For those of you who advocate shooting down drones, might want to think twice. Fish, Wildlife, Parks uses them for observing poachers. This is no surprise, drones have wide applications for law enforcement, and are increasingly being utilized. Great to catch trespassers too.
And I say....if you want to fly a drone then fly it over your own land or public land. You fly it low over my house/land to spy on me then it's going down.....in pieces.
And for those that think they have a perfect right to hover over my home and spy on me then let me know where YOU live and I'll park on the road and train a spotting scope on your windows.
Wildlife is a public resource, so I am OK with them using drones to check behavior, but not for general spying on any and all behavior. Privacy concerns will most likely cause this issue to be addressed further in the legal system.
For all you "I'm gonna blow them out of the sky" types, make sure you know ALL applicable laws first. Depending on where you live, you could be stuck with legal bills, loss of weapons, etc. Just a word of advice.
I wouldn't like or enjoy having one visit my home, my farm or my hunting camp. I wouldn't shoot it simply due to being annoyed or worried. I'm 100% sure drones will eventually be used by our states to monitor wildlife, and hunting and fishing activities. They already use helicopters and other light aircraft, so drone use is a logical extension.
What actually concerns me about drones is the potential for criminals to use them for surveillance...to pattern people or determine if they are at home, or to 'research' properties looking for criminal opportunities. It's going to happen.
Good points Kevin. I had a neighbor who would use cameras to know when I was presnt. We both lived at the end of a dead end road. I was broken into. When I advised the local authorities they did use night vision to prove my theory. It ended once it was exposed.
Much more difficult to prove with this new technology though, and who is responsible.
Who's afraid? Just p*ssed. Same as you would be if someone sat on the road and trained a spotting scope on your windows. Like I said, if you want to play with your tech toys then go right ahead......over YOUR property. There's no trouble that way. But stay off mine. Or at least out of shotgun range.
They are like every other thing in history. Most people who use them will do so in an appropriate manner. A much smaller percentage will use them for no good. As has already been seen. And, people will deal with them in the same ways they have always dealt with people that do things they shouldn't do.
I saw a video where two younger guys in their early 20's was using a remote control car to screw with golfers. They hid in a patch of woods next to a green and, as these old men were approaching the green from just chipping on it, the boys run the car out there and knocked their golf balls around. They messed up though and, got the car close to one of the golfers. He unleashed his pitching wedge on it. Beat it into pieces before the guys could run out there and stop him. They accosted the old guy at first calling him names and such, at which point he started to try and unleash his pitching wedge on them. He chased them for a pretty good ways. After getting away from the old guy the punks acted like the old man had the problem.
I see similar things happening with drones. God Bless men
I spotted a couple good articles online that help put some of this in perspective. In various states and counties they've been using special manned aircraft equipped with multiple high-resolution cameras to fly over properties and do detailed photography. The purpose is for tax assessment and they're doing it to get better images and data on properties they can't see via conventional means. The pictures they take are astounding and better than Google Earth. The interesting thing is that drones are the next tool in the kit for many locales that want detailed tax assessment and want to do it faster and cheaper. Many populated areas are discussing and voting on the issue currently.
Police, first responders, wildlife officers, park managers, county officials, search & rescue, fisheries mgmt, utilities, communications, watercraft enforcement, traffic monitoring and endless other entities will have legit uses for them. I don't know how much input we'll have in deciding their allowable uses. There will be many millions of smaller drones in the air within 10 years. Going to be interesting to see how it works out.
Once they are mainstream which is very soon, it's only a matter of time before a poacher figures out a way to attach a firearm to it and take poaching to a whole new level.
If aircraft is flying at shotgun range over my place it's got a lot more to worry about than birdshot, like maybe the 200 year old white oak trees. And the ridges that rise up another 100 or so feet around me.
Drones will be similar to the internet, when the internet came out it had two uses, military and evil, there was never going to be any good come of it, just data collection and porn.
but look at us now. All wasting more time here then we ever thought and doing good? I think not evil. There is still porn and still undesirable thing happening, but it is starting to regulate itself.
Drones will do the same, eventually they will find a natural balance and all will be good.
