So what to do? Hunted eastern Washington for deer and elk this year, but my family has the sole permission to hunt this one piece of property, and escorted guests.

Took my youngest out hunting this weekend, and he did great. Hiked about 6 miles total on the property, he was safe with his rifle, and all in all, we had a great time.

We headed towards the sound of some ravens, figuring there was a gut pile out there somewhere. Sure enough we find a boned out elk carcass. The folks did a fairly good job of boning it out, no waste, but this was on private property. This property is also landlocked by other private properties, a number of which are staunch non-hunting families. Elk was dead center of one of the two parcels, 200 acres big.

This is a property where I've done lots of volunteer labor to cement the relationship and the access year after year. Funny thing is a few locals even tried to destroy the relationship built up over the past few years with a few lies, but we were able to disprove those. Lovely.

Check the trail cameras, yup, 10 folks on the property, none of whom had permission to be there after reviewing the photos with the people who own the property. Funny thing is I think I recognize three of them, but I'll keep those photos out of this.

Anyway, photos will head to WDFW to see if they want to pursue them for a trespassing charge, or a charge for no hunter orange.




I have a few other cameras out there that got great face shots, but those are going to WDFW directly, as I don't want to give the camera location away.

This guy showed up as well.

He'll be #1 on the hit list for next year.

How long would it take to walk the meat to the gate ?

For me, no time at all because I have vehicle access. Getting the meat to the road system in the parcel, furthest drag would probably be 250-300 yards to one of the interior roads. From where they got their elk to where their vehicle likely was parked is about 9/10 of a mile based on the cameras I got them on. Worst case 1.5 miles from where they got the elk. They were 155 yards from one of the roads when the elk dropped, but the spot where the elk was isn't visible at all from the road.

Definition of a road here is gravel with overgrown weeds that was used 15-20 years ago to remove timber.

Double tap.

So they were there for an extended period of time.

An outfitter that I know in eastern WA just had the same thing happen to a client. The kid was in a blind, waiting, and some trespassers took the 4x4 headed the kids way. Hope those guys get caught.

There were a number of people there over a number of days. One group in particular had 3+ people there over the span of 2-3 days, which included the killing and recovery of the elk.

As fate would have it living in a small town, I got a call from a local letting me know what happened at about 1pm today. A guy took an acquaintance of mine's son onto the property to chase the elk, meaning to have them chase the elk off of the property (still trespassing), but the 14 year old shot the elk, roughly 5-6 times. Ran out of rounds, had to have dad bring another rifle or rounds. Dad apparently brought another rifle, or rounds, and the elk ended up being killed and then field dressed and quartered.

It puts me in a bit of a quandary. Decided to give a 1 strike only warning to the friend of my acquaintance. Pretty direct, "don't come back on the property again, ever. I have multiple pictures of you on multiple cameras that you didn't see. Continued trespassing will result in WDFW getting hold of the pics and carcass for prosecution." I'm sure he'll talk to my acquaintance, who's wife is friends with my wife. That'll be interesting for sure, but I'll let them approach me on that and explain. It is a small enough town, so we'll see each other soon enough. I've made mistakes in my past, so I'll give them a pass on this, for now. I think we all have made judgment errors in our past.

Now I need to explain to the landowner, who lives in Germany, that I have figured out who shot the elk, and why I suggest that the verbal warning is all that needs to be handed out. Hopefully I retain rights to the property because of someone else's screw up. I think they'll see it my way.

You see, last year when I shot my bear on this property, I had been accused by another good ol' boy, not directly, but to the adjacent landowner that I had shot the bear on the neighboring property. The adjacent landowner complained to my landowner. Good thing I had pictures of the recovery to prove my case, as the bear ended up by some very specific landmarks, and I was believed.

As the world turns....in McCleary.

Hoping you get satisfaction, DF.

BTW, any spare dye bombs down at the bank ?

Die packs arent used by many banks any more. There is a lot of maintenance required, which leads to unintended exposure.

Some of the hidden cam pics are pretty good, with subjects less than 10 feet away. Those little Tasco cams are pretty easy to hide if you are sneaky.

