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Rules For Thee Not For Me (Outlaw Thread)

boyne bowhunter said:
I have to admit that when I was in my younger, more exuberant days I might have fractured a few of the hunting laws (I'm sure the statute of limitations has expired by now :)).

In all honestly though, I find as I've gotten older (and hopefully wiser) that I've become more conscientious of trying to obey the laws, at least for the most part. The one caveat to that is that I still carry a pair of hand pruning shears with me to quietly remove any small twigs that may be a threat of rubbing on me or my bow at hunting height. I hate leaving evidence of trimming though so I use them very sparingly. I'm talking twigs less than a 1/4" in diameter that I would normally snap off leaving no evidence but I don't want to make such a loud snap. I find quite often its the evidence of cut branches around a tree that alerts me to other hunter's spots and I hate to divulge any intel as to my spots so any trimming is minimal and I try to keep the trimmings wedged somewhere in the tree at height.

I also find I'm a bit more understanding of some of the more minor violations (in my opinion anyways) that I may stumble upon being committed by others as well. For clarification, I mean if I see someone shoot an animal out their car window I'm likely going to report it, but at the same time I'm also not going to get wigged out if I find some screw in steps in a tree or a tree stand left up out of season. It's hard for me to cast any stones at folks for doing things I may (or may not have) done in my youth. I've also discovered that those minor transgressions didn't really offer me any real advantage so ultimately they're really not worth the risk/potential penalty associated with them.
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If you will stack those trimmings up neatly and pour rice bran over the top of them, no one will ever know you trimmed a thing.
 
My local game warden slowly stalks the woods glassing the treetops for small limbs and twigs that look like they may have been trimmed and then calls in the helicopter to come investigate more closely. So no trimming in the stand for me.

Also, I have tactically inserted 2 babies and counting well outside of deer season, thank you for your admiration and respect
 
BackSpasm said:
My local game warden slowly stalks the woods glassing the treetops for small limbs and twigs that look like they may have been trimmed and then calls in the helicopter to come investigate more closely. So no trimming in the stand for me.

Also, I have tactically inserted 2 babies and counting well outside of deer season, thank you for your admiration and respect
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I thought the state switched to drones last year to check for twig trimmings? I heard that’s why AL license went up last year. I just wish they would use the resources to catch these master baiters. I feel like they never get caught and they just leave their mess all over which ruins the areas for the rest of us.
 
gcr0003 said:
I thought the state switched to drones last year to check for twig trimmings? I heard that’s why AL license went up last year. I just wish they would use the resources to catch these master baiters. I feel like they never get caught and they just leave their mess all over which ruins the areas for the rest of us.
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My state uses trained chameleons to check for rouge trimming. It just takes them months to walk back to the road to check in. There was talk of going to lemurs, lol.
 
BackSpasm said:
View attachment 85543

Me reading this thread preparing to report all of you to whoever it was who just became a game warden on here. Also @gcr0003 I'm sure there are "a lot of people you know who does these things" smh
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That's @FLYIN_HAYN. (Congrats on the commission, btw). He's good. Made a nice bust that stuck using good optics. But he's an ocean away...in Hawaii. His optics can't be that good...can they? I think you mainlanders may be safe yet.
 
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Going on private property... guilty.

BUT, I was tracking a wounded deer...WHICH I thought was required that you make all attempts of retrieving downed game.
DNR guy set me straight, and said HE wouldn't write a ticket for that, but he couldn't talk for them all.
 
gcr0003 said:
I thought the state switched to drones last year to check for twig trimmings? I heard that’s why AL license went up last year. I just wish they would use the resources to catch these master baiters. I feel like they never get caught and they just leave their mess all over which ruins the areas for the rest of us.
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The more they master it, the more efficient they get but the more frequently they seem to want to do it. Drives me NUTS
 
elk yinzer said:
This one may be the most controversial, but if I know a deer is dead, property lines can kiss my you know what. I'm not calling anyone, I'm going in commando and getting it. I don't otherwise trespass and it's rare, I don't put myself in situations where it is likely to happen like hunting the burbs. I'm not a fan of chucklehead landowners that have an attitude about owning ground and act like they are the overlords of some holy fiefdom but I generally respect private property rights. If those chickleheads didn't exist, I'd ask permission every time. But they do, so forgiveness is easier in my eyes and I ain't getting caught. That's gods property, you are just the caretaker while you pay the taxes on it. If a deer is dead on it that I killed, I'm doing right by the animal I killed by retrieving it.
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I wish hunters could do better here. I don't understand how hunters deny the pursuit of wounded game, for the sake of shared passion and respect for quarry.

