Posted on 12/16/2015 1:13:37 PM PST by w1n1
There isn't a clear answer on deterring poachers. The subject itself brings a sharp pain to every landowner’s asses. The right way to handle this is to let the authorities handle this. The following is an excerpt from a landowner on this ordeal and how he handled it.
David was a proud new landowner. He bought his 640-acre place in the rural South and started fixing up the old farm house. His land had a garden, fields for planting, built wood duck boxes, and stocked two lakes with bass and pan fish.
Life was good for the new country landlord until one morning he heard a gunshot, then two, three, five and more. They were close–on his property. No one had permission to hunt, so David got in his truck and took off for the back of his square mile of paradise, while his wife nervously watched him drive away.
Ten minutes later David spotted a pickup truck alongside a county road that abutted his land. Three men were near it, two of them across a fence on David’s property. A lifelong hunter, David sensed trouble, but he purposefully was unarmed as he drove up beside the men, stunned at what he saw.
Five wild hogs were dead on the ground, shot on David's land from a public roadway. The hogs were wild, but in Florida they are classified not as game animals, but private livestock, so penalties for shooting them are even more severe than illegally shooting wild game.
"Fellows, those are my hogs you got there," David said calmly.
"Them's wild pigs, no season, no limit," one of the men said fast and nervous. "Seen 'em cross the road, we pulled over and shot 'em 'fore they got to the fence - they jus' died on your side. We're fixin to load 'em and take 'em home."
"Well, shootin from a public road right-of-way isn't legal, and I sure didn't give you permission to shoot 'em on my land," David continued as he stepped out of his truck. "We better let the game warden sort this out."
One of the threesome got into his truck, and David watched the man carefully. Then David dialed his cell phone for the local warden. Read the rest of the story here, what's your experiences with this?
Are we talking about hunters or illegals?
If they are killing wild hogs on my buddy’s ranch, we load up, drive out to say “hi,” let them know where the livestock is so they don’t accidentally shoot a cow, and invite then back to the house after they’re done for a snort of whiskey! Then make sure they know to call before coming back out - any time!
/wild hogs are very nasty and destructive...
I lived in White Bluff, Tn. and had trouble with a gang of poachers that lived down the road shooting game and stealing my herbs to sell. I invited a friend of mine who was a class III firearms dealer down to have a little shoot. He brought all of his toys and we burned up a bunch of full auto rounds on my range that day. Never had a problem after that.
Probably neighbors. My solution involved a .308 with a 20 round magazine. Both of the men surprised me by how fast they could run. Must have been the “pep” talk.
“I worried about that situation a long time,†David said later. “Those guys were fined heavily and had their guns confiscated, and almost lost their truck. They know who I am, where I live, and I didn’t know what they might do to me or my family or farm if they wanted revenge. I lost a lot of sleep about that, but what else could I do? When you catch poachers red-handed you’ve got to throw the book at ’em, or they’ll own you and your property.â€
Medieval Hunting History - Punishments for breaking Medieval Hunting Laws
The strict Medieval Forest Laws reserved the rights of hunting to the ruling class and were hated and resented by the lower classes. Punishments for breaking Medieval Hunting Laws were severe. Peasants accused of poaching were liable to hanging, castration, blinding or being sewn into a deerskin and then hunted down by ferocious dogs.
After interacting with three armed trespassers, I got me a no-nonsense male German Shepherd guard dog. Never had another problem. I still grieve that he is gone.
I have some land across the road from a hunting club.
I’ve given the game warden and only him permission to hunt on the land. He’s set up cameras to catch deer and poachers.
Difficult for a poacher to claim he was just chasing a deer onto my property and he pulls the camera and asks what he was doing there 3 days before.
Is that a euphemism?
When I was a young lad of five, I was out in the field with my father when a group of four people stopped along the road about 100 yd from us, jumped the fence, and started cutting asparagus from our garden.
My father yelled at them and they barely looked up, ignoring him. My father then walked around the old Chevy station wagon, pulled out a scoped deer rifle, took careful aim, and blew out a chunk of telephone pole about 10 feet over their heads.
The four came to life and fell all over themselves getting back over the fence and driving away as fast as they could.
That was 45 years ago and I can still hear my father screaming, “You can hear me now can’t you, you sons-of-a-bitches!”
We scored four asparagus knives that day, as they dropped them where they stood.
“I would have gave them a warning.”
Like rock salt?
I think he is being an ass. Wild hogs are pests and anyone would be welcome to shoot any they found on my land.
That’s how things are where I live.
Hogs breed too rapidly and cause to much damage to treat dead boars as some sort of loss.
He should have thanked the men for shooting the hogs. Just wait til the others find his garden.
Around here, unless a property is 10 acres or more you can only hunt with a bow in season-and no matter whether you shoot a gun or a bow, you ask permission of the property owner or you don’t hunt there at all. Just about anybody with a wild hog problem will let you hunt them, if you ask and promise to stay clear of livestock.
Poachers have been shot out here-and no charges filed against the person who did the shooting-poachers risk dire consequences, and are not welcome at all.
We have angry bison who do a pretty good job of deterring pretty much everyone.
Both lowlife slime IMO.
Wish they would come by my stand sometimes. :)
He should have thanked them, claimed a hog, and asked them to call next time they were going to hunt on his property.
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