# How to deal with tresspassers and other issues



## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

So ive haunted a particular land for the past 12 years. When I first started hunting it I was the only one that hunted the land, after I took two large bucks within four years 3 individuals showed up to hunt.

Then as the years went by the hunters move their stands closer and closer to me to where they would be within 50 yards of my location. I would still take a deer but the quality of the deer and quantity drop significantly through the years because of this these individuals would put their tree stands up a week before season move them during the season and then take them down just before gun week.

This year I have an issue with the neighbor kids as they trespass onto the land that I hunt even though the neighbor has signs of no trespassing up on his side of the property. I also have an issue with a 18 to 20 year old kid who was constantly carrying a shotgun dancing in front of my deer feeder on my trail cam not to mention the neighbors constantly run ATVs and the evenings when I'm there and leaf blowers and such.

This has caused all the deer to go nocturnal and only from 2 a.m. to about 4:30 a.m. I used to get hundreds of thousands of pictures every season of deer at all times of the day morning night afternoon now I only get deer at late night and that is it. All the deer have seemed to have been pushed off the property and only come through at late night or early morning when no one else is around in the woods are quiet. Since I don't own this property what all options do you think I have besides trying to find a new place to hunt in Miami or Clark County which is impossible.


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## CFIden (Oct 9, 2014)

Hundreds of thousands of pictures of deer every season? Wow! I understand why your so upset.


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## M R DUCKS (Feb 20, 2010)

First off, I (ass u me) you have WRITTEN permission. Have you talked with the land owner?
Have you asked the other hunters IF they have permission? Have you contacted the Wildlife officer? Sheriff ?
I am thinking the land owner might have to be involved to get anything enforced....not sure though.


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## Outasync (Mar 5, 2016)

Change your hunting routine. The deer are still there you just have to hunt the hunters. Know how they come in and what changes they have caused the deer to make. 

Not being the land owner you are pretty much stuck with what obviously irks you. But these are things the deer are used to and shouldn't cause them to be nearly as distressed as you are over them. One property I used to hunt had a neighbor that went through at least 200 rounds of ammo almost every other night. I wanted so badly to shove the ar down his throat until I figured out it wasn't him spoiling the deer but the kids playing football in the freshly mowed golden rod field. Moved my stand and started seeing deer daily even through the constant gunfire and they couldn't care less because they adapt easier than we do to what we perceive as OUR hunting areas.


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## bobk (Apr 30, 2004)

I just wave a pistol and act like I'm crazy and the trespassers leave pretty quick. If I see them a second time I let a few rounds go at the coyote that I happen to see at the same time as the worthless trespassers. I never go in the woods without my trusty squirt gun.


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## Flathead76 (May 2, 2010)

Sounds like a crappy situation. With all that going on it takes all the fun out of hunting with the frustration. I know that you were there first but if it were me I would probably cut my losses and start looking for another place to hunt.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Tom if you know where the kids are coming from, stop and mention to the parents that you were in the stand, heard crunchy walking sounds through the bush and had your bow/gun ready to take a deer when their kids walked out from behind the bushes, I'm pretty sure the parents would have a good talk about there trespassing and that wouldn't be a problem, show the parents the pics of them too so they know your not making it up. Id also show the pics of the 20 something guy to the owner and ask if he indeed has permission, if not Id make a call to the GW and let him have the pic for future reference, also try to get a license plate and pic of him parked near the property, thats all you can do. and for whats its worth, every large landowner has this same problem. so if you go somewhere else i bet youll have the same problems. Perhaps when someone is getting close you could take a few shots at that imaginary coyote ( in other direction) that would scare most folks off. Just saying...


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

As has been said, nothing you can legally do since you don't own, or are not an authorized caretaker of the property.
You can call the GW or Sheriff if you like but not being the property owner(or authorized caretaker) you will most likely not like the response.
Any info on the trespassers you have should be given to the owner and then it's his/her call to make if they want to do something about it.


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## Flathead76 (May 2, 2010)

fastwater said:


> As has been said, nothing you can legally do since you don't own, or are not an authorized caretaker of the property.
> You can call the GW or Sheriff if you like but not being the property owner(or authorized caretaker) you will most likely not like the response.
> Any info on the trespassers you have should be given to the owner and then it's his/her call to make if they want to do something about it.


This is spot on here. Since you do not own the land the only thing that you can do is let the landowner know about what is happening. If they chose to do nothing it will continue. I've been down this exact road before and it absolutely sucks. We had a farm that was around 540 acres that my friend and I were the only people allowed to hunt it. A guy was coming off the nieghbors property and trespassing. He was about 300 yards off the property line. The guy would pound rebar and railroad spikes into the trees as tree steps. Most of them were mature Walnut and oak trees pretty much ruining them. When we told the landowner he said tear them down and post the property line for me. We did exactly that. The posted signs were tore down two days latter and the dude called the sherriff for the damaged stands that he put up on property that he did not have permission to be on. Even after that the landowner still wouldn't do anything about it. This crap went on for years and there was nothing that we could do about it because we were not the landowner.


