I can see both sides. I hunt private land and public land. The private irritates me because I often don't have access to hunt where I need to due to being land locked by other private. On public I can go anywhere but private. If I hunt close to a line, I wouldn't setup next to someone that has a permanent stand. Not that I wouldn't have that right but just out of safety. Not everyone practices gun safety and proper target identification. I entered one part of public this year just past some private land. I was a good 300 yards from any line. Directly after I walked in, I went down into a drainage creek. I could hear someone started firing pistol rounds above on the private. This made me uneasy. Now, it could have been somewhere other than the private land nearby but it sure didn't sound like it. I'm not sure if they were doing that to scare deer, or try to persuade me out, or what. If it came from private land, that's a very ignorant thing to do. As a public land hunter, sometimes good areas are next to a line. I have a decent place within 50 yards of a line. No one seems to hunt there though. If they did, I'd probably stay at least a hundred or more yards away.
As a private land owner, I can see the irritation of line sitters. If someone was right on my line, even looking away, knowing someone else is hunting the private, I think that is kind of tacky. Sure they have a right but it's just too close and as the private land owner I have a right to sit the line as well. So if the spot is killer, does both guys sit next to each other and hunt right there? Who yields? It's a tough question. If I was the public hunter, I'd probably back off the line and try to see where the deer are going or coming from.
Ack wrote:whitetailassasin wrote:Many landowners will not for any reason allow a recovered deer on their land, especially if they hunt and it's a good buck.
I would venture to guess this is much more prevalent in Michigan because of the sheer number of landowners who hunt. Sad thing is, it tends to make the average joe public guy want to take a chance trespassing because he doesn't want anyone else retrieving "his" buck.......which unfortunately can happen once that landowner knows what's lying dead on his side of the fence.
I don't know why someone would wanna keep someone else's deer. I really don't want a buck that I didn't kill. Unless that deer was shot on the private or the guy was being a jerk, I'd let them recover it too.