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Hunter harassment??? Stories??

Sligh1

Sligh1

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Don’t know how these popped up on my YouTube but they did & I watched snippets out of both. 2 different types.
1) it seems to me from what I hear- waterflowl hunters experience this maybe the worst??? I don’t waterfowl hunt but talking to lots that do - seems common. Fights among hunters, drama, shenanigans, etc. True?
2) u guys deal with anything “over the top” for harassment?
3) hunters & “drama” or Fueds between hunters- non stop it seems like. Territorial, competition, jealousy, whatever - just a drama filled sport. Which is one element of the sport that sucks. Drama gets old. Why I own what I own & I got sick of it even in my teens.

Guess my best story is with a buddy…. I went with him, in MI. Some maggot infested hippy loser went through the woods opening day with an AIR HORN & this had happened multiple years. That year (before cell phones) - my buddy (think we were 16????) brought his sling shot. He was darn good with it. Had these bigger plastic shot type things…. Pelted the dude with the air horn. Chased him & got him in the back on his retreat. That was pretty funny.
Pretty low key now but guys still gotta deal with this nowadays right?!?! How common is it?
Wonder if URBAN deer hunters deal with more issues too???


 
I’ve never had it with deer. I’ve had my share of trespassers and poaching but not harassment. With that said your waterfowl guess is spot on. Up here is pretty relaxed though compared to down south but, it still happens up here.

I was a commercial waterfowl guide in Arkansas and Missouri for 7 years. By the time I was down there you couldn’t commercial guide legally on public ground anymore but the cut throat, back stabbing on private was bad. Days off we’d head to the trees which is where you needed to go to hunt flooded timber if you couldn’t call in a favor and the stuff you’d see would blow your mind. There’s story after story of jealousy and hate. Boats, trucks, hunters, decoys, etc all messed with. All is open and fair game down there on public, just google duck hunting boat race. Your best best was to make a local buddy with local plates that everyone knew.

It has gotten better and the old boys don’t patrol their “grand daddy’s” hole as bad as they used to but it still happens.
 
Always seems to be the waterfowl hunts for some reason. Had a warden hunt with us some years back so he could witness it. It was so fun seeing the look on the peoples faces when they got charged!!

I deal with it probably once every 2 years now while waterfowl hunting, mainly when multiple groups have permission for same landowners or when the neighbors get bent out of shape. Had a many of hunts ruined by it for sure.
 
Ha, ya waterfowl is almost comical.
Was sitting in blind with a nice spread of Bigfoot decoys on our own barley stubble field. Neighbor and his two little kids and I. His daughter says what's that truck doing? Drives right past the No Trespassing sign, thru gate and proceeds to try to chase our decoys off the field!
Was a guide for an outfitter that was trying to get the "birds" to go check out the field he had his hunters sitting on, lol.
 
Here's a few I experienced.

I went pheasant hunting with some friends' years ago when we had some! On our first push we flushed a few roosters when there was a group on the other side of a wooded raw heading the opposite direction. After we passed ech other, about 70 yards apart I flushed a rooster that sailed up towards the treetops and let him have it. The bird went down in the ditch and someone from the other group filed a shot. I walked down and found the bird still alive so I head shot him. Seconds later a hunter from the other group came storming towards me. He immediately started yelling and cursing at me that he shot that bird. I kind of snickered and replied that I hit the bird but he went ballistic I tried to pick up the pheasant. He was shaking and had the gun pointed in my direction. As he came up to me he reached down to pick up the pheasant and I stepped on it when he tried to grab it, he flipped out as the other members tried to calm him and get him back to the other side of the ditch. He tried to pull it out from under my foot so I said if you really need it that bad you can have it as I put all my weight on the bird and kicked to him. Unbelievable behavior.

Another incident I came across a tree stand set up on just on my side of the farm I hunted. I left a note on the stand and kindly informed the person that the stand was not on the property he had permission to hunt and hung a stand about 25 yards away. I left my phone number and the guy called me all pissed off. I set him straight after he went off in a calm manner. Next thing I knew he got really nice and invited me to waterfowl hunt with him, yeah right....end of story.

