Hunting Lease Crime Rate Poll

So... I'm being told on another forum that East Texas doesn't have a crime problem related to hunting leases. Being the opened minded individual I am, I figure it's best to poll the collective knowledge of THF, to try and identify if any region is better/worse than the next.

Please vote on the poll ONLY if you or a family member have had issues with poaching, theft or vandalism on your lease. And pick the region you're located in. For arguments sake, anything south of I10 is South Texas. Anything East of I35 and north of I10 is East Texas. North of I20 and west of I35 is North Texas. South of I20 and west of I 35E is West Texas. Central Texas is whats left in the middle (south of Dallas/north of SA/west of Austin)

North Texas (my vote) coming out of the gate strong!

Word

Surprising. Let's see if it holds up.

I've had issues in all regions I've been in. Not done much in west so I can't say. Caught poachers red handed on three occasions, one in Webb, one in Robertson and one in Trinity. Saw some guys take an Emu in Young county. Hard to decide which was worse.

I haven't had any poaching problems anywhere, so I couldn't vote. But I have some limited experience with the area of "Deep East" Texas (San Augustine, etc.) with family property, calling on customers, etc., and anyone who thinks those folks have a normal, law-abiding approach to hunting is naive.

There seems to be a different set of rules over there. Specifically most people feel that no rules apply to them, in any situation.

I quit hunting E. Texas years ago because of thieves and poaching but IMO nothing can compare to S. Texas as far as breaking and entering and stealing is concerned. Illegals dropped by and did $2800 worth of damage to our camper and hauled off literally everything they could carry

I voted for East Texas, all though i no longer hunt there, (been in central Texas since '05) but my cousin and i had a place in Nac, we had someone DB come on our place from the back, and steal his climber while we were gone to town to eat lunch....he had just hunted out of that morning. Really the only place i've ever had problems with.

I had three Dominicans come walking into camp last Saturday night while I was outside cooking dinner. They wanted a vehicle and were being very aggressive, at first. I fed them, watered them, gave them bath towels and soap so they could bathe with a waster hose. Gave all three socks, underwear and a change of clothes. Gave them blankets and pillows so they could sleep under the palapa. All the while my wife and a 10 year old were locked in a back bedroom on the phone with Border Patrol. Took them 1.5 hours to get there due to a shift change and how remote we are, but when BP guys snuck up on the palapa, all three bad guys were sitting there shoeless and in towels. My wife and I encountered 18 OTMs last Christmas day at 9:30am. Only took BP an hour to get there that day!

Far south Texas gets pretty western at times. The only reason NTX would prevail in this poll is because most of the membership is up that way. I'll promise you we have much more trouble in general near the southern border. We've had poachers, we've had vehicles stolen, ranch house broken into and all liquor, food and water taken.

Yes it does! Our place has a perimeter fence with gates to park in then a 10' fence around the main compound with razor wire on the top where we sleep. We had a young lady try to lure some of the hunters out of the compound before and no one knows where she came from. Spooky!

Or who else was with her in the bushes waiting to ambush you.

I didn't vote, but know for absolute certain a decent feeder or any other decent equipment will be stolen in certain parts of East Texas.

Friend of mine has had several things jacked while hunting paper mill property off of Bragg Road down HWY 190.

This isn't fair the majority of East TX doesn't have internet access to vote

I know its off topic, go to any lake to see violations

I have a lease in east Texas and have not had any real issues with theft or poaching. Your current poll does not capture people like me, only people with problems.

Big theft ring bust in Coryell county not two months ago. Lots of leases were hit (including mine).. and I want to say they had 100-150k in recovered goods.
We did get some things back a couple weeks ago.

Poll is flawed unless equal numbers of hunters in all areas read it. Likely to just reflect who hunts where.

Our house and shipping container was broken into about 3 years ago. A 4-wheeler, TV and misc. stuff was taken. Nothing since, thank goodness. North TX/Young County area. No vandalism and no poaching that I am aware of.

Add one more for me for West TX.

Several times in North Texas. Every time it seems directly related to the property owner or work being performed on the property. We use to have trouble with the Landowner's son. Stole from our camp regularly. However he went to the pen and things calmed down nicely.

Last and most recent time my camper ended up stolen. The landowner had crews in there building/fixing fence. Nothing prior to that in five years and nothing after that either.

East tx area and one of the guys on our place just recently had a small trailer stolen. Same night (we're assuming) one of the other guys unlocked trailer was gone through and had a bunch of empty, flavored swisher sweet wrappers in one of the kitchen drawers.

Yep.. unscientific as hell. But what poll isn't flawed? Interesting results anyway. Would have never though North Texas was a problem area.

A good friend and landowner just had his camper/trailer stolen last week. His property is located in East Texas near Crockett.

You should see all the problems on Ft Hood with things being stolen. On the Ft Hood Facebook hunting pages people are always complaining about cams and blinds and stuff going missing. Lots of trash in Gatesville and Nolanville and I've caught a few of them poaching and dumping on post. We have had 1 4x6 deer stand stolen from the area I guide in this yr and one of the guides had some cameras stolen in our area alone.

Add in a selection for not affected or something like that. Otherwise members that want to follow the results won't be forced to choose something that would skew the results.

Was on a lease in Cass county that had a dirt county road running through the middle of it. Several time sitting in the stand waiting on daylight and heard shots from the road. Had folks driving around our feeders and through our food plots at night.

I've lived and hunted in east Texas and most of what they say about it is true.

Ive been hunting east texas for 20+ years and have only had one encounter with theft but we believe it was someone who is familiar with the place either a "friend" or friend of a friend kinda deal. Only got away with a cheap tv and a flashlight that didnt worked and was recovered in the woods behind camp. Luckily around us we know our neighbors and they are locals so I like to think that helps with them having eyes on the gates if they see any thing that doesn't look right.

Vote in for Central TX. In the past we had poaching issues, and also had feeders trashed. Still think E and S are probably worse.

Have my place in Dickens county for 6 years and find the people there unbelievable. Decent and honest!!!! 2 years ago someone cut my gate chain and stole my 16 ft trailer which I cannot afford to replace and my insurance has 1000.000 deductible, I'm sure the scum bag was from somewhere else. No other issues and the thief only took my trailer and nothing else so I am thankful!!!!!!

Had vandalism in central Texas but nothing was taken. They passed on alcohol and food items.

East Texas has a bunch of snagged tooth hillbilly lowlife thief's......

Struggled many times over the years in central Texas with theft, trespassing, and poaching. Don't even want to think about the things that have happened that I'm not even aware of.

. One year my neighbor had a bunch of low life's on her place cutting firewood, not long after that had an entire feeder stolen. Feeder wasn't visible from any road/property line, so they had to have walked my place out. Tracked them straight to her fence with the drag marks from my feeder legs.

Crack heads, Brownwood has big problems with drugs.

Interesting poll results

Yes interesting. But I wonder if there are more East and North Texas hunters on the forum. Although probably impossible, it would be interesting to compare the result to actual population of membership in the areas. It does seem that South Texas isn't as heavily represented as the Metromess is.

There are no areas of the state that don't have issues. Poaching is ubiquitous. Theft is ubiquitous. We have plenty of meth labs in north Texas just like there are in other parts of the state. If you have meth labs, you will have other criminal activity. We have game wardens all over the state because there are wildlife crimes all over the state, even in North Texas. A buddy of mine just reported turkey poaching on his lease near Stoneburg. A few months ago, some yahoos stole over 100 t-posts out of the ground at my place when a new fence was being installed. This wasn't a lease, but my actual land.

DNS when they steal T-post out of the ground that is really bad. I thought thieves were lazy, and most are. Methheads more than any around our area. Then people say that drugs are a victimless crime. I say

I’m trying to find someone to maintain my lawn at the Point Blank place. Gone through several but they always end up stealing and lying. When caught, they act like nothing happened. For instance, using my equipment to maintain other yards in the neighborhood. I caught the kid red handed this weekend. My JD was gone from storage and the door was still wide open on the shed. I finally found the tractor parked in a neighbor’s yard.

Sheesh. Then laughed it off when I confronted him.

I hunted in East Texas for a while. It is just a misunderstanding. I was informed that what I had was a "day lease". But it is for the whole season I argued. Not what they meant.