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What would you do?

hunthoyt

hunthoyt

Member
So today, I decided to go scout a piece of property roughly 200 acres that is owned by my girlfriends parents. Prior to driving out to the property we spoke with the land manager and we were told no one has or had permission to hunt or trap on the property. Only the farmer who rents the crop ground is permitted to be on the property and he also does not hunt this property either. Well after 45 minutes of walking I found 4 treestands and 1 trail camera. My first thought was to remove them all and place a note on the trees explaining who they can call to pick up their property from, however if I remove property that does not belong to me or my girlfriends parents can I be in the wrong at all? What would you do?
 
I would leave a note, and try and find who owns them first. If no luck, then I would take them down. It could all be an honest misunderstanding. Last year, I had an uncle who owns a neighboring section to us (that I have hunted on and off for the last 4 years) who ended up jacking with my stands. He didn't realize a few stands were mine and decided to take the bottom ladder off of all my ladderstands. Needless to say, I was beyond pissed. A simple misunderstanding that could have been taken care of with a couple phone calls.

Long story short, he thought they belonged to his daughter's ex. So, since that didn't end well he thought he would get him back. All he ended up doing was ruining a couple of my hunts and making me beyond mad.
 
Yes we have exclusive access to the property. After speaking with her parents they asked me to take down all the stands and trail cameras. Their biggest worry is someone falling or getting hurt and trying to sue them for it even if they are tresspassing. I will be going out Wednesday and placing more No Trespassing signs all the way around the property including a few spots close to the timber where the stands were located.
 
If you put a note with a phone #..."Call this number to get your stuff back"...inside a plastic bag and tack it to the tree after you take the stands, there's an off chance you'll find out who it is.
 
I have been on a couple sides of this one. I hunt farms that I do not have exclusive rights to. One of the other people who have permission removed one of my stands because they thought it was someone else's. I don't know what made them think they had the right to do that since they don't own the ground and they did not even ask the landowner. I was pissed. We worked it out, but it could have been avoided.

A year or two later I found a stand that I did not think belonged on this property. I left a note in a ziplock on it and the guy called me. Turns out he had permission to be there after all. The landowner remembered him after I reminded her. I agree with the other guys, leave notes so the people can get their stuff back. Could be an honest mistake . . . .
 
MadisonB&C said:
If you put a note with a phone #..."Call this number to get your stuff back"...inside a plastic bag and tack it to the tree after you take the stands, there's an off chance you'll find out who it is.
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I did this on a piece of land my buddy leased in Ringold county a couple years ago. Trespasser had a bait station & treestands right on them - I took them all & left a note saying I would give them back but he needed to call me. The guy did call me and chewed my butt. I laughed. I asked him "are you seriously chewing me out when you're trespassing & hunting over bait"?!?!?!? I agreed to meet him at a gas station to get stuff back. He started chewing me out there- I said "fine, I'll give your stuff to the CO and you can sort it out with him". This was after I already spoke with the CO. He finally simmered down and had a second or glimmer of being reasonable so I gave him his stuff and he huffed off. I cannot understand folks like that. Yes, leave the note, leave or take the stuff but surely make sure you get folks off that are not supposed to be there.
 
Honest mistakes might happen, but my rule of thumb is people generally know what they are doing. Too many times they play that accident card and it drives me nuts. I had the same thing happen on property I leased new this year. I encountered 6 tree stands. Two of which were right on a neighboring landowners line. I went over and asked about them saying I leased the ground. His wife was adamant they weren't his and he never trespasses. I said ok and I wanted to check because the landowner directed me to take them. I took both the stands and haven't heard from them. Although the guy who had permission did tell me that the other gentleman's wife 'gave away' his stands. He wouldn't own it because he knew he was trespassing.
 
hunthoyt said:
Yes we have exclusive access to the property. After speaking with her parents they asked me to take down all the stands and trail cameras. Their biggest worry is someone falling or getting hurt and trying to sue them for it even if they are tresspassing. I will be going out Wednesday and placing more No Trespassing signs all the way around the property including a few spots close to the timber where the stands were located.
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Good for you! Glad you are able to control this, and more than likely you will get a former trespasser out of the woods.
 
I wonder how many properties are like this. Last year one of the landowners I talked to said no one else had contacted her about bow hunting the property so I would have it all to myself for November. (Usually there are 3-4 of us) Well, about my 2nd sit there was a truck on the other side of the property and the guy was waiting when I got to my truck. After talking to him I found out his kid had killed a nice buck during youth season. The guy hadn't talked to the landowner since the year before and he had all sorts of stands up that the land owner was clueless about.
 
meyeri said:
I wonder how many properties are like this. Last year one of the landowners I talked to said no one else had contacted her about bow hunting the property so I would have it all to myself for November. (Usually there are 3-4 of us) Well, about my 2nd sit there was a truck on the other side of the property and the guy was waiting when I got to my truck. After talking to him I found out his kid had killed a nice buck during youth season. The guy hadn't talked to the landowner since the year before and he had all sorts of stands up that the land owner was clueless about.
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Realtors land for sale ads often say, "has not been hunted in years". Well that usually means someone else has hunted it without their knowledge.
 
I would also talk to the guy renting the ag land and make sure he didnt give somebody permission. Depending on how the rental agreement is they may be the ones with the right to give hunting permission.
 
I actually spoke to the gentelman renting the ag land and he has not given any permission for anyone to hunt the property. He also stated it is in the rental agreement that he does not have hunting rights nor the right to give permission which helped reassure me it wasnt on his end. I currently have 24 signs I will be putting up tonight as well as 5 signs made up stating that the individual is tresspasing on private property and a contact number if they would like their property back. They are laminated and will be posted to the trees the stands are in as well as the tree the camera is on tomorrow once I remove them.
 
Yeah, leave a note.. I always write my name and number on my stuff. On my own family land I have removed many stands every year. NO ONE has permission on that ground, but boy oh boy do they keep flocking to it because of the big deer...
 
I would make sure you find out who's stuff you are pulling down before you put up anything of your own. Things tend to disappear.
 
I had to deal with this also, left a note on the stand and the guy called me. He also cussed and ranted for a while but once he settled down he ended up wanting to be my buddy and take me goose hunting...LOL!
 
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