On my farm in Missouri, the only time the county maintained the five miles of travel road was, just prior to hunting season, to assist the poachers from town. I once had a feller ask to hunt no my land. When I informed him that with only 80 acres, I would be harvesting my own deer on my own land. He replied that he had at least asked and that he had hunted my land for years prior to my purchase. I suppose that he believed he had a stronger claim to the game. I told him that if he had wanted it he should have bought the land for the $500.00 acre that I had paid, but "No, you asked and that means you need to abide by the answer." He then threatened to burn down my house. And then the right was on. My wife called the sheriff , sheriff took the would be hunter's information and warned him to steer clear of my property.
The nerve of some people who wish to put their money into city houses, trucks and guns, but thieve from the rural resident who lives with the inconvenience of remote living is astounding at times.
Later in Arkansas I was forced to declare my family farm as a hunting preserve with $1,000.00 annual membership. The sheriff would scarcely enforce trespassing on posted land, and posted land is no hunting even for the land owner, but he had little choice but to enforce a felony theft of services charge. Anyone caught on the property with a gun (by game camera or in pearson) is guilty of hunting. I let the first.couple negotiate a lessor charge, but the uproar in the community was enough to inform all of the new status of my 235 acres there. No trespassers these days.
I now live in Alaska where private ownership is rare, most hunting is done at great expense on remote State and Federal land. My brother maintains my parcel in Arkansas and keeps the game preserve status 'll to date.
