doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ah nature, warning shots!

This weekend went to check on my spillway. Lots of rain of late and a clog in the spillway will erode my road. Well what do I find, first-off my gate has been taken from it's hinges and badly replaced. Second, left in the middle of the road are a half dozen or so spent 12g shells. Did someone have a goose dinner on me!
I post...any questions why I do?

no questions at all. when i was a kid growing up in MS i always hated posted land. now that my folks are retired and living on their place back there i've come to see that due solely to the behavior of a few, landowners have no alternative. as long as people have no regard for other people's property there's nothing else you can do. their land is surrounded by paperwood company land and other farms that have leased theirs to deer hunting clubs, mostly to people out of memphis, and he's found permamanent tree stands in trees on his land (which ended up being his choice for firewood), remains of deer kills, trash, field roads rutted out by 4WD's, pretty much you name it.

as long as gun owners and hunters remain their own worst enemies they'll probably get what they deserve. but they'll drag the rest of us down with them.

roger

LG, I hear you. I know I'm a weekend guy and the locals might "use" the place a bit but this Sunday I found new evidence of local love:
A pile of corn and cheese puffs in the middle of a field, what I assume is bait for poaching,
A fence ripped down and quad tracks from doing donuts ripping up a wet meadow,
Shotgunned posted signs,
A dumped stripped old snowmobile carcass, and
A rifle shot television.

More fence coming, more posting signs coming, and real bad attitude already here.

Lowell,

What you need is a good overseer and game keeper. May I volunteer?

Curl

"When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns"

For "guns," substitute "access to habitat." No excuses for bad behavior, but the traditional bond between hunters and landowners is being broken by selfish and greedy people on both sides. No one is breaking down open gates.

There is one way to handle this, and only one way: access by permission only. It's common courtesy. The "few" will always be with us. They'll turn your land into a silvicultural slum within six months. It works for me. I don't take crap off any one.
(Litle feisty today, returning from three weeks overseas.)

A young friend a few years ago told me of meeting a couple deer hunters on a property near mine. My friend said he had no luck and was going to go over to King Brown's. "King Brown?" they said. " You go on that effing land and that effing guy will call the effing Mounties in five effing minutes."

I have no gates. I don't fence to keep people or animals in or out. I expect those who want to use my property for any reason to treat the land and me with respect. The local bishop, a friend, trespassed on a promontory of my land 20 years ago. I told him there were 10 pairs of beady eyes watching our confrontation from the beach and that he'd have to go back for permission at my house.

He did, and I did. Stewardship demands no less. Otherwise, we're giving in to the galoots, to suffer the tragedy of the commons.

Unfortunately, open gates do not garner higher respect for the landowner's property or for the land or the natural inhabitants. I have a nice lake that looks like good fishing. The last time I allowed someone access, two weeks later I came home to find a boatload of people I didn't know fising. They had heard from a friend of a friend of a friend that it was OK to go in and fish. My boat was just laying there with the drain plug out and no paddles so obviously I intended them to cut a limb off a tree, make a "plug", cut down a small tree for a pole, and use it for their fishing. No, they didn't bring the pile of trash on the dock - must have been someone else. Yes, that was their truck parked in my front yard - they didn't want to leave it in the driveway and I hadn't provided any other parking place. Ruts in the lawn?? Don't all lawns have truck ruts?? There were two pieces of good news; 1) they hadn't caught any fish, and 2) they wern't coming back - neither was the invitee.

Land use is a real problem!!

Unfortunately I live on fairly busy road and have a 250', wide concrete driveway with a turnaround area. A turnaround area for me, that is. I wish I had a nickel for every SOB who comes zipping down my driveway, turns around, then heads back home to get his flavored condoms or whatever it is he forgot. And I wish I had a dollar for every one who is too lazy to turn his steering wheel all the way and hangs a tire or two off in my yard, leaving yet another rut.

We seem to be heading for the British solution, where the game belongs to the landowner and there is no 'public' hunting.

As long as gun ownership in America is a right and the game belongs to the public, there will be people abusing someone else's private land. Just as there are people abusing by illegally posting public land. And - more and more, these days - non-resident landowners buying up and locking up game habitat.

The long alliance between hunters and farmers is all but over. Unposted land is now the exception, leasing and posting the rule, and game has become a cash crop.

The fundamental problem - for hunters, and for everyone else on earth - is that there are more and more people grabbing for fewer and fewer resources. In a remarkable achievement of PC sleight-of-hand, everyone's babbling about 'controlling' global warming, and no one dares mention the real problem: overpopulation.

The original post both saddens and angers me. The lack of respect and common courtesy shown to others along with the threat of litigation have become so much a part of our lives we are all the poorer for it.

In my opinion, road rage, for example,is nothing more than one persons imposing his or her "right" to drive in another's path. Their time and purpose are just so much more important than yours. Their need or "right" to hunt, shoot, or just dump their trash out-weights your rights as a land owner.

In the Eastern half of Texas, almost all land is privately owned. I was raised to ask before going on anyone's property, always close the gates, don't tramp down their fences, and whatever your do, don't shoot their cows. Those rules have always worked for me and I don't see any reason to change them.

Gun ownership is our right because of our constitution. I may not "own" the game on my land, but I do control access to it.

Some landowner who have allowed hunting and fishing on their property in the past, now do not. Why, fear of a lawsuit, someone could hold them responsible for an injury. One should not have to have liability insurance to protect themselves from a guest. Such is the world we live in.