, so they just trespass on any land around them for recreation. You'll show up to your place and they'll just ride off when they see you. Until you fence it, gate it, and lock it, you don't own it. We've had stands stolen, a tractor burned, shops vandalized, locks blown off gates, people showing up in fields that are being hunted, you name it, people will do it.

I used to enjoy the long dark walks in and out of the woods, but now, even on private land with nobody else hunting, I always wear a headlamp when coming and going in the dark; simply because I know someone will eventually be out there poaching and I don't want to get shot.
 
We dont own much land, but the lands we own are on perfect fishing hotspots for certain times of year. but we often find people camping there and fishing. We know everybody here and tenting is cool, and so is working together. Its all temporary, as the fish and game come and go.....Likewise, we may do the same on their places. Alot of Native owned lands here in AK are held in common under land management corporations, and they allow folks who are hunting and fishing for personal use to have at it and "first come first serve" applies in most scenarios. Then there tons of Federal lands, state lands and Sea ways, so its actually hard to tresspass.

Hunting "hot spots' are well known to local hunters and same for fishin certain etiquette's come to play, usually who was there first, gets first pick.....for net placements holes through the ice, trap lines and so forth, as the fish and game are always on the move anyways.

We usually deal with it by hunting/fishing together , drinking each others coffee and munching, trading info in gossip and storys..
If we dont like each other, we have seperate blinds or spaced out holes to jig in....LOL!
Theres guys I see every year, once a year, for a few days each time, hunting something I am also hunting, usually from a blind, riverside or hill top.
 
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I let my beagles out of their kennels one morning last year during deer season to run a rabbit . They jumped one almost as soon as I let them out right near the kennels and my house . As soon as they opened ( barked ) on the rabbit , I heard a little kid’s voice say what was that . I thought to myself , that voice sounds like it is on my property . Then shortly after , I heard a truck start and drive away . My property is heavily posted and they had to walk by a no trespassing sign on a post where they walked in . I eventually made it up to where I heard the voice and found a rag and a $10 dollar bill on the ground . Public hunting land is just on the over side of the road , that is why I heavily post my property . If I would have walked up on him I would have introduced myself and asked for ID . I then would have taken a picture of them and his truck’s license plate and called the game warden . That is pure poaching in my book and teaching a little kid to do it . That will get you a $2500 fine in my state and if he failed to identify himself, that is a class 4 misdemeanor . I probably wouldn’t be that hard on a teenager and just tell them to ask for permission first , but for a grown man to teach his kid that , I would .
 
One time in all my years of hunting but I have always had a lease. Back when I was 13 or 14 we always had tree stands. I was walking to my tree and I see a guy sitting in it. I knew it could not be one of our guys because we had this aerial photo of the place with push pins marking the blinds for late comers. He sees me and I keep walking up. The guy climbs down and says "Oh I'm sorry" and heads back over and jumps the fence. I just went on about my hunt and never thought any thing of it...
 
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