You could put up a few pics down at the General Store, alongside the bounced checks.

That would be pretty cool. . . .

Sorry you are having to deal with these issues on private property. . .

Bummer.

I used to work on a 54,000 acre ranch about 14 miles from the nearest town. Had to deal with trespassers on the regular. And by deal with them, I mean, they got the picture that they shouldn't come back. Amazing the things you can do to vehicles with loaders, backhoes, and other farm implements.

My current neighbors have some pretty epic steelhead water. It is unbelievable the kind of stuff they have to deal with. I hope I never win the lottery and buy such a piece of property, because I would end up in prison in short order. It is no wonder so many people are locking down access and selling out rights to outfitters babysitters who will look after places.

I am basically the Ghillie for the property for these folks. Security in exchange for hunting rights. It has worked out so far. Discussions with the landowner are going well. We'll see how the issue with the acquaintance goes.

Andy,
Regarding your acquaintance and their "friends," trust is oft something that is accrued over the long haul. Contrary to your well-established relationship with the land owner, sounds like they'll be bouncing checks drawn on that account from here on out. And, most likely, others as well....

We got it worked out today. The father was cleaning up a mess created by his friend, who was hunting with his son. Stories matched from what I was told by others. I don't fault the father. He was honest. Hard to fault a teenager. Blame rests on the friend guiding the son. Landowner agreed.

One strike is all they get and that understanding has been driven home.

I have been lucky enought to get to hunt a number of pieces of privite property. Every time at every spot ther were trespassers. Sometimes multiple. A few years back my cousin and I were hunting a piece of property and the neighbor kid was on it. He didnt have permition. He was asked to leave. The kid said he would blow our heads off. We backed off and let my cousins friends that had the property handle it. The kids parents were assholes and not much happend to the little inbread basterd but ya knew how he learned to be a dumbass. I never do the policing on any of the property I hunt. Just tell the landowner and let him handle it if he chooses. I could babble on about this but. Oh well. I guess. U would think a hunting while tresspassing ticket would scare people. It scares me. I will pass on that for sure.
I hope ya get the bugs worked out of all that. Its nice of you to give them a break. If it were me as long as a guy is not a plick and he did have a kid doing the shooting I think he should get a free one. Ya wouldnt want me to have too much time to think about it. I can think of a few reasons to not let um slide. The kid might think hes going to get away with it somewere else. Itis a tough lesson to loose your right to hunt a couple years . Ive see and heard enough local good old boys talk about hunting a spot for years and no one is gonna tell them they cant hunt were they want. I have a friend that bought 5000 acres in Oregon and the hardware store owner in the town he lived by told my buddy he was gonna do what he wanted. Lol. He got to know Bob real quick. Didnt go well for him. I have a bunch of stories. I put a offer in on 700 acres of pasture land down on the Snake. If I get it my main problem will be the neighbors. I doubt my offer is going to be accepted anyway.....

On a side note. Those chips we can get for our gps's thats show the landowners name and boundries, State land, dnr etc are sure nifty....money well spent imo. Be carefull. Even doing the yearly updates might not keep ya out of trouble. Man. That was long winded

The OnX hunting app for smartphones does the same thing as the chip, and it updates data automatically.

Having had a number of pieces jeopardized by some good old boys, I really have no patience anymore for those antics, including losing access to a 660 acre parcel in the Chehalis River Valley that was prime duck hunting.

I keep the landowner informed of anything good or bad on the property, and being in Germany they really appreciate that. I also work with their forester on a regular basis and keep him informed of any issues up there as well.

The cool thing was that during my conversation with them yesterday they offered to allow me to hunt on the property for another year, plus access to the neighboring property they purchased this year that really holds the elk. Getting close to 500 acres there, and then I am working with the neighboring landowner who holds another 250 acres across the road with much younger timber. All properties hold bear, dear and elk, and they are about 8 miles from the house.

Basic agreement has always been that I would be up there with either my boys or guests, never having guests unattended. We aren't stingy with invites either, as I have probably had 10 friends or so up there are different times.