In a nutshell I believe a bordering landowner is shooting deer and leaving them.

They were new owners for last season and I found numerous skeletons after the season but also had a mortally wounded doe in my pond. No one was ever seen looking for deer. No one came to recover the doe. Lots of shooting the entire firearms season over there. I have never met the owners, there are no living quarters on the land. It has only been used as hunting property.

Fast forward to this year. Similar situation. Never see anyone but there is lots of shooting. Yesterday I was doing a perimeter check and saw this right near the fence. You can see the wire.



The buck was completely consumed by coyotes.



It would seem to me that wanton waste would be illegal? I reckon they are not calling in to 'punch' their tags and are just killing as much as they can. That buck would not have been hard to find and is a decent, average head for this area. No one leaves antlers. They look for them which also leaves me with the inclination they are just shooting to kill deer.

While I have always valued owning private land in this case it seems to be a situation where the owners are not ethical at all.

Pot farm? Deer love the stuff, and the growers don't like losing money...

Pot farm sounds logical. Call your game warden, show him the carcasses and have him investigate.

Years back, I toured the central Texas property of a young man who was selling hunting leases on his ranch and a much larger ranch belonging to his family. Both were very nice properties. He told me that he had culled the ranches the previous season by killing 700 deer on the properties. He said that he kept a few deer for his use and left the others for the carrion eaters.
Since I already had a good lease with deer, turkey and quail, I did not participate in his lease.

quote:

Originally posted by crshelton:
Years back, I toured the central Texas property of a young man who was selling hunting leases on his ranch and a much larger ranch belonging to his family. Both were very nice properties. He told me that he had culled the ranches the previous season by killing 700 deer on the properties. He said that he kept a few deer for his use and left the others for the carrion eaters.
Since I already had a good lease with deer, turkey and quail, I did not participate in his lease.

That is so wrong. I have concluded people suck.

quote:

Originally posted by rolank:
Pot farm sounds logical. Call your game warden, show him the carcasses and have him investigate.

Since I live out here I generally know when someone is over on that parcel. It's less than 40 acres in size. Activity seems to be primarily during firearms deer with a smattering of target practice right near the opener date. I have not noted activity in the summer there so for pot growing that seems to be a very slim possibility.

Ann,

You seem pretty convinced that it is your neighbors who are shooting and leaving deer(I’m guessing that you are probably correct). But the truth is that you have no way to know that it is the landowner(s) who are to blame.

For all you know, it could be poachers sneaking in, or it could be the landowners’ deadbeat kin who are allowed to visit the place, but are poaching while there.

Anyway, my point is that, if you report the activity to the game warden, you aren’t ratting our your neighbors. You are just repeating a crime.

If you are not wanting to get the law involved, you could talk to the landowner(shouldn’t be hard to track down) and tell them that you are wondering if they have seen anything suspicious, as you believe that poaching is taking place in the area. That might be enough to get them to straighten up.

Call Fish and Game. Let them investigate.

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:
Ann,

You seem pretty convinced that it is your neighbors who are shooting and leaving deer(I’m guessing that you are probably correct). But the truth is that you have no way to know that it is the landowner(s) who are to blame.

For all you know, it could be poachers sneaking in, or it could be the landowners’ deadbeat kin who are allowed to visit the place, but are poaching while there.

Anyway, my point is that, if you report the activity to the game warden, you aren’t ratting our your neighbors. You are just repeating a crime.

If you are not wanting to get the law involved, you could talk to the landowner(shouldn’t be hard to track down) and tell them that you are wondering if they have seen anything suspicious, as you believe that poaching is taking place in the area. That might be enough to get them to straighten up.

Point noted, Jason. I honestly think such people who do this stuff are very dangerous. The property has a locked gate except when someone is there. My observations are that the gate is open only during firearms.

Two years of death and volume shooting during the firearms season is extremely suspicious. I found out the previous landowner violated a few years back with antlerless when my county did not have an open antlerless portion.

I understand that it must be frustrating having that go on. And I know what you mean about people like that being the type that you would rather not have to interact with.

I hope that the LE is different out where you live, but where I grew up the police exhibited very poor judgment when it came to confidentiality. If a neighbor filed a complaint, you could be assured that the police would let the offender know who had reported them. It always seemed unnecessary and often caused problems.

I hope that your warden is more professional than the LEOs that I grew up with.

They might just be taking the meat and leaving the rest.

Also.

Unless one is the most perfect person in the world.

I wouldn't get law enforcement involved.

Some times no good deed goes unpunished.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
They might just be taking the meat and leaving the rest.

Also.

Unless one is the most perfect person in the world.

I wouldn't get law enforcement involved.

Some times no good deed goes unpunished.

I have never seen anyone leave a rack laying. Not ever. Hence my suspicion. I can see the area from my front porch as well. No one has ever been seen looking for deer over there. Not ever.

After thinking about this I think you are right though and will not call the local game warden. I think it would be very hard to prove what is going on over there. The best he could do is to check and see if the landowners are calling in their kills.

