I need to get photos of some guys who poach on our lease. They have been a pain for years. Game warden said he needs pics or an in person encounter. I have some old trail cams that don’t work. I have considered setting some up in obvious easy to see fashion but also have another cam or two really well hidden. How have you guys hidden cams so the bad guys don’t see them and just tear them down or steal them. I was hoping they would tear down the obvious cams and I’d get pics of it.
I bought my hunting land in 1984. There were no trail cameras back then so we escorted trespassers off the property consistently for the first three years. After that they went elsewhere. It never occurred to us to rely on authorities.
If people are hunting your lease when you’re not there I would think it’s the land owners problem?
If you use a cell cams they send you the pic so it won’t matter if the cams get stolen you still have the pics. Put them up higher by using a few tree steps.
I can’t get excited about trail cameras AT ALL, but if a cell-enabled camera uploads to the cloud real-time, then if a poacher trashes your camera, he’s only adding to the list of charges that you can make stick.
And if you can pattern this/these clown(s), it shouldn’t be too hard to either get a CO to be close enough to the property to escort them off of it, or swing by there yourself and get a plate number…
Hell, these days you probably know somebody with a drone who could buzz the SOBs…. And unless you’re in NJ, shooting down a drone has got to open up a whole new can o’ worms…. So they’d have to be real rock stars….
Cell cameras would be best, but if you want a less expensive project, built a few bird houses, some real bird houses and some that contain a trail camera. Place the real bird houses in obvious spots so they see them, the camera bird houses where the poaching takes place. I use them at my place for security. Have fun.
Definitely a Cellular enabled trail Cam. Stealth cam has been really easy. Make sure the setting is for instant upload then you can catch them in the act.
A few hundred dollars invested can go a long way to make your hunting ground greatly improved. Luckily the land we lease the landowner runs a bunch of cell cams for trespassers. I did catch one the first year on a new lease.
Bought our property in 1985, the trespasser stories my brother and I have would take many beers. Cameras help, local sheriffs still don't want tow rite tickets. I believe each ticket should double.
I had a camera stolen years ago. It was fastened to the tree using a python cable and the trespasser tore the back off of the camera, leaving it and the cable in place on the tree.
Ever since, I've used Scoot's strategy. I use the bottom section of a stick ladder (easy to carry around in the woods) and hang my camera about 9-10 feet off the ground, again using a python cable. Then I weave some leafy tree limbs through the cable to help hide the camera and cable. Have to be careful to place the limbs where they won't block the lens or flash when they start to wilt. All this helps to hide the camera from thieves and deer. I haven't had one stolen or messed with since. I've done this on both private and public land.
First, forget about the game warden. When there is someone with a firearm tresspassing, call the sheriff and report a strange person with a gun trespassing on your property. Do not report them as a hunter or poacher. That is an assumption and frankly neither LE or a CO sees that as a big deal. Report them to LE as a stranger trespassing with a gun - that is a fact and gets a much better response from law enforcement. Who knows if they are out there burying a body.
As far as cameras, the only way you'll catch them is by getting the sheriff to respond when the trespasser is there. That can only happen by using cell cameras. But your odds of having a camera in the right spot are low.
I think I would be tempted to forget about trying to catch them and focus on discouraging them. Put up lots of signs saying "No Trespassing, area under surveillance". Then flood the whole area with cameras but they don't all have to work. In fact, only put a few cheap working ones out. Place every old broken game camera you can scrounge up all over the property. Make sure you put in old SD cards and batteries because when they think they might have gotten caught on camera they will try to pull the SD card. You want to give the illusion that there are a lot of working cameras out there. Put most of them in fairly visible spots where they enter the property but also make some more hidden but still observable if someone is looking. The idea is to make them paranoid. You want them to feel like they can never be sure they are avoiding all the cameras. The few real ones are out there in case they figure out what you're up to. If so, they'll get complacent and start ignoring the cams and you'll eventually get pics of them.
But photos will probably only help you figure out who the perp is. I doubt they will do you any good in getting anyone charged. For that I think your back to getting the sheriff out there while the perps are there.
I would set up a ton of trip wire alarms with the shotgun blank. You're not gonna get a pic, but you will scare the shit outta them, AND ruin their planned poaching expedition.
Will the landowner press charges? I doubt you have any legal standing unless you have something written in your lease. I’d be sure the landowner is willing to press charges, piss ofc some neighbors, and potentially have to go to court first.
I had a permission landowner one time that was all gung-ho to catch and prosecute trespassers. There was a little trashy cabin by the river a couple miles away that some guys from Indy rented and would trespass all over. I caught one during muzzle loader season in the snow tracking a deer on the place, orange hat in his pocket, I took pics and ran him off, then back tracked and took pics where he shot the deer on the landowners land, and took video of him getting in his truck and driving/parking at the trashy cabin.
Landowner wouldn’t pursue it because he didn’t want to piss anyone off or have his house vandalized.
Decoy cams, put your actual cells atypically high or low, within a hollow log of something skipped over, and then leave a shed or something to take their attention, focus and emotion away from scanning as they need to be. Also put signs at gates, or entry points, that their is video surveillance. A non functioning cell cam from EBay is great t put in plain sight just beyond the gate.
Once season is over in a couple weeks I’m gonna do some recon on the area in question while leaves are off and it’s easy to see. Gonna develop a plan based on my findings. I’ll try to document the process. If it results in catching a poacher it might make for an interesting future thread.
Poachers may not be the correct term. Trespasser probably the correct term.
Set the lease up as a club. The club provides a service to it members for a fee. You maybe able keep the land owner out of any legal stuff. If you catch them you maybe able to have the sited for theft of services, as the club provides a service to its members for a fee.
Unknown person on your property with a gun is a person on your property with a gun. You have no idea what their intentions are.
No to scare you but over 4 decades ago a dismembered woman's body was found on a property I was hunting by a fellow hunter (actually his bird dog). They did catch the guy who dumped it. Perps story was he met her at a bar, supposedly found her dead in his pickup bed the next morning. Got scared and dumped her in the woods. He was tried and convicted of murder. Probably out of prison or dead by now. Landowner told me about it the next spring when I asked about hunting that fall. Never let anyone on his land again.
Secondly, and not too far from the first location; 10 years later a body was dumped at a compost site. Russian immigrant killed by someone he crossed during investment deals.
Lastly, don't get me started on what Vang did in WI.
I drive by those locations occasionally on my way to current hunting and fishing spots, the family cabin; a slight chill runs down the spine recalling what occurred there.
Lawbreakers are lawbreakers and you never know how far they are willing to go.
