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Shotgun hunting/ hunter harassment question.

Keith

New Member
Hey there, new here. I have a question for you guys, or opinions. First of all I'm from North east Iowa. Very passionate hunter. My problem is kind of a long story but I'll try to make it short. We have 160 acre farm that I would say is prime whitetail hunting habitat but we have made it that way over the years with alot of time. Spend a lot of money on planting a couple thousand trees and food plots over the years and have around 90 acres of crp the rest are tress and food plots. My problem is this.. during second season shotgun, I sit all day. Every year another neighboring group surrounds our property and shoot into it and walk around it to get the deer pushed out while I'm on our property hunting. The part I'm curious on is there is nothing to hunt around our property. Bare fields on 3 side, on the forth side there is a dry run creek with some grass about 200 yards,Screenshot_20211128-203704_Maps.jpg so they are basically hunting our land without actually being on it. I've talked to the DNR and they just replied the we need to get along. Well the past 2 years they have messed up my hunt by walking around our property in the field. Now isn't this some kind of hunter harassment or something. The dnr even said they know they are just walking around ours to get the deer out but they say there is nothing they can do. Sorry for the long post but I'm looking for opinions. Thanks
 
Although it is not at all good sportsmanship, nor is it ethical IMO, I don't know how you could reasonably stop someone from "hunting" on land that they own/have permission on that is adjacent to you. BUT...they certainly cannot shoot into your property and if they are doing that then I would actively try to get them nailed for that. Beyond that, I think you are in a pickle. I would try to sweeten the cover/holding power of the land in the very center of your property, because I doubt the other guys are going to switch tactics anytime soon.
 
Shooting into your property is wrong and dangerous. Beyond that, not much you can do about them walking the property line. If they really are shooting into your ground, try and document that. I'm guessing that won't be easy to do. I wish I had better advice but people can be A holes and unfortunately that's part of life.
 
I would go have a polite conversation with all of your surrounding neighbors and let ALL of them know these guys are creating a dangerous situation. Maybe they will lose access on some of your neighbors land. Also let them know that if it happens again with shooting into your property, that you will call the Sheriff and C/O to report the situation. No ones life is worth a deer. It's OK to bluff a little to get this to stop, they probably don't know you have already tried to go this route and it might scare them a bit.

Another thing you could do is set up some cheap pop up blinds along the property lines where they can see them and hang some Orange inside so they think there are hunters all along the edges of your property. Just my .02 cents. Good luck.
 
It's all good advice. We have talked to the land owners and they never really said much. But it's hard to talk hunting to a farmer who wants to see all the deer dead. And this group just don't care, 5 years ago we got 6 of them for trespassing and shooting deer over the fence. We thought that would be the end of it. And I try to document stuff. And I park in the driveway, so when they drive around it, they know I'm in there. Its just very frustrating, the past 3 years my hunts have been ruined by them chasing the deer out. And as far as putting trees along the fence, my father actually owns a big tree spade. And he moved around 500 cedar trees along the road and on one of the fence rows the is on a hill. I know my options aren't looking good at this point, it's just soo frustrating.
 
Saw your zip code. They happen to be Amish? They were doing something similar up here and when they surrounded the timber the last time they didn't realize someone had built a house in there and it ended up with holes in it. Like others have said not much you can do unless they are shooting onto your property and even then it would be hard to prove unless you had video. I'd also be in favor of leasing thr deer hunting rights from the farmer and agreeing to take out a certain number of deer and tell them you will also trap the coon/beavers if present and shoot some turkeys as those really do damage to the corn also.
 
Probably easier said than done but I'd try to get video evidence of them shooting into your property. Also I liked the idea of setting up a few cheap popup blinds near the borders and hanging some blaze orange in them to make them think someones in the blind.
 
Maybe have someone walk the perimeter of your property the same time the other group is there and take a video? I'd make it know to them if they're just shooting their guns at nothing while on video, while you're hunting, that can be considered hunter's harassment. Had a guy who would ride his 4 wheeler back and forth along his fence just after we'd go in. Had video of us walking in with a time on the video and about 15 minutes later here he come. DNR told him if happens again they'll charge him. It did stop him from doing that.
 
Saw your zip code. They happen to be Amish? They were doing something similar up here and when they surrounded the timber the last time they didn't realize someone had built a house in there and it ended up with holes in it. Like others have said not much you can do unless they are shooting onto your property and even then it would be hard to prove unless you had video. I'd also be in favor of leasing thr deer hunting rights from the farmer and agreeing to take out a certain number of deer and tell them you will also trap the coon/beavers if present and shoot some turkeys as those really do damage to the corn also.
No this particular group isn't Amish but I know what your talking about, they trespass all over but we don't get them around us to much unless the deer population is down.
 
Me personally I'd be sitting there waiting for them to pull in to hunt and confront them all face to face. I'd let them know there are hunters in there already and if there are shots fired across the fence there is going to be major problems. If you have a good relationship with your CO see if he would set up their robo deer or a decoy and see if you can catch them in the act. Probably pretty far fetched but you never no. Or maybe forget about hunting yourself and you and some buddies sit along the fence videoing them the whole way and try and catch them in act.
 
That sucks! The only thing I can think of to deter them from that is to fence in the timber so they can't get a deer out if they do shoot into the timber but that is costly. Either that or post it and set cameras out to capture them trespassing so you can charge them?

Welcome aboard Keith!
 
Wow, what idiots. Good luck, it’s tempting to fire one over there head when they shoot into your property, but I know that is not the answer. How close to your line do they get ??
 
Wow, what idiots. Good luck, it’s tempting to fire one over there head when they shoot into your property, but I know that is not the answer. How close to your line do they get ??
They couldn't walk any closer to the fence without being on top of it. We have tried talking to them for several years but at this point they do it just to mess with us. I just wish there was something legal we could do. I appreciate all your opinions but we have tried everything besides putting up cheap blinds around the outside, they have enough guts, I don't think that will bother them one bit.
 
How married to this ground are you? I know you've invested a lot into it. Any chance of trading it for acreage in a better neighborhood? I'm afraid if you're surrounded by landowners who have a very different view on land use than you do, you're going to be frustrated forever.
 
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