Nobody owns a deer.

Find the gay FBI agent who is having an affair with one of the brothers and ask him to get in touch with one of the Mexicans who can help you out.

Are you saying Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen are independent contractors?

Not sure what you should do, but what you should not do, under any circumstances, is follow mbabs’ advice.

put a tomato on the poachers pillow in his tree house and when he wakes up he will have tomato juice on his face

Don't know how he got a 1/2A lot, but I wouldn't confront the guy - he'd probably have a few buddies with him, which could only lead to trouble.
Go to the game warden (who should make it crystal clear that neighbor has no chance to ever hunt that land again), and then offer to buy the guys 1/2A lot - cheap...

Seems like putting a lathe in the treehouse would work better

Contact the sheriff and report his poaching and trespassing on your property.

Cops show up with a guy laying on the ground with a hole in his leg, holding a rifle, and traspassing.....ain't nothing going to happen to de Captain. I'm sure the fake lawyers can confirm.

As a fake lawyer I can confirm that the Missouri Castle Doctrine (but maybe de cap's in one of those neighboring states?) gives you an absolute right to shoot anyone who trespasses on your land https://www.fjrcriminaldefense.com/b...ound-law.shtml

Captain, given your story and what you've done so far, your next play is to confirm identity of the poacher(s) and have a conversation. 100% your next move. Getting aggressive without a conversation is risking a prolonged feud, or even a possible immediate dangerous confrontation. You'd be in the right the whole time, with the law on your side, but who knows what this person or people might be ready to do given their frustration.

Have a conversation, like you've described, telling him where you're coming from, how you're not cool with it, etc, maybe even talk about some limited hunting arrangement, and just feel the guy(s) out. If the guy is a *****, you let him know you're being put in a box, and have no choice now. That would be a crappy situation, and some type of feud would probably ensue. And that would open up the whole host of options on how to proceed, how aggressive to be in protecting your land rights, whether to involve legal, threats, destroying whatever stuff they're putting on your property, and on and on.

You gotta try the conversation. It's a got a decent chance of being successful, and you'll also feel better about all the crazy **** that would surely follow on should he end up being a *****. Will be curious to hear how this plays out over the weeks and months ahead.

That's not what your link says tho...

I assume a hunter has a gun or a bow. Game over.

You've already made it clear to the guy he is not welcome to come onto your property and fire his weapons on your property and he has ignored that very reasonable request.

Talking to him a second time would seem to be unlikely to make your point any clearer.

I'd think that getting authorities involved would be the next step.

I think I missed how OP has made it unambiguously clear to the ******* that he's being an *******. As best as I understand it, OP has been a petty ninny (which I personally also might do in hopes that giving the ******* signals might work) and, so far, doing so hasn't worked to resolve the situation to OP's satisfaction.

A lot of people don't react well to/respect pussyfooting around, but do react well to/respect manning up. I know that sounds weird and possibly bad, but it's true. If OP mans up--as he did with the driveway situation--and his neighbor is still a douche, the neighbor becomes the pussy and OP should **** him with the law hard and often.

Seems unambiguous to me.

"I'm sorry your officer was hurt on my poop - smeared tiger pit but the bad man was steeeealing from me! Castle doctrine! Freeman on the land! Corpus electi! You can't do this I don't consent! Ow! OW!"

brilliant advice ^^^^^
Something seems odd about him having that small lot.
Might be worth checking to see if he actually owns it.
If all else fails, go with the tomato...

Go with South Africa's approach of shoot back first ask questions later.

40 acres isn't that big, wouldn't you hear the gunshot?

I agree and I as a reasonable person I would have understood his signals. However, I earnestly believe that this guy will respond the way OP wants if they speak in person.

I also don't hate the idea of the camera + game warden, but I don't think it's necessary.

Counterpoint: Hunter kills six after tree stand dispute.

OTT,
Thanks for all the input so far.

This is where I currently stand on the situation. I see involving law enforcement as a last resort. I've found myself in a few situations over the years and have generally had good luck resolving them without violence or involving the law.

I will call the Sheriff and Game Warden if necessary, but I will give the guy a couple of more strikes, and opportunities to do the right thing first. I think involving the law is much more likely to lead to a long standing feud and possible retaliation. That said, If he strikes out a few more times and I'm forced to involve the law there will be no mercy.

A+

The area was subdivided back in the 30's during a time when lots of people used to camp. The developer at the time catered to these people by dividing the area up into a mix of large parcels along with small cutout parcels intermittently along the road so that people could buy a tiny lot and come down to vacation affordably.

It's been a disaster for long term growth and development. There are lots in the area that are as small as 25'x25' and consolidating the land in order to develop the area has been an ongoing challenge. He does in fact own his land.

If I went out to investigate every gun shot during hunting season I'd never get anything done. It's an area known for hunting and fishing. In the fall you'll hear gunshots every weekend from all directions. Given the lake and mountainous nature of the area it's very difficult to pinpoint where a gunshot came from anyway.

Additionally, I'm told he's a bow hunter so there'd be nothing to hear.

This basically sums up where I'm currently at. That said, I will not be going to talk to him. He will be forced to come talk to me about the situation. I also have no plans to go over to his place because I don't know him, he and his buddies 100% have numerous loaded guns, they're likely drinking, and not everyone is rational.

Furthermore, I didn't create this problem and from a position of making him understand the situation he needs to come cap in hand. Any conversation or negotiations will be handled from a position of power, otherwise known as my driveway. I'm very curious to see if he'll show up to ask for his deer stands back. I guarantee he'll know who has them. Coming to ask for them back though is an admission of guilt.

I have a couple of game cameras up near my main driveway and in a couple of locations, but not out where the hunting and trespassing has been happening. I will be putting up a few more this week. One problem is that while game cameras aren't obvious to game they're very difficult to hide from people and trespassers/poachers will simply steal the cameras if they find them.


As some of you might remember I had a boundary dispute involving the road with my other neighbor last winter. That was resolved amicably and I was out fishing with that neighbor this morning. I was telling him about finding that the deer stands had been put back (he already knows everything to date). He's actually more pissed about it than I was. He volunteered a Saturday to come down and help me clear a 40' dmz around the perimeter of the poachers property and put up a barbed wire fence. He said "**** that guy. Let's go up there next weekend, cut down all the trees on your side of the property line and put a barbed wire fence around him".

The way I’m reading it in regard to the 10 pickups on his tiny piece of land is this neighbor knew a good hunting area, bought small piece of land next to it and now has an illegal business taking people to hunt on land he doesn’t own. I imagine if that could be proved it would be a serious legal issue.

Basically, yes. I've no idea whether he's running a business, or he and a bunch of his buddies went in on it. The land surrounding their place (mine) is incredibly good hunting land that has been unused for the past 30+ yrs. The previous owner was an absentee owner who never enforced anything. It resulted in multiple garbage dumps on the property, 4 wheelers doing all kinds of illegal **** back there, and poachers.