And will stay that way.

Years ago, I had my first negative run in with another hunter. Since then, we have posted all of our land and we have added to the number of trail cameras that we have out in the woods. Sometimes we see vehicles driving into our food plot.  In that case, I send the photos to a local police officer who finds out who the license plates are registered to. We have seen random people show up on the trail cameras almost every year. This year, we had them again and it’s getting a little old.

Trespasser 2022

I sat in my stand at the end of deer season this year with my phone vibrating constantly in my pocket.  When I looked, I saw a number of photos of a random person on our property. This was the second time that week that someone we didn’t know was hunting on our property.  This trespasser was dressed in orange but did not have a gun.  There are photos of my dad, climbing down from his stand to talk to the person roaming around our property.  Dad asked why he didn’t have a gun if he was hunting.  The trespasser said he had left it in the stand. I am not sure why anyone would walk around the woods at 6:45am during hunting season without a gun. Dad asked where he was headed and he said he was heading to “Debbie’s stand.”  When asked who Debbie was (there is no land owner named Debbie around us) the trespasser just sort of pointed into the woods and said that that was the stand he was trying to find. They parted ways and the trespasser walked into the woods and Dad walked back into his stand.

Do your research

If you have any questions about why landowners post their land – this is it. Random people show up roaming around our property.  So we post the land.

I understand that when you head into the woods, everyone’s goal is to get a deer.  If you are hunting on land that you do not have permission to be on or land that you do not know the boundaries for, do some research.  Get one of the mapping apps.  Hunting apps like DeerCast and OnX have maps that show you property lines and landowner’s names.  Look up the tax maps. Make sure you know where you are supposed to be hunting. Don’t be the person that ruins a hunt for someone else.

Hunting land is being lost all the time due to urban expansion. Hunters are losing access to land all the time as land gets bought up by new owners.

From one hunter to another, please know where you are when you are in the woods and get permission to be on someone else’s land.