My dad owns a couple hundred acres not too far from our home town. We have never had deer in the area until a few years back. Now there is a small group of does that are seen periodically there. We hope to do some wildlife plantings and help them to want to stay in the area. In the last two months we have found three deer carcasses on the place.By the way my wife and I have steady jobs and are easily patterned by our neighborhood poachers. We have let all the locals know that it is off limits for deer hunting but have not posted it. We felt that if we posted it it may lead to further vandalism which has occasionally been a problem in the past. There are several groups of good people that live nearby that like being in the woods that visit it occasionally, We bought the place from them back in the 50's. Posting also must be done such that a sign must be in each 200 yards or It is not binding. Any signs torn down and it will not stick in court. Two questions. Is it the right thing to post it? Also is it worth while to sink a fair amount of money into food plots to enhance wildlife when it may just concentrate the desired game so that it can be poached more easily? Thanks for your opinions. "D"

Posting it is not going to stop it, sadly poachers are going to shoot deer no matter if it is posted or not. I have land in West Virginia and I live in Delaware. I have my land posted, the only thing that does is, keep honest people honest and lets other know where my land boundaries are.

There are a few people that use to hunt my land before I bought it, and they feel as if I took there land and hunting area. I have spoke to a few of the hunters and they feel as they should have the life rights to hunt on my land, I told them they should of bought it like I did, and they could of hunted it.

But in West Virginia a person needs to have written permission on them to hunt private property that is not theirs, and I don't give anyone permission to hunt my land, for one, safety reasons for myself and my wife and second it is my land.

Check your game laws and with you law enforcement officials and see how you can be protected agents poachers.

Post it immediately, register posting with correct agencies, and verify signs every period.

when you find poaching, report them to the game warden, and the sheriff...

and be aggressive as hell about keeping it up.

if you aren't posted, they aren't trespassing, period

Post the property. Get the Game Wardens and or Sheriff involved. Get a couple of these trail cams and position them on the property to get pictures of your visitors in action. In court visual perspective means a lot. If nothing else you can enjoy the deer pictures.

Sadly, there are folks that feel hunting on other's property is a birthright. They'll (the poachers) drive around in their new trucks (lift kits of course), wearing $200.00 boots and whine "ah'm just trying to feed mah family".
If the property in question isn't owned by a local, then the other locals usually think its kinda cute.
Posting the land doesn't do much in and of itself unless you show that you intend to back it up. I'd post it, inform the law, and put the word out that the cost of hunting on your place just went up. They'll test you.

I'd post it, immediately. Get the local enforcement folks involved as well and let everyone know you have. The land I hunt on was sort of the same way and we stopped most of it by doing two things...1) We put up trail cams and posted some of the pics in the local grocery store for all to see, as well as in the Post Office. 2) The second year, we offered to let the warden put one of their "mojo" type deer on the property to catch illegal shooting during the season. That stopped most of it since word gets around quickly. Now they think we have cameras everywhere! It IS amazing to see what creatures lurk in the barn.

Where I've hunted for years I've seen posted no trespassing signs on the same tree that has a US Forest Service beginning boundary sign.The people living there were illegal squatters.

oh, yeah.. if you don't post, they aren't treaspassing, legally.. you MUST post or paint

first, i'd find out the legal requirements for posting.
then i'd post all the land.
then i'd personally meet with local law enforcement and game folks and tell them of you problem and what you have done to protect your property. also ask them what you should be doing once you see or suspect a poacher.
catching poachers is hard work usually. they do their thing mostly at night, sometimes very late at night. friday and saturday nights are most popular cause folks don't usually have to work the next day.
take some drives around the property late at night. get up at 0230 and drive the property some. word will eventually get around that you care.
then,when you see car lights (here it is illegal to shine car lights over fields, etc.) or a headlight, call the law and wait till they get there.
insist on enforcement.
and prosecute them to the max extent of the law.
word will eventually get around.

i live on the farm i own and have all lands posted. i still call out the wardens probably 3-4 times a year to catch dickheads from surrounding towns who obviously can't read or don't care.
the battle never ends, but their numbers lessen over time.

Have you thought about fencing? I have had to fence a farm of mine(no livestock) that we had significant problems on. It works- the pukes figure if you are serious enough to fence and post that they think 2X. Also consider a "stealth" installation of an infa-red or two at your suspected access points. I put mine up in a tree facing down at an angle, well camoed. Consider custom signage that has something like"property electronically monitored and transmitted to____________. A security company or the Law.

D Hunter, there is probably a really simple solution to your problem. If NC is anything like GA, you can do this:

1.) Contact the local DNR office and report the problem.

