home owner harrasing people at hastings wma

[USPENAMC]

we went out to check out the hastings wma and of course there were a good amount of people then one of the house owners goes up to these 2 young guys at least 500 feet away from the nearest home and yells at them that they are shooting at his house and to move farther in so they did move in first of all he didnt know who was even shooting in the direction of his house well when we left he pulled up next to us and asked us where were you hunting and we said way down there by that tree line he said are you sure i said yes he wanted the description of the guys and what they were driving we just nodded at his questions and gave him no information these guys werent doing anything wrong and it could have easily been us he ran around the area like RAMBO trying to tell us not to hunt in the wma. what can we do ARE all of us hunting there WRONG or is he wrong. i sent an email to the dnr hopefully they can get an officer out in that area so they can check out the situation or whatever it might be. any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

[Benny]

Best bet would be to personaly call the local CO.

More than likely the DNR won't do any thing but make a report to some official who won't take the time to do any thing any way.

The local CO's will go there and nail the owner with a citation!!!

Benny

[almostthere!]

Call the CO.

Were you guys hunting geese or doves?

[USPENAMC]

we were hunting doves.. i was going to go out today but i decided not to didnt want to deal with any thing so i opted to just stay home... maybe ill go find another place to hunt with things the way they are no one knows anymore when someone will just do something ...dumb..

[harvey lee]

I would call the area CO as mentioned above.I would also avoid this guy as much as possible.Some people can really ruin a hunters day.There are laws agaisnt harrasing hunters.We dont know but he could of had bb's peppering his house so one might understand why he was upset.One can still be nice about it.He also might want that area for his family to hunt and wants no one else there so that is his way of getting rid of all the hunters,who knows.

[BobT]

If the area is open to public hunting and they are 500' away, I believe they are legally okay. If in fact they were discharging toward his home, he is rightfully angry. Being legally far enough away does not wave a hunter's responsibility to know what lays behind his target. They could be a mile away and if they fire a rifle and the bullet strikes the home, they are responsible. We hunters must always be aware of our target, what is behind it, our bullet/shot tragectory, etc. That's the responsibility that goes along with the right. I say, apologize to the home-owner for not being more careful and count your blessings nobody was hurt. After all, the damage could have been much worse.

Bob

[BLACKJACK]

It would be interesting to find out the exact facts and distances. I know its getting to be a bigger and bigger problem where people build houses around PUBLIC hunting areas. For 10 months of the year they have their own nature area out their back door but then hunters come and want to hunt, by law they're suppposed to be 500 feet away, the public hunting was there first, but now that 500 feet barrier has been created. Its hard to feel sorry for them if their house gets shelled out a few times. I know thats the wrong attitude, but the homeowner needs to share some responsibility here too.

[Riverratpete]

definetly inform the local CO of the situation....they may already have a read on this guy..who knows..few years back on the 1st tee at Keller golf course, hadn't even hit yet, and this guy comes racing up to my father his buddie and me and accuses us of hitting his car/windshield which is parked along the road guy was like flippin out,almost got physical which was pretty funny anyways. Bottom line is, hunter harrassment is ILLEGAL and needs to be reported. If we as ethical hunters do not stand up for ourselfs were going to get run over and lose to these yoyo's.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

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definetly inform the local CO of the situation

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Dont let that guy bring you down

[chucker34]

On a related note, does the 500 foot rule apply to bows as well? Cause my in-laws front yard shares a property line with a nice WMA where there is some good deer sign.

[BobT]

Actually, the 500' rule has been on the books for as long as I can remember, page 12 of the 2006 regulations handbook.

I think they need to be careful if this is an anti-hunter as creating a situation will only fuel his purpose. The 500' rule is not there to protect against accidental shooting but more for disturbing due to noise. After all, most firearms have a much farther range than that and if the law was there to protect against shooting injury, we wouldn't have any place to hunt.

I agree, based on the story as we heard it here, the homeowner sounds like a pain but it's best to avoid stirring his pot.

Let the authorities handle it, I agree.

Bob

[BobT]

The 500' rule applies to firearms. I have not found any ruling regarding bows.

Bob

[MIKE IN lINO III]

Awhile back I wanted to hunt my back yard, it butts up to a large field. I called and they said as long as I am 200' away from a residence, it is ok. I can be closer with permission from the nieghbors. I never did end up hunting, I just feed and watch the deer.

