hunting on your own property

[Pete]

The landowner exemption is only good if you are on YOUR property. If you pursue a deer off your land, you need a license.

In my area the CO will ticket you if you cross the road from your property to your property unless your gun is cased or locked. A buddy uses those little cable padlocks that come with some guns to lock his while he crosses the road.

Make sure the deer is tagged before you leave it to get your truck. The regs say you don't need to tag the deer to drag it out (better have the filled out tag in your pocket) but it needs tagged before you leave it. A guy I work with was ticketed for improperly tagging a deer because he didn't tag it before he got his truck.

 

[singlestacksig]

i don't think a ticket for crossing the road would stick, since it is otherwise legal to walk down a road in Indiana with a fully loaded shotgun on your shoulder..

 

[Aaronhome27]

Let me clear up a couple things here. You dont need a license to hunt your own property. It doesn matter if you have farm ground or a 1/4 acre of pet rocks. There doesnt need to be crops or trees or apples to be harvested. Where the cunfusion is here is where it states you must be a landowner COMMA or lease the land for farming. Also, there is a different set of rules for Depredation permits. You can kill outta regular season WITH one of these issued before hand after the DNR comes and determines you need them.
Remember, the DEER are still property of the state and you must obey all regulations.
AS far as the tag along rule. You can go to film. But you cant assist the pursuit. If you take a walk to go pee and jump up a deer that runs toward the hunter, you now need a license because you just "drove" the deer to the hunter.
Now, when a land owner harvests a deer, like a Lifetime license holder, you just take a piece of paper, write your name, date of kill, county, buck or doe (i think), attach it to the deer and go to check the deer. I just use the back of my business card. You simply state that you are a land owner, they keep your paper and issue a metal transport tag. You can kill as many does as your county allows with this method as well as your buck. Again, all other regs must be obeyed. Good luck to all.

Exactly right, and well stated!! If you own it you can hunt it without a license. If you lease it for farming you can hunt it, with hunting permission from the the land owner, as if you owned it. No acreage restrictions just follow the general hunting guidelines as if you had purchased a hunting license. If you step foot off of your property with a loaded gun either tracking or hunting be prepared to get in some trouble.

 

[infinititech]

pretty sure to not need a tag you need to own 40 acres or more

 

[singlestacksig]

amount of land does not matter if you are a resident. see code above.

 

[Aaronhome27]

i don't think a ticket for crossing the road would stick, since it is otherwise legal to walk down a road in Indiana with a fully loaded shotgun on your shoulder..

I agree to a point, but if your local CO is a pain in the a$$ which some have stated they have in their area then be careful doing so. If they can prove your intent was to hunt or retrieve any type of game then they can and will throw the book at you. Hopefully most of you have excellent CO's in your counties though. The DNR in our county and surrounding counties are excellent and open minded, not to mention very fair.

 

[singlestacksig]

I agree to a point, but if your local CO is a pain in the a$$ which some have stated they have in their area then be careful doing so. If they can prove your intent was to hunt or retrieve any type of game then they can and will throw the book at you. Hopefully most of you have excellent CO's in your counties though. The DNR in our county and surrounding counties are excellent and open minded, not to mention very fair.

The CO might ticket you but if you went to court you would probably be fine..
In some areas the road is a right of way and not seperate property, the owner of each side owns to the middle of the road ..
and if you were crossing from your land to your land , then you have not left your property.

 

[Aaronhome27]

The CO might ticket you but if you went to court you would probably be fine..
In some areas the road is a right of way and not seperate property, the owner of each side owns to the middle of the road ..
and if you were crossing from your land to your land , then you have not left your property.

Completely agree!. The only thing you couldn't do there is shoot across the road in that situation.