# Other hunters in your stands



## TexasSnowStorm (Jun 28, 2009)

How many of you have ever caught other people hunting your stands/blinds or found evidence of people doing so? Someone has hunted my duck blind on my property.


----------



## Sea-Slug (May 28, 2004)

If all they did was teal hunt out of it your lucky. I ran some poachers off my old place several years ago. They were kin to a nieghboring property owner. The next Saturday when I opened the door to my deer stand there was a large brown trout in the floor complete with the paperwork to certify it was human feces. Needless to say, a border fence war soon erupted.


----------



## S-3 ranch (May 26, 2004)

MANY MANY TIMES it is just fact of life we hunters have to put up with till you catch them red handed then MAX OUT ON them


----------



## LandPirate (Jun 5, 2009)

I had that problem once...until I installed a hidden game cam to catch the culprit. It was exactly who I thought was doing and the same person that denied it and got all pissy when I asked him about. Once confronted with the evidence his tune changed. 

A buddy of mine actually had a hunter on the same lease shoot a hog under my buddies feeder and leave it. It was a couple of weeks before my buddy got to hunt again. You can imagine his surprise and ire once the sun came up and saw what was under his feeder...and of course no deer came to eat. He drug the remains to the other hunter's stand and placed them inside.


----------



## Don Smith (Nov 24, 2007)

Last year a poacher left a Playboy and a couple of beers in my stand. Guess he felt guilty about being there.


----------



## Capt.Troy (Aug 29, 2006)

*.*

Landowners son would hunt my stand in between our trips to fredericksburg. I never saw the really good bucks that I let walk and the reason I found out he was hunting it was the nice gatorade bottle filled with human lemonade. Said he only was trying to kill an axis. Also found two small whole pigs behind my feeder that he threw in the creek. There may be a herd reduction this year.


----------



## Koolbreeze72 (Jul 11, 2006)

Found toilet paper under my tree stand once. When u gotta go, u gotta go!


----------



## Bird_Dog (Apr 7, 2008)

Sittign in my stand one morning before day light kinda doozing off when I hear people talking, hell i thought i was going crazy. Looked up and here come two flash lights right toward my stand, thye almost s%*t their pants when they got almost to the stand and a light shined back at them. Never caught them thought


----------



## turbosdad (Oct 31, 2008)

Years ago in the Katy Prairie, as teenagers we used to go to this one tank that had a couple of blinds on it. The owners left huge spreads of dekes out and only hunted the mornings. Well that was perfect for us, we only hunted afternoons back in those days. As kids another great day to scavenge hunt was Super Bowl sunday afternoon. The season oftened closed on that Sunday and most guys were done by noon. We had the whole prairie to ourselves. It was a different time then. If you were caught they told you to leave, not really a big deal.


----------



## btreybig (Jul 3, 2008)

Floatin Doc said:


> Last year a poacher left a Playboy and a couple of beers in my stand. Guess he felt guilty about being there.


Id let that guy keep coming back if he is leaving you gifts like that!!!! :dance:


----------



## Professor Jones (Nov 17, 2005)

I hunted a family lease where the owner of the property passed away and left the land to his two daughters. The two daughters each had families of their own, so there were two groups of hunters hunting the same place. Many times I would get to a stand and someone else would be in it or vice versa. Couldn't really do anything because I was a more distant relative. My uncle, one of the sister's sons, would get furious though. I have seen him take an axe and chop down a blind that was on a telephone pole.

Professor Jones


----------



## onyourlimit (Jun 30, 2006)

I caught a picture of this guy last year. Still don't know who he is but his picture is laminated and placed under my blind as a Wanted poster. He hunted under my blind for several days. I replaced the roof on my blind and the old roof was on the ground in front. He would prop the old roof against the legs of my blind an sit behind it. He did not break into my blind. It has a lock on it which would not stop someone determined. He was very careful to cover his tracks. He put the roof back on the ground in the same spot after each hunt. I only got the one picture of him but about 80 or so of the roof up against the legs. He hunted it for four days straight morning and afternoon. I probably never would have figured it out if the blind was not in the background of the camera. He didn't leave a trace otherwise.


----------



## 24Buds (Dec 5, 2008)

Floatin Doc said:


> Last year a poacher left a Playboy and a couple of beers in my stand. Guess he felt guilty about being there.


 yea about that, can I get my girly book back? The beers were for you but the mag, well that was for me:rotfl:


----------



## copano_son (Dec 17, 2007)

*Duck Blind*

We had someone hunting our duck blind (public property) and leaving trash behind. Well, we finally met up with them one afternoon and let them know we did not appreciate them leaving the trash behind. A few words were exchanged. The next day our blind was burned down.


