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For the past couple of years, my FIL has had his fill of someone coming on his property and vandalizing his feeders. At first, they were messing with the timers on the feeder. Changing the times, pulling a wire loose, etc. Then they were taking down the "no trespassing" signs. Lately, it has ratcheted up to dumping over whole feeders, breaking the legs/mounting points, and even taking the entire feeder recently (the barrel, leaving the legs), one that we had just put a new thrower on and rebuilt. It's not a large area, 100 acres, rectangular.
Not sure if it's happening at night or during the day, but we're fairly certain who it is and where they are coming from/how they are accessing the ranch. There is a smaller property diagonally opposite ours, and you can see his blind and feeder from that general vicinity, his blind is on his property line, and you can see his feeder between his blind and the edge of his property. There is a bit of a path of worn down grasses where he might be jumping the fences and entering our land. According to the my mother inlaw, when the most recent feeder was broken/stolen, she found a brown pair of cheap cotton gloves by the corner of the fence; not sure if they fell out of this bumbling thieve's pocket, or were left intentionally (probably the least likely scenario, only someone trying to put the focus on the neighbor with the easiest access to our property would leave a calling card/marker like that; this is petty stuff). Whoever is doing this is walking on to the property whenever my FIL is not there, because he locks his gate. The neighbors would notice a car parked in front of the entrance or anywhere along the road and treat it as suspicious.
The last time I was there (wife/kids & I go maybe 4 or 5 times a year, my FIL goes 3 weekends a month), things had escalated (turned over feeders, broken legs off, etc) and I suggested to my FIL that they get the Sherriff involved and get this stuff documented. A deputy came out and looked around. Then it occurred to me (too late?) that a game warden (state police) might be a better approach, since these acts would fall under the harrassment of a hunter/sportsman. The game warden offered to come out and install a game camera that would alert him real time, sending whatever pics it took to his cell, but then he came back and said that since we had called the Sherriff in first, it was his case.
The prevailing theory is that because we have feeders, we are pulling the deer off his feeder. We aren't shooting deer, have no operating blinds, my FIL just likes having the wildlife; his two donkeys love the corn though, so it's also a treat for them. The donkeys are the only livestock on the property.
Who has experience with game cameras and the best one for this application, or any other camera? This is a very remote area, in a small town between San Antonio & Corpus Christi.
All suggestions appreciated
TLDR: someone is vandalizing the ranchita, need to catch them.
Not sure if it's happening at night or during the day, but we're fairly certain who it is and where they are coming from/how they are accessing the ranch. There is a smaller property diagonally opposite ours, and you can see his blind and feeder from that general vicinity, his blind is on his property line, and you can see his feeder between his blind and the edge of his property. There is a bit of a path of worn down grasses where he might be jumping the fences and entering our land. According to the my mother inlaw, when the most recent feeder was broken/stolen, she found a brown pair of cheap cotton gloves by the corner of the fence; not sure if they fell out of this bumbling thieve's pocket, or were left intentionally (probably the least likely scenario, only someone trying to put the focus on the neighbor with the easiest access to our property would leave a calling card/marker like that; this is petty stuff). Whoever is doing this is walking on to the property whenever my FIL is not there, because he locks his gate. The neighbors would notice a car parked in front of the entrance or anywhere along the road and treat it as suspicious.
The last time I was there (wife/kids & I go maybe 4 or 5 times a year, my FIL goes 3 weekends a month), things had escalated (turned over feeders, broken legs off, etc) and I suggested to my FIL that they get the Sherriff involved and get this stuff documented. A deputy came out and looked around. Then it occurred to me (too late?) that a game warden (state police) might be a better approach, since these acts would fall under the harrassment of a hunter/sportsman. The game warden offered to come out and install a game camera that would alert him real time, sending whatever pics it took to his cell, but then he came back and said that since we had called the Sherriff in first, it was his case.
The prevailing theory is that because we have feeders, we are pulling the deer off his feeder. We aren't shooting deer, have no operating blinds, my FIL just likes having the wildlife; his two donkeys love the corn though, so it's also a treat for them. The donkeys are the only livestock on the property.
Who has experience with game cameras and the best one for this application, or any other camera? This is a very remote area, in a small town between San Antonio & Corpus Christi.
All suggestions appreciated
TLDR: someone is vandalizing the ranchita, need to catch them.
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