That said, I'm not sure a drone is safe on my property yet. oz
It's already illegal to fly a drone over any person(s) not involved with the flight operation. The FAA rules for small unmanned aircraft are very specific on that. No need to shoot them down and become a law-breaker yourself. Just prosecute the person flying it illegally.https://www.faa.gov/uas/media/Part_107_Summary.pdf
If his recorded video indicates a shoot-down, one would more likely think of a knock on the door first...probably accompanied by a couple of scowling LE types.
Well if you puff a drone unless it's a super expensive one the proof of what happened is gone in a cloud of smoke. How far is the wifi capabilities on those things anways? If it's expensive and someone is flying it from a half mile away I hardly imagine the footage is being remotely sent that far. Once the drone is taken care of it's only hearsay anyways... And if you miss, you were shooting at crows - maybe don't fly a drone close to me when I'm crow hunting ;)
If it's illegal to fly a drone over anyone who's NOT involved in the flight operation, and then someone flies one over me while I'm standing on my own land, then how else can I find out WHO it is that's breaking the law if I don't shoot it down first?? I mean, I can't very well demand that it stop and put it's hands up and wait for the police to arrive like I can and would with a human intruder. So how else can you do it?
Makes for an interesting thread. I don't think anyone clearly knows how much air space and even land beneath your property for that matter is owned besides the physical landscape. Drones are starting to change that thought with many cities/towns.
For starters the owner of the drone would have to go onto the property to recover the drone... Much like if I shot a deer and it ran onto private property where I don't have permission to hunt. Here in Michigan; I can't just walk into that land and recover it without the landowners permission. Secondly; Even if you got a law enforcement officer to try to recover your drone.... Even if the landowner complies and turns over the drone he shot down..... The landowner most likely says that he had no idea what it was flying over his property and it scared the shit out of him so he shot it...... I doubt there are many prosecutors that are going to pursue charges of malicious destruction of property..... Most likely the drone owner is out of luck and could only seek to recoup damages in civil court. JMO. Don't be flying your drone over other people's property.
Or; the landowner tells the officer he has no idea what the officer is talking about.... Have a nice day... Please leave my property and don't come back without a warrant.... How far do you think law enforcement officers are going to go to get your drone back when you were dumb enough to fly it over someone else's land ???
Disclaimer;; I'm talking about someone foolish enough to fly a drone low enough over private land to be in... Say birdshot range.... Like just above treetops. I think if someone was flying a drone a thousand feet up in the air, that would be another story and much easier to explain that you weren't peeping in on the land owner.
There was an article in Readers Digest recently about shooting down a drone. The shooter was ticketed and had to reimburse the drone owner for over the $1,000 cost of the drone. I'll try to remember to find the article.
I think for privacy and landowner concerns, they should have some sort of regulation. Sort of like when the power company needs access to private property for maintenance, or upgrade, they have a whole team of people that all they do is make property owner contacts, to let owners know when, where and what work will be taking place (even if they do have easements). Drones do have legitimate purposes, and if they are legitimate, I think land owners should need to be notified of flight plans, otherwise I would assume it's no different than your neighborhood peeping Tom utilizing his new "tools". I think the pilots should also have FAA license(s) and there should be some sort of etiquette training required. I think this would largely solve the issue of legitimate uses, versus borderline harassment on public or private. A few years back while fishing with my Dad and brother, we had a drone circling us 50-60' above the water for a few minutes and that sucker was pretty loud and obnoxious, I don't think that was a "legitimate" purpose, I think they were just screwing with us and at the time, if I had a shotgun, I probably would have shot it. It sounds like this would have been highly illegal and was probably a good thing I didn't have one. Maybe there should be a one warning shot requirement followed by a 3 second waiting period and plugged guns only, like waterfowl, of course with 3 guys on the boat, that's still a lot of steel coming at you! :)
For law enforcement purposes, maybe they should put lights on them like they do police cars to distinguish them from a private party ass hole, like I believe we had.
I personally think nuisance drones should be shot on public or private (your own land only).