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## Mrwiggler (Jan 26, 2017)

I would consult with the land owner, and get his views on it. If he's no twilling to take action , i believe i would be looking elsewhere. I've had simular issues, but the last place i hunted, i leased, and the land owner did'nt take no sh&t. He had license plate numbers, of all vehicles in our party, and if he seen a strange vehicle, the GW was called. One time we had an issue with some local kids, and the land owner knew who they we're, and spoke to the parents. No more kids. Also here, you needed written permission to hunt private land, so tresspassers we're in another violation.The property had to be posted with no tresspassing signs, to be legal. I think a GW had the right to ticket someone, without the written permission from the land owner, so i would have contacted the GW, and hopefully he or she would have caught the violater. Good luck.


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## Flathead76 (May 2, 2010)

In Ohio the property does not have to be posted to charge someone with trespassing.


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## bobk (Apr 30, 2004)

Flathead76 said:


> In Ohio the property does not have to be posted to charge someone with trespassing.


 Use the sheriff and not the game warden as well.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

Flathead76 said:


> In Ohio the property does not have to be posted to charge someone with trespassing.


Yup! Like the GW told me, though it helps to have private land boundary lines posted (especially in a court case) it's the hunters responsibility to know where he/she is at at all times.

On that note, I really hope the GW's do as promised and start checking for and enforcing the written permission laws throughout the state. Had a very good conversation with Tony Zerkle of Fairfield County some time back and he said he would be stepping it up in that department this year. 
Have had previous conversations with him affield as well and he is a really good guy. Respectful, Courteous, fair, no nonsense and a straight shooter. 
Glad we have him here.


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## Big Chief (Dec 16, 2005)

I own land the land I hunt and its right behind my house. I've had cameras stolen people in my stands etc. I've contacted sheriff and GW over the years with little success.

The crazy guy with a gun is the tactic I use.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

Big Chief said:


> I own land the land I hunt and its right behind my house. I've had cameras stolen people in my stands etc. I've contacted sheriff and GW over the years with little success.
> 
> The crazy guy with a gun is the tactic I use.


I've also found that carrying a cell phone capable of taking pics works most of the time. Walk up to them and snap their pic before saying anything to them. Then tell em that this is their warning and their dated mug shot is for the Sheriff in case they are caught back there.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

I do feel your pain...I wouldn't leave.
I've hunted the same 2 properties for the last 41 years and we've seen it all. Owner and neighbor kids setting up camps and camping spots, trespassing hunters, hunters tracking wounded deer, people walking dogs. We've had a few guys cuss us out because we messed up their hunt walking into our stand which we 15 yards from "their spot" (our stand had been there for probably 20 year prior) We even invited 1 guy to hunt with us who in turn invited his brother and brother's kids then they told us we weren't welcome anymore. For the most part since we don't own the land there isn't much we can do about any of it. One thing we have never waivered on is as long as we have permission and we still want to hunt...we ain't leaving! Luckily it's worked out for us.

One thing about kids and it's usually the males who roam the woods is that eventually they will grow up and discover girls. When they do, those guys are gone forever.

For other legal hunters. I figure if they are aggravating me, then I must be aggravating them so I won't leave. I just try to be more aggravating (not to the point of harassing). I won't intentionally bother them but I may come into my stand later & noisier and I may leave earlier ect. Let them make the choice to find a new hunting spot.
One other point is hunting is a hobby a lot of people give up on pretty easily. It's so time consuming and with work, kids, wives, family and then throw in a few other interests and they're done with it.

If someone is tracking a wounded deer from a neighboring property I'm okay with it. Yep it messed up my day but there will be more days. I'll even give you a hand if needed.

If you set up a stand next to mine and I'm bothering you...MOVE. If you want to yell at me I'm okay with that too. I just sit down and read a book...eventually you'll go crazy and leave.

One thing you mention is "your feeder". I am always afraid to put out a feeder, they tend to draw as many people to a spot as they do deer. The deer are still there go back to old school and learn how to hunt them with out "bait". If the other guys want to bait, let them and learn to use their bait for your hunting. Pressured deer usually go nocturnal anyway.

If you kill a big deer for God's sake don't tell anyone if you can help it. I used to tell the owners years ago. They were always happy to see my success BUT they would tell the guys who worked there who told their friends ect. One day one of the guys who heard about my big deer showed up on opening day of gun season with a friend. One guy set up about 40 yards to the right of my stand, the other guy set up 50 yards to my left. They stayed in thickets trying to not been seen but I kept catching glimpses of the orange because neither of them could sit still.

We have shooting going on at neighboring farms constantly. One evening a guy is shooting his AR on one ridge and another guy starts with an M60 on another ridge. My hunting buddy texted me to see if I was having flashbacks. It's gone on for so many years the deer could careless.

I advise not starting any kind of conflict with the neighbors. It could come back to haunt you one day. We have good relations with the neighboring hunters. I got a text from a guy last night about a guy on his land and I sent him a pic I had of a guy on one of my cameras. Neither of us knew who these people are. Now we're both aware that someone if back there sneaking in and we'll try to keep an eye out for each others stuff.

What I'm getting at is most of this stuff is temporary and will probably go away in time.
Before I would leave I would make sure I had somewhere at least as good to go to and as someone else mentioned...it's probably not trouble free there either.


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## DHower08 (Nov 20, 2015)

S.S.S live by it. The three S's


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## Shaun69007 (Sep 2, 2009)

Call the slingshot guy on here..


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