Do y'all have any crazy stories of catching a poacher in your blind on private property? Have often thought about what to do if this situation ever arose for me and what I would/could do legally. How have you confronted or handled the situation? Call the cops/GW? Do you escort them off the property?

I was one of those strangers in your stand one time.

Hunting in NE with an "outfitter" that had some permission on private ground, his family's land.
He put me in a stand for a doe hunt, guys shows up asking who the heck I am and why am I in his stand.
I explain and he tells me that he did not have permission to put me there so I left and he did not follow or escort me.

Called the guy later that evening, small town easy to find his number, and I apologized. He was understanding and accepted. He also told me he had many doe in front of him that evening, hunting bucks only. I knew that was a dig but he had the right, imo.

I was not happy to be put in that position.
Sometimes it is an honest mistake.

we have had illegals in our stands in South Texas. Scares the heck out of you.

Also had racoons run out of the stand when I opened the door in the dark - talk about wizzing in your pants!

Last season they were not in my stand but I had 8 drug runners walking down the sendero towards my tower blind in broad daylight. Put my rifle out of the window and started shouting at them. They stopped and stared at me and then walked off into the brush. That will make you pucker up

I keep my blinds locked up tight.

This is the scenario that started me carrying a sidearm EVERY TIME I go sporting outdoors. Have even been advised by LEO’s, very quietly & low key, to either conceal my sidearm or take it to the truck. Completely forgot when we went into town to eat. That was before it was legal to carry.

My encounter with illegals was being followed thru the woods walking back to wait for the Jeep pickup in the dark. Those were a few very tense minutes. NEVER again without a sidearm.

Blind intruders were Racoon’s, Yellow Jacket’s (that’ll make you hurt yourself), Plumb Wasps, Hornet’s, Owl’s & a Ringtail Cat. That cat was vicious. Scratched up my buddy’s face pretty good.

Not my stand but a buzzard made a nest in a fellow hunter's stand during the offseason. He almost filled his britches when it came flying out the door when he first opened it.

Hope you got your money back from "outfitters " or comped somehow.

I hunted with a buddy on his land when I was younger. He put me in a stand and about 30 minutes later a fella showed up with his kid. Turns out it wasn't my buddies land. The guy was nice about it.

Brother and I were walking back to a feeder and found someone's 308 in the middle of the road.

Figured a poacher dropped it so we took it back, cleaned the rust off and started shooting it.

Called the police to make a report and they informed me about a missing person search a couple weeks earlier.

An elderly fellow was visiting the ranch next door and got lost after leaving the stand (at night).

They had a helicopter and everything.

Called the neighbors and let them know we found the guy's gun.

I don't even have dementia and I've gotten lost after leaving the stand at night so i know how it goes.

He was sopping wet by the time they found him and had no idea where he dropped his gun.

Alls well that ends well.

reminds me of years back my buddy and I got onto a new lease. we went to the ranch to set up our ground stands and feeders. Owner had told us that as long as we did not go through a closed gate we would be on his property. Unknown to us a gate had been left open so we went through and found two perfect spots for the stands and feeders. Opening morning we are each sitting in our stands and a small airplane files right over my stand. I look up and a guy is shaking his finger at me. Next thing I know a truck is driving down the sendero towards my stand. Stops at my stand and gets out so I got out of the stand and said "who are you?" - and he answered "who the hell are YOU?" - turns out we had set up in a neighbors pasture that was not on our lease. LOL

Apologized profusely and then spent the next day taking down our stands and feeders - talk about embarrassing!

Found a half joint in a blind back in the mid 90s. I was about 22. I figure it was one of the landowners kids. I had some of my own that was better. But I did smoke it.

People who get lost can panic just as badly as those who believe they're going to drown.

I remember the time we were discussing what to do when you get lost in one of my HE classes. A guy in the class told the story how he once ran across another hunter who had gotten lost in one of our state's National Forests for most of that day. He guided him back to his truck and gave him a ride to his own vehicle. As the guy was exiting his truck, he noticed he was leaving his rifle beind and quickly told him not to forget it. He said the guy turned and told him he won't be needing it anymore.

