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Road hunting

J

jason

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In the area I hunt, road hunting has become very very popular due to the license hunting perserve that is right across the road. Its not uncommon to see 3 to 4 different vehiclas drive the square mile in an hour or 2. I've been looking in the hunting regulations trying to find if it is even illega, but all I can find is discharging a shot gun with a slug or a discharging a rifle over or off of a road is illegal, not bird shot. It's not a nuisance to me (yet), but I think its out of hand! Can some one help me out, is it legal or not?
Thanks and good hunting
jason
 
I dont think there is anything that you can do about people just driving and looking at deer, is that all they are doing? Or is there more?
 
what I mean by road hunting is: driving around until a game animal is seen, (in this case pheasants) shooting them off of the road (person out of a vehical), or actually getting in the ditches and shooting them. If a person was in a ditch who's property is it?

I know I'm going to stur something up here, but I don't care its my opinion. But I think road hunters are just LAZY, taking the easy way to get game. Even if it is legal, to me it's not 100 % fair chase! Where is the skill, or fun of it???
 
This is from the DNR rules and reg for 2004:
- from a motorboat or sailboat
under power. A craft under power
may be used to retrieve dead or
crippled birds, except crippled birds
may not be shot from such craft under
power.

- from or with the aid or use of any
motor vehicle or other motor-driven land
conveyance or any aircraft, except that
paraplegics and single or double leg
amputees may take from any stationary
motor-driven land conveyance.

Shooting Rifle Over Water or
Highway
You cannot shoot any rifle on or
over any of the public highways or
waters of the state or any railroad rightof-
way. You cannot discharge a shotgun
shooting a slug, pistol or revolver on or
over a public roadway (see page 10 for
diagram of public roadway).

Protection of Public Hunting Areas
If a public hunting area was in
place prior to the construction of an
adjacent feedlot or building inhabited by
people or livestock and such construction
occurred on or after May 14, 2004,
then consent is not required to shoot on
the public hunting area or within 200
yards of the feedlot or building. This act
protects existing uses of public hunting
areas from infringements caused by
new construction and development.
As used in this subsection, public
hunting area means public lands or
waters available for hunting by the
public and identified as a public hunting
area by the city, county, state or federal
government.

hope this helps, other wise call the DNR,
 
i see people hunting ditches all the time. in some cases that is the best habitat for birds. now i'm not taking their sides for as you say, it's uber lazy, but i don't think they're in the wrong. like supertec said, call your local game warden, it's often times easier than getting a half dozen replies on here that start like mine...

"i was under the impression/assumption"

get the info straight from the horses mouth.
smile.gif
maybe BlindSow can help us out.
 
Road hunting is my ultimate pet peeve. 90% of the hunters up here are too lazy to get in the bush or to take walk. They just drive the grids hoping a good buck crosses one or that one may stand around on a roadside alfalfa field. Sadly many big bucks are shot this way every year. Last weekend 2 hawgs were caught out near the road by my place at midday, I'm glad that nobody happened upon them while they were out. The reason i hate it so much is that it screws up deer movement and is unsafe. Guys will shoot right down a grid road if the right buck is standing on it. They also are usually so fixated on what is in the field they don't notice what is behind their target. On more than one occassion I've had to take cover while rifle hunters were pounding away in my direction from 800 yards away. It's illegal to shoot across or down a grid but it still happens all of the time. I wish our DNR would make it illegal to shoot within 50 yards of the road, would eleiminate the dangers associated with it or at least some of them. Not much a hunt story when a guy drives up to a buck and shoots it out the window yet I hear guys boasting about it all of the time.
 
anyone that thinks road hunting is actual hunting has issues. so you used your 350 cubic inch 300 horse motor 4x4 pickup to cut off a deer and then shoot the deer from the ditch on someone elses field. yah that is really something i would take pride in you really worked your ASS off for that one!
 
Living in the city and not knowing a lot of local farmers who will give you access to their land, I will ditch hunt from time to time for Pheasants, but never for anything else. It is legal to do so as long as I don't shoot within 200 yards of a building. Sometimes it's not worth the hassle as a lot of people think you are doing something illegal and you are always getting people running out of their house or chasing you down in their trucks. I just carry the hunting regulations with me and kindly point out that I'm not hunting their land. Ditches between the gravel roads and the fence are fair game. I try to keep out as remote as possible, but it's hard to find a stretch of road without a house or building on it. Thus the reason we don't have a rifle season in Iowa for Deer. I think it's more difficult getting access to land for bird hunting than it is to get access for deer hunting.
 
