Congratulations on your purchase! The wife and I hope to purchase 100-200 acres for a home place to retire on and to provide a place for the family, mainly grandchildren, to hunt. I too plan to stay on a lease so I can hunt and not over hunt the land I'm purchasing/hope to purchase.

I agree but sometimes you have no choice. I have 3 small acreage tracts (10 to 20 acres) bordering the southwest fence line and they shoot whatever crosses the fence. It's just a matter of time until they push me too far. Upside is I'll quit losing so many deer to these folk's and the downside is it pretty much removes their chances of taking a deer on their own place in the future. What their shooting is coming off my place. Sad part is it didn't have to be this way.

The HF crowd is usually the elitists that think they own all of the deer. Deer are public unless they are in your zoo. It makes me sick to see these rich snobs fencing in the wildlife.

In this case, they're fencing out the slob hunters.

Trying to protect the value of your lifelong investment from people who spend a years salary and admit to pulling deer (the value) from your place is "elitist"?

Incredible.

95+% of high fences aren't put up to hurt their neighbors. They're put up as a last resort because the neighbors want more for less and abuse you to get it.

Cannot disagree more.

HAve posted it many times on this forum, but a friend of mine has 500 acres in Gillespie County and though they're land rich, they basically run sheep and lease hunting rights. A few years back, some yahoo bought 50 acres, split it into 5 10-acre tracts, and you guessed it: All 5 10-acre tracts had feeders running on their fenceline and they were all shooting deer.

Place went from having a very stable population to almost zero deer in 1 year.

They talked with the other landowners and HF'd in that 50 acres. The new owners were furious, but they were literally weekend warriors from Austin that had no clue that deer weren't unlimited resources.

There are a lot of circumstances where HF'ing bad neighbors out makes sense and isn't an issue of "elitists". If you're not being a steward of the land as a small landowner, you are just as much to blame for what happens.

***I'm a small landowner***

Going to weigh in here, but somewhat different circumstances, but I too have a smaller place that is deer heavy. We bought it to eventually build on and live full time once kids are out of school. Our place is surrounded by both small tracts, and some larger tracts - a few as small as 18 acres, but mostly in the 80 - 400 acre range. All low fence and very rural/rough.

From a landowner's perspective, the property is mine and I will do with it what I want. I have the right to shoot what I want, and as often as I choose. And can also bring friends and relatives to shoot if I choose. If a neighbor feels the need to build a high fence, so be it, but unless I was totally blocked in, I don't think that would really serve any purpose other that blocking the natural migration of deer. Just as likely to help me as hurt.

From a good neighbor standpoint, I have met with several of my neighbors and let them know my intentions. I've planted several food plots, feed year round, and have placed two stands in the center of the property so not to impact other's opportunities. I am also allowing the bedding areas to stay in native state. Not sure about the original poster, but in my case, my place is denser than many of the surrounding properties with good cover that keeps the deer on me.

In the two years I've owned the property, I have yet to shoot while hunting, although MANY opportunities. I see doe on every hunt, and have seen a number of mature bucks, and a lot of big deer on cameras, but while hunting, I haven't seen a deer that excited me enough to take. As a group though, with the neighbors I've met so far, we do feel at some point we should take several does as there are probably too many. Regardless, I will probably only take one, and if I let anyone else hunt my property, they'll be doe only and limited to one. If as a group we decide more should be taken at some point, I will act accordingly.

Now, if a trophy comes through, I have as much right to him as anyone else and I will gladly take him. It just doesn't make sense to me to shoot every legal buck I see - just because it is legal (AR County). It also doesn't seem neighborly of me to allow tons of pressure on my small place, which ultimately impacts surrounding properties.

Bottom line, while I have the right to shoot more, I feel discretion is more important for not only maintaining quality hunting, but good relations with my neighbors. I am lucky in that my neighbors are in agreement and seem to have similar goals for their parcels. Unfortunately for the OP, it sounds like the neighbor wanting to HF made a decision before any conversation could take place. That is too bad as he will probably only spend a lot of money, and not get the benefits he is expecting. A conversation over a campfire could have probably solved the issue without all of the heartburn.

Not trying to take sides as I can definitely see both sides of the disagreement. Just seems too bad that is got to this point before all had a chance to discuss.

It's not a good situation for either party. That's for sure.

Yeah, see, you're not really very similar to the OP and likely wouldn't present an issue to a neighbor.

I kinda have the same issue, though I don't really care. Guy that I know and like hunts 15 acres bordering me and shoots several deer every year. His place is a great pinch point, and he actually sees more bucks than I do on my 80 acres (also not a huge place). We have a higher population than people that hunt, so it's not really an issue at all and I'm happy for him. Do kinda chuckle when he freaks out about hearing a bunch of gun shots though, because he's the guys shooting multiple deer on 15 acres.

Agreed. Those hunting such small tracts should consider how many deer their tract would support WITHOUT the benefit of their neighbor's habitat.

