Hunting in MA

[Spanz]

Freetown forest is an area large enough you won't see anyone. Other than the occasional mountain biker, dirt bike rider, or guy walking his cat in the woods, you won't see much. No houses for miles, and I stumble on a guy walking his cat on a leash in the middle of the woods near some power lines.

something like this?



or more like this:

 

[Sawicki1991]

Sorry Folks, but that so called 50 foot distance has never been in any MA law. I was an Natural Resource Officer/ Environmental Police Officer from November 1980 until Jan 2010 and it was never in the abstracts or the statutes. Folks used to spout it, but it was never in the law. I believe this one of those laws or regulations that some other state uses somewhere, that folks thought it meant MA as well, you know like the folks that think because MA requires guns to be locked up that all states require that.

The conspicuously posted issue is that it is accepted that if the property is posted at what is called bar ways, gates or other points of common access then it is "Conspicuously posted".

What would define a bar way or other point of common access. How does this apply to property with no gates or roads. From my understanding "conspicuously posted" signs would need to be "easily seen or noticed; readily visible or observable"

 

[Talon3]

I can't find the cite now. At one point I had it printed out and left in my hunting bag. Iv also been told the same thing from 3 or 4 Mass Epo. It stated all signs must have name, address and phone number and be signed and dated and be no more than 50ft apart. I will find the cite when I get home. I think I still have it in my pack.

All you need is name and what activity is not allowed.
There is no set amount of distance ... conspicuously is as good as a guess.. clear as mud.. every 10 feet every 300 feet ... so long as its conspicuously then it meets the test of law.
It may be a good idea to post additional info, it may be a town bylaw, but that is not state law.
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Section 36. A person shall not fish, hunt or trap on private land without permission of the owner or tenant thereof, after such owner or tenant has conspicuously posted thereon notices which bear the name of such owner or tenant and which state that fishing, hunting or trapping on such land, as the case may be, is prohibited.
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Again 131 36 is for State Law on posted property hunting. There may well be town or city bylaws, regluations that also must be followed. However those should be clarified as according to X town X must be done to satisfy a violation of their bylaw.

 

[Sawicki1991]

If you are claiming MA EPO's told you 50 Feet then they need to reread the law, As of 6 years and 8 months ago (when I retired from MA EP0) They were taught differently. Chapter 131 section 36 spells it out. You don't know what a "Bar Way" is? Okay that is like a gate with wooden poles or boards are dropped into brackets. You usually see them in stone walls. Common access would be those places along the road way the fronts the property. Very little land locked property out there.

Iv never heard th term bar way but that makes sense. Like a gate but not a gate.

 

[MisterHappy]

My understanding of "barway" is any road or path that can be closed by putting something across it, to bar access. Such as a pole or board (as cited above), but also a chain, cable or gate. Essentially, it's a way of passively saying, "keep out."

Kind of like:

http://www.nelsap.org/ma/private.html