Trail Cam Pictures from the Honey Hole

Well after a month I finally got down and checked the camera down on my pheasant Honey Hole. Like usual a couple of nice ones but no monsters. It does not seem that Lucky made it through the season last year. However, a decent 4×4 that Stacie and I encountered late season did and is on the top of the hit list for Stacie, her brother and my brother Ron who took up bow hunting last December. This buck has been hanging around another decent 8 maybe nine pointer that would also not be so lucky if my brother, Stacie’s brother or Stacie would come across him. It looks like I will be just sitting in a tree hoping for a cruiser to come by this year again. That is fine with me as long as someone arrows one of these guys! I have around 75 pics or so of these two bucks at all times of the day. Some of them are even up and around @ Noon. This piece usually does not hold big deer as it gets pounded and pushed by trespassers come the gun season and I usually do not see too many 3.5 year olds make it. There has been one in my 9 years of hunting this property, that magically disappeared. .

I had 8 different bucks on camera with some good looking younger ones (1.5 & 2.5). All bucks showed pretty good growth from the end of July to the middle / end of August. They all put on some inches and that was good to see. I had a ton of pictures of all the bucks. Hopefully they stick around for a while.

Here are a few others. Notice the first doe and how low her front legs are. They are in the crater of the mineral lick.

Anyone care to guess the score of the 2 bucks in the very first pic above?

I hate tresspassers!not as bad as road hunters!those are some decent bucks at2.5 hopefully 1makes it!

Rob:

Nice deer!

I’m so done with trespassers. Nowadays, I don’t even drop by for the complimentary sob story, excuse, or return-fire, I simply dial up the CO and let him take care of it.

Being from a small town, and knowing (by name) many of the types that do that sort of thing, it’s amazing how fast word travels when you mean business. Our trespassing issues, while still somewhat common, are FAR less regular than they were even a year ago.

Joel

Just wild guesses… 112″ the front one, 108″ the back one…. again, just guesses.

Nice looking deer Rob!

rob is that the trophy cam if so those are great looking pictures!!!

Good looking bucks Rob! It sure would be nice to get Mrs. Stenger her first bow buck!

I agree nice bucks. I struggle for land to hunt. but I find it. Trespassers should get out and do the work of finding land they can hunt. Its out there just got to put in work

nice pics rob that would be neat to leave the camera up for a couple months in the summer and watch the bucks grow hopefully stacie gets one of them on the ground

I have quite a few pics and videos of trespassers. Last year I got mainly video as that was what my camera was set for. However, after the video, my camera will take a pic. This is my favorite sequence last year. Notice the time of the deer, the direction she was looking at something and then trespasser comes by.

Hey, great pics… That Bushnell takes some nice pictures

Thanks! I plan on trying to get a Product Review done here soon on the Bushnell Trophy Cam.

And I wonder why I don’t see hardly any deer after the pheasant season opens. It just ain’t the deer Hunters.

I quickly edited a few clips and pics into a video of some of the tresspass encounters my single and only camera caught othe last 2 years. Remind you this piece is 160 acres and you are only seeing a smidge of the property. No wonder why I have had my cameras stolen, vandalized, messed with etc. Not only that my stands also get wheel tracks from trucks and 4 wheelers all over them. I’m lucky to even see a deer. Last bow opener I put some time in scouting a deer for Staice down there. We went opening weekend and saw like 5 deer total when I was getting about 30 pics a day a week previous. I’m sure the fact the wheel tracks to both our stands and god knows only what happened after that spooked the deer. They were in there more then one time from the freeway of matted down CRP in a weeks time from when I checked my camera until opneing day.

Joel, I’m with you from now on, I’m getting lic # and calling the Local DNR Officer. Where do you find those #’s??

Sorry, I got so I forgot to include the video clip.

I have music included, but it may take awhile to get on there.

Rob in your reply with the two pics there is something that moves when you jump from pic to pic. In the fist pic it is above the deers head and in the second pic it is to the left of the tresspasser, is that another deer moving its head?

The level of trespassing you’re seeing is incredible. Rather than make a phone call, I would arrange a meeting with the local CO. Be persistent. They’re VERY busy, esp. this time of year, but if you forge a relationship, you’re much more likely to get enforcement action – mostly because he’ll realize the seriousness of the problem. On the avg. pheasant, deer, duck, trout, fishing, and other openers there are, they get 100 trespassing calls a day. There’s no way they can tend to all of them.

You need to make your situation a priority for him by explaining your frustration level in a kind/calm manner, and provide him with all of the videos, pictures, reports of theft of trail cameras/stands etc. He’ll take action.

FIRST AND FOREMOST – make sure your land meets the minimum legal requirements for posting. If you’re not legal, the CO won’t even bother. Should it go to court (it rarely does when you do your homework), you’ll need to prove it’s legally posted. ANY history with the same person, vehicle, lic. plate, etc. needs to be recorded and stored by you (notebook or word file) for future reference. If you can reference the past history of the property, the fact that you have recurring dates and times of their trespass, color of vehicle, descriptions and photos of trespassers – they’ll kindly take their ticket and walk. If they’re resistant, you can make the slight hint that there’s a chance that they could face prosecution for all of the mishaps/thefts on the property.