Another. I had sole permission on a great farm for 18 years. I offered my labor to clear out the multiflowered-rose that took over the pasture after her husband died and she became a good friend and let me hunt. Things were great but her daughter hated hunting and had a fit. Her mother always said "don't worry about her, you can hunt there as long as I'm alive." Well, her daughter harassed me for years. On her way home from work if she saw my truck she would walk through the timber yelling "NO HUNTING, RUN DEER RUN". This happened many times, then she would stop at her mom's a cry about it but I just went about my hunting and her mom was great.
 
Was calling coyotes on a piece of county land.
1 came and and I killed it.
Got back to my truck and 5he farmer/rancher that own the adjacent land had me blocked in with his truck while holding my truck keys.
He said my shot "spooked" his cattle.
Said the sherif was on the way.
I said fine, but I'm leaving as I did nothing wrong..
He said, you aint leaving till he gets here.
I got your keys.
I was fairly nice untill it was time not to be nice.
I finally said, here's the deal, you WILL give me my keys,you WILLmove your truck,and if you say ONE MORE WORD, you WILL be picking your teeth of the road.
He just grunted,threw me my keys and left.
 
If I'm in the wrong, I'll take an ass chewing, but there's a limit to how much of it I'll take. If I'm not in the wrong, I'll take less of an ass chewing or none at all. I'll be pleasant until I've had my fill. Then I'll be curt and stern with my response in an attempt to shut things down. If the ass chewing persists or escalates, things will and do get ugly.

The guys in that first video handled that old asshole way better than I think I would have.

I was in my old stomping grounds, with my out-of-town plates. Parked on the side of a gravel road, beside a piece of ground I was going to bow hunt (with permission), sitting in my car, talking on my phone. It was about the only spot with good cellular reception. Old boy pulls up beside me, gave me the icky face and started barking at me, "Who the F are you!?" "What the F are you doing here!?" I smiled and told him who I was, that I was talking on the phone, and that I was about to hunt this property with the landowners permission. He popped off a bit more, as I smiled and nodded. This old boy was pissed and thought he could bully me away. Nope. He had no idea that he would have had a couple of extra holes punched in him if I ever thought my life was in jeopardy. It would have sucked for everyone involved, but you just don't mess with people like that. Especially a stranger, in the middle of nowhere, and when they're probably hunting, because it's highly likely they're well-armed.

Outside of that, harassment has been pretty minimal. Some rude comments made from other hunters sharing crowded land, but you're going to have that from time to time.

Got my ass chewed for parking on the wrong side of a shared field entrance this past shotgun season. I was in the wrong and took my chewing, until the guy repeated himself like 19 times. I told him that I got it. It won't happen again, and that was enough. Same for the DNR officer who was on a fishing expedition as soon as he started chatting me up, and tried some BS with my landowners status. As soon as it was determined no tickets could / would be issued, I sternly said "Are we through here.". He gave me the icky face and asked what do you me are we through here. Exactly that. Yeah, we're through here. And off I went. (That one particular DNR officer is as crooked as they come BTW.)
 
I have had plenty of run ins with people- Coyote hunters around here like to trespass no matter what, because its "just a coyote"... I had a guy get mad because I "shot his deer" during slug season one year, after he shot AT it from a vehicle, didnt hit it, drove through a ditch and field, shot at me, and then I dumped the deer (safe shooting)...He got out, just screaming, called the DNR- the DNR had the NERVE to question if what I did was legal (as I was standing on private ground that I had permission on) and wanted to know how I got there, blah blah blah.... He literally made me show him my slug casing, where I was walking, compared the slug hole- it was STUPID. At the end, he said "If you feel MORALLY right about shooting this deer, there is nothing I can do about it" I said ok, tossed it in my dads pickup and we drove out. Meanwhile to find out, the other guy and the DNR officer were buddies and watching the deer...so they were pissed...it comes in all forms, and it sucks when you try to do everything the right way and still have to take it. I mean, you cant fly off the handle at an officer even though you are 100% in the clear.
 