----------



## plgorman (Jan 10, 2008)

copano_son said:


> We had someone hunting our duck blind (public property) and leaving trash behind. Well, we finally met up with them one afternoon and let them know we did not appreciate them leaving the trash behind. A few words were exchanged. The next day our blind was burned down.


You guys burned it down or they did? No need for a blind on pub land anyway other than more comfortable. How would you have felt if they didnt trash it out? Just curious


----------



## troutslayer (Feb 7, 2006)

We used to hunt in Brady when I was in my early 30's.....the landowner went up on the property and stated we could no longer hunt on weekdays.....***?......so I was real suspicious about it being day leased..........that yr we found beer cans and cig butts in our stands .......when confronted the land owner said it was his place to do as he pleased......left that weekend and never to return.....inlaws stayed for the rest of the yr with little or no rewards for it.....they would find all kind of deer at the gut pile when they came up on the weekends......

Once in South Texas.....it was bitter cold.....back in 89....if some of you remember that yr.....had some immagrants open the door of the blind to come in and get warm.....it was a fairly big blind and there were three of them.....After the initial shock they left and I felt bad so I called after them....invited them in and had them sit down and enjoy my little heater and some coffee.....could not talk with them due to each others lack of communication skills.....but they knew what I was doing and stayed quiet.....ended up getting a very nice management buck while they were in the stand with me......After the shot they left and said gracious(sp).......I felt sorry for them and dont even know why........but they seamed like nice folks just trying to get a piece of the American dream........The bad thing was they were not really equipped with foul weather gear...I ended up giving them some water and some of those hand warmers....weird huh?


----------



## copano_son (Dec 17, 2007)

They burned it. 

Really did not bother us that they were hunting it, because there was never an issue with us showing up to hunt it and them being in it. Just sucked we had plactic bags, empty boxes, and soda cans to pick up.


----------



## plgorman (Jan 10, 2008)

Man that sucks. Thanks for not minding but i'd feel the same way with trash in there. We hunted one over teal season that had a soft case that was kiind of torn up and a TON of hulls in it. We picked them all up but left the case just in case someone forgot it or something. Even brushed it up a bit more.


----------



## mudhog (May 9, 2005)

Had a place in south texas, it was our first year on it, and we went all out because we signed a 5 year contract, with a option to sign another 5 years. we built a comfortable cabin with ac/heat etc, all new stands and feeders, we cut senderos, built food plots. Drive down opening weekend climb in my stand and find 4 empty 7mm brass laying in the floor and 3 gut piles still under my feeder. shot out of season now. we call the rancher and he said the land owner allows his sons and guest to hunt when we are not there. He never said this when we signed the contract the only thing he talked about was the wall hangers that were shot the year before.
My next hunt I here a truck drive, stop, then blam blam, I walk out to meet the truck that is coming down my right away and its the rancher and a couple of his buddies skillet shooting quail, while we are hunting. He acted like he was not doing anything wrong. I got off.


----------



## rodwade (Feb 13, 2007)

If a blinds on public land I wouldn't be upset. But if they were trespassing on my lease that's another story.


----------



## texas8point (Dec 18, 2006)

Only people hunting my box is my buddys on the lease with me and once I shoot my buck I dont care, its all good.


----------



## Overboard (Feb 20, 2008)

onyourlimit said:


> I caught a picture of this guy last year. Still don't know who he is but his picture is laminated and placed under my blind as a Wanted poster. He hunted under my blind for several days. I replaced the roof on my blind and the old roof was on the ground in front. He would prop the old roof against the legs of my blind an sit behind it. He did not break into my blind. It has a lock on it which would not stop someone determined. He was very careful to cover his tracks. He put the roof back on the ground in the same spot after each hunt. I only got the one picture of him but about 80 or so of the roof up against the legs. He hunted it for four days straight morning and afternoon. I probably never would have figured it out if the blind was not in the background of the camera. He didn't leave a trace otherwise.


Man brother that sucks- guess he's glad we didn't see him the weekend we were there. The cows filled in for him.


----------



## Johnny9 (Sep 7, 2005)

*Family style lease*

We have a lease with guest privilges and family style lease. We have a board at our cleaning station with the names of the blinds and we mark the board with clothes pins as to where we intend to hunt that morn or afternoon so all lease members will know where everyone is. If its your blind and we each have (2) you have first choice as where to hunt your blind. No driving unless to the blind you are to hunt till after 9am or none after 4pm. This has worked out great for us. No poaches as we are at a dead end county road on a river.


