They met the landowner in a small town, drove out to the unimproved tract, checked it out, saw lots of deer signs, and wrote the guy a check for several thousand dollars to lease the area. They came back a couple of weeks later to clear a bit of brush for a campsite and began placing feeders and stands. They were hard at work when a lime green U.S. Forest Service truck pulled up and informed them they were on national forest property. The con man, who of course had given them a false name, was long gone with their money. Similar scams have been pulled across the state, most often involving tracts with absentee landowners.
Truth is, most day-hunt operations, package hunt outfitters and landowners are honest.
But that fact makes it easy for hunters looking for land access to trust the people with whom they deal. That's not a good idea. These days, blind trust can cost you more than money. Shannon Tompkins covers the outdoors for the Chronicle. His column appears on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.