Well it's official

[Mgderf]

I was not holding my breath, but I got the news this morning.
I'm now 1/4 owner (along with my two brothers and our uncle) of 50 acres of wooded property in Fountain county.

Uncle closed yesterday afternoon.
Situated along side the old Wabash/Erie canal, there is actually part of the old tow-path still present on our property.
It is surrounded by woods and farm fields and boasts plenty of deer tracks.

I've also been told the place is crawling with wild turkeys.
I've never had the opportunity to turkey hunt. Never had access to land that supported them.
That may have to change.

I'm on cloud nine in seventh heaven!

 

[Lex Concord]

Congrats!

Of course, you know, we'll want pictures.

 

[Leadeye]

Best of luck with it, that's interesting being next to the old canal track.

 

[trailrider]

Oh happy day! Congrats to you!

 

[hopper68]

Congrats!! Be prepared to argue with idiots who will tell you they have permission to hunt.

 

[Restroyer]

Congrats. Get some trail cameras out there and see what you got.

 

[churchmouse]

 

[phylodog]

Congrats! We hunt fountain county a bit east of you and haven't had too many issues with trespassers. I'd strongly suggest touching base with the local CO, he's a really good guy.

 

[Mgderf]

Congrats! We hunt fountain county a bit east of you and haven't had too many issues with trespassers. I'd strongly suggest touching base with the local CO, he's a really good guy.

Would you mind passing along his name or contact info?
You can pm me, if it's available.
I know much of nothing about Fountain county.

How many bonus antlerless did Fountain county qualify for last year?
I think I threw away the guide I had.

 

[phylodog]

I think they dropped the bonus antlerless to 4 last year, we haven't killed a doe on our place in at least six years. Our numbers seem to have gotten a little better over the last couple of years thankfully.

As far as turkey go we definitely have a decent flock but the past several years they seem to vanish when season comes. We don't have large swaths of wooded ground on our place, I think the hens prefer better cover for nesting perhaps.

I'll get you his name and number and PM it to you. We asked to meet him at his convenience at our place, showed him our property lines and welcomed him to stop and question anyone he sees on the ground, he's got permission to set up the robo deer as well. Our biggest issues with trespassers comes during mushroom season, we have yet to find one because we get picked clean before we can get out there. For some reason people believe it isn't trespassing if they're "only looking for mushrooms". We usually have a dozen cameras out from July through January and have only had one stolen.

 

[Leadeye]

Can't count the number of times I've heard "we're just hunting mushrooms". Living next to 2K acres of HNF ground you would think that would be enough land for this element of the public, but it never is.

 

[Jtrain]

Hey welcome to the neighborhood, my grandparents used to own property that the Erie canal ran through

 

[Jtrain]

Hey welcome to the neighborhood, my grandparents used to own property that the Erie canal ran through

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Every man needs a "hideout". Congratulations.

 

[BStarkey 46947]

Congrats, the first year I was part owner of 69 acres we ran off mushroom hunters for the first 3 years we owned it (had 7 cars parked along the road one Saturday afternoon). Invest in a bulk pack of aluminum No Trespassing signs and post, post, and post. We still have issues from time to time.

 

[Mgderf]

It looks like we'll have help.
We have one neighbor who's property abuts ours.
He said when he moved in 10 years ago, it was nothing to see 5-10 cars a day parked along the road on what is now our property.

Neighbor said he worried about people wandering onto his property from ours, so he started posting notes on cars.
Anytime he would find a car parked there he would leave a note stating that this is private property.
The note also read that the license number(s) had been recorded and next time the police would be called.

He said after a couple of months of leaving notes, the trespassing on OUR new property had stopped, as well as the trespassing on his. When he told us this, I asked him if he would continue the practice, and he said he would be happy to oblige.
I don't think he is really happy about having new owners next door who are going to actually use the property, but he really doesn't want toatl strangers on his property, and I'm o.k. with that!

Seems like a decent enough guy, and he doesn't get around very well, so I don't think he will be an issue.
I've already been in contact with the local DNR officer and plan to meet with him later this spring.

 

[Leadeye]

Sounds like a good neighbor to have.

 

[Mgderf]

I got the opportunity to spend the day on my new property.
Drove some property line marking stakes. These are more for us to be able to identify the boundaries of our property.
Posted another half dozen or so no trespassing signs.

Took another couple of strolls through the new digs.
Found a steel two-man tree stand that we'd not seen in the past visits.
The stand does appear to have been there for a while. The ratchet straps were still clean, but the tree bark had grown into the strap and surrounding the teeth on the back of the stand.
I cut the straps and disassembled the stand, then stacked it neatly, under a different tree about 30 yards away.

Some time later I found a trail camera. It looks brand new.
This was smack dab in the MIDDLE of our property.
I removed the camera, then used the strap to attach on of my business cards to the tree in place of the camera.
I wrote on the back of the card,
"Private property. If you want your camera back, call my cell number on the front of this card. We can discuss your trespassing then too."

I brought the camera home and plugged the SD card into my camera.
OH MY!
I have pictures of,
squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, turkey (as many as 3 in the same pic), and deer. I have up to a half dozen deer in the same frame.
There are a few pics of as many as 3 deer bedded down in the camera shot while 2 more are wandering by.

I wore myself out walking around for about 3 hours, up and down the hill, dragging stakes and the fence post driver around.
I did talk to a buddy though, who thinks he may be able to set me up with a Geo Tracker (4-wheel drive) for just a few hundred bucks.
Looks like it would be just about perfect for dragging deer around.

Looking forward to the next trip...

Edit
I finally got to go through the entire SD card.
I also found pictures of fox, opossum, coyote, and even a Canadian goose swimming by when the area was flooded.
We have a veritable cornucopia of fauna!

 

[trailrider]

Enjoy your new trail cam. Lol. I would advise locking your cameras/stands up. Sucks to have to do that on your own property.

 

[Leadeye]

You will experience a period of time while the locals adjust to the new ownership. Most will stay out, but you'll have a few militant ones, it's going to be tougher to keep these out as an absentee land owner. I've been through all of this and now live on my ground. Problems are still there, but at a much lower level than ever.