Caught my 1st Trespasser

[scn]

I thought it used to be in Tennessee if you were not hunting on your own privately own property there was a requirement to carry written permission?

Looks like TWRA could go back to the written permission requirement put a hefty fine on trespassing and raise revenue to import rattle snakes and cougars? :lol:

Incorrect. There has never been a requirement for written permission except on property posted with the signage of Hunting by Written Permission Only. That was an attempt to not have the landowner to have to come to court to prosecute. Unfortunately, there were some major loopholes that made it virtually unenforceable.

I certainly agree that the trespass issue is one of the biggest problems out there.

 

[JeepKuntry]

No mercy. Call TWRA every time. County Deputies are well intentioned but ;ack the knowledge to deal with game violations. TWRA puts the smack down on them and they deserve it. Poachers think it is some kind of a game. Be sure they lose. Nice work on the catch.

Sorry but TWRA and smackdown don't belong in the same sentence. More like a slap on the wrist and your on your way. I always laugh when they revoke their license. Sorry but poachers don't buy licenses. Our fines are a joke. But hey, we have the highest license fee of all our surrounding states!

 

[scn]

No mercy. Call TWRA every time. County Deputies are well intentioned but ;ack the knowledge to deal with game violations. TWRA puts the smack down on them and they deserve it. Poachers think it is some kind of a game. Be sure they lose. Nice work on the catch.

Sorry but TWRA and smackdown don't belong in the same sentence. More like a slap on the wrist and your on your way. I always laugh when they revoke their license. Sorry but poachers don't buy licenses. Our fines are a joke. But hey, we have the highest license fee of all our surrounding states!

Your ignorance of the whole deal is pretty astonishing. Most poachers do buy licenses to help them launder their illegal kills. When you get in to plea negotiations, the license revocation is the thing that the poachers fight against the most. They would rather pay hefty fines and lose equipment than lose their hunting privileges. Once those are gone, the ability to publicly brag about their kills (illegal included) is greatly diminished. Add to the fact that they are banned from hunting in 42 other states and the license revocation is a pretty good tool.

And, to blame TWRA concerning the fine is a joke. TWRA makes and prosecutes the cases. The judges of the state levy the fines upon conviction. Most of the violations have a fine range that could be a deterrent if the judges went past the minimum. TWRA does not set the range of the fines. That is done by the legislature. And, TWRA certainly does not access the penalty on the violator.

And, as far as costs, if you want lower license fees, lobby your legislature for a state income tax so the agency gets some general fund dollars like the states you are comparing them against. Yours is an apple and oranges argument.

 

[Planking]

My neighbor said he called and had a trespassers truck towed last year. I thought that was a good idea.

 

[ImThere]

My neighbor said he called and had a trespassers truck towed last year. I thought that was a good idea.

That's awesome!

the one and only "ImThere"

 

[Hunter 257W]

I recently found a feeder in my woods. I took it down, busted it up and threw it in the garbage. I have "No Trespassing" signs all around my property and have no mercy for anybody who claims they didn't know they were trespassing. If they are bold enough to try to hunt my woods and even worse think they can put up stands and feeders or cameras without my knowing about it, then any stands, etc. they leave behind will be totally destroyed and thrown away.

 

[megalomaniac]

The advice to let the law handle the situation is the best. Of course, you must be willing to prosecute and go to court (assuming you are the landowner).

 

[pcrc]

The law did handle it. And how did that work out for him??????

 

[megalomaniac]

The law only did what the landowner wanted...

again, if the landowner is willing to prosecute and go to court, it WILL go to court. If the landowner is not willing to prosecute, why should the sheriff or TWRA bother to even get involved?

 

[Main Beam]

Your right!

 

[Mike D]

Should have taken a chainsaw and cut him down out of the tree. You could have said you needed some fire wood and you never saw him. THAT would have been a great pic/video. Glad you got the POS.