Put it this way, I’ve got guys on file that are a slam dunk should they ever attempt to trespass again, and the only reason they didn’t get the business end is because they either ran by taking to the woods, or they beat the sherriff/CO there.

The sheriff’s dept. will write trespassing tickets too, but they generally aren’t as in-the-know regarding the legalities, and are much more likely (in my experience) to issue a warning only. Esp. in a small town where they likely know the trespasser quite well. CO’s, from my experience, have been more effective.

Sorry to hijack, I just have some very strong feelings regarding these laws. I was nice for the first few years, but learned the hard way time in and out, that you’ll get walked all over by simply escorting them off the property. Call immediately, and if they approach you, inform them that the CO/Sheriff will be there shortly (this prevents any rash action hopefully) and there’s no use in driving away or running as you have their license plate number and vehicle description. They’ll likely want to bargain, talk, and/or make excuses, which is where you have to be firm (to prevent escalation) that they wait by the roadside for the CO/Sheriff.

Best case scenario however is that you never make yourself seen or noticed by them.

Joel

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Rob in your reply with the two pics there is something that moves when you jump from pic to pic. In the fist pic it is above the deers head and in the second pic it is to the left of the tresspasser, is that another deer moving its head?

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Leaf!

You are right about the stick. He must of dropped it or he or the deer kicked it up in the snow. The other things to the left and right are foot prints from the Hunter and Deer, that were not there in the first pic.

Cool!

You are right about the stick. He must of dropped it or he or the deer kicked it up in the snow. The other things to the left and right are foot prints from the Hunter and Deer, that were not there in the first pic.

Cool!

thats a bit ridiculous all the trespassers some look right at the camera we dont have near that problem on our land (as faras i know) id be lit up too bad your so far from that spot rob pretty hard to keep an eye on it

Rob, That video makes me ill! I feel for you. We put in a ton of time making sure everything is just so and spent alot of money only to have these sort of people barge in and take what they want. I too deal with this and I know what goes through a guys mind, I’m paying a landowner, I bought alot of expensive equipment, I used a day or multiple days of hard earned vacation, and the list goes on. I carefully chose my route in and out of here and heck I even showered, etc,etc,etc,

land mines

Yep, this piece is 125 miles one way and just over 2 hours. It sucks, gas money, trail cameras all the hard work of making a good spot goes down the drain when you have others helping themselves. If there ever is a big buck on theispiece it don’t tkae long for word to get out and either someone pushes him off or the vehicles cirlce the property like vultures when I’m down there. I have seen it many times. The stories I could tell you about run ins in person I have had down there. Not only do they screw up my deer hunting, they take big # of birds off the land. I bird hunt only about 1/2 of this land (80 acres) as I stay clear of my deer spots. Ask members here on IDO some of the areas I leave alone are bird infested areas too, only to have others trample through them and turn it into a public free for all.

Many of you guys know what I’m talking about.

That is very discouraging footage.Could it be adjacent properties are the open door for your problems and leads them to “crossing the fence”. Perhaps communicate to your neighbors and get the word out and team up and look out after each other??

Let me go down their to watch and hunt your property, I will say more than that camera will.

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Yep, this piece is 125 miles one way and just over 2 hours. It sucks, gas money, trail cameras all the hard work of making a good spot goes down the drain when you have others helping themselves. If there ever is a big buck on theispiece it don’t tkae long for word to get out and either someone pushes him off or the vehicles cirlce the property like vultures when I’m down there. I have seen it many times. The stories I could tell you about run ins in person I have had down there. Not only do they screw up my deer hunting, they take big # of birds off the land. I bird hunt only about 1/2 of this land (80 acres) as I stay clear of my deer spots. Ask members here on IDO some of the areas I leave alone are bird infested areas too, only to have others trample through them and turn it into a public free for all.

Many of you guys know what I’m talking about.

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Time to do something about it. If you’re aggressive and serious about keeping people off, it can be done. Another effective hand-made sign that I’ve seen has been posted at all property boundaries/accesses reads:

“Trespassers prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”

It’s nice too to bait trespassers with a crappy trailcam. Hide the good IR one way up in a tree so you get great photos/video of the guys stealing your junk one that’s right near the access.

I’ve also seen ditch setups with surveillance cams to get lic. plates. Go CIA on them!

Joel

Wow that stinks, do you own this property. Kind of looks like a few of them are the same guy! At least they are not taking your cameras.

Nope, but I’m suppose to have exclusive hunting rights to it.

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At least they are not taking your cameras.

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Not true, they have vandalized two of them and they no longer work and the other one was stolen.

The one deer hunter that was filmed multiple times during Shotgun & Muzzle loader, his father was confronted about the incident after I showed the clips to a local farmer and found out who it was. The dad said the camera was placed on his property and there was no way his son trespassed once much less the 6 times I had caught him on camera.

One of the bird hunters that was caught on camera said he had permission to hunt there, but could not give me the land owners name. I asked him to leave and on the way out of the field, he kicked up some birds and had the balls to shoot one.

Does anyone know how to get the CO’s number for around the Lake Crystal / Mankato area.