I have to add, you are to be commended for not taking the shot. A lot of people would have.

I am hunting right now, where I live.

We own 9 acres...

We also have 215 acres in Oklahoma.

But I hunt here a lot.

It's my land, I will hunt here be damned.

From the Outdoor Annual: it is illegal to hunt in a subdivision on lots 10 acres or less in an unincorporated area of a county if the commissioners court, by order, prohibits the discharge of a firearm or the use of archery equipment in such subdivisions. (Contact local county clerk and ask about §235.022, Local Government Code.). Hope your legal. I know if you were in Brown County, you would not be.

Cool story

This similar event is probably happening hundreds if not thousands of times seasonally in TX. Has personally happened to me at least 5-10 times hunting South Texas over 35+ years. Rub of the green as they say. On 1-2 of my occasions I either later hooked with that same buck on our place. Most other times it was a different similarly nice one.

Good luck getting him or another similarly good one!

It's not a "story", it's a fact. It's everyone's responsibility to be aware of all the laws, rules, of their area, because they differ by county. Having said that, I'm sure in your case it wouldn't matter, because from both of your replies it is obvious that you are one of those "I will do as I damn well please" type people. Fence line hunters, and ranchette hunters, are a breed of their own. Good luck to you.

My mom hunts. She has acerage. Big wide heavy buck walked up by the house to eat acorns late evening the other day. She was unloading a stove out of a truck. She walked around the house and took a picture. She does this often. Takes a picture and never sees them again. I dont sit in her stand. Did one year on this day and a 150 walked out and flipped me the bird. I had binocs only. The deer out there are telepathic. Know when you are not armed.

Interesting. People hunting on less than 1/10 the acreage needed to support on buck per harvest season.

Our neighbor is a 10k acre game ranch. I can see their property from every stand on our land. They have many stands that can see onto our land. Elevation changes. Guess we need to stop hunting our place and tell them they should do the same.

That's a good looking buck. I hope you get a chance at him! One of my hunters shot a deer a few years ago that piled up on a neighbors property. I knew the neighbor to be a cranium penile juvenile might be senile individual so as the ramrod I took the hunter over to ask to retrieve his deer. Of course the guy says "no." I just calmly backed us off the porch and drove to the road and called the warden. Warden showed up in about 30 minutes and I tell him what's going on. Warden says, "Well, let's go ask again." Neighbor tells the warden no, he can't get his deer. Warden looks at me, I point and say "write that man a ticket!" The warden asked for what? I said, "It's against the law to waste a game resource, this man is trying to retrieve it, and he won't let him. He can't tag the deer because he didn't shoot it, so it's wasted game." The warden picked up on my bluff and pulled out his ticket book. Suddenly the neighbor was more than willing to escort us down there to get the deer.

Now, I know my proposal was a complete bluff and would have no legal standing whatsoever, as far as I know the warden could have retrieved the deer himself, but with a good poker face and a sharp warden, things can get done.

obviously not the same scenario.

How is it not sir? I'm sitting in my stand right now, the piece of land I'm on is 368 acres. I can see for miles and have 6 different pieces of land touching this 368 acres and I can see parts of all of them.

368 acres, hunting from an elevated position - 9 acres hunting on the fence line. You are right, identical situation. My apologies. What was I thinking.

I don't think you can compare hunting 9 acres to 368 regardless of how far you can see from an elevated stand on a rise. I don't blame the OP from wanting to hunt his 9 acres but the reality is if he had 20 neighbors around him with 9 or 10 acres and they all did the same thing there would soon be no deer left.

Why were you sitting in a stand without a gun? That seems like a terrible decision. You never have to take a shot, but you can't take one without a gun. Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

This is why the new MLD program will never work. Anyone with less than 200 acre will likely not get a buck tag. & every swinging richard with 2 acres thinks they have the right to shoot any deer that crosses it. No thought or concern to what they put into the ecosystem, they gotta "fill muh freezer".

It's also the reason HF fencing companies stay in business.

the ranchettes that have cropped up around me have beaten me down to the point that I am seriously considering giving up hunting. Something that has been my passion for over 40 years. If high fencing were a viable option for me, I would do it in a heartbeat

I understand. The ranchette craze is moving into my area of the country. They all like to set up deer feeders on their 5 acres, right next to the neighbors fence, & call that deer hunting. It has driven me to the point of planning to HF.

Any particular reason you can't HF?

A law that makes it illegal to hunt deer near a feeder on such small acreage might neutralize the situation. It’s obvious that in these situations, feeders are being used to pull deer from surrounding properties with much greater deer holding habitat.

Define subdivision. If I cut out 9 acres of my 140 acres in the county is that a subdivision. No.

He might not live in a SUBDIViSION

use a decoy ! works great !

my place is on 2 different sides of a county road, then there's the whole money thing. Lol.

the way it was explained to me, is it is an ordinance set by each individual county. If they set a minimum amount of acreage required to discharge a firearm, or even a bow, it doesn't matter what you are surrounded by. If you own 9 acres, in the middle of a 1500 acre ranch, and the ordinance states you have to have over 10, no shooting allowed. They are just trying to keep people from shooting their neighbors, their neighbors livestock, their neighbors assets, etc. Just food for thought, if a 9 acre place is square, it is roughly 200 yards per side.

We've turned a lot of our 300 acres into native prairie grasses. Deer are flourishing. Still have plenty of cedar though. I see deer bed down in tall grass frequently. Probably freaks them out at first then they realize it's a great bedding and loafing area. It probably bothers you more than the deer.