 

[pcrc]

When I walked up to him I would have found out who he was and if he was poaching he would have walked out of there with a black eye! Kinda like the guy that that got caught turkey hunting across the property line down in Alabama. If I'm going to miss work and waste my time going to court I would just as well pay the simple assault charge. That would be better than the little slap on the wrist he may get.

Yeah... until you mess with the wrong person, and he whips your *****, or worse.

Sounds like the trespassers and poachers will pretty much have a free reign in Tennessee between the LE who let them go as long as they "promise not to do it again" and the fearful law abiding lease holders and land owners who would rather turn and run for fear of getting shot or beat up. No wonder I see so many stripped carcasses along the side of the road on the way to my property.

 

[Deer Assassin]

When I walked up to him I would have found out who he was and if he was poaching he would have walked out of there with a black eye! Kinda like the guy that that got caught turkey hunting across the property line down in Alabama. If I'm going to miss work and waste my time going to court I would just as well pay the simple assault charge. That would be better than the little slap on the wrist he may get.

Yeah... until you mess with the wrong person, and he whips your *****, or worse.

ditto

how did that work out for them wisc hunters

Chai Soua Vang (born September 24, 1968) is a Hmong American from Laos who was convicted of murder. Vang shot eight people while on a hunting trip in northern Wisconsin on November 21, 2004; six were killed and two were left wounded.

Vang acknowledged shooting the people, but challenged the chain of events that caused a dispute over a deer stand to become violent and escalate into multiple deaths. Vang, who lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota at the time of the shootings, is imprisoned at the Iowa State Penitentiary



running you smart butt mouth to the wrong trespasser may just get you shot

 

[megalomaniac]

When I walked up to him I would have found out who he was and if he was poaching he would have walked out of there with a black eye! Kinda like the guy that that got caught turkey hunting across the property line down in Alabama. If I'm going to miss work and waste my time going to court I would just as well pay the simple assault charge. That would be better than the little slap on the wrist he may get.

Yeah... until you mess with the wrong person, and he whips your *****, or worse.

Sounds like the trespassers and poachers will pretty much have a free reign in Tennessee between the LE who let them go as long as they "promise not to do it again" and the fearful law abiding lease holders and land owners who would rather turn and run for fear of getting shot or beat up. No wonder I see so many stripped carcasses along the side of the road on the way to my property.

unfortunately, this is true... the landowner has to be willing to prosecute for the law to have any teeth.

as SCN alluded to, there was a provision whereby if your land was marked with 'hunting by written permission only' signs every 100 yards, with interspersed blue paint on the trees in between, either TWRA or local law enforcement could prosecute the perpetrator without the landowner ever getting involved. But the lawyers found too many loopholes in that to get people off, so it became ineffectual.

Bottom line, go to court, have your day in court, and stop the poaching.

 

[TN RDG RNR]

megalomaniac is right the landowner has to be willing to follow through with the prosecution. In our case I am certain that the landowner would but unless it becomes absolutely necessary wouldn't ask him. He owns several tracks of property in Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky so he is very busy. He also lives around 5 hours south of us, and is an older gentleman so it would be a huge inconvenience to him to come take out warrants and attend court dates ect...

Think this can be handled calling a Deputy out scaring the low lifes and shaming the folks that have just made a one time mistake.

Know I shouldn't whine and not be willing to follow through but it feels really good to vent to folks that feel my pain.

Thanks for all the opinions.

 

[rem270]

When I walked up to him I would have found out who he was and if he was poaching he would have walked out of there with a black eye! Kinda like the guy that that got caught turkey hunting across the property line down in Alabama. If I'm going to miss work and waste my time going to court I would just as well pay the simple assault charge. That would be better than the little slap on the wrist he may get.

Yeah... until you mess with the wrong person, and he whips your *****, or worse.

and the fearful law abiding lease holders and land owners who would rather turn and run for fear of getting shot or beat up. No wonder I see so many stripped carcasses along the side of the road on the way to my property.