----------



## justinsfa (Mar 28, 2009)

I lock all my stands, including climbers (with bike locks) so at least they dont get to sit in comfort.... but I cant even count how many times someone has approached my deer blinds to hunt them (note, I AM on a lease and these were NOT lease members).

Duck hunting wise, PLMAN, you are a diamond in the rough.... most people that use any public blind that I build tear it up, leave trash everywhere and never brush up what they mess up. I dont mind people using it, just dont trash it....

Sometimes its not always hunters though... 2 years ago, I had a man and his young son (about 7-8 years old) pull up and start fishing about 25 yards from my decoy spread... about 30 minutes after daylight.... Mouths were kept shut, because I refuse to expose children to a tongue lashing that 1)is not his fault, and 2) it just intensifies bad sportsmanship. I did tell the father that he was in danger because we would be shooting if ducks came in... We never would have fired a shot, but still, the guy kept fishing.... Im talking about 6 dozen dekes in the middle of Trinity Bay in a huge blind... with me plus 2 others and a dog sitting in it.... I was really kind of speechless... haha

Last year on opening morning of deer season, im sitting quietly watching a few does eating acorns in an East Texas Creek bottom, when I hear a chainsaw crank up and start causing a ruckus.... I get out and walk to the edge of the clear cut and there is a guy cutting firewood. I ask him what he is doing, and he says "Im cutting firewood son." I told him to leave, and his response was "I will be done in about an hour." I was furious and literally had to shooo him back in his truck and leave... PS.... he only went about 100 yards and got out and started to cut again.... He was an older guy, maybe 65-70... I really didnt know what to do about that either.... 

Annnnd yes, I have been sitting by my feeder, heard BOOM and watched a deer fall while it was eating.... Thats a MUCH longer story....

I would just recommend locking what you can to keep the honest people honest.


----------



## Marshman (Jul 24, 2008)

Never caught someone hunting on my place, but once, had a rather spirited chase thru the woods in Alabama.

We hunt with dogs there, and yes the property in question was ours to hunt on, before the junior game wardens chime in. I took 3 guys with me to the west end of the hollow, which also happens to be on the state line. I mentioned this on the CB radio to the other guys who were ready with the dogs at the west end of the hollow. Myself and said three dropped into said hollow and strung out in the tops across maybe a mile of woods. Dogs came, deer came, all does, not doe day, so did not shoot, neither did the buddies, fortunately it turned out later. Walked back to truck and got there to see a PO'ed game warden type, from Mississippi.

Well, me and my brother hoofed it back up the hill, the two other guys stood there. we knew how bad a Mississippi game warden was ( esp this guy ) and had no desire to spend the rest of the weekend in a MS jail. My truck had TX tags on it, although I owned property there and my folks lived there. That guy chased us half a mile, then gave up. We looped back thru and crossed the dirt road where we could see into MS, from AL. In about 30 minutes the wardens truck drove off, and we see our two guys ride off with the dog guys. 

A few minutes later, we see 3 guys pass down the road right in front of us, going towards my truck and these guys are hunting SOMEONE. We hold tight and let them pass and bro says " did you see that? what were we gonna do?" I said, I was shooting the first two and hoping you had the third!!!! We left on foot and walked a mile to a freinds house, who drove by our truck, we hopped out and went to the lodge in it.

Our group there went _"get that truck out a here, the law is looking for you!". Turns out the three on the road had called the warden sbout someone poaching on their 40 acres ( we were hunting about 2000 on our side of the line ) and he thought our TX truck was the guys. We left the truck at folks house for the rest of that trip, and used another truck to hunt out of. The three guys were out stalking the "poachers" and lucky for both parties, they didn't see us, although we were well on our side at that point. They were not from around there, had bought the land to hunt on, and didn't even know the boundary was there. We had a good laugh, the two guys left behind got tickets for several hundred bucks that they later got out of. But for a minute or 60, it was elevated adrenalin for sure.

Sold that property last year to two young guys, for a hunting camp. The old club we had there, we sure killed a lot of deer and had some good times. A good many of the elders that taught us are gone now, but at least I hope they hear the sound of hounds in the hollow every day. Man, I hope I always, NEVER get tired of that sound.

MM


----------



## MilosMaster (Aug 18, 2005)

I have my first East Texas lease this year and have been warned by everybody that poachers are just a fact of life out there. If it does happen, I hope they at least stick to deer and leave my ducks alone!!!!