Great ones guys!!!! U guys got some patience. Or maybe some of u don’t. ;). Ha!!! There’s some nutty people out there and every story so far- pretty commendable & reasonable.

I got one for you!!!!! Not quite hunting but I almost forgot!!!!! 3 witnesses on this one & one of them filmed the whole thing!!! Yes- this is on video on buddies phone!! :)

Buddy outside Des Moines 45 mins calls me LAST SUMMER…. “Neighbors cows been getting out for months. I’ve tried everything for months to hire dudes to build my portion of fence.” (His needed some work - I said- let’s just replace whole thing) & neighbor’s side was a joke. Like- so bad it’s laughable. Basically nothing there. Apparently this went on with previous owner for years!!!
Anyways - he doesn’t know how to build fence & was in a pickle. I said “u get supplies there & ready, I’ll put it up for free & bring my equipment”. Middle is summer, I was doing all I could to be a friend here…. 1600 feet of new fence.

So…. I’m ripping out old fence. Got helper marking where poles go. Made the braced ends & start putting t posts in. Looks amazing. First new fence there in at least 30-40 years. SO!!!!! This neighbor shows up. Starts chewing me out right out of the gate. Saying who knows what. “U ripped out one of my trees. U smashed an electric fence post”. Whatever. Starts F bombing me in 60 seconds or less. I walk away. He keeps following me. Told him to get away - “I’m helping put fence up. U got issue- call landowner, trustee or sheriff - I don’t care”.
Dude starts cranking on T posts I just put in, pulling them out and chucking them. Starts throwing things. Doesn’t want a fence up. Then starts following me. I walked away 3 times. I told him several times, “dude, don’t touch those posts”. Then he continues to follow me. K….. I’ll say it how it is…. I’m 44. I’m 6’1” & about 190… I’m no monster at all …. But I’m in great shape/strength. I don’t start fights, never have. I wrestled in high school & had “a few” fights that were very much justified - I didn’t lose them. This hillbilly drunk crazy man was maybe early 50’s. He was an out of shape big mouth that looked like he was winded from pulling the t-posts. Anyways…. He had one more toss of something, followed me and started the mouth. This was 4, 5, whatever - warnings into this from me.
After all that…. (Phone is still recording)…. I said “ok man, im tired of the threats & ur aggression. I warned u. Now, I’m inviting u, consequence-free…. Step across that fence. Let’s go”. He went silent. I said “if that’s a problem- let’s go step over the public roadway there- I will not call the police…. I’ve had it.” He went dead silent. “Come on tough guy!!” Silent for a minute. I waited. He wouldn’t come over. He didn’t say a word the rest of night & left. Finished the fence & now he had to redo or has order to rebuild his whole fence. Every neighbor that drove by stopped to thank me for building the fence “that lazy SOB been thorn in side of everyone here for decades. Thanks for fixing this!”
It was equivalent to the North Dakota guy above. Just a lunatic. So- I guess in any walk of life, can deal with this & we get tested.
 
Great story Skip.

Gotta admit, as a young hard_headed man, I was an asshole more times then I wanna admit.
One regret I have and think of often is harassing a young kid hunting geese over a pond I was hunting. I bullied the kid into leaving even though he also had permission.

Looking back, it was a terrible thing to do.
If I knew who he was, I'd hug him,say I'm very sorry and offer him a free bear hunt.
 
Man, I'm sure glad I don't have any stories to add to this one and I hope I don't in the future. Sucks for you guys who have been harassed - that could take the fun out of it real quick.

One hunt sticks out because the hunter was a dick but nothing more than that. My Dad and I were shotgun hunting public land at least 15 years ago - probably 20 - and he shot a real nice 8 (super ballpark of 140ish). The buck ran down the hill towards a few pushers (not with us as it was just my Dad and I sitting) and we heard shots. We got down to track the buck and one of the other hunters found him first. The hunter said the buck was chasing does (definitely not) and looked fine to him. My Dad didn't really fight the hunter on it and just let the guy keep it. The guy didn't necessarily do anything wrong but was persistent that it was his buck and didn't let a 10ish year old kid and his Dad take the buck.