I'm sure everyone would stand up to someone who is trespassing or poaching on there property. But you should always have someone with you when you do it IMO. No matter how big and bad you are or think you are there is always someone else out there bigger and badder. And it may just be that one who is trespassing.

I would rather go home at night to my wife rather than confront some stranger by myself to try and "mark" my territory and get a point across. I wouldn't let someone just do what they want but i would think of how i was going to do it before i just flew off the handle and possibly ended up dead.

 

[megalomaniac]

megalomaniac is right the landowner has to be willing to follow through with the prosecution. In our case I am certain that the landowner would but unless it becomes absolutely necessary wouldn't ask him. He owns several tracks of property in Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky so he is very busy. He also lives around 5 hours south of us, and is an older gentleman so it would be a huge inconvenience to him to come take out warrants and attend court dates ect...

Think this can be handled calling a Deputy out scaring the low lifes and shaming the folks that have just made a one time mistake.

Know I shouldn't whine and not be willing to follow through but it feels really good to vent to folks that feel my pain.

Thanks for all the opinions.

In your case, I 'believe' the primary lessee (your hunt club manager), can prosecute for dues for that year from the poacher (of course that would involve the expenses of getting an attorney). Alternatively, the landowner can give rights to prosecute in writing for your lease manager to stand in his stead in court against trespassers. You might want to look into this in the future. Another option is to have a clause inserted into your lease agreement that uninvited 'guests' are to be charged for a full years' dues, then the managers can vote to either allow them to continue hunting or revoke their privileges and forfeit their 'dues' for the remainder of the season.

I charge $500/ day to hunt my properties if you are uninvited. That way, when I catch someone, we can either go to court or you can pay the $$$ and finish hunting for the rest of the day. I had a tough situation with a group of kids opening day 6 or 7 years ago... I showed up to hunt my farm, there was a car parked at the 2nd gate on my farm (first gate is locked). I blocked them in, then went to my stand. A little 8 pointer passed by me and over the hill, and WWIII erupted. 16 shots, the poor little fellow came back by me missing a leg. I went back to the truck and waited for them to return. A group of 4 kids, between 13 and 17 showed up. Sure enough, 2 were the brothers that I was allowing their single mother to live in the house on the property free of rent (with the caveat being that there was to be absolutely no hunting or trespassing on the rest of the property). The boys invited a couple of their friends from school to come with them that morning. I informed them that it was customary for them to pay BEFORE beginning the hunt, but I felt generous and would allow them to go ahead and pay now and continue hunting. When I told them it was $2000 for the group of four, they said they couldn't pay. I offered to accept their rifles in exchange for payment, or we would have to settle payment in court, or alternatively they would have to plead guilty to trespassing charges and pay those fines.

Long story short, I had them squeaming for quite a while, then when I was done with them, I stopped by the house and evicted the mother and boys. I felt bad about doing that right before Thanksgiving, but she understood that trespassing was the one thing that was an automatic eviction, and she understood I simply could not trust her children to stay off the farm... boys will be boys, especially if they don't have a good father as an example. Word got out that I was an a$$, but it completely shut down not only that group of kids poaching, but also prevented all their classmates from taking advantage of the property as well.

Good thing I caught them that morning... when I checked my shooting houses later that day, most had several empty cartridges in them, and 2 had bullet holes through the walls. There's no telling how many deer they had already poached/ wounded before I caught them. And as reckless as they were with rifles, no telling who could have gotten injured or worse.

 

[MUP]

Now that's taking care of business.

 

[Main Beam]

Only thing I'll say is some grown men should grow some ballz! And I'm sure that's not just me thinking that.

 

[AllOutdoors]

megalomaniac is right the landowner has to be willing to follow through with the prosecution. In our case I am certain that the landowner would but unless it becomes absolutely necessary wouldn't ask him. He owns several tracks of property in Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky so he is very busy. He also lives around 5 hours south of us, and is an older gentleman so it would be a huge inconvenience to him to come take out warrants and attend court dates ect...

Think this can be handled calling a Deputy out scaring the low lifes and shaming the folks that have just made a one time mistake.

