4 mature bucks in 2 years and still hunting for more on 56 acres? You might be "that" neighbor

UMM
Your feeder is 50 yards from his property line.
You have shot 2 bucks last year and two this year and doe, on 56 acres.

youre dependent on the neighbor for most of your killing. Good luck.

No question, buying small tracts to do just that is quickly becoming the trend.

Right or wrong if that was my 56 acres I would corn every road and open area on it heavy and keep the hunting to a bare min. before that high fence went up. Be very careful that you do not take too many bucks, you and your other neighbors could benefit from this.

So January 2015, my aunt and uncle purchased 56 acres of prime hunting land in Hamilton, Tx. It was to be a family get-away to enjoy time spent together and hunt. The landowner they purchased the land from, still owns 320 acres or so on the southern border of the property. Everything was great last year. My cousin shot his first buck, a small nine point, and I shot my best to date, a 15 point. Relations between us and the former landowner were great.

Fast forward to this year, and my dad and uncle have both killed nice bucks, and my cousin's husband killed a doe. There are several more mature and past mature bucks, as well as a few that need to be culled out. Nobody hunts the 400 acre ranch to the North of us, or the however many acres ranch to The West of us.

Anyways, the second weekend of deer season, the landowner leases out his land (more power to him). He allows one of the hunters to set up a stand on the fence line, against a tree, less than 50 yds from our stand and feeder. The tree blocks said hunter's view of his property. All the hunter is able to see is down the fence line either way for 50 yds or so and our feeder and pond that our stand is on.

We sucked it up, bit our tongues, and went on. Then the hunter starts showing up at his stand after daylight, trims trees, sits for 30 min, then leaves on numerous occasions. He never has hunted in the evening. Around the 3rd week of the season, the LO starts doing work himself on the stand during prime hunting hours, knowing we're at the property and hunting that stand (he can see our ranch house from his house). Fast forward to last week, and he began putting up a high-game fence along the shared border, again, only working during prime hunting hours.

Today, my aunt and uncle stopped him as he was working, and just chatted him up. He brought up everything, and says we have shot too many deer, and that he has talked with all the neighbors, and he is going to high-fence us in. He goes on to name off names of family and friends, whom he has never met, stating that they have shot deer off our property, which is false. They proceeded to ask him where he got his information and why he didn't come talk to them about his "issue". He doesn't give them an answer. Fed up, my uncle offered to just sell the land back to him. He refused. My uncle then stated he would go talk to the other neighbors as well, and again, he said that wasn't necessary.


I'm fed up. My hunting season is done.

Yeh how dare someone over hunt a small piece of land.

Times are changing. My family owns quite a bit of land. We have one place that is 975 ac and to the south of that place a family bought a place that is 234 ac (I know we tried to buy it-but brought more than we were willing to pay)We have 612 ac that borders them on the west too. They are nice people, but They hunt that place as if it were 10,000 ac. They are out there almost every weekend starting dove season thru deer season..they fill numerous tags (one year they killed 9 deer) uncles, brothers, cousins all come out. We don't hunt our properties much.my nephews and I might hunt the land around that place two times a year because of the "Rambos" on that place. I cannot really hold it against the new land owners. I grew up with it and am spoiled to have resources, but I understand the original landowners feelings in this topic.I also know why people in some small communities are "clickish"--because folks come in as new land Barrons- (overpay for small parcels of land) and expect to be part of the community 3 months out of the year.

Why did the neighbor sell the 56 acres? My guess is to pay for the HF that was already planned.

Could be. Either that or he is not very smart. Gotta know what's coming when you sell 56 acres in Hamilton.

But the OP stated the landowner and the OP's family are (were) tight. Sounds to me like the use of said 56 acres increased well above what was intended or expected. Surely the man didn't sell 56 acres to his friends with the understanding that they, their kids, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and friends would all be hunting every weekend. And trying to fill their tags.

Discussing habitat, management and harvest strategies with the larger landowners around you, BEFORE hunting season, typically prevents these scenarios. And whether or not the adjoining ranches are hunted or not is irrelevant. You're killing someone else's deer on 56 acres. Kill a buck here, a doe there and you'll be fine. Do what you and your family have done and get fenced out. In your case, that fence makes for a good neighbor.

Using a HF as a "neighbor management tool" is not an ideal solution - even for the one putting up the fence on one side.