Poachers on our property

I have no pics to go along with it, but just picked up a matthews solocam with empty quiver leaned up against the inside of one of our fences.

Ive found arrows in that area before, but now someone is out of a bow. I looked around pretty hard thinking they might have set it there to hide when they heard me driving up. If they were watching, i bet it sucked to watch that bow get tossed in the bed of my truck.

Now if i could just catch them out there.

Good luck.

Right nice of them to leave you their gear. They will now report it stolen. So you might want to take it to the game warden yourself and get ahead of the claims.

What style, draw length, and weight? I'll buy it, watch out there was just a thread on here for a neighbor taking something that he found on his property that belonged to a neighbor and he kept it (a deer) and he was screamed at by other members on here...I would keep quiet, or be ready to be judged by a bunch of people that don't know you...

I offer $50...

You have no morals!!! Lol

So make sure it isn't the neighbors then.

Good luck with trying to find them. Put some trail cams out (if you haven't already) and see if you can get them on camera

Check the bow to see if it has a serial# on it, if it was registered when purchased you might be able to find out who owns/ owned it you can call Matthews to see if it was registered. Keep in mind if it was sold then the original owner may not be your man.

Camera! Good idea, they will return looking for the bow. I would leave them a note and hide the camera(s) well.

Get a Covert Camera..it will send you a picture of em to ur phone..

When you find out who it is, a thank you note for the bow would be customary Along with the complaint to the SO and GW

From my days as a bow dealer, only a sporting good shop can sell a Matthews bow, not some big box place. Matthews will have documentation of that particular bow being sold to a specific bow dealer. There used to be a Matthews dealer rule that you had to be 50 miles away from another dealer to be able to sell their equipment, so maybe that can help narrow it down. Matthews did this because they wanted to be known as a specialized company and wanted professional bow dealers to be able to install and sell the accessories. Don't know if that has changed. If the bow was purchased second-hand, then there's no telling. As for the poacher, he should've hauled butt with the bow in hand. Good luck.

sucks for him

I would have looked around for the owner if I found it leaning on the fence. I think that you are saying that it was 6" into your property?

I really, really hate poachers and trespassers, so I would have left a note with my contact info. If I got the call, I would hopefully be able to ID the person - and get the story on why it was there. Then I could decide what the next step is........ No call would indicate a poacher/trespasser.

I think I would have left a number for the game warden. I don't want the potential trespasser/poacher to have my number.

I have seen this before, I bet someone shot a hog and tracked them until your fence line, then (assumed you were gone because it's out of season for most types of hunting), so they left there weapon in case that they did run into someone, they could show they were not poaching (even though to many on here trespassing without permission is as bad as poaching even if they people are tracking wounded game). It just doesn't add up that they were poaching. They could have been scouting your land, who knows, good luck. I would probably just go over to the neighbors and ask what the heck they were doing, might have been a stupid kid, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I also understand people that have been burned before may have a different opinion.

I don't think anyone would set it there and hide because they heard you drive up? Bows are not that hard to run with, so that theory doesnt add up. Unless the dude is really really dumb. Either way, I hope you get an answer one way or the other, the problem with things like that is it makes your mind wonder and even if it was something harmless - not knowing can be pretty taxing. So good luck in your pursuit of peace of mind, hope you get an answer one way or another.

If it was some relatively harmless mistake by the neighbor, you can take it to the bank they'd be getting in touch with him to get that bow back.

You're probably correct...I would think that they would get in touch with you, given the price of a Mathews these days

Should have fingerprints all over it . . .

Who has an empty quiver?

Someone that keeps sticking a hog with arrows...

We had poachers three years a go on a lease. Found tire tracks that weren't ours.
We moved our game cams to watch four points on roads that had to be driven on inside the lease, we set them in pic/vid mode. We caught them. It was distant family of the land owner
and even though we had exclusive hunting rights the game warden said he couldn't do anything. We could have taken it to civil court but decided to cut our losses and not renew the lease.

Lots of poacher/trespasser threads today!

Pull the bow back and see if draw is short and light! If it's low poundage and under 26-27 D/L then chances are it's small frame person, say younger male or female. Then you have idea it's not a average size person to be looking for!