# Jerk in the woods...



## Hardtop (Nov 24, 2004)

I have a situation I would like some opinions on. One of my neighboring land owners has some shirtail relatives who hunt his property and they have been acting like class A jerks on our property line for the last several seasons.
My side is wooded, his is usuall pasture, I have stands "near" the line ( which is defined by an old but visable barbed wire fence). Deer seem to cross both ways to and from my woods, and yes I do shoot into the edge of the pasture sometimes with the landowners approval.
About three seasons back, these "guest" hunters of his nailed no treepassing and no hunting signs on "my" trees that I have stands in there. I took them to the neighbor and explained the situation, and to be polite I moved the stands a little furter off the line. last season these same guys drove a pickup along the edge of the pasture up under the nearest stand while my son in law was hunting it , stopped rolled down the window and harrassed him with language like " It sure sucks when someone drives up and ruins your hunt doesn't it.." I went over that same morning and explained this second incident. 
He made excuses for the relatives but said he would talk to them and pretty much appolgised for their actions. He knows where this stand is and he has told me "he" had no problem with us hunting where we could watch the edge of the field from our woods. Now as I am going around this last week checking stands I find that these jerks have placed a free standing elevated hunting blind right on the fence directly infront of my stand in an obvious attempt to keep us from seeing or shooting deer on the edge of the field. It can't be more than 15-20 feet from my stand. I have not talked the landowner yet.....just wondering what some of you would do/say to what I regard as a good neighbor.......? By the way the landowner does not hunt but approves of hunting. HT


----------



## BaddFish (Jun 20, 2009)

Sounds like a tough situation... Not sure how many acres your on but I would do everything in my power to keep those deer on my property.
Dump a truckload of apples in the middle of your property, trim out a section to make it a good bedding area, etc... Try to change the deers habits and avoid the guy next door.


----------



## bobk (Apr 30, 2004)

Learn to hunt the deer on your own land would be the best option. Sounds like they are doing the same thing you did by hunting the property line. Not much you can say about it since they are not on your land. I hunt on the edge of my property and have to deal with the same crap. It's my choice to hunt there and I have to put up with the crap that comes with hunting the line.


----------



## jamesbalog (Jul 6, 2011)

Id learn to hunt the deer deeper on your property as stated above. 

Youre going to have to deal with the neighbors as long as you hunt close to the border. By the sound of your post you are hunting literally a few feet from the border... Maybe I am wrong but if you are hunting the edge I dont know what else you would expect

Sent from my LS670 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


----------



## FAB (May 26, 2013)

Well I thought a while before replying on this subject but you asked and here we are. 
First and foremost good neighbors are invaluable and hard to come by, protect that relationship. 

From what I read in your post these facts appear to be present. The neighbors relatives have been hunting the location for "several seasons" so they now have a sense of ownership of that particular stand area. You and your relatives (son-in-law) have been doing the same. If either of you or your relatives shoots a deer on your property and it runs to the other side of the fence or if you or they shoot across the fence and kill a deer. Then you will need permission from each other to retrieve the animal. I sounds like you have that but they don't . That will likely result in a confrontation given the already elevated since of frustration. My advice is to pow-wow with him and his relatives along with yours and try to come away with a sense of cooperation that will ensure all involved have an enjoyable hunt and the good neighbor policy survives. 

Because if you really think about it, you are both in exactly the same position but right now back to back. Better turn it face to face and make it work.


----------



## Ben Fishing (Aug 2, 2010)

Sounds like a meeting of the minds is needed before the season begins.
If it's a small parcel and you can't share pick hunting days, Monday, Weds, Fri, etc.


----------



## MassillonBuckeye (May 3, 2010)

For what it's worth, they aren't allowed to harass or intentionally disturb an active hunt. Lots of other good info here. Seems like your best bet is going to be to steer clear of them.

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/1533



> 1533.03 Prevention of authorized hunting, trapping, or fishing prohibited.
> 
> (A) No person shall purposely prevent or attempt to prevent any person from hunting, trapping, or fishing for a wild animal as authorized by this chapter by any of the following means:
> 
> ...


----------



## buckeye dan (Jan 31, 2012)

Change the landscape. Fell trees and drag brush along your edge of the property line making a natural barricade that the deer can't cross. If you lay it out right, you can create funnels well into your property away from the neighbors sight then hunt that spot. Any deer traveling the area will be forced to use your travel lanes.

You are essentially closing the door and eliminating your neighbors hunting spot in one blow. The deer may still use the field but they will have to walk around your walls of brush to do so when leaving your property. Hunt those wall edges and forget the neighbors.


----------



## cfioritto (Mar 25, 2012)

What if the neighbors do the same and block the deer to stay on their property. That doesn't help the good neighbor vibe. Just hunt your land and he hunts his unless you want to allow them to shoot onto your property to be fair.


----------



## samiam (Jan 6, 2011)

Try and talk to them. Find out what their exact problem is. The two of you may be able to come up with a solution that works for all involved. Or maybe you will learn that they are just total Aholes but at least you will know exactly where they stand.


----------



## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

If a non confrontational meeting can't be arranged or takes place without mutual agreement, I would clear and plant a food plot on the other side of your property, create and don't disturb a bedding area away from the treeline and create the route blockage/direction funnel as recommended. get in touch with your area Game Warden and appraise him of the situation and ask for his cooperation should your have future tress passers.


