What can be done with poachers on game cams??

Systematically collect as much evidence as possible, look for signs of vehicles, set up more camera's, establish a working relationship with local fish & game and include local LE, look for any evidence of deer kills such as drag marks, blood, or gut piles (not likely) that would led to parking sites for subsequent camera observation (vehicle description * tags). Any property damage? - cut fences, timber theft (may include small stuff like tree limbs & plants). Any other items such as reflector spots on trees used for night navigation or trash/junk discarded. Tune in trusted neighbors to be on lookout.

During some investigation, decades ago on a military reservation, where high value stuff was looted from a sunken vessel, I found some items with the assistance of some nice bar ladies that I trusted and the info led to the conviction or military personnel who worked with crafty locals to rip off items. Upon pressure and reward, a conviction was obtained.

DNA evidence from deer meat has been used. All this would depend on the urgency that local fish & game and LE places on this situation.

Wow. You are in a tough situation. I actually passed on an opportunity to buy some hunting land in central West Virginia about 20 years ago due to the fact that the seller was having similar problems with neighbors. Some of those rural areas are basically still run by folks being their OWN law enforcement.
I did end up buying rural land in Pennsylvania that was about 90 minutes away from my then home and ran into similar problems there. Even with trail cams and trying to catch perpetrators, one always has to worry about long term retribution if and when trespassers are caught. We even had underhanded things (threats) made essentially saying that if something ever happened to our cabin or if our woods caught on fire that it would just be a shame with no one around to catch it early enough to avoid a total loss..........
Not a real good feeling when you jump in vehicle and head back home for a week or so.....

Yes give it the game warden, a picture is great evidence. If that don't work kindly beat the poachers $&?!!. That will stop it

Backhoes are not that expensive to rent for an afternoon.
Shep

I moved west 14 years ago and sold my place back there. Public land hunting has it's own challenges but at least I'm not paying for something for everyone else to use while I'm not there.......

CGWVU said:

Hi all,

So if you followed any of my recent posts, you know that we're trying to start buck management on our property of 600 acres in central WV. Well one of the main issues is that we have poachers moving onto our property and killing bucks while we aren't there (property is around 1.5 hrs from where I reside). Well over the past few nights we have pictures of some guy at 3:55 am on our property with a rifle and a night vision scope. We know exactly who it is, confronted him, and he claims he was "hunting coyotes". My question is: is there anything that can be done? Is a picture from a game cam enough to give to a game warden?
Thanks!

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Absolutely

Funny thing is that an old neighbor of mine back there was turned in by SOMEONE awhile ago for feeding game in a CWD area while he was not aware that law had been passed yet. Game wardens came into property and knew EXACTLY where minerals were and feed was placed and said they had been "tipped off"...
Entire property is Posted so people offering up
"Tips" had obviously trespassed when they found the feed and minerals......HMMM......doesn't seem quite right......someone breaking the law to report someone breaking the law

gerrybaker1960 said:

The question was... "is a game cam picture enough to be incriminating to a game warden?"

And the answer is: How would we know since we are NOT WVA Wardens or LEOs ?

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Some LE officers are members of this forum. I'm retired LE and yes a picture will absolutely be beneficial in this process especially if you know the trespasser/poacher. Just the confrontation from a conservation officer together with the picture of him trespassing should be more than enough to keep that violator from returning. Especially when the word criminal trespass with a firearm is thrown around. I've never encountered a return from a violator after a confrontation with sound evidence. Most are fairly sensible and a warning from the law fixes the problem. I'd say contact a C/O and meet with him with your evidence. I'm certain you will be satisfied with his position on the issue.

gerrybaker1960 said:

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I have to tell you, that's how I felt many times

I had the same issue with bear hunters running there dogs on my lease. It's around 600 acres and hard to monitor. Game cams showed dogs but no hunters. After making contact with the dogs owners, they were cocky and noted their dogs can't read no trespass signs. Not what I wanted to hear I gave them a warning to keep the dogs off the property. I contacted the local conservation officer and he said if they returned, he'd stop it from occuring again. Professional courtesy helps in LE so he confronted the dog owners and hurt there feelings with rhetoric of tickets and losing hunting licences and confiscating their dogs, guns, etc. They kindly apologized to the C/O and they never returned. Them guys get paid for what your dealing with. Let them fix your problem

What I experienced with more than one individual was that we met and I was absolutely cordial and even gave some limited permission to hunt, such as turkey hunting and it was just NEVER ENOUGH. They would still sneak in when they thought no one was around and never followed any ground rules that they had originally agreed upon. Mostly guys who lived close and owned an acre or two and just felt that since they and their family lived there eons that they had a RIGHT to be there. SO GLAD I no longer have to deal with that BS

gerrybaker1960 said:

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Just the box minus the spikes would wreck his day. Only problem with it is the trespasser would more than likely sue the land owner.

Well, yeah