out of state deer hunters

[dog]

dont know about the law pertaining to orange and a ground bling but i do know I dont want to be in the woods during gun season and not be able to be seen. I have hunted them and when i do i make sure i have on orange and the blind has plenty also . Hunter orange does no good if it cant be seen

[chapkosbeagles]

The law says u cant walk down the tracks

It dosent say u cant walk accross this dumb country boy cant spell but can read well

[steve w]

Where you reading that chapko?

[chapkosbeagles]

If the tracks cross the road are u truspassing if u drive over them. It is no different 200 yard or a mile down the rail. I guess comman sence prevailed.

See the law dont have any comman sence,and any buddy that would stick up for these dirty co s that I talk about. Is not even worth waisting my time typing. as u either work for the goverment or one of them people that think they are perfect an do no wrong.

My guess is I pee alot of u greedy dirty ticket righting cops off

If I was a dnr which I planed on beeing all thew schooli would not have to right dirty tickets.

As I found god a few years back I could not see myself lieing for a living

I have met one co that was decent but ran into several in the woods most this way will do anything to wright a ticket.

Like I said I wont waist my time on this topic again

An would never cull a mans hound unless he asked me an somthing was wrong with it. As I am a dog lover. My best hounds sleep in my bed

[warddog]

My responses to most of these contengious issues is to try to spark folks to take a look at the game laws with an open, honest accessment of the word of law. I have never condoned shooting anyones dog as I have a hrad time culling my own and in fact have kept many that should have been. Folks also laugh and make snide remarks when I make the statement of taking issues to court but folks the world has changed over the years since I started hunting and following dogs. The entire mindset of people have changed as less and less private property is available for folks to hunt and then when someone is lucky enough to obtain permission to hunt private land and trouble breaks out the landowner may very well say, NO HUNTING, PERIOD. I've had this happen as well as properties that we had permission for years to hunt, STOPPED. I've been accused of being a know it all more times then once because I give my opinion on the word of law. I'm no cop, CO, lawyer or anything other than a regular ole hard working middle class hunting boy that has faced the reality that times are not just changing but have been changing for numerous years. Those of you who have great pieces of wilderness and wildlife habitat with plrenty of private land to run or hunt on should count your blessings as that isn't the norm that most peole encounter. I have had numerous run ins with CO's in the field over the years and have always tried to read and abide by the laws and to ask questions when I didn't know or understand them. The post was started over trespassers (out of state) but trespass is trespass be it by in state or out of state and shooting dogs which led to numerous opinions. My intent was to apply the situation to the law because let's face it, the end result of shooting a man's dog is probably going to end up in some kind of legal action. Maybe the land owner/leasor for trespass, maybe the dog owner when their dog was shot, maybe the land owner when the shot dog owner whipped his butt or maybe the dog owners family when the land/owner when feared for his physical well being shot the one dishing out the butt whipping. The statement about common sense has been thrown out there but one persons common sense is not the same as the next ones and the only resolution when parties do not or can not agree is the word of the law in which a third party dolls out the verdict SOLELY on the word of law. That folks is why I try to understand how the law is interpreted by those enforcing it, is EXACTLY, not what I opine it is. With that said I am just like Steve W. in that I'd like to know where it says you can walk across RR tracks without permission. I got a friend that got ticketed several years ago when he was trapping a ditch along side some RR tracks that the adjacent landowner had given him permission to trap on his property. Knowing he had WRITTEN permission from the adjoining landowner he contested the ticket in court. He got a rude awakening when the CO provided documentation that the RR actually owned specific right a ways on both isdes of the RR tracks just as the roadways do in most states and he LOST. Now, he only got fined $1.00 plus costs but the court cost were $85.00 plus he lost a days work along with the expense of traveling to the court in the county where he was cited, which wasn't where he lived. He and I coon hunted and trapped alot together so we both learned from his situation although the fee came off his hip pocket. As for the fluorescent orange requirement on ground blinds, that is a NEW rule change just this year in Indiana. Occupied ground blinds must display hunter orange of not less than 144 square inchs on EACH side of the blind that is visable from ANY direction. I personally like to be safe rather than sorry. Extra money's not easy to come by these days and I hate to pay for something I didn't enjoy. One such mishap is like one of my hounds tacking off on a deer, it spoils the entire experiance!

[chapkosbeagles]

So if u drive ur car down the road and cross a railway crossing u must be trusspassing than right?
B/c the rail way owns it. this is what ur saying

Also made a fool out of a co in court when sighted for fishing on his property he said I was trupassing well it wasent posted an it was on a public stream


If they wernt dirty tickets I would never of beat them.

When I got the ticket for orange he took my info told me to go back hunting an have a good day 2 months later I got a ticket in the mail for no orange. When I called to fight it they told me it was late an if I dident pay it by time they simitted that I wanted to fight it a warrent would already be issued

These are some the reasons I got a real good lawyer and it just cost me a top hound

[smokedawg]

I got a question for you guys. My family owns a large tract of land with the railroad running right straight to the center of it. It is our main running grounds for our rabbit dogs. Them old swampers love to run back and forth across across them tracks to hit the sloughs and creeks trying to throw the dogs off. We was raised properly and dont shoot or hunt on the tracks but when them hounds go across it, we walk straight on across and keep on hunting as we own the property on both sides. I live in Louisiana, my first cousin is a game warden and one of my running buddies also is a game warden. They participate in this crossing of the tracks also and have never mentioned the fact that both myself and them are trespassing.The nearest crossing where a car could drive across is 1 mile to the north of my place so it wouldnt make much sense to go walk back to the truck and drive around a mile on the road and cross just to get a dog or cut off the rabbit. Besides, I own both sides of the tracks. Im only asking because I am dumbfounded that a person would not be allowed to walk across a track that runs straight through the middle of your own property. In real estate purchases, it would be assinine to purchase a large track of land with railroad tracks through it as each side would be inaccessible to the other and it would do a man no good to own both sides. No one bothers us about this so I aint complaining, our agents down here are local fellow, born and raised here, I think they realize that in a small town if you write tickets to neighbors just for the sake of meeting a quota, you better not ever need a favor from anyone in your entire life cause folk's remember a good screw job. Who can say they they can live their whole lives and never need a favor? Our guys down here do there job well, but I think they realize the true intent of the law and what it was meant to be. Im happy with all of them and grateful to have some agent with common sense.

