I pulled card out of one of my cams to discover to grown men walking through the food plot after I just seeded it (3 weeks ago). I can plainly see that they are searching for arrow heads, I've found tons of them myself. The vids show them heads to grown, picking up stuff putting in their pocket. As they walk toward the cam, I see one pull out of his pocket one of the heads to show the other (they have not spotted the cam at this point). Now if you don't know how I camo my cams, check out a post I put on here maybe 2 years ago, this cam done the same way. The cam is very difficult to spot until you get right up on it on this plot, in the woods, you may never spot it. So as he is about 10 ft from it, he spots the cam and walks out of the picture. Then as if rehearsed, the next vid has both standing in front of the camera talking to each other about what they've found, pulling the arrow heads out of their pocket so I can see what they have and are doing and he says to the other "this is a good place for finding stuff like this and we aren't hurting anyone or taking anything." Then I have no more vid of them, picks back up on deer movement. CLEARLY they are letting me know they are not there to steal my cams or anything else, just take arrow heads.
No am I upset, of course. Am I going to hunt them down in this small town, no. Will I say something if I see them at the local gas station, yes. This is what I don't understand, BIG BALLS !! Man, where they were at, is NO WHERE NEAR a road or house, they had to walk a LONG ways in the woods to get there. If I would have walked up on them you better know the pistol would be drawn, I ain't saying I'm pointing it at them or firing off rounds, just saying, its going to be in my hand, you're on my private land, in the middle of now where. This ain't lease butted up against another lease or a hunting club and yes its marked and yes there are no trespassing signs but not as many as I'd like at the borders.
My question is this, if I'm them, surely they got to know if I find them, there is going to be trouble. Or do people like this just think they are going to explain that they are not hurting anything, taking anything, I'm just simply looking for arrow heads, that land owners are going to be fine with that after I explain what I'm doing ? They knew they were on camera, they knew it was there, they planned the convo I'm certain of it.
And dont hand me this crap about "be happy they didnt take it" = I get that. I'm just trying to figure out peoples mind set. I wouldn't dare step on private land and ESPECIALLY this time of the year.
Big balls if you ask me.

Trespassing is illegal. Taking anything from your land without permission is stealing.

Why wouldn't you talk with law enforcement about this and prosecute? You clearly have them in violation of the law.

yes; take the videos to the police & prosecute - don't try to understand people's mindset

I thought the same thing.

I don't go on private land either,but at the same time I wish the world were so that I could do just as those two men did. I don't want to be the kind of person who see's himself as an island unto himself, composed of all he owns. I don't expect many people to understand this though,especially here.

A few years ago I would have been as mad as you. I hope now that I am older,if I were to meet those guys,I would just calmly explain that I am a hunter,and why I leased that land and ask them if they would please wait till summer to look for heads. At this point in life,I would rather just not make any enemies to have to worry about messing with my hunting. Hopefully they would apologize and stay out,but that would be the best outcome no matter what attitude you take with them. If you just piss them off,no telling what they might do,and I don't need to chew out some dumb ass enough to even have to have a thought about nails or something in my gas while I'm hunting.

The law is toothless. I would handle it myself. And make damn sure they don't ever want to try it again.

I agree R H. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with what they are doing, and if done with permission after season, I probably wouldn't care.

There is a possibility of liability if someone gets hurt though, that would concern me.

The liability is theirs. Just make sure they never again talk about it. It's not complicated.

The law is toothless. I would handle it myself. And make damn sure they don't ever want to try it again.

Out of curiosity, what would you do to them??? You run up on a man and his wife on your property unarmed with a couple of arrowheads in their hand, how do you handle it yourself??

The best advice I can offer,..... Don't post it on a public internet forum.

A while back I was going up to my dads and I noticed a couple pilfering around a neighbors fallwn in barn by the road. Acrually I first noticed the girls handmade cart she pulls aroun with her sitting on the side of the road. I stopped and then noticed the two pilfering around the old barn. I told them our neighbor wouldnt want them prowling around on his property. They both came out of the woods and had something they had picked up in each hand. It was just garbage I guess, something they had picked up off the ground, an old bottle or a little piece of scrap or something. The girl said "we were just looking around". I said well you have something that belongs to him in each hand. The guy said"were not doing anything wrong". I said you are tresspassing, you are in violation of the law right now. My point is they really thought it was ok to prowl around on another mans property and keep anything they found laying around.

Because I'm responsible for some acreages I agree 100% with this. 75% of the time trespassers aren't trying to do some evil thing it is just guys that thought nobody would care if they rode their atv in, camped back in the woods, cut a cedar for a fence post or christmas tree, or looked for ginseng or mushrooms. Half the time I feel kind of bad for running them off cause they don't have any place to do some of those things (that I have always taken for granted) and they aren't bad people.

But, the liability of something happening is just too much. So, I have to be a horse's butt and/or threaten them with calling the sheriff.

No, they did not. They knew what they were doing. They just hoping you were stupid enough to fall for the idiots story.

Y’all are better folks than me. I don’t feel bad at all for running folks off. If they want land they can buy or lease some. If you can’t afford an $800 club membership, you can’t afford a 4wheeler. But they all have 4wheelers, and trucks, and iPhones, and big screens, and cigarettes, and beer. I could go on

Might have to go that route depending on their reaction but I wouldn't start out pissed,I hope.

Doesn’t matter what they’re there for. Wrong is wrong. If you’re on someone else’s property and it’s not yours and you don’t have permission it’s trespassing. Case closed. Then it goes up from there. A trespasser is a step down from a thief. Not all trespassers are thief’s but all thief’s are trespassers. So in my mind if your trespassing you’re up to no good.

I ran them off and told them they might run up on somebody who would shoot first and ask questions later. But I really think they thought it was ok because it was an old broken down barn on the side of the road and they were picking stuff up off the ground. The fact that you cant believe they really thought it was ok further proves my point. A meth head scrappers brain does not function quite like yours or mine.

With all the technology available today there's no excuse for trespassing.
If I catch them, I will be pissed, and it won't happen again. Guaranteed.

KHASB.

I could be wrong, but my guess is you don't have a ton of experience with this. I've dealt with lands that have had absentee landowners for sometimes 50 years. Word gets around and sometimes it takes a few years to convince all the parties that it isn't a free for all. I've had to make some compromises with a few trespassers cause I knew it was the only way to control the flow of more (like granting hunting rights on a small piece). Running in and blowing things up often time will cause more problems in the long run. Figuring out why people are on the place and if you can really keep them off (without the national guard) is a good first step.