Need help with POACHERS!!!!


Guest txhillcountryhunter

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Guest txhillcountryhunter

Hey guys, I need some serious advice. I have some land in the hill country of Texas and unfortunately it's 5 1/2 hours away so I can't go everyday or weekend for that matter. Anyways, my father in law went this last weekend and made his rounds. He saw tire tracks going to my wife's stand and feeder. This burns me. We don't see that many deer when we go and we have suspected that poachers were the reason. I might add that the place is ate up with tracks, but it's like the deer have abandonded the property and we aren't there near enough to put any kind of pressure on them. Anyways, I thought about purchasing a trail cam to spot them and maybe catch a picture of a license plate and taping over the flash as to not give away it's location when it goes off. Does anyone think it will work and if so, what's the cheapest one you can get that will do the job I need it to. Also, if anyone else has any advice in catching these poachers, let me know. Thanks in advance.

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Re: Need help with POACHERS!!!!

we had the same problem but only lived 1.5 hours away from our land and the local farmers around there knew that no one was to be on our land and we always asked them to watch it and they told us some guys from NC may have high powered deer around your land but not on it so we called the DNR and told them the story and they watched those same guys when they came up here this year to poach and caught them, now we have good relations with the DNR and they always watch our back and so do the neighbors, really helps us out

as far as the trail cams i would say a stealth cam is the cheapest but can't say i have ever used one, it should work if you hide it pretty well.

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Guest txhillcountryhunter

Re: Need help with POACHERS!!!!

Thanks, I am just so aggrevated with this whole situation. People who have no respect with other people's property is just rediculous. They just better hope that we don't catch them on the property cause things could get out of hand very quick.

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Re: Need help with POACHERS!!!!

Do you have any friends in the area where you own the land? My uncle has land that is three hours from where he lives and he has one of his friends that lives in the town watch it. If not maybe a caretaker would be a good idea. You might find someone that would trade watching over your property for the time you are not there for the rights to have just that one person hunt along with you. I am not sure if you want that but that would give the person some sort of attatchment to the property and the poachers would be hunting their deer also so they would want to catch them and have them arrested. There is a guy around here that has 2000 acres and he lets a guy who lives on the border of his property hunt to watch over his land and all the locals know that and stay away. Just a thought, hope you get them.

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Re: Need help with POACHERS!!!!

I suspect a trail cam would just disappear. My suggestin would be that one you call the local game warden and tell him about the problem. Just ask if he can keep an eye out when he is in the area. Second i would find someone in the immediate area that you can trust and get them to act as a caretaker in exchange for hunting rights. If you can find a realiable person, sharing the land with one extra hunter is a lot better than poachers running loose. That is my opinion anyway.

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Re: Need help with POACHERS!!!!

QDMAworks4me is correct. If you can't be there find someone who can be. Get the word out the property is being watched. If you catch a trespasser prosecute him !!! NO BULL!! Let one get away and you will never will control your land.

Above all, and I'm sure somebody has suggested this, DO NOT set a so called bobby trap which may harm someone. Trail cams OK but be ready to buy alot of them. Get local law involved. Don't try to be a hero if you should catch someone yourself. This is a matter of law, handle it with care.

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Re: Need help with POACHERS!!!!

[ QUOTE ]

The trailcam is a good idea but I would disable the flash and hide it well. If they'll trespass they'll probably steal too. If they see that flash go off I'm guessing that camera is gone.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dont know about other cams, but the leaf river digital, you can turn off the flash. There are some infrared units out to that take black and white pics and use no flash.

Other alternative is a cheapy stealth film cam, think I have seen them for as low as about $48 at wal mart.

Good luck catching them.

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Guest txhillcountryhunter

Re: Need help with POACHERS!!!!

I appreciate all the feed back guys. Our property is not fenced but it borders a "T" in the dirt road so it is defined by two sides and one of the other sides has fence posts running down it. Unfortunately, I don't think 3 strands of barbed wire will kepp anyone out of our property. We do have an over abundance of no trespassing/hunting signs scattered across the perimeter. I will look into a care taker and will try the cheap trail cam to see if I can spot anything. I'll call the local game warden this afternoon to put the word out as well. Any other advice, please keep it coming. Thanks.

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Re: Need help with POACHERS!!!!

Saw an ad on TV tonight that might intrest everybody. Seems Penns- Woods has a new trail camera out which can be programed to call your computer or someone elses computer when a picture is taken. Might consider connecting to the local DNR's computer. Imagine the laugh they would have if the tresspasser got his picture taken. So let him steal the camera. Now you have his picture and could have him charged with larceny as well as tresspassing.

Check out the Penn-Woods web site and good hunting!

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Re: Need help with POACHERS!!!!

The cams that send photos to your computer would be great as a tool to catch them if they were not so expensive. Taking the chance that the poacher/thief might get away with the cam with a pic that does not clearly identify them is what would concern me on that. Knowing my luck I would not get a good enough pic for the law officials to be able to clearly identify them,and I would be out a cam and still have deer getting poached.

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