If most landowners were like you two, there would be very few high fences.

That's really not fair either though. Especially if the neighbors don't hunt.

Edited to say: I hunt on 100 acres. Have passed on several deer already this year that were legal bucks or does. I have no intention of shooting a bunch of deer off of our place, and I understand what you are coming from. The neighbors in my area hunt, so I try to be selective about how many deer I shoot. But there are lots of places in Texas where small tracts of land are surrounded by thousands of unhunted or lightly hunted acres.

Of course, and that all plays in.

One of my small places is 76 acres in a bottom area that has a couple of large tracts (600 acres) on either side and a smattering of small tracts surrounding as well. All in all, it's probably about 2000 acres of very high density land where it's not uncommon to see a herd (15-20) of deer in a sitting. The TPWD gives me 3 doe tags even though I'm only 76 acres because overpopulation is a legitimate concern some years. Couple that with the fact that most people out there simply refuse to shoot does, and you can see how some of the smaller owners can still shoot more than what would typically be their reasonable allotment and have it actually benefit, not hurt the herd. I've shot a grand total of 2 bucks (not including spikes) out there in 5 years, and they were both decent 8 pts, but I pass on 9 out of 10 legal bucks I see. I try to take all 3 does, but a lot of times it just doesn't work out.

It's really, really important to get together with your neighbors and figure out what makes sense, but that rarely occurs because everyone wants to be the 1 guy that breaks the plan expecting everyone else to follow it.

So your logic is that since the large neighbors don't hunt or hunt lightly, it's ok to shoot more deer than your 100 or his 56 acres could support on its own? That's fine and dandy if you have spoken to and have an agreement/understanding with those other landowners.

That's where it sounds like the OP and his family went wrong. Even though they knew the previous and adjoining landowner well, it doesn't sound like they discussed deer hunting, harvest, etc. with him beforehand. Had they, then he would have never erected a high fence. Now that he has, it's too late to discuss.

On small acreage it's always best to keep as low a profile as possible. Don't brag to the neighbor about what you've killed. If he asked what all the shooting was, just say, "there are sure a lot of coyotes out here."
If he puts up a fence only on one side it shouldn't hurt the hunting that much with the large unhunted properties on the other sides.
Just keep feeding them and put out water if it's dry and hold the deer close to your property.
I've hunted a ranch that was high fenced on one side and we had a hunter who took a 172" B&C buck off the place. The high fence the bucks like to use to corral the does during the rut. They will run the doe up to the fence and use it to block the does from escaping.

To some extent that's exactly what I'm saying. If nobody is hunting except for you on several thousand acres worth of property, then shooting 2 or 3 deer a year is not going to be any kind of issue. I don't know how many deer 56 acres can naturally support, maybe it's more than I assume it is. I'm guessing it's 1. But maybe it's more than that.

And if those land owners around you don't hunt, and you know they don't hunt, I doubt they care to have a conversation about how many deer you are taking.

My south fence is bordered by 12 twenty acre parcels. There's a feeder and blind every 100 yards along the mile of fence. Without a high fence them, their brothers, cousins, buddies, in-laws, out-laws and brothers would shoot every deer that crossed.

Who's worse, the man that fences out a slob or the slob that shoots all the deer? Neither own them but one takes permanent possession by killing everything in sight. Danged Democrat hunters, always putting down people that have done alright for themselves.

Everybody in Texas assumes that that every other property near them shoots everything that walks. That's simply not true. It's true some times, but not every time.

Nothing wrong with holding back some of your share for later!

High fences aren't all bad unless you are completely fenced in on a small tract.
I've seen deer jump an 8' fence standing flat footed next to one (terrible landing) and I've seen where the hogs make a hole or push up the wire and deer use it as well.
Wind storm and floods knock down fences all the time.
I've hunted next to high fenced ranches and had B&C bucks and exotics on the place and they weren't stocked on our ranch either.
It's not the end of the world is all I'm sayin!

Communication is the key, as I noted earlier. Those large neighbors don't hunt or hunt lightly for a reason. If you buy land adjacent to them and start doing a bunch of shooting, you're apt to get fenced out. It's your land and you can do on it as you wish. It's their adjoining land. Treat the boundary deer with respect and enjoy the great location. Abuse the boundary deer and pay the consequence (fenced out).

A clear example of why the problem would disappear if we went back to the days when it was illegal to bait deer.

I do agree with all that. But I'm not talking about abusing the resource either. I edited an earlier post to add that I don't know exactly how many acres 1 deer needs to sustain itself, but that shooting a couple of deer a year off of your 100acres and the neighbors unhunted 2k acres was not going to do any harm. Shooting 25 deer a year probably would.

With the increase of small landowners, it would seem that we will ultimately end up with a rule of one antler restricted buck and no doe most years. If that doesn't work, they will eliminate baiting.