This summer I got onto a lease with a group guys that I know and some that I didn't know. The ones who chose not to get back on the lease this year were asked to have all of their epuipment off no later than the end of July. They were asked again to remove any equipment they wanted or it would be considered abandoned. In August I draw an area of on of the previous members. I go to look at the area that I can hunt and my brother and I find this tree stand and feeder. We do nothing until the first week of September at which time I get the feeder up and running. I have been checking on it weekly since September. This past Thursday I even hunt the feeder and stand.

Today I take my son out to do some hunting. When we get to the stand this evening we see that it is gone and the feeder is gone and about 50 pounds of corn dumped on the ground. Fortunatley my game camera was not taken. I have on film 2 older men taking down the hog panals, the t-post andthe feeder and loading it on to a trailer.

Am I just SOL or can anything be done? I am mad that the previous hunter came onto land that he no longer had rights to be on and made no attempt to contact anyone.

What do you think?

Are you sure he didn't have permission or make arrangements for late pick up.
If he didn't, it's at least rude behavior.

you run into problems like that when people know their friends are still on the lease and they can run back out there with them on a weekend to retrieve their belongings.

I would think proper etiquette would be to leave feeder and stand till the season was over, then make arrangements to pick up since he was given the chance and did not take the time to pick them up before the allotted time ran out. Just seems fair to me. Sorry for your troubles, that sux.

He did not have permission and he did not make any plans or arrangement to pick anything up. I thought leases ment something. I am not trying to get something for nothing but I dont think you should enter onto land that you have no rights to enter on to.

If my question further irritated you that was not my intent.

The landowners I've dealt with take leases very seriously, any trespassing issues are between him and the land owner.

Talk to the lease ramrod or landowner show em the pics.

IMHO a bag of corn and the money to get the feeder up and running (if you have receipts) is the best you can hope for.
Of course that would come from the guy that removed the equipment, don't hold your breath.
Chalk it up to, sometimes crappy things happen.

Question why did you use them with chance of owners coming and geting them at any given time
Why not just take them down and take them to camp and put them off to the side ?

+2...

X 3

Rustler your comment/question did not upset me. Didn't mean to sound like it did.

The reason we did not take down old equipment is he was to do it himself and he had been told to remove it over a month before I even step foot on the lease. He finally moved it 3 month after he had any right to be on the land and almost 3 weeks into bow season.

Greg, I would have considered it abandoned also and went ahead and used it, in your situation. I don't think you were wrong in any way to use it.

Sounds like a criminal trespass. I would talk with lease manager and owner, find out who the guys are and then file criminal charges with sheriff. Of course, if guy who came on property wishes to reimburse you, to avoid criminal history, then that would be your call.

I would even entertain theft charges, as he had a deadline, failed to meet it a d abandoned the property. Therefore, he has no claim to it.

you knew it wasnt yours, i dont understand why you didnt set up your own stuff from the get go, imo i think your making a mountain out of a mole hill

Either way, you ain't gettin' the stuff back. It sux, I know. But now it's time to move on and set up your own stuff as quickly as possible to re-establish the area asap so the deers' patterns don't change too much. The way I see it, it was a gamble. One that should have played out in your favor, but ultimately didn't. Sorry to hear they came in and did that to ya.

Jay

X2 exactly what Psycho0819 said.

Reply to nobody in particular, but to everyone in general!

This is why I hate hunting leases! There is always some BS problem with them. If it isn't a member on the lease, it is the land owner changing the rules in mid season, or you finding out what you were told was 5000 acres, turns out to be 1000 acres, and there are twenty guns on it instead of the ten you were told. The land owner letting 50 of his family, and friends hunt there as well.

Hunting leases are simply a pain in the butt from start to finish in most cases!

........................ ....

Ya lost a bag of corn on the deal, chalk it up as abad experiance and move on. Lots more deer season left and dont let it ruin it for ya.

sounds like you should have set your own feeder and stand up to me. you could have easily avoided all of this by having your own set up and not hoping someone would not come back for there property.

believe me i understand what it means to get a spot and there be some old property in there. i did it just this season. i didnt however get the spot and think well hell the stuffs already thereill just use it. i instead set up my own stand and feeders in the same area but to where the old stuff wasnt in the way. if its still there after the season, its mine. until then ill hunt out of my own stand and my own feeder.

If it ever happens again, just move it to another spot. The guy comes back, sees it gone, and leaves, thinkin to himeslf, "Dang, should've got that thang back in July"!!!!

You'd really go through all this because someone came and got their stuff a little later than you would have liked?

And what would he reimburse him for? The stuff was his. If you mean the corn, the deer still got to eat it off the ground.

X2

Actually when the feeder and stand were abandoned at that point the landowner should become the owner. Nobody has a mule in this race except the landowner.

As a bow hunter I fell most every one is missing the point about whose the feeder is does not matter, but I would be more upset that some entered my hunting area after the season started when clearly they should have not been there, on my lease we do not enter another hunters area unless permission was given by that hunter, clearly they drove up to this guys hunting area and was not wearing any sent cover and made alot noise and who will ever know what big buck they ran off, right in the middle of bow season while this guy is trying to hunt, I think they need there arse kicked!!!!!!!!!!!1

Are you willing to go to jail over an issue like this?

whould not be jail time if was on the lease and they were not, bottom line I would call the game warden for a person on my trail camera that has no legal right on the property.