I wouldn't be surprised if at the time, that elderly gentleman left his rifle behind with the same thought in mind. Just like the person who panics in deep water, survival can become the only thing that matters to people when they find themselves lost and all alone in the woods.

Years ago a guy I bought a little place from in Edwards County said he found someone in one of his stands. He loosened the scope rings on the offender's rifle and sent him on his merry way.

Same guy who I bought the place from showed me the two stands that were on the 30 acres we bought. He had just sold the adjoining 44 acres. It was before deer season so I filled the feeders and replaced the batteries at each stand. Hunted opening weekend and a few days later the guy who bought the 44 calls me and said I hunted one of his stands. After talking to the seller, who swore the stand was on our 30, checking maps and boundary lines, the seller was wrong.

I left a lease in Dayton, TX because I got tired of cleaning spent shells out of the stand for calibers that I didn't own.

We started doing this when a ranch hand was caught hunting from blinds, a few times. He would talk like he was being courteous when he asked when the leasers were going to be around so he would know when to not drive around those areas, when really, he wanted to know when he could hunt their blinds while they were gone. Even though he was instructed to stay out of our blinds, and he was not allowed to hunt, he always had a good story when caught. He would say that he was counting deer, or seeing how bad the pig problem was, while toting a rifle. After the blinds were locked, he was caught hunting from the stoop on an elevated blind.
God knows how much that guy hunted during the week when hunters weren't around. We were happy the day he got fired.

Not in the blind but when we pulled up to our camp last summer to fill feeders, a guy walks out the kitchen in his underwear and walked towards our bunkhouse.

He made himself home for the previous 6 weeks. He broke a window to get in the kitchen and a window to get in the bunkhouse. He prepared himself a bed with some sheets he found, ate all of our food that we had in the freezer, and walked to town periodically with all of the power tools, game cameras, electronic calls, bionoculars, etc that he could fit in his back pack to sell.

I didn't leave anything valuable at the lease, but he hit the other guys up for close to $3,000 worth of stuff.


We didn't know if he was alone, so when my brother-in-law confronted him he told him to pack his stuff and backed off. Had a sheriff deputy meet us at the gate. At the time we didn't know anything was damaged or stolen.

The deputy picked him up at the gate.

We told him if all he did was use our shelter and eat our food, we wouldn't press charges this time. He assured us he stole nothing and damaged nothing (told us exactly where our spare key was hidden, but he must have found it after he broke the windows).

We arrived at camp and discovered otherwise. We should have asked the deputy to follow us to the camp. About time we noticed the deputy had already dropped him off somewhere. He assured us he would be easy to find though and had a warrant for his arrest the next day. Don't know what ever came of it though.

Wow! I don't think I would have been as nice as you were lol sounds like you need some security cameras

We've had our ranch house broken into two different times and had $4k+ worth of stuff stolen along with other stuff broken and destroyed in the process of tearing the place apart. We've also had a gate entrance from the county road rammed by a car two different times, don't know if it was someone trying to hunt, steal or what but i figure drugs and/or alcohol was involved... Also our house sits right off the county road without an entrance or gate to prevent people from coming in, so stay vigilant when someone drives by the house slow..

Mentioned in another thread before, but was filling feeders in off-season early before the heat of the day up in Oklahoma. Was along a creek and heard music coming from the woods. I crossed the creek and walked up on a couple of guys cooking speed from back of an old Camaro. They didn't see me, so I backed out and called ranch manager and he called SO. By the time deputies arrived they had left, but there were a bunch of beer cans and syringes laying around on ground. Ranch manager put a stronger gate and lock on that parcel. About 6 months later all of our campers were broken into one night. Maybe same guys...who knows.

Our ranch manager drives by our cabin at least a few times each week so we're pretty safe. And if someone were to get in there on an off day and be there when he comes by, I would hope they're right with God, because they're about to meet him.