I do the urban hunt, hunt a few pieces of public, hunt permission pieces, and one smaller family owned timber piece and have never ran into someone who was out there to make my hunt miserable. But I would say a lot of my interactions with people I run into while hunting generally turn out well because of how I handle myself.

Skips post above eerily reminded me of a neighbor of a permission farm a few years back who often let his horses onto the property I could hunt and everyone in the area disliked the guy. A few times he tried to be billy bad ass but that didn't get him anywhere.
 
Sligh1 said:
Great ones guys!!!! U guys got some patience. Or maybe some of u don’t. ;). Ha!!! There’s some nutty people out there and every story so far- pretty commendable & reasonable.

I got one for you!!!!! Not quite hunting but I almost forgot!!!!! 3 witnesses on this one & one of them filmed the whole thing!!! Yes- this is on video on buddies phone!! :)

Buddy outside Des Moines 45 mins calls me LAST SUMMER…. “Neighbors cows been getting out for months. I’ve tried everything for months to hire dudes to build my portion of fence.” (His needed some work - I said- let’s just replace whole thing) & neighbor’s side was a joke. Like- so bad it’s laughable. Basically nothing there. Apparently this went on with previous owner for years!!!
Anyways - he doesn’t know how to build fence & was in a pickle. I said “u get supplies there & ready, I’ll put it up for free & bring my equipment”. Middle is summer, I was doing all I could to be a friend here…. 1600 feet of new fence.

So…. I’m ripping out old fence. Got helper marking where poles go. Made the braced ends & start putting t posts in. Looks amazing. First new fence there in at least 30-40 years. SO!!!!! This neighbor shows up. Starts chewing me out right out of the gate. Saying who knows what. “U ripped out one of my trees. U smashed an electric fence post”. Whatever. Starts F bombing me in 60 seconds or less. I walk away. He keeps following me. Told him to get away - “I’m helping put fence up. U got issue- call landowner, trustee or sheriff - I don’t care”.
Dude starts cranking on T posts I just put in, pulling them out and chucking them. Starts throwing things. Doesn’t want a fence up. Then starts following me. I walked away 3 times. I told him several times, “dude, don’t touch those posts”. Then he continues to follow me. K….. I’ll say it how it is…. I’m 44. I’m 6’1” & about 190… I’m no monster at all …. But I’m in great shape/strength. I don’t start fights, never have. I wrestled in high school & had “a few” fights that were very much justified - I didn’t lose them. This hillbilly drunk crazy man was maybe early 50’s. He was an out of shape big mouth that looked like he was winded from pulling the t-posts. Anyways…. He had one more toss of something, followed me and started the mouth. This was 4, 5, whatever - warnings into this from me.
After all that…. (Phone is still recording)…. I said “ok man, im tired of the threats & ur aggression. I warned u. Now, I’m inviting u, consequence-free…. Step across that fence. Let’s go”. He went silent. I said “if that’s a problem- let’s go step over the public roadway there- I will not call the police…. I’ve had it.” He went dead silent. “Come on tough guy!!” Silent for a minute. I waited. He wouldn’t come over. He didn’t say a word the rest of night & left. Finished the fence & now he had to redo or has order to rebuild his whole fence. Every neighbor that drove by stopped to thank me for building the fence “that lazy SOB been thorn in side of everyone here for decades. Thanks for fixing this!”
It was equivalent to the North Dakota guy above. Just a lunatic. So- I guess in any walk of life, can deal with this & we get tested.
Click to expand...
Love it Skip! You allowed 3 or 4 more posts to be plucked than I probably would have, but IMO, that's exactly how that situation should have been handled. Bullies or people who behave poorly, like this, usually act that way because they haven't been called out and haven't had their asses handed to them. Kind of like a kid that has never been reprimanded being an absolute terror because of it. There's always a good chance that I'm going to lose that battle, but when I've had enough, I'm willing to take that chance. Sometimes the best lessons are the hardest ones to learn.
 
Bucksnbears said:
Great story Skip.

