What constitutes hunter harassment and how would you approach it if you felt you were being harassed in the legal act of hunting? For a few years now, while exercising my legal right to hunt on my private property, someone frequently & repeatedly honks their car horn while traveling along the county road that borders my property. Of course, there is no reasonable explanation as to why someone would be blowing their vehicle's horn only while they travel past my property - the honking starts at one end of the property and ends at the other. I can hear cars approaching long before they reach my property on the road. Obviously I don't know if they do this all the time because I am only there in the act of hunting or scouting/maintaining the very rural land. I have to assume they're just not out tooting their horn. There are no dwellings or improvements there. I can only assume they do this after seeing my vehicle there to know that I am there. Typically, because of the terrain and thick cover, I cannot even see or determine the vehicle make/model of the vehicle(s) in question. After leaf off, I can see the color of the vehicle from my stands, but not make & model. Yesterday, while at my vehicle, parked on my property after dragging out a legally harvested archery doe, I hear a vehicle coming down the road from the south and I hear the vehicle start honking when they get to my property. One cannot see my vehicle parked there from the south end of the property or the north for that matter because of the thick cover & curve of the road. I walked out to the road as they were approaching and tried to flag down the vehicle at the county road (which I can identify at this point obviously) and they would not stop and continued to drive past honking all the way until they passed my property's north border. Furthermore since they can obviously start and stop their horn manually when they approach my property, we'll assume their horn is not just malfunctioning on its' own while traveling by my property. Those are the facts. My speculation insofar as yesterday, is that they had already driven by going to/from their house to the south of my property to know that I was there and were intending to harass me in the act of hunting by honking their horn while driving by the entirety of my property border with the road. Like many other states, Oklahoma has hunter/fisher harassment laws in place. The specific general statute is as follows: A. A person may not willfully obstruct or impede the participation of any individual in the lawful activity of shooting, hunting, fishing or trapping in this state. Provided, that nothing in this section shall prohibit a landowner or lessee from exercising their lawful rights of prohibiting hunting, fishing or trapping on their land, or any other legal right. B. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) nor more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00). C. Any person convicted of violating this section shall be liable to the person to whom they interfered with for all costs and damages resulting therefrom. If said person holds an Oklahoma hunting, fishing or trapping license at the time of conviction, such license shall be revoked. D. This section of law shall not prevent a game warden from performing his enforcement duties and any Department of Wildlife Conservation employee from performing his duties in working with the sportsmen of this state. The two options (unless I ignore it) for follow up for me are to go talk to the person who was driving by blowing their horn, since I can now identify them or skip potential confrontation with the individual(s) and report it to the game warden and let them 1) be officially notified (so in the event that it continues, there could be more than one official incident on record and 2) let them officially handle it in the manner they see fit. Would you consider the above facts, in relation to the statute, harassment? What would you do? Go have a chat with the neighbor to the south or officially report & stay out of potential personal confrontation?
Make a big sign that you can put up that says. To the car that has been honking. Thank you, your honking drove the deer right to my stand for me to shoot.
That's a tough one. I would maybe contact the Game Warden and ask his/her opinion. They may say that you need proof? If you do know who it is, maybe they'll go talk to them or give them a warning. It's worth a shot. I've had people blast the horn upon seeing my truck out there, the world is full of them.
I am guessing they have hit more than one deer there with their car and are trying to prevent it from happening again.
I like the sign idea...but to get results and to get the honking to stop, I'd first talk to the neighbor in person. I'd also notify the game warden simultaneously just to cover your interests and so the wardens know you tried to resolve it in a friendly manner. Is the neighbor an anti or a jealous hunter?
not anti - they hunt on their own adjoining property. Jealous, maybe... that still doesn't justify screwing with me (if that's indeed their intention). I certainly don't screw with them.
possible, but unlikely... I mean this is rural Oklahoma we're talking here. there is nothing that makes my property more of a deer crossing than any other random stretch of countryside.
If your sure they are doin it because your out hunting or you know who it is I'd wait until I harvested a deer, make the biggest mess I could feild dressing it and while I was covered in blood I'd go knock on door and offer them some meat with the deer tied to the hood. Just say you and your family has plenty and wanted to offer some to neighbors that may be struggling. But thats just me and I tend to be a Richard to people that are towards me ha. Seriously though I would think it'd be hard to prove if called in the game warden so may not be worth the trouble and might just haveta put up with the annoyance.
Yea that's usually how it happens, don't think of stuff when it's happening. It may still be worth a phone call though. Might lead to knowing what to do next time. Good luck though, hopefully something can be done.
park the truck and not hunt, just sit in the bushes near the road and record it. more than once if possible, for future evidence. after a time or 2, let them see you doing it. in many states the law reads: it is illegal to honk the horn except for public safety or during an event such as a parade. speak with the local police, or state police if that rural area doesn't have locals, and find out the law pertaining to such before proceeding. this is probably a vehicle infraction, and maybe a violation of your hunting rights ? http://forums.officer.com/t153888/ http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/traffic_talk_when_is_it_legal.html if the legal route doesn't work, sneak under the hood of that vehicle at night and wire the horn to a portable MP3 player, every time they hit the horn... Dennis O'leary's "Im an Azzhole" plays thru their speakers
Best thing to do is call the game warden and ask. If you know who it is then you could approach them but you have to be prepared for that to go south. Prep for the worst hope for the best type scenario. I'm a direct approach kinda person, I don't like to fight but I was raised not to back down even if it stupid. So far I have been lucky. Going to someones house puts you at a disadvantage. Unfortunately I don't think honking the horn from the road would be considered harassment. They could claim ignorance and say they were just honking to say hello or to keep a deer from running in front of them. Way to many excuses. Any way you could hide your vehicle or have someone drop you off and pick you up. Silly and an pain I know but least no one knows you are there. Good luck and I hope it works out for you.
Impatient arrogant Car horn blowing idiots flip a switch in my brain.. Turn me into Instant jerk. Just reading your story made me sweaty..
This happens to me every year in my hunting spot. It used to kind of bug me. That is, until one year they went by honking and then not two minutes later a doe came by and I shot it. Now every time the purple jeep drives by honking I just laugh to myself.
Inform the Game Warden. If they are willing to that to you when you are just minding your business and quietly hunting, then they are not going to reconcile.
maybe the game warden could ride with you sometime so that his/her truck is not seen and could hear it for himself a few times..... but youd likely have to have a recording or 2 of it to get them willing to put that effort into it