2.) You can sign an affidavit of some sort with the DNR that gives them full permission to arrest AND prosecute whomever poaches on your property.

A lot of people don't actually do #2 and DNR can't really do anything because if they catch someone on your property hunting, then how are they to know whether that said person has permission or not. From what I have gathered over the years, DNR doesn't really waste their time too much with property owners that haven't signed an affidavit saying that DNR can arrest and prosecute anyone that hunts on your property without permission. In many states, DNR would need your permission to prosecute, but by signing the affidavit, you give them full permission.

I had my mother sign this for a tract of land she owned that was experiencing poaching, and within one year DNR had anyone who thought about poaching it, scared off.

Post the property and give a Sheriff's Deputy written permission to hunt the land but limiting the take to what the herd will tolerate ... in exchange for explaining the situation to anyone he/she finds there.

Trespassers may ignore you, but are not likely to ignore a badge.

My friend was dead serious about stopping his problem. His problems stopped when he offered a thousand dollars cash to any law enforcement official (primarily deputies) who caught any bad guys. As a law enforcement guy can't accept money for simply doing his job, the offer was passed around via the grapevine. In short, it worked fantastic.

Also, the camo game cams work great too, but make sure you get the infared variety so they wont be tipped off by a flash. Hide it well too!

Best of luck.

Poachers are relentless, and those who think they have a right to roam on private land are just as bad as those who shoot from the road. In this part of the state, some of the local idiots think they can park at a bridge, get out and roam the creek and surrounding pastures. They can't; it's illegal. But they sure as hell try.

And since there are hogs in abundance, most of them are out and about with a pack of dogs.

When confronted, the excuses run the gamut, but most say "I can't control where my dogs go."


We've had livestock shot by idiots, others run nearly to death by poorly-trained dogs and numerous goats and sheep killed. One Saturday, we came home to find a pen of 30+ freezer-ready broilers ripped to shreds by dogs.

The threat of prosecution doesn't see to bother these idiots.

But when this type of activity peaks, I run an ad in the local papers noting that any dogs on our property seen harassing/destroying wildlife or livestock will be shot on sight (LEGAL here in TX) and the owner billed for any damages incurred.

That seems to be more effective than anything else.

I don't know of any place where you can't shoot a dog(s) that are worrying your stock.

Actually, there are places where the dog would seem to have more rights than the property owner. I recall an incident a couple years ago (don't remember the locale) where a collie was killing guineas and pea fowl almost daily. After warning the owners, he shot the dog the next time it came onto his property -- before it killed again, though.

I recall a long legal battle ensued after that before the property owner was finally vindicated.

I'll tell you what we did. We "posted" our land (by the way, I didn't read anyone's definition of what it means to "post" land-which can make or break the sign's meaning)....with signs that read:

PRIVATE HUNTING CLUB
POACHERS WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW WITHOUT EXCEPTION.

It is my opinion that the big mistake is hanging signs that read:

Private property keep out
No Tresspassing
No Hunting


These signs are meaningless to poachers, but if they read a sign that says "private hunting club" they tend to think twice about poaching since the thought of getting caught by an active hunter on the club lingers in their shit filled minds.

Worked for us anyway.

Thanks for all the replies.

Crane do you have any notion of how much it would cost to fence several hundred acres of rough steep mountain land. You could buy the land for less I think. I don't think that is an option.
Trail cams sound like a solution in coordination with posting it for hunting by permission only.
Law enforcement has been notified.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

quote:

Originally posted by D Hunter:
Thanks for all the replies.

Crane do you have any notion of how much it would cost to fence several hundred acres of rough steep mountain land. You could buy the land for less I think. I don't think that is an option.

Maybe just fence where the idiots come in at?Probably not so many coming in on the steep side.

My favorite "No Trespassing" sign:

Warning! Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be prosecuted.

quote:

Originally posted by nateh:
My favorite "No Trespassing" sign:

Warning! Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be prosecuted.

My favorite of all time read:

"TRESSPASSERS WILL BE VIOLATED!"

D- Check out material costs and see. You may be able to do it on your own. The last I paid was ~ 5,000/mile, equipment like dozer,etc on top of that. The cheap way is to use existing trees, insualtors and run a couple of hot wires. I use 5 strands of barb.

I talked to the game warden. He will be having a discussion with the parties involved. One local person and his son are willing to talk to the warden about what they have seen. If they get enough evidence they may file charges. If they can convict him the restitution for three does is over $2000 and should remind him next time. We will see about increase in vandalism. Some strategic trail cams should help prevent that from becoming a long term issue. Wish us luck. I will keep you posted on proceedings. It may help other members as this will be a constant issue for those of us that have a bit of land.

