Stands on the property line

[Mobuck]

This subject was brought up in another thread but I'll start one topic specific. Deer stands placed on or very close to property lines are always a source of conflict.
Our farms are surrounded by land owned by non-residents and/or 'leased for hunting' to non-local hunters. I deal with these hunters on a case specific basis and at the moment, we're in a fairly agreeable place. For instance, yesterday I got a text message yesterday from the Louisiana group who hunts literally on my south fence line letting me know they are on their way. They've been fairly cooperative for over a decade and don't overstep the property lines w/o checking in.
On the other hand, one farm is still a contentious stalemate and unfortunately isn't looking like getting better.
On our 'north farm'(bounded on all four sides by non-resident hunter groups), one neighboring landowner is a policeman from a KC MO suburb and we have an OK relationship. The rest of the fenceline hunters there are NOT at all considerate or communicative and it's confrontational at best. It's bad enough that I'm the only one who hunts that farm alone. This is the farm where someone cut our padlock off the gate and replaced it with one of their own last year. Unless that was a grave mistake in map reading, it was a serious overstep of acceptable 'farm country' behavior.

 

[JohnL]

I object to the fence cutting. Happened here a few times. Once I saw my herd sire bull laying down on the highway which I front. Cut fence. He loved to rest upon warm black top and compost piles. No fool, he.

 

[Gator89]

I hunt a farm in GA. We have multiple stands on the line.

Every acre that can be irrigated has a center pivot system on it, so the only trees for ladders and such are on the edges of the fields.

Would you prefer the neighbors to sit in the middle and shoot towards you?

Or sit on the line and shoot away from the neighboring property?

 

[peachhead]

I have a couple of stands near the line. But I know where the line is and I know where to shoot and where not to. Never had issues, but then again no one lives close either.

 

[contender]

Your issue happens all over the country. So many different ways that things can go and lead to good or bad relations.

I too have property that in one place,, a stand I have is close to a line. BUT,, I have a very good relationship with that neighbor and we've always respected each other & helped one another. I have his permission to recover any deer off my place that go onto his place. I can even legally hunt his place due to written permission, (that I don't use.) Plus,, by using a neck shot,, my deer never leave my property. But on a different section of my place,, a neighboring owner allowed a hunter to hunt,, and they built a stand within 25 yds of the line, facing my property, putting a food plot right up to the corner pin. They ignored my attempts at polite conversation & suggestions of how to be good neighbors.
So,, I cut a trail I could easily use to get there,, and about 2 weeks before the opening of each type of season, (archery, muzzleloader & then firearm) I'd drive my ATV through there near daylight & dusk. I'd park on MY side of that corner,, just sitting & idling. The guy hunting it got upset. He wanted to be aggressive. I pointed to my posted painting, ( NC allows purple paint to be used as a no trespass marker) saying I was on MY property, and I had the local game warden's number on my phone which was in my hand. I calmly & politely informed this guy that I had already spoken with the game warden about him & his unsafe positioning of his stand to my property & potentially me. He got a bit upset. He implied a threat of burning me out. What he DIDN'T know was I was recording our conversation. As I left,, I called the warden. I explained things. He happened to be nearby, and when they guy was coming out of the woods,, the warden confronted him. I was called by the warden to identify him as the aggressor. I also played my recording for the officer.
It was discovered the guy didn't have a license,, along with his threatening behavior.
He hasn't been back.

But it's often very hard to keep people off property or from doing things they should not do. Make good friends with the local wardens. They will be your best way to deal with people who refuse to obey posted signs, cut locks, fences, gates etc. Especially out of state people who have a LOT more to lose financially when caught.

 

[gnappi]

My family had property which had apple and pear trees on it that had a boundary on New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) controlled land.

Luckily the DEC land was very far from a public access point and I never saw anyone back there within a mile + of our house. I kinda miss that house and it's property and when I moved to Florida I intended to eventually buy something up along the northern border with Georgia but it never happened :-(

 

[mexicanjoe911]

I worked a large cattle ranch and we always had trespassers. most of the time we just told them not to come back. Once we had a repeat offender. We took his keys and he pushed his 3 wheeler 1/2 mile to the road. Some people just dont listen

 

[krw]

If you own or lease the land it is nobody's business where you put or place a stand.

 

[Fox Mike]

Some years ago my brother-in-law and I were hunting on family property on MD's eastern shore. We had looked the area over a few weeks before and positioned ourselves in two locations that were where we could see each other but not be on top of each other. I was sitting patiently waiting when sudden;y a flash of white off to my right. I slowly turned and leveled my rifle in the general direction when suddenly a guy walks down the path wiping his nose with a white handkerchief. I waited till he was right next to me then HOLLERED "what the hell are you doing here and do you have any idea how stupid it is to flash anything white in deer season/" He told me he was looking for his buddy. I explained that there was no one else hunting anywhere withing five acres of us. He sulked off the way he came.

 

[Mobuck]

"If you own or lease the land it is nobody's business where you put or place a stand."
When the stand/blind faces the other guy's property it is.

