Large acreage question

[rgood]

Mark you must be pretty close to town?

 

[MarkV]

Mark you must be pretty close to town?

The property we live on is about 10 miles, the 125 acres are right on the edge of town and the 70 is about 20 miles from the nearest town. The comment about the 1/4 lots may be what gave you that impression. That may have been an exaggeration but it is rarely more than a acre. It is common around here for family land to be divided over the years and handed out to family. After a few generations you have a grouping of houses and trailers, all kin, living on the original 10 to 20 acre tract. I've had more than one hunter tell me they hunted this land with their Grandfather so I can't stop them. Grandfather never owned the land either.

MarkV

 

[Dargo]

I've had more than one hunter tell me they hunted this land with their Grandfather so I can't stop them. Grandfather never owned the land either.

MarkV

I've run across that exact issue. People telling me that they've hunted on my land (I've owned for about 5 years now) all their lives and don't plan to stop now. When I ask them if they had permission before they tell me "Of course!". When I ask them from whom, they start getting all ratty knowing that they have just been caught in a lie. I try to explain to them that just because the previous owner didn't bother to prosecute them for trespassing doesn't mean they had permission. The fact is that they never owned the land, never had permission to be on the land and are now ticked because, in their words, "rich folk" are buying up all the land and they don't have anywhere to go. Suggesting that they hunt or go 4 wheeling on their own land or go try to rent some land from someone else just gets me blank stares like I'm some sort of idiot. I assume they feel that they are squatters and now have squatters rights to the property.

 

[cowboy357]

I've run across that exact issue. People telling me that they've hunted on my land (I've owned for about 5 years now) all their lives and don't plan to stop now. When I ask them if they had permission before they tell me "Of course!". When I ask them from whom, they start getting all ratty knowing that they have just been caught in a lie. I try to explain to them that just because the previous owner didn't bother to prosecute them for trespassing doesn't mean they had permission. The fact is that they never owned the land, never had permission to be on the land and are now ticked because, in their words, "rich folk" are buying up all the land and they don't have anywhere to go. Suggesting that they hunt or go 4 wheeling on their own land or go try to rent some land from someone else just gets me blank stares like I'm some sort of idiot. I assume they feel that they are squatters and now have squatters rights to the property.

Its Sad People are that way these days . No other way to explain it other then lack of respect for others & their property . I used to deal with them kind of folks a few years back .

I found that a good time to just do a little target practice , Not in a treatening way, Just to let them know it might not be a good idea to stick around . & Yes We do have a safe shooting range type place down by the river that We shoot at all the time where No ones ever in danger . Nor should be anywheres near around Our property , Other then the landowners that live out of state or the ones that farm it That We know . Bob .

 

[jayste]

Bob, you hit the nail on the head. It's a total lack of respect. People aren't taught it or they throw it out the window when they get to be "adults". Not to say it didn't happen some in the "old" days (squatters rights) but seems pretty bad now. I'm a land owner and hunter and know where you're coming from. These knuckleheaded folks give us all a bad name. My neighbor has a great bass pond that he used to let people fish. He even left his flat bottom boat there and didn't mind people using it. BUT after someone stole the boat and others where leaving trash and beer cans all around he cut it all off. Now he has a huge sign on the fence at the road that reads, "NO FISHING-DON'T ASK". This keeps most of them out but my guess some sneak in.

Jay

 

[studor]

Unfortunately I too have encountered some people on my property whose family tree is surely a stump. That old line about hunting there forever really has the guys who hunt in my area upset. Last year a trespasser was stopped four times (by four different camps) on the road. Each time the response was the same -- my father used to hunt here. Too bad for him, -- one of the local camps has members of the police in it. I do not know if the trespassing charge has come to court yet or not

 

[Robert_in_NY]

