TOPIC: Some more roots from Eastern KY

Well Frank,
I agree with you 100%. I am always armed when I'm in the woods and with the bears up on the big mountain, i don't risk it. He was on foot, no vehicle around. Said he had been hunting since 830 that morning. Which only irritated me even more. I know he saw my pistol on my hip and he may have been carrying concealed, I don't know. I'm not sure that a officer could've gotten to where we were in any short amount of time considering he was walking and I was a mile or so from my truck at that time. Anyway, I plan to go tomorrow because I have a doc appt after lunch and if he's walking, that will just give him enough time to get settled in on digging and I'll just patrol the road until I find him. There's only two places that you can scale the limestone bluff, so he's gotta be at one of them. I hope for his sake that I don't run into him again.

I tend to agree with Frank on this. I used to not care when i used to ginseg for money alone,but now i'm 40 lol. It hurts to say that but I respect P.O Sted land now and so should others. I plant every seed and sometimes roots where ther is no seng. I want my grandchildren to be able to enjoy what means so very much to me. Hope u dig a pound 2mro, I know i'm going to try to myself!!!

I've came across 2 types of poachers in the past on my family's land back in eastern TN, little over 1500 acres of small mountains. Most of the time the moment you catch them on your land they take off running to get out of there and avoid you. Then there are those that think they are doing no wrong and they have every right to be there.

I came across 2 guys on my grandfathers land (where he taught me how to hunt for seng) while digging one day, told them it was private property and they had no right to be there. They informed me that they had gotten permission from someone I had never heard of that they said owned all the land around there. I quickly informed them of the actual owner and told them to either leave or we could go see my grandfather together and they could ask him thierselves. Keep in mind, at this time I was only 23 and both these men were around 40 and double my size. They still thought they were in the right and one decided to pull out his bowie knife and started digging dirt out from under his nails while stating that they had a right to be there and was not leaving and there was nothing I was going to do about it. A little scared/intimidated and outnumbered, not to mention about 2 miles into the woods and at least 30 minutes from any type of law enforcement, I pulled out my 45 and pointed right at his head. I wish I could have gotten a picture of they guys face, his buddy took off so quick he fell about 10 times trying to get off the mountain. I ended up following them out and calling the cops and my grandpa.

Sadly enough, gramps pressed charges, think they got $500 fine each and some community service each. It wasn't maybe a month later my grandpa and one of my uncles caught the same 2 guys deer hunting out of one of our tree stands. To my understanding I reckon my gramps pulled them out of the stand an gave them a whooping of a lifetime, or so the story goes, to this day ain't seen them back there again.

Long story short, I think to properly keep a caught poacher from coming back you need to put the fear of God into them or they will just come back the next day.