Ann
Are you sure the deer are getting shot and left ? Not to state the obvious, but are there bullet holes in them ...?

I've lost 80-90% of my deer herd this year to EHD disease.. the just drop dead .. lots went to my ponds and steams and died in the water ..the stench of decaying meat was very strong here ... I've buried many this year , that dropped dead on my property..

This was very bad here this year ...
Bob

It's poachers and if the deer doesn't drop on the spot, they do not follow up after it, especially when it runs onto your property. Or disease as stated.
Call the game warden.

Any chance there’s a depredation shoot on your neighbor’s property? Years ago I was doing one for a peanut farmer and was told that no part of the animal could be salvaged…just a thought.

I’d probably talk with the landowner before I did anything else.

I’d just call him by phone- no need to get in his face, just say that there has been a lot of shooting and some wounded deer came in to the adjacent property, and no one seemed to try and retrieve.

Either he will do something, or not.

If it continues next year, then I’d go to the warden with your evidence and documentation, and let them handle it.

You never know what exactly is going on, and the owner might be glad to hear about a problem… or not.

Most states have wanton waste laws and require an attempt to retrieve. If it is a depredation situation, the wardens know about it; if it’s bad actors, then you need it stopped for your safety. 40 ac is pretty small for an area with that much shooting and safety, especially if they are as careless as their refusal to reduce game to possession indicates.

All the above are good reason but the bottom line for me is "call the warden",
That's their job and most do it well.
You should be able to find out what's killing the deer with a call to the game cop.

Zeke

quote:

Originally posted by Bear Cat:
Ann
Are you sure the deer are getting shot and left ? Not to state the obvious, but are there bullet holes in them ...?

I've lost 80-90% of my deer herd this year to EHD disease.. the just drop dead .. lots went to my ponds and steams and died in the water ..the stench of decaying meat was very strong here ... I've buried many this year , that dropped dead on my property..

This was very bad here this year ...
Bob

Yes, I am sure. Last year, when this started I had a wounded doe in my pond which is close to the property line. No one ever came looking for it. I had to get it out of the pond and finish it off. One of the shoulders and part of the neck were blown out. They have a tripod stand just on the other side of the fence about 30 yards in from the prop line there. I found several skeletons in the spring.

This is not a crop agriculture area. It's Ozarks- rock, clay and rock ledge.

I could see if the game warden can check to see if there are tags being reported fill by the landowners.

That really sucks if someone is killing deer and leaving them lay ...I most definitely would call the game warden ...

quote:

Call Fish and Game. Let them investigate.

+1

800-392-1111
The Operation Game Thief (OGT) hotline allows Missourians to protect nature by reporting poaching. number — 800-392-1111. You may remain anonymous, and you may be considered for a reward.

You found a dead deer eaten by coyotes. Don’t call law enforcement. You don’t know how this deer came to its demise. Deer die.

And we certainly don’t have a problem with people shooting guns on their own property.

'mortally wounded doe'. Doesn't sound like EHD.

If you know the owners identity maybe there is a way to get one of your LEO friends to run a little quiet background. Your experience tells you something is wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by TigerPaw:
'mortally wounded doe'. Doesn't sound like EHD.

Correct. This is not EHD.



I have never found dead/maimed deer like what began last year.

40 acres? I cannot see that many of anything being killed off 40 acres especially if these numbskulls are shooting up the place. More likely they are using it as a dumping ground as well as shooting anything that moves. You could tip off game warden that something unusual is going on and hope he/she follows it up. If it’s just poor ethics you don’t look like the nosy neighbor, if it’s nefarious you helped cut it out.

You phrased it as if there’s a question.
I don’t see any question, make the call.

Ann, I have hunted in northern Missouri for 30 years and been a landowner in west central for 15. The MDC wardens I have met have all been straight shooters. I have also seen that Missouri is poacher central. Call the wardens. Let them investigate. Even a visit from them may fix the problem.

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:

quote:

Originally posted by crshelton:
He told me that he had culled the ranches the previous season by killing 700 deer on the properties.

That is so wrong. I have concluded people suck.

Why would anybody do that?

OP, you have a choice between having the law deal with it, or you. If you speak to him first, and do not get a favorable result, then when you do call the warden, the neighbor will know it was you.

I would not expect somebody blasting deer to react positively to a neighbor's objections, so I would not even bother trying.

Call the warden, it's what they do, and it's what we pay them to do.

If it were me, I would have contacted the game warden promptly. Waiting decreases the chance of locating evidence IF there are violations occurring. From what I have read, there is not much probable cause or even reasonable suspicion for the wardens to start with - you have a picture of one doe likely shot, a buck that died of unknown circumstances that is probably gone by now, and "deer heads". No suspects, no witnesses, not much else of anything, but at least getting the game wardens involved may help them get a "head start" should you notice additional suspicious activity.

Here in NY it would be questionable if that would be enough for the wardens to step foot on the adjoining property if it was "posted" against trespassing.

The thing that causes the most suspicion for me is never seeing anyone looking for deer over there. Too high of a body count to merit that they are hunting over shooting.

i'd stick a couple of game cams up....