Last weekend i was going through the usual motions of driving around the county checking my trail cameras. I had a particular camera that i couldn't wait to check, it was on a ridge next to a large cattail swamp and i knew birds were in the area. It was a good bit off the road and in a thick stand of pines. I got to the tree that i had my brand new camera strapped too (first time ever checking it) and it was gone. This was the 10th trail camera that ive had stolen in the last 3 years. 2 years ago, we had permission to hunt a property not far from mine, it was a good sized farm for NE Ohio (80 acres), and the owner absolutely loved us. She also had some childhood friends who hunted the property. For whatever reason, they got alot of enjoyment out of finding our trail cameras and "screwing around" near them, for lack of a better term. They would dress up in military outfits (helmet and all) and pose in front of the cameras. They would target practice in front of them. They would even shoot our corn piles (not sure why). They ended up killing our main target buck, a 180" giant that my buddy had hit high earlier in the season. They harvested this buck from our stand, in front of our camera. they left the shotgun shell on the seat for us to find. One time, i found a pair of deer testicles frozen to the seat of my deer camera. We also have neighbors who target practice with AR-15s DURING deer gun season. We have other neighbors who ride ATV's every evening in November. Besides being an obvious rant thread, i have to ask the question...why does the average joe hunter do so much to harm/impact/deter other hunters?
I could be very wrong, but I'm thinking these types of "people" are generally not very successful in their hunting endeavors and do things like that out of frustration? There certainly isn't a logical reason.
Twice this year I spent a few hours picking up trash, mostly beer cans and bottles, along a stretch of road that goes through my hunting area. I had it spotless! If you were to travel that same stretch of roadway today, you would never believe I had picked up anything. Yes Sota, people DO suck!!
A) TV has skewed what a "successful" hunter is. B) There is no logical reason, but it happens all the time to almost every hunter i know.
Maybe I'm just lucky (I'm very careful where I place cams), but in hanging 2- 3 cams on PUBLIC land every year for 13 years, I've yet to have one messed with or stolen. May my lucky streak continue! lol
We run 40+ cameras. All on private land. i SHOULD lock them to a tree, but alot of my cameras are on Stic-N-Pics or other similar setups. Impossible to keep from getting stolen on those.
If you look at people in general there is a large percentage that are complete F N D BAGS!!! Unfortunately I don't think the percentage drops a lot just because some one hunts. I did say that they hunt and not that they are a hunter because I think there is a big difference between the two. This has gone on for years, look at the number of threads started here about trespassers, poachers and thieves. We shouldn't have to worry about any of our items whether it is a camera, tree stand or blind and I don't care if it is private or public ground.
Too many free handouts in this country. Pretty much no consequences for the actions they take. Most of all people don't have the self respect and pride for themselves like we used to. It gets frustrating , I know, that no matter how hard you work or how RIGHT you go about doing something there is always some lazy, wrongdoing half asser that comes along and takes what you have put so much time and effort in, all in the matter of minutes. It sucks. In the end I know I did my part to go about it fare and proper. And one day here or otherwise I will get my justice on those who do me wrong. I still take great pride in knowing that no matter where I cross the finish line I know I did't cheat and I earned what I won. Ok theres my rant for the day. Hope it makes sense. Now I want to go find a wrongdoer and kick their ***. lol
I would only mind the theft. I've had people find my cameras on public property and luckily have never had any stolen. Though I have had people posing for pictures when they do find the cameras. I would get a kick out of it, if they had put enough thought into it to dress up, or pull some harmless prank.
This. It goes beyond hunting. I hunt my girlfriends parents land (63 acres). Her dads step brother rifle hunted the property for quite some time and wasn't what you would consider a "good" (not sure how else to put it) deer hunter. Getting out of stands every 2 hours, always going to the truck, etc etc. I never rifle hunted the property because I can't stand the way he hunts. For some unknown reason he had the biggest issues with our neighbors... They never did anything to us. The first evening of rifle season he calls me and said that he purposely went to the farmer who farms our land and had him start plowing the field that borders our neighbors right at dusk AND the next morning (they have a stand on the corner of their property and the corner of ours). He did it just because. I mentioned something to my girlfriends dad... And now the step brother no longer hunts the property . Long story short... People are dik heads.
As a whole, the morals of society have degraded to a pitiful level. Too many people only think about themselves and are totally jealous of what others have. They feel they deserve to have what others have, but don't think they need to work for it. It's a society problem, not a hunting problem. If we could weed society of all these leaches, then we wouldn't have this problem in the hunting world either. I had a Muddy stand stolen off public land this winter. It was cable locked to the tree and didn't have any steps on the tree to get up to it. Whoever stole it had to know they were going to take it because they would have had to bring bolt cutters and ladder sticks to steal it. Pretty pathetic.
There's a lot of hunters who go above and beyond to do the right things and there are a lot of hunters who choose to do the wrong things, generally this behavior carries over from their every day life personalities. You can cry and whine about situations on the internet or you can confront them and resolve it. There is nothing wrong with cussing and bloody noses, get out their and make your situation better.
My theory is there are many people who suck in the general population. So, we are going to have some who are hunters as well.
The guys on the other property obviously were marking their territory and didn't want you there, D bag move yes but pretty much expected in the hunting community when people chase the same deer. Is it right? no but that's people competitive nature. As for the stolen property it sucks and I wish we lived in a place where we could leave our stuff out but again the person who stole the camera was probably hunting the area and marked his territory. People in general do suck