Seems those pheasants love the ditches.
Back in school we hunted the ditches a lot for pheasants, but usually parked and walked them.
 
ditch hunting for birds is legal, but just keep your dog under control. if the dog ducks under the fence, that is tresspass, and is illegal
 
I should keep my mouth shut but I guess I won't. First I don't pheasant hunt anymore as I am handicapped and can't walk in the kind of habitat that they live in. I don't believe that roadhunting is wrong, as long as it is done as the DNR describes. I wouldn't want to keep someone from hunting for birds because they have a handicap. I'm not saying that this is the case for your area Jason but it is something to think about
shrug[1].gif
. I know that I find myself thinking about a lot of things differantly than I did 5 yrs ago.
Maybe the person you saw was not able to get out and walk for any distance or as you say maybe he is just lazy. I feel that you should try to find out before you start to get your shorts all wadded up over it. Nothing tweeks me more than to have someone jumping to conclusions without knowing all the facts.Who knows maybe he/she will turn out to be a new friend or even a new hunting buddy??
I'm not saying that everyone that roadhunts is handicapped or that all handicapped people roadhunt I just wanted you to think about it before you jump
31045-cheers2.gif
 
well 9999 people out of 10000 people that hunt are probably not in a wheel chair and there is so much poaching that goes on that its a joke and you can't legally shoot on another persons property. when you walk those ditches are telling me that you shoot the deer in the ditch and then when it dies you go and ask the land owner permission to go and get it. i bet most road hunters don't.
 
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ditch hunting for birds is legal, but just keep your dog under control. if the dog ducks under the fence, that is tresspass, and is illegal

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I need to see the Iowa code for this! There is a local coyote runner who said he can't control where his dogs run. I told him I thought otherwise, that if he kept them in the kennel in the back of his truck, then he was controllng where they went. I was against his dogs running across my place as I had planned to pheasant hunt that day and didn't want his yote dogs busting my best cover. He trolls the gravel roads after a fresh snow looking for coyote tracks crossing the road, then sends the dogs on the trail. I think this is the worst form of road hunting. He is intentionally sending his radio collared dogs onto land that he hasn't sought permission to be on.
Teeroy, cite Iowa code that prohibits this, as I wanna know.
Pheasant hunting in the ditch is much less intrusive and is "more" legal.
 
I was asked by the landowner of one of the places I hunt to come when I could in the evenings and park my truck near his land and just watch to deter road hunters/poachers are what they really are. It's actually kind of fun to see the guys drive by and scowl at you.
grin.gif
 
i'm short on time right now, but it is in the hunting regulations booklet that the dnr puts our every year. tell that guy that if his dogs are on your property, you have the right to shoot them. maybe a dead dog won't be worth the hassle. best bet would be to call the sherrif
 
The first thing out of this guys mouth when I pulled up was, "Do you own this land?". Kind of gives away the fact that he doesn't know who owns what (at the time his dogs were across the road on the neighbors). During the ensuing "discussion", he threatened that if I was to shoot one of his dogs (and I never mentioned or alluded that I would shoot them), he would shoot one of our horses as retribution. The CO said to try to have a camcorder or tape recorder with me next time I speak with this guy. The CO also suggested trying to get footage of him setting the dogs on a trail. As it was, it was only a discussion between the two of us, no one to back up what was said. I have seen him and his gang working the general area since then (he lives about 5 miles east of me) but not at our place.


Some might wonder what the big deal is, he's hunting coyotes, right? Well, you get a group of people in 4X4's with CB's and radio tracked dogs. You let the dogs run across property you haven't bothered to ask permission for (why bother as who knows where that coyote will lead the dogs?). You surround the section and try to get a shot at the coyote with a high power rifle as it crosses the road. Now THAT's hunting!
 
I don't have a problem with hunters road hunting for rabbits or pheasants. A few years ago, the Warden's Diary in the Iowa Conservationist had a short piece about a couple of elderly hunters that he had watched a couple of times legally hunting the ditches. Some people still have a strong passion for hunting but less of a passion or ability to be able to climb the hills and walk the distances on private property.

teeroy - Your dog can cross the fence and you can also legally go after your dog so long as you are unarmed. I thought the dnr’s booklet said exactly that but read it but didn't see clarification. This is especially true for the beagles, coon dogs and coyote dogs. The last time I looked at dogs, they still don't have steering wheels on them.
 
i didn't mean people going on private land to retrieve their dogs. i was refering to people intentionally sending their dog onto private land to flush birds. i see that alot when people road hunt
 
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