We run into tresspassers every now and then but for the most part people know exactly what we own and that we are serious about keeping most people off it. Some of it we don't care about but other parts we do and enforce it on the parts we do care about. I always like the lies and reasons given for trespassing though. I found horse prints along our deer fence one day, only one guy in this area has horses (he is a poacher and theif). I catch up with him in TSC the next day and jump him about it. He starts out saying it wasn't him till I point out he is the only one with horses and then he comes up with a story about how his horse came up lame and he had to take him home. Well, the way he took was the long way by about a mile and when he was going to be in view of our house he went deeper on our property to the second power line and walked that line till he was past our house then went back up to the road and walked the shoulder of the road the rest of the way home. In the end I made sure he knew I will call the Game wardens if I ever see him on our land or see tracks from him or his horse again. He sold his house and moved about 6 months later and I won't miss him. He was one of those "friends" we seem to have, the ones who know us so well they feel they can do what they want even though we are not friends and really just know each other

 

[Ken45101]

Unfortunately trespassing is an on going problem in my area. ... Not that big of problem until deer season.

I usually get out early the first day of deer season and make a pass around our place on the 4 wheeler. I figure that let's them 1) know that I'm out patrolling and 2) the noise will scare the deer away so they probably don't want to be here anyway.

The second or third day I may go out on foot and patrol and maybe get a deer of my own.

We have horses and I don't want them shot. We used to have a retired greyhound that looked enough like a deer that sometimes we mistook her for one.

Ken

 

[riptides]

I just go out on the property and let off a few well place rounds.

I never have any problems, other than a few people who see to think it is all right to dump deer off the road.

I find that just plain rude, to the animal. If I ever catch up with the moron's that do this, I'll teach him/her/them respect for nature.

 

[MossRoad]

I let one person hunt our vacant land. He owns the land next to ours. He and his family keep an eye on our place. It is nice to have someone out there looking around when we are not there. Also, we talk to the local Conservation Officers every so often to let them know we let the neighbor hunt there but no one else. They always take a look at it when they drive by. They "caught" my in-laws cutting firewood one time (they had our permission).

If we find tree stands that are not my neighbors, we just take them down and turn them in at the county police station. We leave a note in a zip lock bag tacked to the tree telling them it is private property and where to pick the stand up. The notes disappear but we never hear any complaints.

 

[Ken45101]

One nice thing here, Ohio now requires written permission for someone to hunt on someone else's land. That helps the "I was given permission 20 years ago" type of problem.

Ken

 

[LBrown59]

One nice thing here, Ohio now requires written permission for someone to hunt on someone else's land. That helps the "I was given permission 20 years ago" type of problem.

Ken

I'm in Washington County .
What County do you live in?

 

[jimmyj]

Very intresting stories about the trespassers. We only have 10ac but I'm in the middle of farm country and we used to have permission from a local to ride our ATV's and hike on a particular tract of land that was about 600 or 700 acres. The rules were no driving over crops, don't damage the land and only 1 person was allowed to hunt.

For many years this worked great, we loved it and were very grateful. We never tore up the trails or rode down trees or littered. Then, the kids of one of the locals who is a bit wild got old enough to drive. They bought old jeeps and tore up the trails we'd used for ages. They threw trash all over, drove over crops and ran down deer.

Now nobody can go on that land any more.

 

[sandman2234]

On my drives across the country, I saw an older gentleman with a large tractor with FEL dragging a very nicely built clubhouse type of hunting stand out to the edge of the road. Curiousity got me so I parked the truck at the nearest spot and walked back. The owner had long ago quit farming the land and on one of his infrequent drives across it, had found this hunting stand. Not having given anyone permission to hunt, he returned and got his tractor and uprooted it (post buried about 3') and then dragged the 6x12 foot building out to the road and dumped it. The cost of building that nice hunting stand is probably gong to send somebody thru the roof when they find it sitting by the side of the road. I think if it had been mine, I would have destroyed it, but the old guy took care to get it to the street almost intact. Hopefully they will get the message. I asked the old man if he disliked hunters and he said no, just trespassers. He asked me in a round about way if I was looking for a hunting spot, but that place is just a little too far for my weekend hunting trips, although it might have been nice to have been able to hunt out of that clubhouse before he removed it...
David from jax

 

[oldgreen]

I own 80 acres of land. I maintain about 30 acres with the remaining land used for hay and pasture. The pasture does not require as much maintenance due to the horses and other animals, and the hay is cut three times a year.
Still a lot of work, however it is worth it. last time I looked, no one is making anymore.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

... attractive nuisance.[/COLOR]

You talking about my wife?