----------



## brian88 (Oct 7, 2009)

can't we just all get along?


----------



## troutslayer (Feb 7, 2006)

justinsfa said:


> I lock all my stands, including climbers (with bike locks) so at least they dont get to sit in comfort.... but I cant even count how many times someone has approached my deer blinds to hunt them (note, I AM on a lease and these were NOT lease members).
> 
> Duck hunting wise, PLMAN, you are a diamond in the rough.... most people that use any public blind that I build tear it up, leave trash everywhere and never brush up what they mess up. I dont mind people using it, just dont trash it....
> 
> ...


Funny you mention that.....about 10 yrs ago that was me.....we were fishing long island bayou where it feeds into trinity.......never payed attention to the blind and deks about 100 yrds away........all of the sudden there was gun fire every where.....I swear I peed myself that day

Can you imagine ....criket ....criket.......all you hear is the sound of water lapping at the bottom of the boat and then all of sudden........BANG BANG BANG.....they dropped two or three.....and one of the guys said I hope you guys wernt scared.....lol......he then said that he was going to say something if we got too close........lol


----------



## Sea-Slug (May 28, 2004)

Bird_Dog said:


> Sittign in my stand one morning before day light kinda doozing off when I hear people talking, hell i thought i was going crazy. Looked up and here come two flash lights right toward my stand, thye almost s%*t their pants when they got almost to the stand and a light shined back at them. Never caught them thought


I had almost the same thing happen once, but it was only one hunter.


----------



## justinsfa (Mar 28, 2009)

troutslayer said:


> Funny you mention that.....about 10 yrs ago that was me.....we were fishing long island bayou where it feeds into trinity.......never payed attention to the blind and deks about 100 yrds away........all of the sudden there was gun fire every where.....I swear I peed myself that day
> 
> Can you imagine ....criket ....criket.......all you hear is the sound of water lapping at the bottom of the boat and then all of sudden........BANG BANG BANG.....they dropped two or three.....and one of the guys said I hope you guys wernt scared.....lol......he then said that he was going to say something if we got too close........lol


The difference is that you didnt know and werent casting into a decoy spread with 3 people staring at you from 50 yards away.... haha

And, you probably left too didnt you??? haha

I would never fire a shot with anybody that close.... its not worth someone getting hurt over proving a point, but fisherman should respect hunters and vice versa.

I was just dumbfounded that the guy didnt move. We were obviously there first, and his presence was OBVIOUSLY screwing up our hunting.... kinda like if I was doing donuts around his boat in my boat while we were fishing.... haha

He fished there for about 20-30 minutes, then fired up and moved on... it was the wierdest thing...

Not sure if it was blatant rudeness of headupass syndrome... lets hope it was #1, because if not, the guy should not even be allowed to tie his own tennis shoes...


----------



## Josh5 (Jun 27, 2007)

We have had to put locks on the doors of our stands on a lease before. It cut down on them being in our stands. Don't know if they still hunted the feeders or went somewhere else. Made us feel a little better though.


----------



## Texas Jeweler (Nov 6, 2007)

We had a great place near Katy. Kids hunted it in the evenings and such, shot up my decoys, littered the place up. 

The stories I can retell about trespass, stealing gear from us, tearing down gates. The two guys I still remember their names and trucks, especially the guy that drove the dually and lived on a street in Katy with the name of a female character in Robin Hood. Yeah ya trash, I still remember you...and the name for John you go by.

The next time you wonder why law enforcement still pulls you over, paybacks are hell.


----------



## 4-G-RANCH (Jun 21, 2008)

Yes I caught my next door person I say that because how can you go on someones property and hunt with dogs needless to say I ran his a.... off ......


----------



## Blue Water Breaux (Feb 6, 2008)

we had a young feller find out about bear claw traps...the hard way. Then it was game on. 45/70 hitting a solid oak tree about 5' from ya will scare the living ***** outta ya


----------



## justinsfa (Mar 28, 2009)

Blue Water Breaux said:


> we had a young feller find out about bear claw traps...the hard way. Then it was game on. 45/70 hitting a solid oak tree about 5' from ya will scare the living ***** outta ya


He shot at you??


----------



## Blue Water Breaux (Feb 6, 2008)

justinsfa said:


> He shot at you??


NOPE.

I've played quite a few tricks on poachers as we had them almost regularly out at our ranch. I took a row of the tack strips like you see under awnings to keep pigeons off of ledges and put them on the under side of my wooden ladder on one side leading up to the stand. Funny thing is, I put them up high, behind the 10th step, well I removed the "L" shaped brackets from underneath and the screws on each side so the wooden step was basically just wedged inbetween. Holy smokes I know that hurt bc my buddy and I were about 40yds away watching.

