The good old boys locally declared a competitive coy wolf hunt running from last Thursday to today. It's not the first year they have done so, and historically they have threatened landowners, discarded carcasses in parking lots, and shot whatever the hell other animals they felt like. This year there was quite a bit of local opposition.
I was futzing around in the yard and started to hear dogs across the creek today, so I strapped on the S&W and walked out into the road, and saw a pickup truck parked a ways up the road, so I wandered up to the truck and asked the driver, a big hulking fellow, if he owned the dogs. He said yeah, if you don't like it, call a warden (my land is clearly posted, but not so registered with the town).
I told him to get his fucking dogs off my land, and that I was going after them, and proceeded to do so. I eventually caught up to a beagle and a yellow lab running around in the woods being dogs, and followed them until they left my property. As I left the woods across the creek and further up the road, two pickup trucks were stopped, including the one I originally encountered, with the drivers in the road having a conversation. I just walked on by.
As I approached the house, a game warden drove up, stopped, got out of his truck, and asked what was up. Noting that I was armed, he requested that I keep my hands visible and if the weapon was loaded, so I said yeah, with a round in the chamber. He asked what had happened and as I was recounting the incident, game warden number two drove up and joined us.
Both of the officers were in their twenties, I would guess, all uniformed up and wearing bulletproof vests. They were professional and cordial. They asked if I had shot at the dogs, and I said no, I like dogs as much as I do coy wolves. The discussion got sort of detailed and tedious, how the land was posted, what the human interaction was, where the land was. I eventually said hey, do you mind if I put my hands in my pockets? One of the wardens responded, do you mind if I take the pistol for a while? I said fine, he put the pistol in his truck.
The conversation carried on for fifteen minutes or so. They requested identification, which I gave them. I'm sure they ran the numbers on the pistol. Eventually, they handed everything back to me with the pistol unloaded and racked back (I have noted that any LEO will do that).
Net result was that the good old boys collected their dogs and were told by the wardens not to be on my land in the future without my explicit permission.
I wandered back to the house, loaded the pistol again, and told H what had occurred. In about ten minutes, there was a knock on the door. It was one of the good old boys, a neighbor and the adult son of local farmer who died recently. He was quite apologetic, and I apologized for being abrupt. We than spent twenty minutes discussing families, who hunts how, and mutually agreed that different world views exist. I'm really glad he showed up, because I like and respect his family.
The net experience was positive, although I do not enjoy wandering around armed and hyperaware. I suspect that the boys will not decide to repeat the experiment.
I was futzing around in the yard and started to hear dogs across the creek today, so I strapped on the S&W and walked out into the road, and saw a pickup truck parked a ways up the road, so I wandered up to the truck and asked the driver, a big hulking fellow, if he owned the dogs. He said yeah, if you don't like it, call a warden (my land is clearly posted, but not so registered with the town).
I told him to get his fucking dogs off my land, and that I was going after them, and proceeded to do so. I eventually caught up to a beagle and a yellow lab running around in the woods being dogs, and followed them until they left my property. As I left the woods across the creek and further up the road, two pickup trucks were stopped, including the one I originally encountered, with the drivers in the road having a conversation. I just walked on by.
As I approached the house, a game warden drove up, stopped, got out of his truck, and asked what was up. Noting that I was armed, he requested that I keep my hands visible and if the weapon was loaded, so I said yeah, with a round in the chamber. He asked what had happened and as I was recounting the incident, game warden number two drove up and joined us.
Both of the officers were in their twenties, I would guess, all uniformed up and wearing bulletproof vests. They were professional and cordial. They asked if I had shot at the dogs, and I said no, I like dogs as much as I do coy wolves. The discussion got sort of detailed and tedious, how the land was posted, what the human interaction was, where the land was. I eventually said hey, do you mind if I put my hands in my pockets? One of the wardens responded, do you mind if I take the pistol for a while? I said fine, he put the pistol in his truck.
The conversation carried on for fifteen minutes or so. They requested identification, which I gave them. I'm sure they ran the numbers on the pistol. Eventually, they handed everything back to me with the pistol unloaded and racked back (I have noted that any LEO will do that).
Net result was that the good old boys collected their dogs and were told by the wardens not to be on my land in the future without my explicit permission.
I wandered back to the house, loaded the pistol again, and told H what had occurred. In about ten minutes, there was a knock on the door. It was one of the good old boys, a neighbor and the adult son of local farmer who died recently. He was quite apologetic, and I apologized for being abrupt. We than spent twenty minutes discussing families, who hunts how, and mutually agreed that different world views exist. I'm really glad he showed up, because I like and respect his family.
The net experience was positive, although I do not enjoy wandering around armed and hyperaware. I suspect that the boys will not decide to repeat the experiment.