100% agree with Sito, if the government wants to watch you they can do so without drones. Also you do not own the "airspace" over your home. I agree it is lousy to use them to spy on folks and such but as has been said you can lose a lot if you shoot one down. Hate to have a gun or bow taken away because you broke some law you did not know about. Just be careful! Scooby
We don't run one at my agency so I don't know much about them. I would imagine to run one near a house/private property (law enforcement wise) their going to need a search warrant, for what they are looking for.
There are some airspace rights over your property. If there wasn't, corner hopping (where you step from one piece of public property to the other when they meet at a corner) wouldn't be an issue like it is out west. Its not legal to pass your foot over a few inches airspace on its way from property we own to set down on other property we own.
Drones are here to stay. I don't know how to balance the freedom to use one against the right to privacy. Maybe an app that identifies any active drones within 1 mile of your phone. Drones would be required to transmit ID data. If a drone is hovering over your deer stand and no ID comes up, it's fair game.
Maybe one day we will all need a little auto intercept drone we can release to chase them away like black birds harassing a hawk.
Some guy, a lot smarter than me, will eventually develop a signal scrambling/blocking device to protect your private property from overhead prying eyes.
Actually there is already technology which can hack a drone and either take control of it or cause it to land. That much has been developed. As far as drone scramblers and such...who knows what's coming? I could see some type of zonal (think invisible fence) drone protection for your home which would interfere with video transmission back to the pilot if a protected area is encountered. I personally don't want a drone losing control and crashing on my home or nice vehicles.
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I won't shoot them down unless I know it's being used criminally and the odds of me knowing that are about 00.03. With my luck a shot-down drone would be owned by law enforcement, utilities, or other entity willing to make my life a real pain. Anyway as Pat L indicated, most drones are going to be flying a lot higher than some are imagining...and mostly out of shotgun range. That doesn't mean they don't have high-res cameras which can see just as much detail from farther away. They'll just be doing the same thing at a higher altitude.
What is so darn hard about simply flying YOUR drone over YOUR property??? I'm not talking about the government here, but private individuals, who are already prohibited by law from flying it over someone who's NOT involved in the flight operation?
Not the point Bake, it shouldn't. Anti-gunners don't want ANYONE to own guns. I have no issue with anyone owning them. Just fly them over YOUR property. Is that such a hard idea to grasp?
But my point is, do we even know there's a widespread problem with them flying over private property where they don't belong? Have you actually had a drone invade your property rights?
I can see some small abuses occurring, but I guess I just can't foresee a widespread epidemic of drone mis-use that will cause tons of problems.
My good friend bought his 8 year old daughter a small drone for her birthday. The biggest thing I foresee happening is her crashing it into their own house :) His wife is an insurance agent, so maybe she's got that covered :)
"Anti-gunners don't want ANYONE to own guns. I have no issue with anyone owning them. Just fly them over YOUR property."
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I agree with the tenor of this. However, if the FAA says it's legal for them to fly at say...300 feet above our land in airspace we don't personally own or legally control...what then? That's the crux of the issue.
A low-level drone snooping our houses or property is never going to be tolerated and of course will be handled as seen appropriate.
With most of the popular small drones like the Phantoms, if you're not within a couple hundred yards or less, you'd probably never notice it in the sky.
I've seen 2 so far. One was at the United Bowhunters of Pa jamboree this past August. I don't know who was flying it. It was a 100 or 200 feet up. I heard it and looked up and saw it.
Who would be in more trouble the guy flying it or the landowner shooting it down? What if it got video of you shooting at it and you missed and it got away? Can the video be turned into the faa and the shooter get in trouble??
There have been several cases out here of people flying drones around during fires (forest and / or residential fires). Obviously, the firemen hate it. The local news channels here even made mention numerous times last summer that people were not allowed to fly drones over forest fires because they interfere with the planes flying to fight fires.
I've personally seen several. Last 4th of July one was flying around during the fireworks show. I've seen them in city parks and at the beach. They gather some interesting video, for sure.
There are laws in some states to prevent harassment of hunters or the animals they hunt. California has them. My question is when is one flying low considered harassment?