 

[krw]

"If you own or lease the land it is nobody's business where you put or place a stand."
When the stand/blind faces the other guy's property it is.

No, it still is none of your business. And it will stay none of your business until they shoot something on your property

 

[contender]

"If you own or lease the land it is nobody's business where you put or place a stand."

Re-read my post. If I was on MY property,, and he was hunting in a manner that would allow a bullet to LEAVE his leased property,, and hit me or someone else on my property,, it's unsafe & not ethical. But as a Hunter Safety instructor,, SAFETY being the BIG part of everything,, this is no different than a shooting range.
If you shoot at ANY type of target you should know what is beyond the target & have a safe backstop.

The guy I had issues with,, wanted to see & be able to shoot down a right-of-way for a power line as well,, that was on MY property.

If you want to build your stand on the line & face it AWAY from my property,, I have zero problems. And in my case it could have been EASILY done that way.

If you are on your property,, and shoot at something on my property,, or even if it's on your property,, and you miss or have a pass through,, who is going to be held liable for killing or injuring me or my family? My cameras will help prosecute the shooter,, and also be evidence in a civil lawsuit.
Nobody's business,, I politely disagree when it comes to SAFETY!

 

[Wvfarrier]

We have had big issues with this kinda nonsense. My property lays in an L-Shape and as a result blocks several other farms on their back sides. We ride our horses in there (dense woods) when its not hunting season. A couple times we have had rifle rounds zip past us from neighbors shooting on their property but the projectiles crossing over onto our land. The DNR has been out multiple times and has even cited them but they continue to do. I tried being civil and told them to call me when they were gonna shoot so we would stay away. I was told to go commit an impossible act upon myself....that it was their land and they would do what they wanted. I informed them that if another round came near me or my wife I would return fire immediately. These same people poach dozens of deer. They killed both my target bucks for this year with rifles on the first day or bow season. I reported them but I do not believe anything came of it. I was tracking a deer I shot and found 4 different gut piles 2 weeks ago.

 

[krw]

Contender, maybe you need to reread my post and my quote of what Mobuck posted. If it is My land or if I have it leased, I will put a stand where I choose.

 

[Mobuck]

As Contender said, knowingly placing a stand with the knowledge that there's a 'reasonable possibility' of a shot landing outside your owned/leased/permitted to use property is both poor judgement and negligent. Placing a stand/blind on a property line FACING outward is openly suggesting you intend to violate the property boundaries.
The hunting group from Louisiana I mentioned asked my permission to move a blind location last year. I gave permission with the cautionary that I have a permanent blind less than 1/4 mile away and directly in line with one of their primary shooting lanes(also the property line) and that sending bullets (even unintentionally) might result in return fire(sort of joking but not entirely). The agreement was made and I send a text if/when we hunt that blind to ensure we're ALL safe-neither of us shoots in the area between blinds.
Not 100% the way I'd like but these guys have been very cooperative with our efforts to eradicate beavers that dam up the drainage ditches so I bite my tongue and smile. IF they were the snotty, arrogant types like some bordering our other property, the answer would have been different.

 

[arfmel]

krw said:
"Contender, maybe you need to reread my post and my quote of what Mobuck posted. If it is My land or if I have it leased, I will put a stand where I choose."

krw, I'm glad you're not my neighbor.

 

[XP100]

I had property with a powerline on it. I headed out one after noon to hunt my property and there was a guy standing behind one of the poles. about 50 or 75 feet away I loudly said hello. When I got up to him he said be quite the deer cross here just before dark. I told him I knew that. I asked him if he knew who's land he was on he told me it was the guy on Wood Rd with the older white Corvette. When I told him I was that guy he about yugo and headed back the way he came in needless to say it ruined that afternoon of hunting.

 

[gnappi]

"Contender, maybe you need to reread my post and my quote of what Mobuck posted. If it is My land or if I have it leased, I will put a stand where I choose."

I'm glad you're not my neighbor.

Contender said... "he was hunting in a manner that would allow a bullet to LEAVE his leased property,, and hit me or someone else on my property,, it's unsafe & not ethical"

So I have a question, if your neighbor put a stand pointing directly at your fruit tree which are known to attract deer, AND your kid's play area and bedroom were in the line of fire you'd be OK with it?

 

[PRichardson87]

Contender said... "he was hunting in a manner that would allow a bullet to LEAVE his leased property,, and hit me or someone else on my property,, it's unsafe & not ethical"

So I have a question, if your neighbor put a stand pointing directly at your fruit tree which are known to attract deer, AND your kid's play area and bedroom were in the line of fire you'd be OK with it?

You're asking the wrong person, look at the responses

 

[gnappi]

You're asking the wrong person, look at the responses

I did, it was actually directed at KRW.

 

[arfmel]

No, Gnappi, I surely would not.
That’s why I said I was glad KRW isn’t my neighbor.

