Question for drone users

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I bet Don H's neighbor could fly a drone over the top of that 8 foot fence and ruin the hunting over there. Just saying.........

Yep it’s a dangerous game. I think they should be relegated to property lines unless above a very high altitude

 

[Native Hunter]

Pretty sure it's illegal to harass wildlife in all states. If someone was was messing up your hunting via movement of game with a drone it wouldn't matter if they were over their land or not. Probably would be pretty easy to report that if it was happening on a consistent basis.

I'm sure that intentionally harassing wildlife would be illegal in all states, but I bet it would not be illegal to simply fly a noisy drone over wildlife habitat. So, someone could do it intentionally for the purpose of harassment, but you could never prove that. They could say, "I was just flying my drone over the woods...." The same thing could be said of flying over a food plot.

The worst issue would be the hunter not even being aware that it had happened. Lots of us own land where we don't live and/or have land that we can't really see well from where we live. Anything can happen from the air, and we could never even be aware of it. I'm all for drones the same way I am all for dogs. I love them, but I want people to keep them on their own land.

 

[Native Hunter]

I just did a search on "voyeurism drones." Seems like things are getting out of hand at a lot of places.

 

[loshonhora]

That looks like a dragonfly in the pic.

 

[hillrunner]

That doesn't look like a drone or a bird to me. I think it's a lot closer to the camera than we realize. I think it's either some sort of bug or a piece of debris kicked up from driving by.

 

[TreeDaddy]

My understanding is that you could be charged with a pretty serious offense for doing so, unfortunately.

Only if they find it

bill

 

[TreeDaddy]

Hmm...I've learned a lot about drone laws just from what has been posted in this thread. I didn't realize they could legally be flown practically anywhere over other people's property. It sounds like someone could wreak havoc on a guy's deer hunting by flying a noisy drone (less than 400 feet high) right over deer bedding areas, etc....

It could happen to any one of us. Someone who knows you have food plots could zoom over them at prime time the day before season (or during season) and ruin everything. You would never have any idea that it happened. I can see where drones could be extremely valuable for things like catscratch mentioned above. I am also aware of many worthy industrial uses, such as finding trouble on a power line, etc.. However, I see the current laws as an opening for invasion of privacy and hunter harassment.

No worries about that here

I have a doe factory

bill

 

[Buckly]

I’m leaning towards a bug that was really close to the camera. if it was as far or further than the trees in the background then, that UFO would be about the same size as the trees and I don’t think you could have missed something that size.

 

[Bill]

It’s a wasp. And it’s closer to the camera then the vehicle. That’s my guess. Can’t find any because I delete them but my house camera gets these quite often.

 

[swat1018]

I fly UAVs day and night for work. I see deer all the time, especially on night flights, and while they will spook at times at low altitude, many times they show no reaction.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

A few years back I was hunting some public land, and someone was low flying a drone over deer bedding area along a creek. Not sure if they were trying to spook deer out, or just locate them to hunt them, or searching for a wounded deer, but shortly after the drone was gone, a group of 4 hunters went there and kicked up a deer and shot it. I watched the entire thing happen. I had called the warden and he basically told me unless he was there to witness it, and make a judgement on if the drone helped them, he couldn’t do anything about it. It was the last time I hunted public land.

 

[Troubles Trees]

Here is the Drone Laws in Kentucky if you are interested Native, it seems that laws vary considerably from State to State.

Drone Laws in Kentucky - [Updated September 21, 2022]

Drones are allowed in Kentucky for recreational and commercial use, subject to FAA and local regulations. Read on for details.

drone-laws.com

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I know the wardens have started using drones to check for violations like bait in turkey season. I think that is brilliant.

 

[Troubles Trees]

Yep it’s a dangerous game. I think they should be relegated to property lines unless above a very high altitude

I know the wardens have started using drones to check for violations like bait in turkey season. I think that is brilliant.

So to be clear, a citizen should be regulated by the government to use drones ONLY on their property, but you feel it's brilliant that the government uses drones to spy on the same private properties?

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

So to be clear, a citizen should be regulated by the government to use drones ONLY on their property, but you feel it's brilliant that the government uses drones to spy on the same private properties?

The way I understood it they worked off a tip, located a bait pile with boots on the ground and then were able to monitor it to see if it’s hunted. I have zero problem with that. Additionally I never said drones shouldn’t be used exclusively on an individual’s property, I said if not over your own property it should be above a certain altitude. Does that not seem reasonable. I don’t want an individual or the government messing with my hunting. If the government wants to come check my property they can knock themselves out cause I have nothing to hide and I appreciate the wardens protecting our game.

 

[Skeeter]

Interesting to see where different people draw the line on privacy.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Interesting to see where different people draw the line on privacy.

Related story:

Are Game Wardens Watching You? – Part 1: The Case of the Hidden Trail Camera

Is it OK for wardens to plant trail cams on private property to spy on you? This Tennessee hunter didn't think so—and a court agreed.

www.fieldandstream.com

 

[H20fwler]

Related story:

Are Game Wardens Watching You? – Part 1: The Case of the Hidden Trail Camera

Is it OK for wardens to plant trail cams on private property to spy on you? This Tennessee hunter didn't think so—and a court agreed.

www.fieldandstream.com

Here in Ohio it is illegal to take horns or head from a road killed buck, but a person can call the law and be issued a permit to take deer.

Last fall/winter there was a nice buck hit along I75 laying up next to a woods…it had two game cameras watching it, one pointing at deer one aimed edge of highway.
Wardens are using tech more and more.

 

[pilotpip]

This is a pretty solid overview. Laws do vary by state, but overall, I could fly my airplane at 500' above ground over 99% of hunting grounds because it's considered "sparsely populated". When I was building flight time to get my career going I did quite a bit of flying for real estate surveyors that would use aerial photography for survey and ads. Drones have pretty much killed that.

Do you own the airspace above your property?

Did you assume you own the airspace above your property as a landowner? Learn about air rights and find out how far above your property you actually own.

www.landsearch.com

 

[Skeeter]

Related story:

Are Game Wardens Watching You? – Part 1: The Case of the Hidden Trail Camera

Is it OK for wardens to plant trail cams on private property to spy on you? This Tennessee hunter didn't think so—and a court agreed.

www.fieldandstream.com

Interesting. Made me do a little reading up on the open fields doctrine. We covered curtilage pretty thoroughly in school but not open fields. Do you know when the next two parts are going to be published?