You get out of your night class at 9:30pm, the next morning is the day before rifle season and the forecast is perfect. Northern wind pushing through a 35 degree morning, the perfect last stand before MO rifle season starts.
You get home at 10:30 anxious to make one last Alamo stand before the orange army drastically changes the deer behavior at the least. You walk to your deer stand and halfway down the draw you see 8-9 piles of corn. In Missouri. Whenever you’re the only one hunting on this property.
Hypothetically, this character immediately called the poaching tip line. Have the officers all the information and told them to stake the place out for rifle season - the property is illegal for ten days following the removal of the bait anyway.
An hour later a family member who knew you’d be out of town for the weekend of rifle season calls your dad to ask if you’re hunting in there and gets all nervous. Gives the excuse that they put corn and cameras out there to see if they could get a picture of one since nobody would be in there and the deer might only pop up for a day or two.
You call the family member who isn’t allowed to hunt there and they try laughing it off and ask why you called the conservation department. You reply that you don’t want any of your deer that you’ve hunted legally all season getting shit by livestock, but they continue to try to laugh it off and make excuses about why what they did wasn’t all that bad.
NOTE: they never once apologized or acted like what they did was wrong, and this is a family member who you see at nearly every family gathering, and who also farms in a town of 600, where you guys see each other regularly.
In this hypothetical situation, what would you do to ensure that this family member knows what they did was wrong and you’re not standing for it?
I’m thinking that I would just bring up the topic of hunting ethics at the next get together, especially if the topic of hunting gets brought up, and mention how the peak of the rut got ruined on my property because I wasn’t allowed to hunt for ten days.
Also note: this family member has access to well over 1000 acres of hunting ground, including 4-5 designated hunting leases in the area; it wasn’t like they just didn’t have a place to hunt.
As much as I’d want to tell him off in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner, how would you guys approach maintaining family relations while also enforcing your view point.
Don’t turn this into a baiting ethics thread; the fact is, it’s illegal in Missouri and against my hunting ethics and morality code regardless, and he knows this
Sorry your hunt got ruined by one idiot.
If that doesn’t work, smack him across the face with a turkey leg and tell everyone at dinner what he did. :)
Nobody on here probably knows your family off the dynamics associated with it.
I went up north today and shot a 145ish 10 pointer, so my season is done for 10 days anyway until rifle closes, since you can’t use your archery tag during rifle and my rifle tag is notched. Less harm done, but the precedent remains.
But, I’d not wait till thanksgiving dinner to look that guy in the eye. I’d be pretty direct in telling him what he did was wrong. And, to stay away from where I’m hunting. Especially dumping corn out.
Deer in the Midwest must be different then the deer here. I have no moral objections against baiting. And other then boring me to death watching corn, it doesn’t work on older deer here. It has the opposite affect. It educates them.
The best way I know to turn a big buck nocturnal in these parts is dumping bait on the ground. And, I’ve got enough trail cam pics and experience to say that confidently. That’s why I’d be so mad about this if it were me.
To each his own. But, you’ll never get a chance to tell him how you feel unless you tell him how you feel.
Tough spot and sorry this happened. I'm not a beat around the bush type of person so I'd square it away with him, face to face quickly. If you're worried about ruining your relationship with him because he's your kin, you're better off without him if he gets bent at you for calling him out. Just because someone is your kin doesn't give them a pass to do shady things in my opinion.
All hypothetically speaking of course.
If he says anything along the lines of “you should’ve just went ahead and hunted it” I’ll say something along the lines of “absolutely not, if I would’ve shot a deer over that then not only would I not have felt right at all about that specific deer, but the ethics of every deer I’ve ever shot would’ve been in question. Once a guy poaches there ain’t nothing he can do to restore his trust when it comes to hunting and I care too much about that to ruin it over a single deer”
It sounds like you have already had the conversation. What am I missing. Have you talked to the dude or not. What is all the planning if you have already done it as noted above. Is that the same guy?
Never been in this situation before, and obviously every person and family is different, just kindve getting a feel for things
Matt
You can view it as just getting mad over a hunting spot, but it takes a hell of a lot of disrespect to slip in on somebody while they’re away for three days and try to bait and shoot a deer out from under them. A complete disregard for a family members pursuit of their passion is arguably worse than doing it to some random person. He knows how much hunting means to me but wanted to ruin it for me anyway. He ain’t blood, just by marriage.
It takes a lot to get me heated up, but showing absolute complete disregard for somebody to selfishly (and VERY illegally) poach a deer out from under them is something that will get me hot in a hurry.
The thing about following your moral compass even when it significantly inconveniences you, is I’ve noticed that it brings with it many gifts :) Karma, if that’s what you wanna call it, definitely works both ways!
Tell him face to face to knock it off as you don't want to be ticketed for hunting over bait, tell him if he does it again you will tell grandma and she will have him go out there and pick up his crap, right after Thanksgiving dinner.
Everyone has a family member or someone in the circle of in-laws and outlaws like this, better to point out their shortcomings in private and if they don't amend their ways then in a public, enforcement-based forum. There are people in my family I won't hunt with due to prior transgressions or this landowner behavior that wild game is theirs. It is not, it is a public resource, it's time they understand that. Again I don't hunt with certain people on their property anymore because of the possibility of being drawn into an illegal situation or looked down upon for shooting "one of their deer." Worse yet you could lose equipment (like an heirloom weapon)and/or your hunting privileges due to that kind of stupidity. It ain't worth it, I hunt public land instead.
I would make certain the wardens know the entire story - names, address's, etc., and request they do an "informational" report. (With no contact with the dumbass!!!)
If he does this once - will he do it again? I think absolutely!!!!!!!!..... In my opinion it comes down to accountability! Just take a look at what's going on in this country - sooooo many morons getting away with doing all kinds of things and not being held accountable.
Your situation sure is a tough one. No one here can speak to the family dynamics and how important the relationship and the potential spin off damage is to you. It's easy to be a 1000 miles away and say well this hypothetical relative sounds like trash and so what's a relationship with him anyways?!?! Sounds to me like you've got your priorities straight and the wisdom to make a good call on this one. You don't sidestep it, and it's a massive strike one. Very interesting that with that much land to hunt he's horning in on your piece. I mean to say that he is not trustworthy is understating the situation and I would never ever let him know my future plans and always keep him guessing for sure.
