Your land butts up to a farmer. Farmer lets you hunt his land or enter his land to get your stand on your own land. You go out hunting and 30 minutes before end of day - you hear a rifle shot. (It's flintlock or archery season) Next thing you know - a doe is falling over 70 yards from you. You wait until dark to see if anyone comes and gets it and they don't. You go home and call another neighbor to see if they were out hunting. Noone was. So you decide to go out and get the deer so it does not go to the coyotes, if it's still there. Two hours later - it's still there. Back story: you walked other side of property three weeks ago and found four dead doe and a dead half rack. Do you call the game commission because you feel someone is killing deer illegally - or do you let it go like you see nothing? What would you do?
What are the farm rules on killing nuisance deer in your State? I know that farmers here can not use them during season but many drop doe out of season and just leave them as long as kill is reported.tree farms are sometimes able to take buck due to rubbing damage. Find out regulations and go from there
call the CO right away, he can check records and see if anyone has been issued depredation permits ... if not, maybe they will try to catch the scum poacher
Will your neighbor think anything of you calling the CO? Not worth upsetting them if you think it would. Then I would call and fill the CO in on all the deer you’ve been finding and let them figure out if its something they want to pursue. Ask them to let you know if they want future calls like this or not. Maybe they won’t see it worth their while.
Call the farmer first...inquire what's up or if he was aware. In my state I don't think meat can be kept for depredation (stupid). If this is the case, I'd be forward and ask if they needed more help outside of depredation permits...you could end up with more land to hunt...if your depredation rules are different, go from there.
You won't find me differing from that thought but when they are summer shooting in hot weather guys don't want to deal with the meat. I know of one incident where a local gully got to stinking and a hiker turned it in . I believe the farmer got in trouble but there were many deer.found. gut shot allowed to run off field
Can already hunt his land for deer (the side that butts up to ours). We called and asked if he was hunting or had anyone hunting and he said no. However, we know he has shot them out of season before as we found his pile in a field a few years back. I would think he'd probably guess it was us, due to being asked if he shot a deer Saturday... We want to be able to hunt our land and have been trying to grow deer - but with this, it'd be an endless battle. I'll see if I can get info about tags - have an acquaintance that works for GC. I personally never heard of them and only know about DMAP tags (that can only be used in season) and he does not have those. Worse part, it was a rifle kill. It wasn't rifle season...so a poacher somewhere...
I did a little research, briefly. The Red Tag, is like depredation, however it's not allowed right now. "Those enrolled may issue up to 4 coupons to a hunter. These coupons must be redeemed at any license-issuing agent (or visit www.huntfish.pa.gov) to obtain an antlerless deer harvest permit. The permit is valid from August 1 to September 15 and February 1 to April 15, excluding Sundays. Only antlerless deer may be taken under this program."
You asked the farmer and he said no. He is going to say no for two reasons, either it really isn't him or it is and he's doing it illegally. If it was him and he had a depredation permit, he would have no reason to lie. Call the farmer and be truthful with him. Tell him you appreciate access to his property. Tell him you also can't handle seeing deer shot and left to rot illegally. Tell him the only reason you haven't already called F&G is because of the property access concern and causing bad blood between you. If it isn't him, he shouldn't care if it is investigated. If it is him I think he'll reveal that to you, whether outright or by what he says about F&G being brought in. If he still insists it isn't him, no worries. Make the call. If it is him, then you have some extra decisions to make. Do you say to heck with the property access and call it in anyway? Do you look the other way, while knowing it will continue to happen? Can some other arrangement be made? Such as extra tags during actual deer seasons to thin them out that way?
I can't look the other way, knowing this deer would have been left for the coyotes. Which is why I'm torn on what to do. It was a full size doe (pregnant at that) just left out there. We ended up getting the deer and butchering it. It's one thing when they get my cars accidentally and go to waste. It's another when it's intentional and go to waste. My biggest concern, we do turn it in and then more deer get shot then what's already happening. We only have 35 acres. This farm is along two sides of it. We thought we we're getting deer to come to our property - but it's hard to hold them there, even with food plots and a water source, because he leaves his crops up through winter and hardly ever gets them off early. I know for a fact that he has offered for my husband to sit in the combine when he's doing fields and told him he could shoot the deer that pop up (obviously he declined). Or when he asks why I haven't shot anything and I say haven't seen any I want to shoot, or too small, and he goes, well shoot a couple extra. We joked and said another option is to put bait out (even on our property) - call game commission and tell them someone is baiting and they should shut the block down for no hunting for a certain length of time. All in all, it's just disheartening.
