More drama from the peta ranch....

Last night, sleeping with my window open (right above my head) I hear gravel crunching on the main road about 500yds away.  I glance at the clock and realize it's 11pm or so. I sit up, look out and can see the headlights heading up past the driveway to the houses towards the neighbors place, no big deal.......untill I see the spotlight roaming the hillside.  

Goddamnit.

Now keep in mind...yanker can vouch for this, in order to get to my driveway, you have to go thru an electronic gate and drive another 3/4 of a mile up the canyon untill it opens up. If you didn't know where the gate button was, you'd think it was just more pasture land.  You cannot see any lights from any homes/barns/shops or anything from the main road before the ranch road.

So, I go stand on the porch, see the rig go up to the neighbors and black out, ok I think, off to bed.

20 minutes later, I hear another vehicle, this time, I see it turn up the driveway towards my place and think, here we go.  Nobody should be up here at all.  landlord is still in mexico, nobody I know was coming up to visit me, let alone at 11:30.  So, now I'm standing on the porch, with my romeos on,boxers and a t-shirt with my M4 in my hand. Did I mention the mag I grabbed just happened to be stoked with tracers?
The car stops by the barn down the driveway, sits there and idles for about 2 minutes, turns around and leaves.  I guess I could have peered thru the acog and tried to get the license plate.....but that whole "don't point at it unless you are prepared to kill it" was in the back of my head. I stopped by the barn/shop this am and didnt see any evidence of anyone screwing with anything.

So, the car drives off. I'm standing on the porch, wondering what the f*%k I was doin, in my boxers at midnight with my M4 in my hand and I see another spotlight coming up the road.  Goddamnit again, but I just stood there, watched them drive up the main ranch road, they stopped and lit up a few deer in one pasture under the apple tree, but no shots.  They drove up the road, turned around and went back down the road, never saw them again.

Now, what would you have done?  Driven down and confronted them?
The property is clearly marked, no trespassing, no hunting.
I did a search for any police reports from the DCS, nothing in the area for last night.
I cannot put a lock on the main gate as there are two other ranches further up the road.

Can't do mines,flares or any other stuff like that as I'd likely burn the whole county down...

So, it stands to you, the question that is, what would you have done

Quoted: I probably would have driven down there. But, you should put a lock on the gate.  Give everybody who needs access a copy of the key.  Such a simple solution.  Might cost you a few bucks to make as many copies of the key as you need, but no big deal.

Again, I can't lock it, having to give keys to the landowners above would be a PIA let alone the County fire dept, DFPA and CSD.  Like I said, there are a few other residences above the place as well.

I'll keep a pair of jeans close at hand tonight and the 1911 and surefire.  Sure as hell hope it doesnt come to that. I could really use a full 6 hours of sleep sometime or another

Quoted: Quoted: any kind of motion triggered floodlights you could get down there, to make them aware that someone else could be around/watching them ? I was just thinking I might also get a cordless spotlight and keep it charged up and near the door also. Shine back.

I'll duct tape it to my 10/22


I guess if I did want to confront them, I could go 1/2 mile down the main road and park my truck in the barn.  Wait for them to go by, pull out and block the road.  There is no other access/exit to the place.  By doing that though, might be a confrontation I really don't want to get into.

It's not a headcount, already checked that.


I'm gonna put up a new sign.

Trespassers will be shot.
Survivors will be shot again.





Hopefully, a good update tmrw

Quoted: I guess it's a little unclear to me about the other ranches. Is this all the same landowner's property? The guy that doesn't allow hunting, etc? Are the other ranches further up different land owners? Even if the same landowner could these folks have been guests of the other tenants?

There is one private road.

There are 3 residences and 3 seperate ranches off of that road.

For the main gate off of the pavement, there is an electronic gate.

The Ranch I happen to live on, is the first one. So the main road runs the Eastern boundry of the ranch, for approx 1 mile.  Everyone who lives on the road, has to drive thru the property I live on to get there.

Clear as mud?

My guess, one vehicle could have been from one of the other places, the one I saw that went up and parked at the neighbors up the canyon.

The other two, turned around and left eventually.  I really feel, especailly after the spotlighting, that they had zero business being up there.