Another time...It was so easy to dupe the poachers bc I personally only had one stand on the property, just dont like hunting in them...and behind the door hand I put fresh black tar mixed with doe in estrus scent.

We had a spot next to one of our gates where we could *barely see atv tracks not belonging to any of the leasees. I had an old roll of rusty barbed wire that I decided to unroll in between the trees and in the heavy brush...sure didn't take long for a real nice Prairie 700 to become paralyzed from the wire. Guess the idiot didn't think we'd see it seeing how it happened on a thurs sometime before 6 bc I got down there with my brother about 6 and it was just sitting there. Engine was cooled down, so we strapped up a pretty yellow tow strap, towed it across the street so it was visible from the county road and put a for sale sign on it after towing it behind the blazer. Guess he thought he'd just hop back on it and make a dash for it. Not so fast when the back two wheels are unbolted. IDIOT!

Poaching really was a serious issue at our place and we had numerous "no tresspassing" signs, "land owner not responsible for etc" and people still insisted on doing it, so we had a good time with it.

Maybe next time I'll tell all about the axis decoy. hahaha


----------



## ccbluewater (May 21, 2004)

haha **** will, thats funny stuff!


----------



## Pistol58 (Oct 9, 2009)

Me and few buddies had a lease out in East Tx last season. I had picked out a really good spot, tons of tracks before season opened all over the feeder. Never did see anything out of that stand all year. Hunted it the last weekend of the season, and there were menthol cig butts and a ozarka bottle of human "lemonade"....., guess they got careless the last week of the season, but I now know why I didnt see anything out of that blind.


----------



## Sniper John (Dec 11, 2006)

One season I broke a u joint on the way to the lease late opening day evening. After removing the driveshaft with nothing but a pair of vise grips. It was a long night. I limped on to the lease with just my front driveshaft. I showed up about sunrise and went straight to my blind instead of camp. When I opened the door, there was another member of our lease in there. 

Now we had a rule that if no one was using your blind, anyone on the lease could use it, but geeze, it was opening day and he had a nice stand and feeder set up of his own. He said when I did not show up at camp the night before, he figured I was not coming. Again, IT WAS OPENING DAY!. I did not get mad, but told him I would enjoy the company. That sorry, I could not let you get out and walk to your stand and spook my deer or leave scent. So he sat beside me on a bucket and watched me hunt that morning. He knew it was wrong. There was nothing to be said about it.


----------



## Pistol58 (Oct 9, 2009)

troutslayer said:


> Funny you mention that.....about 10 yrs ago that was me.....we were fishing long island bayou where it feeds into trinity.......never payed attention to the blind and deks about 100 yrds away........all of the sudden there was gun fire every where.....I swear I peed myself that day
> 
> Can you imagine ....criket ....criket.......all you hear is the sound of water lapping at the bottom of the boat and then all of sudden........BANG BANG BANG.....they dropped two or three.....and one of the guys said I hope you guys wernt scared.....lol......he then said that he was going to say something if we got too close........lol


That reminds me of something else that happened last year to us on our East Tx lease. We had spent a lot of time out there trying to get stuff just right, and seeing results on cameras and tracks! Excited about opening morning bow season, I drop one guy off at a lean to and watch him make it halfway up the ladder, when the darkness in the woods lit up like it was mid day!!! HUGE (not sure what you call them) tree cutting machine, less than 30 yards away from us. The sound of the saw cutting through the trees was ear splitting!!! Needless to say there was no hunting that morning, and the lease manager got a real early call from some pretty upset guys. But the bright side of it, they cleared out probably 50 or more acres, and we put a stand right up in the middle of it with no feeder, and saw more deer out of that stand than any others on the place.


----------



## Fishslayer76 (Feb 20, 2008)

This is the reason I dont hunt in East Texas. I went and looked at a lease. The person on it I knew through my aunt. He had been on for some time and new the lease very well. He took me to a stand that I would probably get. After examining the stand, I knew this lease was not for me. The door's lock had been broken and replaced 2 or 3 times. Beer cans in the brush and butts smashed in the dirt all over. What I did appreciate was his honesty about the poaching. 

We all know it is illeagal and the game wardens cant be everywhere. The thing that makes the maddest is when the land owner is involved.


----------



## 9121SS (Jun 28, 2009)

That would really p!$$ me off cuz I would never, ever hunt in someone elses stand.
Ya know, go find your own place to hunt!


----------