[chapkosbeagles]

Law states u cant walk down or along the tracks more than 10 feet if u do than ur truspassing

So if u walk stright accross u can beat the ticket if there was one but if u walk down or along the tracks u can be ticketed

What gets me is who gave the co the right to run railway property

This is the way it is up here but yes the wrong cop could give u problums

[smokedawg]

Also, several times over the past 35 years the railroad has needed to replace a few rather large older wooden bridges with new concrete ones as there are several large sloughs and creeks on my property where the tracks run through. Instead of them having to move all that heavy equipment up the tracks, they just stop by and ask if they can drive it in across my property and set up their equipment right next to the railroad. Kind of make a temporary jobsite on our property right next to the bridge that needs to be replaced. We always give them permission and help them in any way we can. I believe it is good to stay on good terms with your neighbors. So I hardly think anyone from the railroad would call and complain about us tresspassing by walking across the tracks from one piece of our property to the other. Again, I havent ever heard of this so I dont anticipate a problem, especially since I have witnessed the agents themselves that I hunt with walk right across. We hunt legally and dont ever break any hunting laws. Everything we do is by the book. It would suck to know that everytime we cross them tracks to hunt our entire property that we are in violation of a law. Most all of the LDWF agents that I know hunt as much or more than me and most do some type of hunting with dogs, be it coon, hog, deer, squirrel, coyotes or rabbits. It is nice to know that these guys have been in the field hunting and have common sense when applying a law to a hunting situation. I am very lucky to live where I do.

[warddog]

Smokedog, I have the very same situation as you have as I own several acres that used to be the HQ for one of the biggest mines around here at one time. There are railroad spurs through the property on two sides. These spurs were deedeed over with the property many, many years ago so they are actually owned by me BUT the railroad has 8 acres between my property and a neighbors property that they still own. It took me several trips to the court house and calls to actually talk to someone at the RR to see about buying these 8 acres that are actually swamp as did the adjoining neighbor. We were both told that they did NOT want to sell it and that they did not allow trespassing upon it either. Now, for what reason they maintain that 8 acres I have no idea as there is no RR tracks there anyway but they do and we stay off of it.
I have no idea as to the laws in your state but I would suspect that if there are tracks and the RR still uses them then they still own title and it could create a problem. In my conversation with the RR company I contacted they stated they NEVER gave permission on their RR properties due to liability issues. I would also suspect that if there are or have been no problems with that stretch of RR then the RR company would have no reason to advise the DNR that they didn't allow trespassing upon those tracks. I also knew of a piece of property that a guy owned that went to church with my grandparents that bordered a RR. We always wanted to deer hunt it but he said no as he and his family hunted it. He had told my grandparents that he had so many problems with it when people entered it from the RR side he went to the Conservation office to talk about trespassing on it. They advised him that the RR had signed a document that they absolutely allowed no trespassing upon the RR property and that they would press charges on everyone trespassing onto the property and that it would be easier for them to monitor if he did the same thing. With that the CO would arrest anyone on that entire section be it the RR or his property without written permission. They said that made it easier on them as they knew when they arrested someone for trespass they would have a land owner backing up the charges. He said anytime they had a case that was about to be contested they would notify him that he may have to appear in court but he said he never had to appear a single time.
As for the tracks crossing a roadway the issue is of them crossing a PUBLIC road and the RR would be under the jurisdiction of the state as the RR would be the imposter because the state would own the roadway not the RR. The issue is who holds title to the property and this should be duly noted in the abstract just as the mineral rights are as well as any easements. I would suspect that the RR has an easement across the public road but the state actually owns the property and is public not private domain. I didn't see your last post and now that you have explained the situation in a little more detail I would suspect that you would have no problem with the RR as you have a relationship with them as they coinhabit your property. Now, should they incur damage from vandalism of their tracks and or bridges then I would suspect that they may even come to you for help in patroling their property. I heard on the news the other day where the law had caught thieves cutting up and stealing old RR tracks and selling them for scrap metal.

[smokedawg]

The local agent have written several tickets to folks over the years for deer hunting the tracks. Believe it or not, some folks will walk up them tracks during high water when all of the river swamp is flooded and hunt deer on them. The tracks is higher than the rest of the ground around her so the deer will congregate on them during a big flood. The tracks that run by my land are still very actively used by the railroad as they run from new orleans all the way to chicago. Where they run through my property they are double wide with a third railway off to the side. Probably 6 to 7 trains run by here every day. Have had a few hounds over the years get killed on them tracks while running and they cant seem to pay attention to the train and the rabbit at the same time. Now we are very careful around them and only let them run near them if we are with the hounds. When I was a kid, we let them hounds run loose a lot and we would lose 1 every couple years or so. We dont do that anymore. To this day when we got a big swamper running and I hear the train whistle blow at the crossing above us, I still get nervous.