I share a lease on 350 prime acres in Illinois..The guys I hunt with have brought up the notion more than once of,using a drone to "scout" ..I'm not OK with this and have told them so...If that is the "future"of hunting ...I'm sure that downing drones will be a new sport......For some of us
I have 2 drones myself. Both DJI's, a Phantom and a Mavic. The aerial photos and video that they take is really incredible. I use them for everything from taking aerial photos of my farm, to flying over the lake I live on to see if anyone has started ice fishing when the conditions are questionable. One thing I can promise, is I can take plenty of good pictures or video out of "shotgun" range and get all the information I need. I know several people in my area that have drones, and most everyone flys them for fun. It seems to me that there are just a lot of paranoid people out there. Anyone that wants to see whats going on around your house or property, probably already has, from an app called Google Earth.
It's real easy to say you shouldn't shoot them down until you have some Ahole taunt you with one....Just this last Sunday I had just settled into my duck blind when an increasing buzzing caught my attention. Immediately recognizing the noise I look out and here comes a drone that proceeds to hover about 30 yards away from me surveying the decoys. Once the camera turned and focused on the blind/me I tried waving it off to which I got the multiple wing tips indicating it saw me but had no intention of leaving. It hovered, circled and basically ignored my request to leave, Until.....I raised my gun and pointed it at it. I had no intention to shoot it, but was fed up with this blatant trespass and disregard for what I was doing. Colorado law is not clearly defined as to ownership of airspace over private property. Some legal beagles argue that you do have the ownership right in terms of trespass and privacy up to the point of small aircraft flying elevation (500'), other argue you don't. At any rate, it is very irritating and maybe it's best to let those ducks take one more pass into the right shot angle...;-)
Maybe that one drone above that can lift 500 lbs can get me into some landlocked lands. :) I did see a video of one lifting a guy that was skiing. I lifted him right off the ground.
States and feds have outlawed drones flying near wildland fire operations, with serious fines, etc. 90% of drones are line of sight. If you see the drone, the operator is somewhere close by. Law enforcement has told wildfire copter pilots to look for the operators, get close enough to take a pic of the perp and vehicle license plate and they will take it from there.
Better get used to them, because they have thousands of uses. Agree a person overflying somebody else's property is asking for trouble.
Back when I was a kid, a friend of mines dad used to pull the bullets from .22's and scrape up soap off of a bar, shape it, then used it to shoot stray dogs and cats getting into his yard and garbage cans. Makes one wonder if you couldn't do the same with a bigger caliber? You're range would be greater than a shotgun, but you wouldn't necessarily be putting people, places or objects in danger that are down range. Fill up a magazine and unload at the thing. Someone needs to try this! ;-)
I have yet to see one other than a photo-op that was done after the installation of a guzzler. I do see misuse in the future and a lot of it. I got money that in the next year or so around my neck of the woods some one is going to get busted for using them for scouting wildlife and harassment. We have lots of mountains and valleys and no end of lazy MF'ers that would rather use these instead of shoe leather. If that happens, they need to financially hammer those that do.
The link is just one example of misuse...there are much more I am sure.
Interesting! The town of Deer Trail Colorado. The town approved and will issue Drone licenses to be used to prevent "big brother" from watching. This made National News. my best, Paul
"How far is the wifi capabilities on those things anways? If it's expensive and someone is flying it from a half mile away I hardly imagine the footage is being remotely sent that far."
A friend has an inexpensive drone (~$300 plus the the GoPro camera) and it provides a real-time view from the drone to his iPad. He can record that video at the ipad but usually just records onto the SD card on the drone / camera. I beleive the range is greater than 1/2 mile.
You need to read the posts Missou. We're talking about PRIVATE land. You can do whatever you damn well like on your property or government ground if you're the government.
Then they'd better identify it with markings of some sort. How are you supposed to know if it's the law of some peeping Tom pervert?
I think we may be seeing a whole new area of jurisprudence in the making here. Law enforcement cannot enter you home or property unless they have a warrant or probable cause. Hovering over your home and looking in your windows is an invasion of privacy and maybe even your civil rights.
They already do it with google earth, helicopters and aircraft. I do not think they will look into your windows. Small aircrafts are how law enforcement agents locate illegal bait piles etc, been doing it for years..
No, they probably don't. But then there's the individual bozos who will take a toy like this and WILL try to invade your privacy. That's who I'm saving my old lead shot for.