does Texas still have carpetbaggers?

[Zuma]

We have some property on the Northfork of the Shoshoni river leading into the East entrance of Yellowstone  Joe

LOL I bet you know where this place is.

[Josh B]

Dharma, I hear the same thing from friends from AZ to MT.  Thankfully I live on the plains where nobody from the cities wants to live.  Our biggest problem is the big hunting clubs leasing everything they can.  They show up in a small army, stomp through all the public land first, shoot everything that moves and leave half of their kills to rot if there not trophies and then and only then do they go hunt the ground they leased.  I remember one idiot shot a nine yr old girls horse out from under her with buckshot about fifteen yrs ago.  She was riding along a hedgerow right at dusk after checking fence and this drunken old fool was road hunting, seen what he thought was a deer through the hedgerow and let fly with a 12 guage.  Killed her horse and riddled the girls leg with buckshot.  Another idiot decided to blaze away with a 300 mag at a doe on the ridge line and shot a rancher checking stock on the other side of the hill.  Killed him dead.  Now that I think about it, I reckon I can see why people might get a little touchy about outsiders.  Thanks for the replies fellas.  Looks like I'm headed for OK so I'll have to try again next time.  Josh

[Dharma]

Gun Doc, I have to agree with you about the canned hunt "outfitters". To me, hunting is about meat in the freezer. A skull on the wall is nice, but I can't eat it. Totally illegal, but there are outfitters here who use private pilots to scout out where the elk are by aircraft. They say the pilot is getting in flying time for his own pleasure and just "happened to see" some elk herd over in thus-and-so area. Some "guides" are also private pilots and the day before the guided hunt, they get in some air time and look to see if they can spot an elk herd and where it is. They can be charged if caught, but they have to actually be in contact with hunters on the ground via cell phone and calling in locations for charges to stick.

[SLIMBOB]

Wish that weren't so, but sadly it is.  Lot's of good folks still out there though, they are just cautious I guess.  Last summer, mid July, down near Pleasanton, I had my then 7 year old boy with me for the day working with dad.  Middle of nowhere my water pump goes out.  110 degrees.  As I was popping the hood a car pulled up.  Young lady with her elderly father out for a drive.  They took us 10 miles up the road to an auto parts store for belts and a pump and then called her neighbor, an 80 some odd year old fellow.  Retired mechanic.  He met us at my truck with his tools around 2:00, and we worked on getting everything fixed until nearly dark.  Once he had me up and running he refused any kind of payment.  Said his kids never came around and he enjoyed the company for the day.  I have gone by several times since with hamburgers and soda pops, and just sat and visited for a bit.  Happy to see me each time and still not interested in my money.  Odd I know, but I have many times said a prayer of thanks for my truck breaking down that day where it did.

[JW_Halverson]

I really can understand running someone off your deeded land when they are trespassing, but here in the west there is also a lot of ranching that takes place on public land that belongs to the entire people of the United States. Just like in Nevada, some of those people get it in their heads that it is their land because they have a lease to graze for a small part of the year. 

And in one case, I was threatened with a jack handle by a guy that had SOLD THE LAND to the Corps of Engineers but still claimed it was his land.  It was serious enough that I jacked a round back into the 20 ga. and told him to get back into his pickup and leave.  Sheesh, bringing a jack handle to a gunfight? Since he was family with the county sheriff, there was little done other than take my statement and getting told to stay away from that public land so I wouldn't cause problems.  *sigh*

In the last 10 years I have had three run-ins with people attempting to run me off public land.  In every case I told them I was going to stand my ground and call law enforcement.  One of us would get a ticket, be it trespassing or else harassment of a licensed hunter/fisherman in legal pursuit of legal game.  In each situation, I was aware of boundaries, had maps on my person, and was without doubt sure of where I was both legally and real estate-wise.  Almost exclusively I hunt public land.  There are always opportunities to stray onto private land, but I make sure I do my due diligence and pay close attention to where I am.  I guess I grew tired of landowners chewing me out for what someone else may or may not have done, I quit trying to mend those fences.

[Slackbunny]

I've never been in that situation but I think I would handle it similar to you JW. If I thought I might not be on public land I'd move out, but if I knew I was on public land (or crown land as we call it here), I'd likely stand my ground and force the issue. I just have a real problem with people telling me I can't do things that I know I'm entitled to do, or should be entitled to do.

[Dharma]

JW, I hear what you're saying. I ran into that type of thinking out in the Mojave Desert in California back into the 1980s. Guys who had mineral claims on BLM land would defend their claims as if they owned the land itself. What they had was the mineral rights only. A friend and I were fired on by this one prospector. He comes up and aims this .22 at us after blowing rounds over our heads and saw his mistake. We had M-1 carbines and we said, hey man, what are you trying to do here?? He says we're on his claim. No, says we, we're camping out here, you can't be shooting at us. This isn't the 1880s. If any rounds come over here again, there's going to be outbound from us next time. We can't be running a drywasher or digging prospect holes on your claim, but you can't keep us off the land unless you've got an actual mining operation going on that entails sinking shafts and equipment. And no matter what, you can't be popping rounds off at us on land that isn't fenced or posted. There was some kind of misunderstanding about what a mineral claim meant out there, evidently. All you would see, if you saw it, were wooden or metal poles about three feet high that had mason jars affixed to them and inside were copies of the mineral claim paperwork that said what the perimeter of the claim was. "Staking a claim", as the saying goes.

There were some weird folks out in that desert. People running "beans-n-bacon" drywasher operations living off what they could eke out of it. The sun must have gotten to them because a lot of them would fire on you or threaten you with a weapon, usually a .22 rifle. They all thought they had the right to do this. One "camp", if you could call it that, had a sign up with a crude skull-and-crossbones on it that said "Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again. This means you. You are being watched." Yeah, sure. Real tough guys. 

[Wolf Watcher]

In Wyoming over half the state is owned by the government, either state or federal.  With the technology of a hand held device that tells us exactly who owns the land and the one I have even tells the hunt area for the game animals to be hunted there.  There is no argument about private or state land.  That makes for easy knowledge if you or someone else is trespassing.  A lot of the big and old time ranches have been bought up by rich people that do not allow hunting so have large herds of elk and deer on private ground.  The next door neighbor ends up with crop and fence damage when the season ends and the Game and Fish has no ability to have a successful harvest to control the herd numbers to effectively manage the game animals.  I think the worse thing that has happened in the last several years is the "fair chase" hunter is a thing of the past.  Hunter ethics is a thing of the past.