----------



## buckeye dan (Jan 31, 2012)

cfioritto said:


> What if the neighbors do the same and block the deer to stay on their property. That doesn't help the good neighbor vibe. Just hunt your land and he hunts his unless you want to allow them to shoot onto your property to be fair.


I didn't mean block the deer onto either property. I am talking about creating artificial travel corridors that intersect away from where the neighbors can see while hunting.

Think of a V where the bottom point of the V is well into the OP's property. The neighbors can continue to hunt the fence line anywhere they want but the deer will be funneled into a predictable location off their property and out of their view.

Short of fencing the entire place and trapping the deer in, you can't make them stay on anyone's property. What you can do is change the shape of the funnel to coax them into using different travel corridors away from the neighbors and a lot of that can be done out of their view unless they trespass.


----------



## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

One thing you don't mention is if they are gun hunting, bow hunting or all season hunting. Personally, I would just go hunting and ignore him and his antics. It is frustrating but why just give up on your spot because he came in the picture.
I have a similar situation where I hunt (except he'll actually cross the line and hunt my stand if he thinks I'm not there) We do talk to each other on occasion and we're cordial when we do. Sometimes I'm in my stand and I can see him in his stand but I won't leave. I figure it drives him just as crazy as it does me. Over the years (37 years to be exact)I have out lasted many other hunters and they finally just give up and go somewhere else.
I wouldn't be confrontational but more complacent. You got to figure if they're out driving around in a pick-up truck to harass you it's messing they're hunting time too. If they keep the harassment up I'd would take a video or 2 and then I would have a chat with them. If that didn't help, that's when I would call the game warden and give him the videos. I honestly don't think it will go that far.
Good luck with it.


----------



## ostbucks98 (Apr 14, 2004)

im having similar problems myself..my neighbor sold all of his timber last year and last season decided to setup right on property line watching my side that is still standing timber.

Sent from my ZTE-Z990G using Ohub Campfire mobile app


----------



## Hardtop (Nov 24, 2004)

Thanks for all the input guys....I will follow up on the written permission to be on his land to recover deer etc. Also these guys are just gun hunters as a far as I know........which does allow us/me to bow hunt the area, but as i said last year they made a point to come in on saturday morning and intentionally disrupt our hunt in the first week of Novemeber, prime rut. I have also made some coppies of ORC 1533.03 to give to my neighbor if this continues. The situation just really sucks...I have enough other land I wouldn't need to hunt there but there is a princilap involved as well. I hate to give a bully his way, it just encourages them to screw others over as well. At the very least I plan to put up a really nice ( BIG) sign right against their blind that warns against shooting my direction as my cabin is only 1/4 mile straight down that hill........ HT


----------



## lotaluck (Dec 17, 2009)

buckeye dan said:


> Change the landscape. Fell trees and drag brush along your edge of the property line making a natural barricade that the deer can't cross. If you lay it out right, you can create funnels well into your property away from the neighbors sight then hunt that spot. Any deer traveling the area will be forced to use your travel lanes.
> 
> You are essentially closing the door and eliminating your neighbors hunting spot in one blow. The deer may still use the field but they will have to walk around your walls of brush to do so when leaving your property. Hunt those wall edges and forget the neighbors.


That there is some good stuff. This subject comes up yearly and this is by far the best sounding solution. Probably be a lot of work and may be a little late in the year but I would definitly consider this advise.

We have done this on the property i hunt andnit works although we did it for diferent reasons.


----------



## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

Hardtop said:


> ... these guys are just gun hunters as a far as I know.......* I hate to give a bully his way*, it just encourages them....... HT


That was kind of my point, I wouldn't give in to the guys. I hunt all the seasons so if I miss out on a few days of gun season it doesn't matter that much. If he came over and talked to me and it was one of his few only options I would probably give him some room.


----------



## treytd32 (Jun 12, 2009)

buckeye dan said:


> Change the landscape. Fell trees and drag brush along your edge of the property line making a natural barricade that the deer can't cross. If you lay it out right, you can create funnels well into your property away from the neighbors sight then hunt that spot. Any deer traveling the area will be forced to use your travel lanes.
> 
> You are essentially closing the door and eliminating your neighbors hunting spot in one blow. The deer may still use the field but they will have to walk around your walls of brush to do so when leaving your property. Hunt those wall edges and forget the neighbors.


did this on my property instead of making my neighbor burn down his permanent tower blind he constructed on my land. He lives out there so I figured if I piss him off next thing I know my stands, cameras, and probably tractor will turn up missing when I go out there. I haven't checked over the last couple months to see if he found and cut up the trees yet or not though.. wouldn't surprise me as he cut a lane roughly 80 yards long and 20 wide through the woods my side of the line last year

maybe I should introduce some termites to the base of it


----------



## Mad-Eye Moody (May 27, 2008)

You can do this pretty easily. It does not take much work at all. I have closed deer trails with single branches propped up just right and know of guys who have hunted swamps and cut of routes tying cat tails together. It works instantly.

I feel for you. I agree that a confrontation with the owner is not in your best interest in the long run. You have to assume that he has more pressure to appease his relatives than his neighbor.

If you want to see a real lack of courtesy take up duck hunting on public land. Lol.


----------

