What gives with some deer hunters?

I'm assuming a leg hold trap. Is it possible the hunter wants to put the animal out of it's misery with the only weapon he/she has? Just a thought.

Another issue: if this happens on your land are they trespassing or do they have your permission to be there, in which case you can explain the facts of life to them before hand.

I too, would be upset with trespassers. Just curious, how do you dispatch your animals without a fire arm?

Along with trespassing, in most states, messing with other folk's legally set traps or the animals in them is also against the law. If your BIL witnessed someone trespass and molest/ruin the pelts on the animals in your traps, you need to turn them in. In Wisconsin it is punishable by fine ($300-$1,000), imprisonment (up to 90 days) or both and a mandatory 5-year revocation of license.

These animals in foothold traps are not in misery. They are simply detained.

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Oh, okay. I am sure that is the way it looks to your criminal trespassers.

You haven't said, did you report this incident to the cops/game warden or just complain here?

All I can say is that firearm deer season is a nightmare here. We get all kinds of weekend warriors that come out to 'hunt'. Trucks running our farm roads all night long. I really don't think that some of them even know what private property is. Our neighbor's dog was killed by a 'hunter' this year because it was barking at him.
We are always ready for gun season to be over....and my whole family loves to hunt. It's like WWIII on opening day. It isn't war....if you're not having fun, go home.
Around here it seems that the bowhunters are the true sportsmen for the most part. They have 90days to harvest a deer, gun hunters get seven. Maybe that's the difference, I dunno.

.....sorry for my rant

Some people have respect for others and their endeavors and others do not. This goes for just about anything. There is always a bad apple in the bunch.

"Gun Week" in Ohio (no doubt all states as well) is when the highest percentage of inexperienced/ unethical/ trespassing/ slob types decide to grab a gun and leave the pavement or mowed grass.

My dad & brother trapped a lot in the seventies & eighties and gun week was when they had most of their problems even then.
It got to the point they'd pull all of their traps on certain properties the Sunday after Thanksgiving and reset eight days later.

i go with a friend who traps yots and i always take a heavy piece of burlap along to release cats caught in his traps as he uses mouse pee on alot of his yot sets and i know he would be mad as hell if that happened to him,he traps on alot of farms with premission. eastbank.

Slob hunters have always been a problem. I don't know if the apparent increase is due to a larger population, or if the actual percentage is increasing.

The "why"? Probably a mix of things. Urbanization, in part. A general decline in respect for the rights of others, likely.

Plenty of slobs out there. They maybe just had to kill something. Maybe said it was cruel not to kill it before they hightailed it. People seem to be getting meaner and meaner and dumber and dumber. Today I was grouse hunting on public land. I found tracks of a couple trucks that drove down a foot trail closed to all vehicles. They burned a tv and left a bunch of junk. I also heard a lot of semi auto pistol shooting at two locations nearby which is also against the rules but hard to blame people for since it is very hard to find a place to do so legally around here.

My wife traps, and in our state it is a pretty serious violation for anyone to mess with your game or the trap. We caught someone who shot a lion, he got his firearm seized, a hefty fine, and his hunting rights suspended for 2 years.

GS

It's not complicated. You trap an animal for its fur. Someone sees what you have done and doesn't like it, so he puts the animal out of its misery an spoils the fur, all in one shot. In his mind, he is teaching you not to trap.

That's not my position, I'm just telling you why it's done. I'm all for trapping an harvesting fur. Animals are on earth for mankind's benefit. We eat and wear them. We make products out of them. It's as natural now as it was in the beginning.

I would suggest deployment of a game camera during gun week. Catch em in the act and then you can post their mug in every diner in the area on the bulletin board.
I have fought with the slobs myself. Not in trapping but with trucks taking shot from the road into my property. If I hadn't been sick at the house when it happened, I would have been hunkered down on the wrong end of their muzzle and fuming.

Everybody except Curt Blunt is OVERTHINKING this in my humble opinion.

Curt was right. They have ZERO knowledge about trapping. They think they are putting a wounded animal out of its misery. THAT's ALL. They shoot it in the chest as that's the biggest target... they don't think "spoil the fur". They just think "It's making noise, it's in pain, no telling when the trapper will be by to dispatch it..., put it down." They may think if it's whining from frustration at being held that it's scaring off the deer, so resent your "noise maker" being so close to them, so they walk over, and shoot it. If it's on private property close to their property, they probably figure the trapper is inconsiderate at setting the trap so close to another hunter's area, and spooking the deer away with the caught fox. So...they feel it's ok to cross the property line and put the animal down. They have no real idea if the fox will spook deer away... they think noise is noise.

THINK about it.... how many "standard" deer hunters know much about bows, or Falconry? I get amazed looks from many hunters who see me taking a deer off of public lands with my flintlock, especially when it's raining...they simply don't know about any other form of game harvesting, so, again, have ZERO understanding of trapping, is all that's going on.

LD

Wow, and then you go and really over think it. LOL.

trapper1 said:

These animals in foothold traps are not in misery. They are simply detained.
Some trappers carry a .22 to dispatch animals, which results in minimal damage to the pelt. Personally, I don't use a firearm to dispatch animals, from coyotes on down. I don't like the holes in the pelt, or the blood to deal with. This was on my land, and the folks that are allowed to hunt there know better.
My brother -in-law watched this play out from a distant stand he was setting in. 2 ignorant slobs, in their pumpkin suits, walked from next property over (trespassed), straight to fox, shot it, then walked away.:banghead:

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Alright, I really don't want to disagree in a disrespectful way here, but are you sure they are just "detained." Ive done a lot of trapping for my age (18) and I seem to have a lot of coons with partially gnawed off legs, broken legs, and missing coons with a foot still in the trap. I think that is past "detained." Same happens with coyotes and usually it is because the struggle of trying to get out. I do all I can to minimize this (I.E. remote locations, cover near, and checking early before sun gets to much above the horizon), but it still seems that sometimes you just cant help it and if a hunter sees it, than I would rather than shoot it and lose a couple dollars than have them suffer. I realize suffering sometimes just happens, but I think the difference is what we do when we can change the situation. So with all things the same, and if the hunters are legally there (I understand they are not unless they are with permission from you since this is private land) with no violations of any type, they honestly could be doing you a favor, given that they don't just want to kill it to kill it. In that case, they should probably just leave it alone and start appreciating wild life a little more before Humane society gives hunters even worse rep. Itd be different if they were lose, because then I kill them to but more as a result to their destruction to small game populations and my livestock. If it were me and I had people hunting on our land, I would just tell them to knock it in the head or to something that is quick, but does not damage value of pelt. Would be doing me a favor and would be a more sportsman like "code of conduct" thing to do.

Just remember that I am speaking from I have experienced or know and I am still learning the details of trapping, etc., but I mean no disrespect.

Trapper,
Have you tried to put some game cameras up to watch your traps. I've never bothered anyone's traps, never will unless they are illegally on my land.

Slob hunters, probably always has been a problem and always will be. Doesn't make me any less furious though. Hunting on public land in Ohio, I once saw a large decapitated buck. The body was left to rot right next to the parking area. It is a shame.

Well, the put it out of it's misery thing may be recognizable if it were a leg hold trap, but here in Arizona we use cage traps, no pain or misery to consider, just a caged animal.

The only time leg holds are legal here is on private land, in which case they are committing criminal trespassing, in addition to breaking game laws.

GS

We all know of problems with wrong-doing trespassers, and we're not really treading any new ground, here.

Enough for now.