doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com I got poached, again.

Does anyone really give a damn Charlotte...

Do me a favour jOe, put me on ignore.

I am just getting around to reading some threads that birthed and died whilst I was in ICU and rehab. I wish you well, Jon, and would have done exactly the same on my land as you did. What a disappointing find that must have been for you.

Any updates on the perp's sentences would be appreciated. I hope they go before a judge that likes to shoot doves. There are quite a few of those around here.

Best, SRH

Hope you burn them, Jon. Trespassers ruin hunting for everyone else, and they feel all happy that they got what they wanted for themselves. It is a form of theft. What irks me is we, probably like you, prepare a couple areas all year long. Get everything just right for opening day of deer season. And then someone, or some people, just have to try to sneak through, which ruins the hunting there for the entire week. Last year a guy and a little kid snuck through us, shot a dinky buck on the state forest above us, and then the guy tried to drag it right past all of our stands on our ground. I made him drag the beast all the way back up hill to the state ground and then take it out on a steep hillside almost parallel with our boundary for a long way. His little boy was standing there trying to comprehend what was going on. Meanwhile, my own teenage son is sitting there on stand below us watching deer fleeing off of us. The guy was given a choice to leave the deer, in which case I was calling the Game Commission, keep going through us, in which case I was going to beat the snot out of him and then call the Game Commission, or he could drag it out legal. He was all happy with his kill until confronted. He ruined our hunting for days, ruined my boy's hunt, after he had taken off school to be there. We wait all year long for just a few days to hunt, and these losers, these bums, these selfish guys (always guys, never gals) just have to trespass. God knows why. There are two million acres of public land right around us here, with all kinds of great access and huge bucks. But nope, it is like a Posted sign is a magnet to some people. Thankfully, Pennsylvania got a much stronger trespassing law enacted last year, now in force this year. Anyhow, I share your pain, Jon, and I hope you fry the guys.

Back in the 90's we had a problem with a poacher. My neighbor has 120 acres and I have 16. We are surrounded by National Forest with me bordering on 3 sides. A strange vehicle with no lights came down my road one night and found it was dead end at my place and hot rodded out when I came out with a gun. Strange vehicle. Looked like a jeep but much taller. Another night the young guys living at my neighbor's place tried to race it down but got their window shot out. Wrong guys to mess with. One had an AR and the other a mini 14 both with multiple 30 round clips. They found the vehicle a week later with the owner away from it probably boning out a deer. They put 200 rounds through it (200 coming out, too). Never came back.

Unfortunately, country justice is the only justice many of us will get and it is the only thing many trespassers understand. I have held two trespassers at gunpoint for the troopers, and it is a bad experience all around. Very uncomfortable. Each time the trooper has backed me up, because the trespasser(s) is/are armed and have left their vehicle parked under a Posted sign etc, they have been warned etc. Defiant trespass. I really do not understand why people do it in places where there is an abundance of public land.

I have had to confront poachers in my dove fields before, too. I live about 8 miles from a WMA and one guy (group of two) claimed he was on the WMA. I had a loaded shotgun and stayed in sight of both guys as we spoke. When I told him it was my land and he was trespassing he turned toward me with his gun. I purposefully moved mine towards him. He got the message and they left. Nothing escalated.

Fishing trespassers usually are not the potential danger. But once, my brother called and asked if I had given two guys permission to be in one of our small lakes. I said no, and asked the location, which was very near my house. It was cool, so I slipped on a jacket and put a .38 Special in the right jacket pocket. I walked up the highway about 1/4 mile to where a truck with an adjacent county tag was parked in the ditch. It appeared to be their vehicle. I broke weed stems and wedged them in the valve stems, letting all the air out of all four tires, then stepped into the woods. Making my way silently towards the water I soon saw them fishing from the bank. Between them they had 5 rods, AIR, in the water baited up. A stringer was stuck in the bank. I was within spitting distance before I spoke, startling them. They were two very fit and strong black guys. I asked who told them they could fish here. He replied he was told it was a public fishing area. I told him it wasn't, that it was mine and that they had to leave. They began reeling in. I asked what was on the stringer. He pulled it up and it held several bass and bream. I told him to take them off and throw them back in the water. He hesitated at that like he wanted to buck me. I had moved up to within 10 feet of him, and turned my back towards him partially, making sure he saw my hand on the butt of the S & W. He looked down and saw it and began throwing them back. He said that the last one on the stringer was already dead. I told him to throw him back too, that the cooters had to have something to eat.

They left, and I stayed there a few minutes. I heard the truck crank, and pull off, then immediately idle back and stop. I smiled to myself, and turned towards home another way.

Don't ever go without heat when riding around like this. Situations arise at the most unexpected times. If you aren't heeled, it could cost you your life. "Country ain't country no more". Drugs have changed the whole world.

SRH

The truth

I think someone posted this event here in the past. But it just came to trial evidently.
https://www.themeateater.com/conservatio...illed-6-hunters

A chilling, but timely reminder for those of us who may find ourselves confronting poachers, or thieves, or worse. You are who will determine if you live or die. Speaking calmly, and not in a belligerent manner that causes a mentally unstable person to go ballistic, will go far. Avoiding a face to face confrontation is the best, if possible. But, if you find yourself in a potentially deadly situation, you rely upon your prior training and self-preservation mindset.

As I once heard Grandad say, "It's better to be judged by 12 than be carried by 6."

Thanks, Chuck. I didn't remember that incident.

Best, SRH