When the fact that your are being pro active in pursuit of vandals and poachers gets out, that will help quite a bit.
The POS's will lay low for a while so it don't hurt to every so often stop by the local store and mention that you're putting up a couple of new trail cameras or moving a couple of infra red cameras or such. Whether you are or not.
I mounted two security cameras at my place in kinda half-assed concealment. One focused on my shop where my gun safes are and one on my house. The teenager that does my weed-eating spotted them pretty quickly and pointed them out to me. I said "yeah but what about the other three? And the two inside?" He's still looking for them and the word got out that I have a security system that's better than Fort Knox.
IMO, barb wire fencing just gives the vandals something to cut to piss you off or something for some turd to hook onto with his 4x4 and see how many feet he can jank out. The same turd that will whine "ah'm just tryin' to feed my family." will also say "So and so has posted his place. He's gonna have trouble keepin' his cows in if he ain't keerful".

NC DNR had their discussion with the party in question. Charges are filed and he is busted. They didn't get him for everything but he will have somewhere around a thousand in fines if I don't miss my guess. I think he will think twice about it. Thanks to a pro active member of DNR that went the exta mile to protect the resource. Good hunting.

I am glad to hear that. Now if the local paper(s) will carry the report, that will do even more to deter any future poaching.

D- Check to see if you are in a "Compact State". If so, and if the prosecutor is willing, there is a chance the perp could lose his hunting and fishing privilages in 42 states. When word of that, or an attempt at same gets around things will be much better. If you are not satisfied with the outcome through the system and he has been found guilty, sue him in civil court. Word will get around that you are not one to be tested. The level of tresspasss seems to be directed related to what the pukes think they can get away with. Best of luck!

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
if you aren't posted, they aren't trespassing, period

jeffeosso: don't know about NC, but I'm pretty sure that, in Texas, if you cross a fence, you're tresspassing....no posting sign required.

Claymores......

IN NC you have to have it posted and to make it stick it has to be posted every 200 yards or so. You have to have it announced at the courthouse also and publicly display a notice at the courthouse also. At least that is what I have been told. That will be in place in a week or so. I think this fella will probobly lose his hunting license but the kicker is that if cought again the DNR can take his 4 wheeler, rifle, truck or anything else that was used in the perpetration. That is where the real disincentive is. Good hunting. Here is to one happy ending and the SOB getting what they deserve.

Congratulations on your success. 8 times out of ten it is a near neighbor, unfortunately. Probably also one of the jerks that posts here about the unfairness of landowners controlling a "public resource".

tiggertate wrote:

quote:

Probably also one of the jerks that posts here about the unfairness of landowners controlling a "public resource".

quote:

I don't know of any place where you can't shoot a dog(s) that are worrying your stock.

There are several places around the country where free ranging dogs can be shot if caught chasing livestock or wildlife.

In fact, not only can the dogs be shot, but if it can be proven as to who owned the animal(s), they can be fined fairly heavily.

sell the land and move to a friendly neighborhood sounds like you piss these guys off they might burn your barn

It would seem a shame to let poachers dictate what you do on your own land much less force you to give it up.

I would post it and be aggresive in enforcing it! You didn't specify the condition of the deer you found. Is there a chance that they were lost by someone hunting legaly on a neighboring property or perhaps even someone who may have thought you didn't mind them hunting your property since it wasn't posted?

DHUNTER
Don't go on what you have been told about posting the land.
Get with your wildlife folks and get the law and follow what it says.

Too many mistatements of law to go on "COOP Story version of law".

Louis the method of posting was told to me by NCDNR officers. I assume they know. I will post it this weekend.

T bear I will not be selling any land. Sometimes you gotta fight for what is yours. THanks for all the replies. Good hunting. "D"

Must be different in New York. If you're trespassing, you're trespassing, signs or not. Posted signs help the prosecution. Mine say:
"Do Not Enter - Private gun range
Bullet impact area 24/7/365
Call xxx-xxxx for info or permission to hunt.

I haven't had problems.

In NC, the posted signs must be within 200yds of each other all the way around the perimeter of the property. They also have to be at least 8ft from the ground.

Once the property is posted like this, it can be registered with the NCWRC. Once registered, anyone caught on the property without written permission dated within one year will be ticketed. The landowner isn't involved at all as the state presses the charges.

quote:

Originally posted by Collins:

Posted signs help the prosecution. Mine say:
"Do Not Enter - Private gun range
Bullet impact area 24/7/365
Call xxx-xxxx for info or permission to hunt.

I like that!