I hunt alone on my land - the wooded portion is surrounded by other landowners and along one side, they are not very savory. I often see 4-10 young men messing around their yard, never seem to have a job, etc. Have never found one on my property, but have had all my POSTED signs removed (how thoughtful of them), and will find a beer bottle here and there - apparently they can't carry my posted signs and their empties at the same time.
I am an absentee landowner, and I don't know them or their habits, but I do know I would not want to have a chance encounter unprotected.
I did have an encounter on the last day of deer season this year with a group of dog hunters who have upset other neighboring hunters with regularity. Not to editorialize on dog hunters, but the norm (at least in this area) is that they are only one level above the common flea. They are thoughtless about private property and are completely devoid of ethics regarding their dogs and what / how they shoot.
I was preparing for the afternoon hunt on the last day of the season this January when I saw their convoy of trucks come rolling up the road that borders the front of my property.
They stopped about a quarter mile down the road and started piling out and into the woods. The rest went on around the corner with the dogs.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt until I started to hear the dogs barking and rode back to the back track where I hunt. I have perimeter roads with a tower stand at the corner where they intersect. When I got to that corner, I could see 6 guys spread out down the E-W road and four down the N-S road. These roads are behind what is left of barb wire perimeter fence on my land, and are in the shadow of a clearly visible tower stand.
I lost it. Flew down to the first few of the six and called them every foul name in the book. Hindsight, I really could have put myself in danger if things got heated, but at the time I had adrenaline courage that came in part from what I was carrying
on my hip.
I called the police and the DNR and they both came, but would both do nothing...the police said it was a DNR issue and the DNR said because he did not witness them trespassing personally, he could do nothing either.
I was pissed and they were pissed because of me mouthing off at them, and I saw it in their eyes when they drove past me and the DNR officer. Wish now I would have handled it differently.
I did catch two of their dogs after they were gone. As has been said here by others, they could care less about the dogs. When I called them, they came up to me and were friendly enough, but they looked awful, smelled worse and were really pitiful.
