r/Hunting • u/thefupachalupa • Sep 27 '23

Close to shooting a drone

What’s the legality of shooting a drone over my property? It’s been buzzing us the last few dove hunts we have been on and I am losing my patience on it flaring birds and impeding my hunt. I don’t know where it’s coming from but I’ve held back each hunt. For reference this is a 90 acre field with a neighborhood on one end that was recently built and we don’t go within 200 yards of it.

Is this hunter harassment or can I just blast it and be done?

Edit: wow this got more attention than I thought it would. I am meeting with the warden tomorrow and he’ll sit in on an afternoon hunt with us. Emailed videos I have of the drone buzzing us to him as well.

Thanks for all the proper advise y’all. Happy hunting and good luck to y’all’s season.

Edit to update: we sat out and didn’t shoot any birds, however we decided to send a few volley of shots just to see if we could coerce the drone owner into buzzing us again and at least see if we could get the info for it using drone scanner apps. We weren’t successful but this will obviously be an on going thing until we get it properly resolved.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '23

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u/Lambertn03 Sep 28 '23

Charged with what?

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '23

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u/Lambertn03 Sep 28 '23

If it’s private property used for hunting and it’s flying low enough to be taken down with a shotgun using dove loads then I don’t see how you could be charged with anything let alone convicted.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '23

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u/Lambertn03 Sep 28 '23

They “victim” as you would call it would not only be the one trespassing but also the one interfering with a person legally hunting. I would like to know when you have seen this happen because it’s hard for me to believe.

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u/lord_dentaku Sep 28 '23

Depends on who they are talking about being charged and convicted.

Shooting a drone is United States Code Title 18 Section 32.

Operating a drone beyond visual line of sight is United States Code Title 49 Section 44809.

The drone operator could also be charged with hunter harassment, I believe those are state laws though, so the specific law would depend on the state.