to keep people off of my land!

[ultrarunner]

I gave up after having 3 repairs in 4 years from the gate being forced open...

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I have a privet drive that's a 1/4 mile long and I have had driver think this is a county road, so far I had about 5 people drive in so far so I need a few ideas on gates. I have a pipe that's about 10 feet I was going to cut in half fill with concrete and weld 1 link of heavy chain on top and one for the bottom and gig a hole at the beginning of my driveway.

Here is what I did when I started having a problem.

 

[TomSeller]

Makes me a bit sad, and mad, that protecting one's own property from jerks is so complicated. I wouldn't shoot someone unless they tried to harm me or mine, and I think not too many people want a confrontation. They just want to steal and leave. I just want them to leave and not steal. Better yet, don't come.

I think I would use the excuse that I was tracking a problematic coyote when this trespasser happened upon my path on my property.

There is something really wrong with this country when trespassers have more rights than you do.

 

[Sodo]

I think I would use the excuse that I was tracking a problematic coyote when this trespasser happened upon my path on my property.

There is something really wrong with this country when traspassers no longer have a right to a jury trial, and if trespassing supersedes right to life. Trespassing can be accidental, or visitation too. You fellas trivializing the use of guns on people are wrecking it for the rest of us, you're not much better than the inner city punks for that.

Please don't encourage folks to think that way. There are nutcases out there doing what you say, and the more you trivialize it the more it will happen. And your gov't HAS to act.

 

[Ed of all trades]

My question is for Ed of all trades also.

I see some problems with this. The laws and those making the laws benefit the criminal, and what if you walk up to someone on your property with a gun in a holster on your side clearly visible? Is that considered brandishing? What oosik is doing IMHO is not brandishing. Having a gun not visible, then in a confrontation making it visible is brandishing a weapon. Is my thinking wrong?

The way I understand Va law and I am a retired farmer so this is not something to stand on in court, is if you have a gun in your hand it is brandishing if you point it at them it is assault.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I know that in some places people don't ask if they can come and pick wild salad, wild blackberries, ect from your land, the custom of the area is to just go and pick it. They dont think to ask because it is the way they have always done it. If you want to fit into their community and have neighbors that help you when you have trouble and not be seen as that _____ outsider, then you have to learn to compromise. I am not saying that you would have to let people abuse you or your property, but there are different ways of looking at things. Ed

 

[Gary Fowler]

Many people won't take a sign seriously if it looks like it was meant to be clever/funny.

A friend just had a "home invasion" of sorts. They live on a dirt road in a very rural area. Their house is about 500 ft. from the road. His wife and two children got home late one night and there was someone in the house. They called the police and it turned out to be a drunk sleeping on their couch.

So we've been looking into options for a gate. There are some really nice gate openers that can be attached to a deep-cycle battery and a solar charger so that the whole system doesn't need any trenching/cables. We figure we can do the whole job pretty cheap with a big tube gate from TS.[/QUOTE Gates wont keep some folks out. My brother in law put up a gate with the Mighty Mule gate opener and some folks would just push the gate back (it will give enough to slip thru)and come on in most times bending the aluminum gate in the process. He put a sign on the gate "DO NOT PUSH ON GATE" but they would do it anyway. He had to install an electronic locking device to keep them from damaging his gate. Most of the intruders were delivery guys and meter readers. He finally got rid of the meter readers by getting a device installed so they could read the meter from the road so now the problem has gone away.

I installed one on my gate as a convenience and meter readers would still push by but they finally got the message to just push on the button mounted on a post in order to get in. My gate is not so much my security but security for my dogs so they don't get out on the road and get hit by a car. My 120 pound German Shepherd does a good job of security. Most folks wont venture into my yard when they see him. He can open my house door anytime he wants out and any strange noise or vehicle noise and he is immediately on alert and outside he goes to "greet" what ever the disturbance is with hackles raised, teeth bared and loud barking with his front paws on top of the fence trying to get at the intruder.

 

[Gafn]

There is something really wrong with this country when traspassers no longer have a right to a jury trial, and if trespassing supersedes right to life. Trespassing can be accidental, or visitation too. You fellas trivializing the use of guns on people are wrecking it for the rest of us, you're not much better than the inner city punks for that.

Please don't encourage folks to think that way. There are nutcases out there doing what you say, and the more you trivialize it the more it will happen. And your gov't HAS to act.

Sodo
No one on this forum has condoned just shooting a trespasser.... Not sure where you got that ....

What is being stated is to ensure that you and your family survive that one trespasser who has no good intentions... It is very easy to die when the person who is intruding has no moral compass.

For the most part trespassers will be accidental, or the local teens trying to get up to no good.... and I have no issues with them...

Keeping you sidearm in a holster in the open - stops escalation, so if the trespasser/intruder is thinking of being an idiot - the sight of a sidearm can be enough for them to just leave.
If that individual still escalate - you don't need to run and get a sidearm, extract from holster and protect yourself.

I am fairly certain that keeping a sidearm in your holster is legal on your PRIVATE PROPERTY nearly everywhere in this country, **** I used to have a holstered firearm when mowing my yard in Dallas Texas, and the neighborhood cop said it was ok as long as I was on my property.

A sidearm/Firearm/shotgun is just a tool, it is a tool to stop escalation, and ensure that you have a fighting chance. I know if a car full of 20 somethings show up at my place and get nasty - I can no longer fight them off, so that firearm prevents escalation, or provides me a tool to even the odds against stronger, faster, or more numerous assailants.

Again NO ONE on this forum is saying to just shoot the trespasser - we are all talking about stopping an escalation with the show/use of a proper tool.

If I mis-understood what you wrote - I apologize, and have no desire to offend you, however the firearm is just another tool that should be used to ensure our that you and your family are safe from predators, animal or human...

 

[Gafn]

Gates wont keep some folks out. My brother in law put up a gate with the Mighty Mule gate opener and some folks would just push the gate back (it will give enough to slip thru)and come on in most times bending the aluminum gate in the process. He put a sign on the gate

I am fairly certain that once a person forces a gate open, the act becomes Criminal Trespassing. At this point a game camera with a license plate recording should be enough for the local LEO to produce a warrant for arrest of the trespasser. Check with your local LEO - but forcing open a gate usually steps up the offense from simple trespassing to Criminal Trespassing...

 

[check]

We have 25 acres of lakefront property, and small 6 acre lake self contained within the property. Yesterday, we came across a guy who had brought his canoe with his truck right up almost to the edge of the small lake, then dragged his canoe down to the lake and went out fishing. We called him over to shore and told him it was a private lake on private property and that there's no trespassing signs posted. He was from another city, and visiting his relatives' cottage, which was two cottages over from ours.

He claimed that he didn't know it was private property, and that one of his relatives told him that, 15 years ago, they caught fish in that lake.

I told him there was nothing but minnows in the lake, and he asked me to repeat that there was no fish in the lake. He must've got a bite or caught one or something.

Anyway, I took a picture of his truck, got his name, and the logo on his truck, and will follow up just to confirm that they know where the property line is.

Can't believe that someone would have the gall to drive down the Hydro line onto my property, take his canoe off of his truck, take it down about 200 feet of Trail to the lake, put it in, and fish. I will have to be putting some more no trespassing signs up, and maybe contact the cottagers that are down that road to let them know that this property is indeed private property.