Except hunters too often play by their own bent rules, fueling hostilities...and property owners too often think they own the game, not just the property.

This is probably my biggest frustration with the hunting community.
 
WPS87 said:
Today I learned that the property I paid for and pay taxes on I don’t own. Guess I’m a sucker.
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Technically you can put it in a trust and decide what you want for the lands future. That is saying you aren't making payments too. My tiny slice won't ever be sold after I am gone. Just passed along or donated to MDC(they don't want a tiny cow lot and ran down farm house)
 
I'm a stickler for rules, even the ones I don't like.

As a property owner, I will 100% press charges on any and all trespassers regardless of their stated intentions.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
I can’t believe people openly saying they will trespass. Just because your moral compass is messed up doesn’t make it right. But I got mine right? Its the American way. It’s also foolish to assume the landowner isn’t a hunter and have trail cams up. I have and will continue to escort trespassers off my land whether good intentions or not.
 
I tend to agree with the no trespassing stuff. I think you're a royal chocolate starfish if you deny another hunter the ability to pursue wounded game. But if it's not yours stay out.
 
bigmike23 said:
I tend to agree with the no trespassing stuff. I think you're a royal chocolate starfish if you deny another hunter the ability to pursue wounded game. But if it's not yours stay out.
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I 100 percent agree with allowing anyone to retrieve a kill.
 
I'll clarify my situation. All the land I would typically need to trespass is rural and not residential. I also as a general rule don't have great internet or cell service, and it's hot in south Alabama. Meat doesn't spoil as quickly as some folks think, but it doesn't exactly keep either.

If I know who you are and your contact info, I'll for sure shoot you a call/text before I access your land. If you let me get my deer I'll thank you and offer to share. If you decline, I'm liable to get it anyway and label you a duckhead.

If the land I'm accessing is held by an OOS timber Co or development Co, then I'm not wasting my time because I care about its rights as a "legal person" roughly as much as your "legal person" cares about mine. Not much. 90% of the time, that's been the case.

If I know you lease the land from said co and I know your number, I'll call.

If I know the land is leased, and I don't know who you are, and I don't see you...not wasting time trying to call the co and try to pry your name loose. Even if I have cell/internet.

I just got on huntstand and pulled the property info for the land I own. It correctly identified my name and mailing address. I then spent 10 minutes googling that info trying to scare up my phone number and was unsuccessful. My neighbor's property has the name and address of the prior owner, who died 3 years ago. Even in the information age, some info is hard to track. And be honest, are you answering my call if you don't recognize my number? I'm not.

I guess Ranger Rick may tell me I should have a portfolio of all the landowners who own land adjacent to the half dozen WMAs I usually hunt. Maybe. But it's a deer. I've never left anything on the property, never vandalized, never hunted, never carried a weapon. At best somebody has watched me through the woods (doubtful) or caught me on camera (also doubtful, but more likely) and had their feelings hurt.

All that said I'll eat the ticket without complaint if and when that happens. Law's the law. But I'll be honest and say that if you have a problem with a hunter accessing a big tract of land you don't live on to get a deer...I feel bad for you. You're wound tight enough that I imagine life in general requires a lot of tums and warm water.

I get that the situation may be radically different elsewhere. But in a predominately rural state with a history of carpetbaggers and good ole boys avoiding paying property taxes while their neighbors starve and grow up ignorant...I just feel guiltier about a lot of other things. Like the lithium battery in my phone, the disposable income that I've burned on hunting gear (a chunk of which funded the CCP) instead of helping deworm African kids, or all of the times I've farted on the couch and tried to blame my dog.
 
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