The last thing a farmer wants is a neighbor that is a trophy hunter. Happens here all the time. You own land to hold numbers of deer and try to "raise" bucks of a size and age that you would like to shoot. Those deer eat his profits. It is a no-win for both parties. He will always shoot deer and will likely never get caught. 35 acres is a small parcel that will not keep the deer "home" so he is supplementing your hobby with his livelihood. The best you could do is to offer to shoot several does each year and let him know that you would be interested in saving the meat from any deer he might "find" as fresh kills on his property. You will never, ever win this battle if you turn him against you as a neighbor. If you get the law involved and he finds out, you might as well sell out and find a better location for your goals. I have seen this exact scenario play out over and over due to our areas notoriety for trophy deer. When the law gets involved, it always ends up in a war and the farmer never gets punished. Not what you want to hear, but it's reality. Have an honest conversation and see if there is any common ground to settle on.
I agree with fletch920. I work for a farmer and see first-hand how wildlife affects their bottom line. Most farmers in my area are not fond of the Fish and Game to start with. My boss tries to work with them and that has paid off for him. Try telling a farmer to suck it up when he put a deer antler in a $3000 -$6000 tractor tire and ruined it. Try telling him to suck it up when the Canadian geese wipeout 30 acres of his crop in one field and they hit several of his fields. Been there and seen it. You are better off working with the farmer than starting a war with him. You won't win it. Like fletch said, work with him and offer to shoot more deer off his property. Offer to look for deer antlers in their fields once the bucks sheds. The last has opened many doors for me for hunting. I've taken bigger bucks off their land then they have on account of it. They are always happy to see you. My son and I like looking for sheds. Been a win-win for us.
He doesn't farm for a reason or profit. He is a very wealthy man and it's just a hobby. Crops stay on field year round at times and he'll chop them before planting. He turns a lot into insurance, too. If he worked with us, or allowed others to help out - who would use the meat and not let it go to waste, that's one thing. But he doesn't. When we ask if we can trap coyotes that are killing our animals - answer is no. We hunt his land, but he doesn't get extra tags. So we have two tags each and that's it. My husband is a taxidermist - we have to follow all state laws. We already shed hunt his land. His only rule, which I'm fine with, is only walking is allowed (no UTV). Geese never land in his fields and turkey are few and far in the area. I'd love to find a different piece of land, actually was supposed to move to a 100 acre home last year, but the deal fell through (and guy now is in prison and land is going up for auction through feds - so fingers crossed I catch that sale). Now it's just a waiting game to see if anything else comes up. I grew up down the road, my Mom went to school with him, it's just a kick in the gut to see deer laying dead all over. It's not even the fact of trying to grow them at this point - it's the fact that he's just wasting them (don't get me wrong, I raise beef cows, meat chickens and pigs - I don't need deer meat).
Really makes no sense that he would be shooting deer if he is just farming for the insurance money or just a lazy farmer. Does he live on the immediate property by you ?? If he is leaving his crop stand, he is just drawing in deer during the fall/winter. Not sure about your area but the deer herd up here in the winter. You see herds of 50 - 100 plus deer. He is just making a bigger problem for himself if his yard is overrun with deer and that is probably the reason "if" he is the one shooting them. Tough situation!
I sold Federal crop insurance for over 30 years. You can't make claims on crops that are not planted by a certain date and harvested by a certain date and strictly following normal farming practices. The Feds don't play around at all with that. No way he is collecting on insurance for crops with any frequency. Just know that if you turn him against you completely, you probably wont have many deer to hunt anywhere in the neighborhood if that is the avenue he decides to take. Sounds like he has lots of food for them, so they will always frequent his property. Best of luck on that new 100 acres.
Could be wrong, most likely ha, but i don't think can do much with a deer if use nuisance permits. Just gotta let them lay. But like said could be wrong, been about 25-30 years since grandparents always got them. Regardless like fletch and TJF said you'd have hard time convincing most farmers to admit it's wrong. Most probably wouldn't care if there were very few deer at all. Deer, turkey, and coons tear up alot of crops Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk
We just go off of what he says when it comes to insurance. Only 75 acres is next to ours (I'd say 2/3 of that is crop - if planted - and rest is woods) - the rest of his land is throughout the region. He didn't plant all of it this past year - just the field next to our woodline. Something worked, as I did see more bucks then ever and I did harvest a nice one. I am still pissed about someone leaving deer - because I can't even say, with evidence it was him. I get farming is a livelyhood to some, and I also get why he doesn't allow bow hunters on his land, unless they're solely hunting woods - but if he wont work with others - it's defeating his purpose of trying to "save his crop". A farmer in the next town over got nailed this past spring. He had over 50 deer carcasses that the wardens found - he also was charged with poisioning turkey....I'm not sure the whole ordeal, besides it was something big. So I know neighbor isn't only one - it's just frustrating.