Know I shouldn't whine and not be willing to follow through but it feels really good to vent to folks that feel my pain.

Thanks for all the opinions.

In your case, I 'believe' the primary lessee (your hunt club manager), can prosecute for dues for that year from the poacher (of course that would involve the expenses of getting an attorney). Alternatively, the landowner can give rights to prosecute in writing for your lease manager to stand in his stead in court against trespassers. You might want to look into this in the future. Another option is to have a clause inserted into your lease agreement that uninvited 'guests' are to be charged for a full years' dues, then the managers can vote to either allow them to continue hunting or revoke their privileges and forfeit their 'dues' for the remainder of the season.

I charge $500/ day to hunt my properties if you are uninvited. That way, when I catch someone, we can either go to court or you can pay the $$$ and finish hunting for the rest of the day. I had a tough situation with a group of kids opening day 6 or 7 years ago... I showed up to hunt my farm, there was a car parked at the 2nd gate on my farm (first gate is locked). I blocked them in, then went to my stand. A little 8 pointer passed by me and over the hill, and WWIII erupted. 16 shots, the poor little fellow came back by me missing a leg. I went back to the truck and waited for them to return. A group of 4 kids, between 13 and 17 showed up. Sure enough, 2 were the brothers that I was allowing their single mother to live in the house on the property free of rent (with the caveat being that there was to be absolutely no hunting or trespassing on the rest of the property). The boys invited a couple of their friends from school to come with them that morning. I informed them that it was customary for them to pay BEFORE beginning the hunt, but I felt generous and would allow them to go ahead and pay now and continue hunting. When I told them it was $2000 for the group of four, they said they couldn't pay. I offered to accept their rifles in exchange for payment, or we would have to settle payment in court, or alternatively they would have to plead guilty to trespassing charges and pay those fines.

Long story short, I had them squeaming for quite a while, then when I was done with them, I stopped by the house and evicted the mother and boys. I felt bad about doing that right before Thanksgiving, but she understood that trespassing was the one thing that was an automatic eviction, and she understood I simply could not trust her children to stay off the farm... boys will be boys, especially if they don't have a good father as an example. Word got out that I was an a$$, but it completely shut down not only that group of kids poaching, but also prevented all their classmates from taking advantage of the property as well.

Good thing I caught them that morning... when I checked my shooting houses later that day, most had several empty cartridges in them, and 2 had bullet holes through the walls. There's no telling how many deer they had already poached/ wounded before I caught them. And as reckless as they were with rifles, no telling who could have gotten injured or worse.

Megalomaniac mega taking care of business.

 

[pcrc]

Yes, I'm sure that was exectly the right thing to do. To hell with the poor bastards who tried to shoot his deer! How dare they attempt such, put their whole fam damily on the street!

And you thought I was harsh. I just wanted to take his tree stand

 

[megalomaniac]

Because it's NOT about the deer silly. Only those that have worked, saved, worked, saved, and spent wisely would understand.

Perhaps you own a car. Would you mind if I 'borrowed' it for a few days without your permission? I think I could return it in the same condition as I 'borrowed' it, but I can't promise.

Or the next time you go on vacation I just use your house? After all, you aren't using it that week while riding rollercoasters in Disneyworld. What? you WOULD mind? But you didn't have your front door posted no trespassing!

Don't fall down the slippery slope... erode landowners/ property owners rights, and the good ole USofA has just become another communist country.

No problem I learned my lesson... no good deed goes unpunished. I haven't let another stay free of rent since then

 

[smalljawbasser]

if you are a lease holder, and your lease is written correctly, you can prosecute for trespassing. my attorney advises that you would need to be leasing the property itself, including a written legal description of the property, as opposed to leasing the hunting rights to the property.

either way, a judge will decide based on case law (or his/her mood that day) whether or not you have standing to prosecute.

