Thanks for giving us something to muse on Dan.

Never thought about it and now that I have, I'd say its a great thing to bring up BEFORE the season with the other members. In my case, I'd let them know there is no such thing as "dibs" on a deer -- as long as I am seeing it from MY stand. If I asked permission to hunt someone else's stand, I'd do them the courtesy of asking if they have a buck that they had been seeing and hadn't gotten yet and were really excited about. In that situation, I'd pass on the deer.

You're right. $20,000 would have only covered one side plus a little.

Not really. You can buy 130" yearling bucks for a lot less than $20,000. Well, you could before this most recent CWD witch hunt.

Last year, the best buck taken on the ranch we hunt was by a guest of the ranch hand who hunts for free. The landowner gives him tags to hunt on another part of the ranch (we only lease 1000 acres of a 4000 acre ranch). Did it kind of perturb me, sure, but that's the luck of the draw. We see deer every year that we have no pictures of on camera. No one can claim a deer on a place. I'd be way more upset if someone shot a deer that we all agreed needed to grow another year or two. My advice is to communicate and don't be surprised. If everyone's understanding is the same, then there are no ethics questions.

My 2 pennies.

Keith

This is not an ethical question. Does this guy pay more than you to hunt? Does this guy put in more work than you at the lease? Not only would I take it if it met my killing criteria, I would pick up the phone right now and call him and tell him I am shooting it if it shows up a my feeder. It's not his deer, it's not your deer, etc... And, if it's a trophy that fits my kill criteria, I wouldn't give it one seconds thought about saving him for somebodies kid, maybe would let my kid shoot him in my stead, but kids got a lot more years of hunting left in them than I do plus I am paying for it. Again, solve your ethical guilt right now and pick up the phone and let him know your intentions.

Yes I would shoot it if I liked it. As my good friend stated "free ranging deer are not owned by anybody".

As I get older, I begin to see that many, many problems can be fully eliminated by everyone (including myself) just keeping their mouths shut. Especially about what you see or harvest hunting. Certainly this issue wouldn't be an issue, and I think a certain dentist would have a much less stressful life.

I would never deer hunt with a he/she.

Click...boom.

Just depends on the group of folks you ar hunting with... if you been watching deer for years without killen em thats one thing... you hunting somewhere thats a free fer all one person can't really lay claim.

Sage Advice.

Last season, a guy on our lease claimed a nice 10 that we had been watching for a few years. We are mostly meat hunters, and didn't really care one way or the other, so we passed on him.

He never showed up after the second weekend of the season, I am 99% sure the neighbors got him.

Yep. Nobody "owns" a deer that isn't wearing a tag and hanging from a game pole. As long as it is up and walking it is fair game for whoever decides to pull the trigger on it.

I wouldn't have a problem taking him and neither would anyone on our lease. We all share pictures and videos. If it was frequenting another stand and a kid was the primary hunter at that location, I would more than likely let it pass, but simply because I have a soft spot for kids hunting. I don't see it as an ethics issue either way. If I shot the deer, I would spend the rest of the year trying to find a good buck for the other hunter.

I had a guy go to my stand and shoot the deer that I was hunting. I wasn't terribly happy about it because I had been watching the deer for months, but I was still happy that hunter got a deer he was proud of.

And it worked out in the end...I shot a similar buck out of his stand a month later that scored 10" bigger

I would probably take the deer. Exception would possibly be saving the deer for a family member or a child if the circumstance was right. While the deer are open for all on the lease to take, it would irk me somewhat for a hunter who had not contributed to the to the lease to take one I had been watching.

Similar situation happened to me on a lease last year and I'm only 20. I watched an absolute beast (for my area, 21 inch spread and TALL) from late July well into November on my camera. Never could catch him, never actually did see him but I hunted him hard. I was actually sitting in my stand when the fella I share the lease with shot him. My heart fell to my stomach as soon as I heard the shots. I knew he nailed him. I even helped the guy drag him out of the woods and listened to him say it wasn't a very big deer. I silently disagreed!!! Wish his son could have taken him or even myself but that's the risk you run with hunting in general. I say unless the kid has him spotted and is genuinely hunting him, take him.

Guess I am different. We have community blinds. Nobody claims a deer. But if a member of our lease shares pictures with me of a good buck I would not feel right killing that deer even though I could. I believe each persons day will come if they are patient. I get as excited seeing a friend kill a big deer as I do killing it myself

Word. That's the best way to run a lease in my opinion. Makes it easy!

For me and every lease I've ever been on, free chase and open blinds setup is "luck of the draw - plain and simple". The deer have no boundaries to roam and if everyone is doing their part to feed and has provided requisite blind requirements, then I have absolutely no problem with one hunter taking a buck vs. another. I will be the 1st to high five them and would hope they'd do the same to me. If that weren't the case, I'd either bump them off if I was in the position of authority on the lease or bump myself off if I wasn't - "plain and simple". Game cameras have simply given us visibility to see what we couldn't previously see IMO. I don't believe the intent of them was to start "laying exclusive claim" to certain deer that weren't previously seen on film. I realize this may not be everyone's opinion, but it is my honest and humble opinion for what it's worth.

You and I are on the same page. If I know someone has their sights on a particular buck, I'll pass on him if I recognize the deer. I almost always have a video camera, so I'll shoot some footage and share it with the other hunter and try to come up with a plan to get the other guy on the buck. If my plan works, I'll be just as happy, or maybe even happier, than shooting the buck myself.

There's nothing that says your friend will even see that deer again, if you pass the shot. Then neither of you gets it, and the guy or gal down the road sees it for the first time, and boom!

This reminds me of a golf ethics issue....

What Would You Do?

What if you were playing in the club championship tournament finals and the match was halved at the end of 17 holes. You had the honor and hit your ball a modest two hundred fifty yards to the middle of the fairway, leaving a simple six iron to the pin. Your opponent then hits his ball, lofting it deep into the woods to the right of the fairway. Being the golfing gentleman that you are, you help your opponent look for his ball.

Just before the permitted five minute search period ends, your opponent says: "Go ahead and hit your second shot and if I don’t find it in time, I’ll concede the match." You hit your ball, landing it on the green, stopping about ten feet from the pin. About the time your ball comes to rest, you hear your opponent exclaim from deep in the woods: "I found it!". The second sound you hear is a click, the sound of a club striking a ball and the ball comes sailing out of the woods and lands on the green, stopping no more than six inches from the hole. Now here is the ethical dilemma: _
DO YOU PULL THE CHEATER’S BALL OUT OF YOUR POCKET AND CONFRONT HIM WITH IT OR DO
YOU KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT

golf....

No One remembers who was in Second Place

"Ye who Chums the Most Wins"

Let me preface this by saying I hunt on a 5000 acre high fence ranch in the hill country; so unless the deer goes out one of the holes in our fence, I don't have the neighbor could shoot it situation. I was in a similar situation on my lease. One of the old timers had been watching a specific buck for probably 4 years and could never connect with him. I had pictures of him on my camera as well, so this buck tended to roam all over the place. I knew he was looking for that guy and had I saw him and recognized him, I would have passed. However, I also told him that if he happened to walk out when my two kids were trying to get their first buck, all bets were off and they might shoot him. Since it's a family friendly place, he was completely fine with that. We never saw the buck and the kids shot different bucks instead. So if the situation came up now, the three of of would end up passing on the deer.

To me and my specific situation, it's just the neighborly thing to do when someone has invested years on a single deer and is actively passing up other deer in the search for it. Now, if it was someone that was trying to claim every deer that ever walked by their camera, that would be a different story. However, I haven't seen that with the folks on my lease.