[rippinlips]

If you have permission from the land owner you can hunt from there roof as long as you got permission from them. The 500 foot rule only applys to building sites that are active with people or some sort of live stock. I do not believe it is 500 feet for bow hunting I think it is 200 or 300 feet pretty sure it is 300 feet.

[ice_shack]

First, were you in the WMA? I live right there and there were a couple people hunting outside the boundries. Like real early Sat. morning. The boundries are pretty easy to miss. How did you access the WMA?

If indeed you were inside the boundries and not in the firearm restricted part you have the right to shoot anywhere, call the CO. Those people over that way freak out every year.

[Riverratpete]

Thanks for the insight.

[USPENAMC]

ICE SHACK,

we hunted after 4 pm and yes we were in the wma and we went to the center of it as to stay away from everything and everyone. the problem was not with us and i really dont know who it was agains since that person was going around yelling at everyone. the guys he yelled at responded this is state land but they still moved farther in. most people park on the side of the road we opted to stay away from the houses and parked before we got to the residential area and walked in as a matter of fact we dont even load our weapons until we are in our hunting spot. there was at least 20 people there and the guy had a truck that is LIFTED up big tires, i messed up cause i didnt get the plates we were trying hard to ignore him. he was asking specific questions about how the guys looked we just said yeah there were a bunch of people and answered his questions with minimum detail. i undertand theyre point of view if theyre houses are getting peppered too. but being an a hole is not getting anyone anywhere anyways he was driving his truck speeding back and forth that little road like he was head hunting or something.

[USPENAMC]

oh by the way we hunted during the weekday after my dad gets home from work around 6 pm or so

[ice_shack]

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the guy had a truck that is LIFTED up big tires

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Was this truck green? Because the guy that owns that truck is an a hole by nature.

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oh by the way we hunted during the weekday after my dad gets home from work around 6 pm or so

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I here the shooting going on but I can't see the WMA just the state land in the valley. Which is not legal to hunt but I see it alot.

Have you kicked up many pheasants? There numbers have dropped considerably since they started building the townhomes to the east.

[USPENAMC]

they guy with the raised truck i think was green he looked pretty good build from the upper body thats about all the description i have. like i said i was trying to avoid all contact so i didnt even look over much or never tried to get a license plate or anything i got by with quick yes and no's.

as far as pheaseants i havent seen a single one yet but i did get bit by a snake as i posted on another post here i guess i stepped on it it bit a piece of my boot and then curled and hissed i stepped back and moved on it looked like a rattler with no rattler but it hissed and it acted like it was going to attack mean little thing i think it was a fox snake.

[USPENAMC]

Here is a bit of an update on the situation well nothing has been resolved as of yet but i just want to thank the CO for emailing me back this is what he emailed me.

Dave,

This is Joel Heyn, the Game Warden for Hastings. Could you tell me what house or what area this guy was coming from? This is not the kind of thing we like to hear about.

There is a buffer set up to keep people away from the mobile homes.

Houses have been built on the north and south sides of the WMA, and there is not a closed area like by the mobile homes. So a person could be hunting right next to someones backyard and be legal.

If you could send my an email or give me a call that would be great.

Thanks

Joel Heyn

[Powerstroke]

Dave I think you're doing the right thing by reporting it to the DNR. I looked it up and Joel is the CO for the Hastings area. GIve him the info you have and hopefully then can figure things out so that people don't harrass the hunters.

Good work.

[lunker651]

REPORT HIM TO THE WARDEN IN THE AREA. I BELIEVE THE QUESTIONINGs ARE SUPPOSE TO BE DONE BY OFFICERS. IF HE WANTS TO DO IT TO EVERY HUNTERS IN THE AREA THEN HE IS LOOKING FOR TROUBLE. I WOULD DEFINATLY REPORT HIM FOR HARASSMENT.

[Stratosman]

I live right next to that WMA, the houses to the south. I here shooting pretty much nightly, never heard of this guy or truck, don't even recall seeing a truck like that, I supose he's coming out of the trailer park then?

That sucks if he is illegally harassing people out there, what's the purpose of that...good idea to harass people with guns that's some clear thinkng.

Wonder how long before that one is closed and houses go up. I've heard talk of it before. Hope not.

[USPENAMC]

honestly i was discouraged didnt go back there again with so much land in minnesota why would i go back to a TROUBLE spot just trying to keep from things getting out of hand like they say

out of sight out of mind

[Ferny]

One of the Bayport WMA's has houses near it and they are marked with signs. Not exactly sure of distance from houses but it's clarly marked where you can't shoot. I would think your WMA might have these as well.

Ferny.