Gotta admit, as a young hard_headed man, I was an asshole more times then I wanna admit.
One regret I have and think of often is harassing a young kid hunting geese over a pond I was hunting. I bullied the kid into leaving even though he also had permission.

Looking back, it was a terrible thing to do.
If I knew who he was, I'd hug him,say I'm very sorry and offer him a free bear hunt.
Click to expand...
Too many people never truly realize that they've ever been in the wrong, like what you've described here. It takes alot to admit it. Also great learning experiences. I've got a few of these as well. Mainly from my younger years, and alcohol was usually involved, (not hunting related).

I said something to a classmate in HS once that was just rotten. Really pissed him off. I apologized to him when I ran into him 20 years later and he said had no memory of the incident. If that's the case, I was the only one who carried that around for decades. I learned a lesson either way.
 
Me and my best friend were out driving around during shotgun deer season way back in the late '70's. We saw a herd of deer way out in the middle of a section, so we decided to see if we could get permission to go after them. We pull down a long farm lane to be met by an irate, armed with a rifle, landowner who starts screaming at us to get out of there before we ever said a word. We did a quick U-turn. Some people....
 
I'll stretch the question a bit to cater to the best story I've got.

Long time ago back in michigan I caught this guy trespassing on land my dad owned for the second time. The guy thought he was sneaky and came in off the river. He had his pontoon tied to a tree. I circled around him back to my truck, grabbed a knife and a sharpie. I took a no trespassing sign off a tree, added some more explicit words to it with sharpie and set it on the pontoon seat. I then cut the rope from the boat and pushed the boat out into the river current. Bye bye! I left a bit of rope tied to tree intentionally. I never heard from or saw the guy again. :)
 
So one time long ago went to one of my tree stands to find not only a hunter in it , but had his son up in the tree as well.
I thought the situation over decided to take a different approach that I normally would have done.
I wanted to give him the teachable moment to his son who was probably bout 8.
Can u answer me?
Want r u doing in MY tree stand on MY PROPERTY.
He said he would get down and I never I seen him again.
 
I did some research a while back into that duck hunting situation that Skip shared. I’m pretty sure those kids still ended up getting charged with trespassing. Or something similar. The other dude was totally in the wrong for sure. But if I remember correctly, the landowner told them not to hunt where they set up and they did it anyway. Seemed like they may have been asking for trouble. Again, not justifying the other guys actions, he was completely unhinged.
 
I've had a couple run ins. Two here in Iowa. Just from other people that had permission on the same place I did, both turkey season. Both trying to bully/intimidate me and scare me off.

First one i was in my blind and the guy came out of his house storming across the cornfield and started to give me an earful. I wasnt going to have it, I got out of my blind and told him I have permission the same as him etc.

The following year on another piece my father and I parked along the road and were roosting some birds at dusk. On the way back to the car we noticed a pickup pulled over and a guy looking in the windows etc. We decided to just hang back along the treeline and wait/watch thinking he'd leave. After a few minutes we just walked up there. He started interrogating us etc and then said how he's hunted there for years and no one else has permission etc. I gave the landowners name and said ive hunted there 3 years etc and even killed a bird in 4th season there the previous year. Some awkward silence insued and he realized i was being legit. Then he starts telling me where to park etc when I come to hunt so he knows when I am there etc and giving me rules etc.

These couple of instances is a big part of why I ended up getting my own ground, so I dont have to deal with this as much. I still hunt permission pieces.

Also have had a couple instances when out of state with ranchers thinking they own the public ground.
 
a ssmall.guessing EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US has at one point did things we should not have done, just never got caught.
Hell, I spent many years doing it as a kid/young man.
I grew up in south moorhead mn.
Probably are few yards I haven't been in/fences I haven't climbed and backyard bird houses I haven't shot purple martens out of. (Wrist_Rocket).
Had a few scenarios but alway out ran the homeowners. Lol.
Any wild animal was fair game.
I could tell way too many horrible stories about intoxicated Bums as we called the the traveled by old trains.
But I won't. God knows and I fully intend to be reprimanded for my mean deeds.
 
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