According to all the land owners on the road, nobody has permission to hunt up there at all. Not that it is season anyways.

Quoted: You done good. Thanks Personally, I like the choice of the M4, vs a handgun.  Does the M4 have a light? Yes,9v Surefire Maybe add some motion activated bright ass lights to the barn area?  Can't do No sense in walking down there an confronting a group of drunk teenagers, if you don't have to.  Stay on the porch, defend you and yours, call the popo if you feel the need. Nope, tonight, I'll have clothes close by, keys in ignition of the truck ready to go. Whomever it is, if I just continue to sit around and let them do it unchecked I am just educating them to do it more.  Guranteed at 1am seeing the lights of my truck heading thier direction at mach 10 ought to get thier attention, let alone me getting out with an AR lit up and a hand held G2 shining in thier eyes AR will fill the gap between call and arrival nicely.

Come to think of it, if I do confront, I have the upper hand all the way around.

If they run, I'm all too familiar with the roads.

The electronic gate opener at the end of the road, it takes at least 20 seconds to open wide enough to get a small pickup thru, damn near 30seconds for my full size ford. I have a remote to that gate, of which, I can push the button and override the button they have pushed.  If it comes to it, I can pin them by the county road untill the CSD shows up, if they do.

Quoted: Or, you might want to ask yourself, do you need all this trouble if the worst that they do is shine a light on your deer? A new no trespassing/hunting sign might be all the hint thats required...

There is no need to post any new signs, it is already clearly posted.

With tens of thousands of dollars in equipment, over 50K in livestock and such being all too accessible, yes, a confrontation will be warrented if they repeat last night.

Bottom line, it is behind a closed gate clearly posted.  I let it go once, it will not happen again.

Quoted: why not just let loose all of those rabid racoons you have been hoarding?  Strap some lasers on their heads and you will be set.  Perhaps a long range racoon-o-polt would be in order.  Send in the 102nd racoon airborne battalion!!!!

They would be zombie coons, dead already, but I like your creativity


Like I said, if it happens again, I'll confront.  If I am outnumbered, out armed and they do come equipped with NV, so be it.  If you read about a body found in the ditch, it will be me, but gurangoddamteed there will be a pile of brass there and an empty mag or two

Guess I ought to put my Wasatch with my plates in it next to my boots?  Wouldnt that be a sight....shorts, cowboy boots, t shirt, carrier and armed to the teeth?  oh, I'll make sure to put on my Larue hat to keep the wesside happy too

Yeah...............


so......after the and pretty much passin out as soon as my boots hit the front porch, all is well

Quoted: Quoted: He has a right to protect his property and that of the landowner. A confrontation is very appropriate to the situation especially when police response out there is at least double digits in minutes. Sure they may be armed but he has the upper hand knowing the lay out of the land aand he knows how to handle the weapon. Most likely since they are spot lighting they are not good enough shots to do it the legal way so they have to paralyze the animal with light. This wimpy don't ever confront type of attitude is exactly why are conutry is the way it is. If more people stood up for themselves we migh tbe better off around here. No trespassing means NO TRESSAPASSING, not "if you tresspass, I will be non-confrontational about it and hope you leave without any incident." Go get'em peta and give me a holler if ya need back up....just have some pants on first. Not saying that he shouldn't. All I am saying is that these are criminals (poaching/illegal hunting/trespassing is a crime). They are almost certainly armed. If you are going to get (by choice) into a situation where you might need to use force, then make certain that you have enough of it. A bit like not taking a knife to a gunfight. I just NEVER want to read something like: Early this morning, the bullet-riddled body of a rancher was found by his family. He had gone to investigate strange lights out on their property in the early hours of the morning. Police said that although he was armed with a fully automatic baby-killing assault rifle and evil high capacity murdering clips, these were apparently of no avail. The weapon was found firmly embeded in his rectum.

You havn't seen me shoot n scoot As long as Noaim is not making my weapons ready to fire, I'm just fine

Dont doubt my abilities, I'm not tooting my own horn, but when it needs to get done, I could and would do it, w/o hesitating.  I do have a right to protect myself, my landowners property and her rights (as an agent of the landowner) and I do have the upper hand, period.