 

[Tanelson43]

We have property leased that is bordered by Catoosa and had a couple of guys hunting 100 yards on our property this year. Luckily it was a rifle hunt. This was during muzzle loader season so we were able to call the game warden and they got in trouble for hunting with an illegal weapon. If they had been carrying muzzle loaders we would have had an extremely hard time prosecuting them for trespassing based on our state laws. They seemed like pretty nice guys but did admit they knew they were not on Catoosa. Unfortunately thus was their first time and I felt pretty bad for them. We have had trouble out of locals for years but have trouble catching them. These guys were from out of town and had never been there before but we have been so mad at other trespassers these guys paid the price. Just make sure you guys know where the WMA lines are.

 

[TN RDG RNR]

megalomaniac is right the landowner has to be willing to follow through with the prosecution. In our case I am certain that the landowner would but unless it becomes absolutely necessary wouldn't ask him. He owns several tracks of property in Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky so he is very busy. He also lives around 5 hours south of us, and is an older gentleman so it would be a huge inconvenience to him to come take out warrants and attend court dates ect...

Think this can be handled calling a Deputy out scaring the low lifes and shaming the folks that have just made a one time mistake.

Know I shouldn't whine and not be willing to follow through but it feels really good to vent to folks that feel my pain.

Thanks for all the opinions.

In your case, I 'believe' the primary lessee (your hunt club manager), can prosecute for dues for that year from the poacher (of course that would involve the expenses of getting an attorney). Alternatively, the landowner can give rights to prosecute in writing for your lease manager to stand in his stead in court against trespassers. You might want to look into this in the future. Another option is to have a clause inserted into your lease agreement that uninvited 'guests' are to be charged for a full years' dues, then the managers can vote to either allow them to continue hunting or revoke their privileges and forfeit their 'dues' for the remainder of the season.

I charge $500/ day to hunt my properties if you are uninvited. That way, when I catch someone, we can either go to court or you can pay the $$$ and finish hunting for the rest of the day. I had a tough situation with a group of kids opening day 6 or 7 years ago... I showed up to hunt my farm, there was a car parked at the 2nd gate on my farm (first gate is locked). I blocked them in, then went to my stand. A little 8 pointer passed by me and over the hill, and WWIII erupted. 16 shots, the poor little fellow came back by me missing a leg. I went back to the truck and waited for them to return. A group of 4 kids, between 13 and 17 showed up. Sure enough, 2 were the brothers that I was allowing their single mother to live in the house on the property free of rent (with the caveat being that there was to be absolutely no hunting or trespassing on the rest of the property). The boys invited a couple of their friends from school to come with them that morning. I informed them that it was customary for them to pay BEFORE beginning the hunt, but I felt generous and would allow them to go ahead and pay now and continue hunting. When I told them it was $2000 for the group of four, they said they couldn't pay. I offered to accept their rifles in exchange for payment, or we would have to settle payment in court, or alternatively they would have to plead guilty to trespassing charges and pay those fines.

Long story short, I had them squeaming for quite a while, then when I was done with them, I stopped by the house and evicted the mother and boys. I felt bad about doing that right before Thanksgiving, but she understood that trespassing was the one thing that was an automatic eviction, and she understood I simply could not trust her children to stay off the farm... boys will be boys, especially if they don't have a good father as an example. Word got out that I was an a$$, but it completely shut down not only that group of kids poaching, but also prevented all their classmates from taking advantage of the property as well.

Good thing I caught them that morning... when I checked my shooting houses later that day, most had several empty cartridges in them, and 2 had bullet holes through the walls. There's no telling how many deer they had already poached/ wounded before I caught them. And as reckless as they were with rifles, no telling who could have gotten injured or worse.

Megalomaniac mega taking care of business.

Read this mega and immediately thought to myself I may not be the right guy for the lease manager job. We need somebody ruthless, someone who will go straight for the jugular, someone who would crush their nutz with a 12lb sledge hammer should they dare to trespass,...Hmmmmm ........... going to check with my ex wives tomorrow and see if any of them are interested in the job .

 

[MUP]

:rotf: :smash: