What if you find someone hunting from your stand? Do you back out and call the law? Would you confront them? what would you do? That is, lets say that you do not know who they are.
Public land or private, I would walk right up to them and ask them to leave. Private land???...I would escort them to the gate. If they are a smartass about it, I would call the police. I guess it is their attitude about the whole thing how i would really handle it.
All private land is laid out differently. If someone was in one of our stands it is blatantly poaching and FWC will get called
On public land i would walk up nicely and ask him to please get down. If he refuses i would cut the cables and tip it over while hes still in it. I doubt anyone would refuse to get down. Remember if you put your stand up on public land its gonna get used bottom line. One time i was walking in the woods and saw a nice buddy ladder stand. I liked it. SO i climbed up and left my gun on the ground so if i was seen up there the guy would not know i was hunting. He had walked up while i was in it checking it out. And he said "hey whats up can you please get down" and i said "sure man i was just checking it out" we got the talking about the stand and where he had bough it from. then he said "i dont care if people use my stand respectfully BUT if i walk up and ask for the person to get down i better only have to ask once in a calm tone".
Now on private land i would be pissed and tell the guy to get down. When he does ill ask him why hes there, and what hes doing. Then depending on how it goes i might take him down and hold him there and call the police and fwc. If hes nice he might not get the cops called just fwc.
we have problems with guys cutting the locks on our turkey creek property. caught 2 guys in there about 2 weeks ago. In florida on private property, we as land managers cannot detain people. only the LANDOWNER can detain people. And if the land owner detains them to long waiting for LEO or GW, land owner could be charged. Deputy told us, as far as trespassers go- came trail cam pics were NOT good enough. had to be caught on property by deputy or game warden. pictures will work for poaching charges. now we have another system to know when somebody comes through the gate. It is amazing how much has been spent, trying to keep people out of somewhere that doesn't belong to thewmn in the first place.