 

[contender]

'No, it still is none of your business. And it will stay none of your business until they shoot something on your property"

I did read your post & was pointing out the safety aspect. You don't want to suffer death or injury AFTER the fact when as it's well known; "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

gnappi makes a good point.
What if a neighbor places a stand where an errant round hits your kid? Your wife? Or you? This was the reasoning behind my posting.
As I mentioned,, I'm a Hunter Safety instructor. I have studied cases where people were killed due to negligence, and unsafe hunting. I use that study to teach people to be safe when hunting. NOBODY likes to be on their property only to hear a gunshot & also have a bullet pass close by.
And as I tried to relate,, legal ramifications after such events can cost a person everything,, including their freedom when they are arrested & charged with manslaughter. Follow that with civil lawsuits which will result in the potential loss of the property you own.
My posting is NOT made to insult, or encroach upon you & yours. But it's more to politely suggest that an ethical hunter is also a safe hunter & doesn't knowingly place themselves in a position to cause injury, death, or other such tragedies.
I too defend my property lines from unwanted encroachment.
In my case,, the offender could have easily shot at me or in my direction due to his stand position which was totally facing my land. And he could have easily positioned it facing a much safer direction as well as staying upon his property. If he'd done that,, I would have never said a word, or did anything.
Safety first.
We as firearm owners talk about it all the time.
We discuss how we see unsafe stuff on gun ranges, or in many other places, where it makes us unhappy or uncomfortable.
Lastly, being unsafe,, and when an event happens where there is injury or death,, the media portrays ALL hunters, gun owners & such as stupid, unsafe, unethical, knuckle dragging neanderthals.
We are better than that.

 

[Jack Ryan]

No, it still is none of your business. And it will stay none of your business until they shoot something on your property

Or every time they shoot something that runs ON TO THEIR property. Then they'll come crying about looking for it.

 

[Hankus]

I hunt on my wife’s family’s land in GA. We have an agreement with the local farmer whose land abuts ours; he gets to farm 200 acres of my mother-in-law’s land and we get to hunt on and around his fields. We do a pretty good job of keeping the deer out of the cotton and soybean fields. Another wooded section of our land butts up against a local cattleman’s land, but it’s wooded and not cleared for cattle. We have two stands along that boundary, but only shoot back onto our land, or down a trail that leads off to plots owned by other family members. These agreements were put in place long before I married into the family, and have stood the test of time. I’ll be up there hunting from those two stands with my scoped .454 Casull SRH and my .454 Rossi ‘92 soon. I would have already taken a trip or two but Helene and Milton have been taking up a lot of my time. The roofers will be here this week to take care of missing shingles, fascia and soffit.

 

[Watertender]

I used to work part time for a farmer who had grape vineyards and various fruit orchards. He had clearly posted signs on his property and allowed no hunting which was his right.
His home property was bounded by roads on all sides plus he owned a large acreage of land across the road from his main property.
More than once he had city hunters come out and trespass and one even put up a tree stand on his property which was clearly posted. Twice we removed the stand. The first time we placed it at the base of the tree with a polite note explaining the property line and the fact that he didn't allow hunting.
The second time we took the stand back to his barn. The guy was a slow learner and placed a third stand a couple of trees over even farther into the property and he would walk in from the back road. We notified the Conservation Officer and also the County Sheriff.
We noticed his vehicle and blocked it in with logs and notified both the Sheriff and Conservation Officer. The Sheriff checked the vehicle which had bad plates and no insurance. The Conservation Officer found that he had no license and both found outstanding warrants on the guy. He got a free ride to the County Jail and we unblocked his vehicle for it to be impounded.

The guy learned after the third time but sometimes it takes some convincing to make them understand that you are not playing with them.

 

[arfmel]

The county Sheriff has told me that in Texas, trespass with a firearm is a Felony. And advised me to call him and the Game Warden if I have a trespasser on our property. I know I've had poachers on th the place previously (found obvious evidence) and I have caught trespassers on three occasions. The ones I've caught were lookie Lous who either crawled the net wire fence or came through the gate on the road (past signs saying PRIVATE PROPERTY DO NOT ENTER. The lookie Lous I have run off myself so far. Sheriff Dodson says I really should let him send a Deputy to have a chat with these folks so he knows they are and what they're doing. He told me one of them I recognized had a son in prison for dope smuggling and he thought there was a possibility the dad might have been picking up a load. I accidentally locked that fool's truck in , when I locked the gate as I left to go to work at my "real job" and caught him red handed at the gate after I got off work.

In the future I believe I will let the authorities deal with these idiots.

 

[contender]

"I believe I will let the authorities deal with these idiots."

This is the best way. Safer,, actually easy, and game wardens take a dim view of such things.

 

[jn 41]

Safety, ethics and common courtesy. Solves these problems. But it seems those qualities are lacking more and more these days.

 

[contender]

Well said jn 41 !

 

[Mobuck]

Expecting help for problems like this during hunting season is a lost cause here. My county is 650 square miles, with 4 'state conservation areas', and ONE bunny cop. Hunters roll in from all over the US to hunt here. Our Sheriff's dept is a '911 response only' year round and doesn't even consider common trespass unless there's a physical threat involved.
Hunting season is NOT the time to work these problems out.
At one time, there may have been a trespass clause relating to firing a gun into, over, or across 'posted land' but I can't be certain.