WE started out the rifle season seeing plenty of deer. Several good hill country bucks, 2 exceptional, and several young 8's. Every since the second weekend, we noticed 3 new stands and feeders next to our fence. They were facing away from the fence, but pretty close. After the second weekend, we were maybe seeing 1-3 does if any at all! What the heck is going on, this is the hill country, there are supposed to be deer everywhere.

I know you cant be pi$$ed off about that. But, every morning and evening, we were hearing 3-5 shots. So that makes 6-10 deer possibly being killed. The land next to ours is less thatn half the size of our lease. And that was only the shots we heard when we were there. No telling what was going on the rest of the time.

Anyway, I called our land owner and told him about it. He said he would contact the other land owners around and find out what was going on. Land owner is a Lawyer in Austin, and doesnt come out to the place very much.

I am pretty sure that they are day leasing over there. No other explanation to the deer being virtually gone over night. And all the shooting. I try to stay away from that side of the lease now because who knows what is going on over there.


Now me and the other 3 guys are getting off and looking for a new lease. If anyone knows of a good one with 4 spots for management minded hunters, let me know.

High Fence it

Sorry to hear that. I know that I would be PISSED.

I had 3 hunts in a row ruined in Junction this year by day hunters about 100 yards away. I was just waiting for them to shoot over the fence towards my feeder, which is only about 125 yards away from their blind.

Chain the day lease gate with new locks and chains every weekend.. They will get the idea..

about the only thing you can do is load up camp and move on. that sucks. if i didnt have a lease this i would probably be one of those dreded day hunters. lol

That is why I like big ranch country. When I hunt out west or north west Its hard to here a shot. Our new place in oklahoma, its hard to fix fence or due any chores with out orange on and the radio blasting to make sure people know im there. I just wish more hunters were worried about population numbers, deer age, and horns. Meat hunters are what made east texas deer hunting so good.

Not directed at you DC.

I just love it that so many wonderful folks have such a low opinion of day hunters.

Makes me feel really good since that is about the only way I will be hunting in the future, except for invites from folks.

Anyone ever stop to think that just maybe the person(s) running the operation might be more at fault than the hunters??????

I will admit that not all day hunters are playing by the rules, but I will also maintain that all day hunters are not low life S.O.B.s that need to be denied access to a place to hunt.

Some folks may end up day hunting due to circumstance and not by choice. JMO.

I don't have anything against day hunters. I did get a little pissed at first, but hay....if it is that big of a problem, maybe I should buy more land, right?

Thanks for that CH. And for the record, I always follow the rules to the best of my ability.

Many of us do not have the financial ability to be on a lease. Extremely cheap and free hunting invitations are the only way I can enjoy this sport.

I know how you feel. We have 1000 acres in Dickens County and have had the lease for 3 years letting some of the younger deer walk to get to be mature deer. Through game camera pics and spotting we haven't seen many of the deer recently only to find out that the neighbor does guided hunts for 3 days at a time. While these aren't day hunters there are a good number of 3 year olds we have been letting walk only to never see them again. My worst memory was this season when I had a 140 inch 10 pointer in front that was only a 3 year old and let it pass by only to hear a shot about 2 minutes later from the fence it crossed to. We had a 4 year old rule for shooters at our place and are going to decide what to do in the upcoming season.

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maybe I should buy more land, right?

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Not Hardly!

It should not be a problem at all.

The folks running the day lease operation should try to run the operation so as not to impact the surrounding land owners and their hunters unduly.

Mind you, I haven't day hunted in a long time, and don't even know if anyone is still running the type day hunts where I could be out there hunting mid-week, not on the weekends.

That may give you an idea as to how long it has been, along with the fact that the last day hunt I can remember doing was in Mills county, and it was $50.00 a day, no minimum on days and you could fill every tag that was legal for the county.

Back when I was day hunting I could get on those places mid-week and would have the entire place to myself.

From what I have seen the past 5 years or so, between going to a hit or miss day lease at the prices they are charging with a two day minimum, and going out to something like BayouRat and Maggie had going on this year, I think I will go with Tim and Maggie's set-up. JMO.

I understand perfectly people upset with a day hunt operation next to them, even if they are not trying to manage the deer on their place, but, it is still the fault of the person running the operation if things get out of hand. AJMO.

I am not mad at the hunters at all. I can understand there point of doing it. They may just get a couple days a year to try and shoot a deer, and by no means wants to pay the money for a lease. I dont blame them at all.

It just sucks that it is just 75 yards from my wifes stand and 300 from mine. I passed on several good deer and a few nice young ones, and a cool non typical. All in hopes that they would be even better next year. My wife passed on a really nice 10 because I told her to wait for next year.

I put a lot of money and time into that lease it being my first year on it. Hoping to manage the deer heard for the future. It is just frustrating because of all the effort.

I guess I am just venting.

Venting is good, Hell most folks on here think that is all I do.

Again, I blame the person running the operation on stuff like blinds and feeders being too close to fences.

In fact the place might be actually too small to run a good day lease operation, that happens.

Maybe if enough of their neighbors discuss the matter with the folks that are running the place considerations could be worked out where the day lease operator might actually be able to modify his operation that would actually cause less problems for the neighbors while making his operation more attractive to potential clients.

Just a thought.

It would have been nice to know that going into the season...

That is exactly my point. From what I have seen, the landowner has been good about putting stands with no windows looking across the fence, feeders are towrd the middle of his place. So I think he must be trying to do it right. But with a small war going off and I am sure that most of the day hunters are meat hunters, so they shoot any deer they see. I dont blame them, I would do it. Heck, I have done it. But like Sig said, I would not have gotten on here knowing that there would be a day lease next door.

I dont think there is very much land there maybe 200 acres at best. But more like 100 acres.

HOW CLOSE ARE THEY HUNTING TO FENCE? THERE ARE LAWS IN PLACE THAT RESTRICT HOW CLOSE A PERSON CAN HUNT NEAR A FENCE.

What laws are you talking about? I was under the impression that if I owned or leased land that I could hunt every inch of it so long as my bullets don't cross the fence. Are you saying that you can't hunt all of your property?

Stick a high fence up. That is exactly what my buddy did in Bosque. The fenced about a 1 mile side b/c the guy started day hunts. They don't really manage the place but didn't want all the deer shot either or people crossing fences. They still have miles of low fence.

There are laws in place that mandate the min distance you can hunt from the fenceline - In Mexico!
"texasd" is from South Texas so that's probably what he was thinking.
I've definitely never heard of any such restrictions for Texas.

There is no regulation on the distance a feeder or blind, stand or what-have-you, from a property/boundary/fenceline.

That was proposed in 2 years ago through the Legislative process and they were unable "nail it down" on what was a feeder, stand, blind, etc. since old outhouses, metal buildings, water towers, windmills, car bodies, bird feeders, livestock feeders, hummingbird, squirrel feeders, etc. could all fall into the same category. They could not define what a feeder, stand or blind would constitute for the regulation. So it didn't make it...the regulation on your projectile crossing a fenceline did though.

Common courtesy and respect for their property should play a big role in stand and feeder placement, but we all know that isn't the case with the majority of landowners or leasors...especially the very small acreages where everyone and their family wants to hunt on 5 acres tracts!

A MLDP should be required for all day lease operations. It is not fair for one landowner or operator to harvest all the deer in a giving area. Alternatively, we could lobby for land use restrictions for neighbors of WMA's and MLDP holders. Make it where day lease operations are forbiddon on lands adjoning WMA's and MLDP holders.

So do you also think hunting should be more regulated on smaller acreages than larger???

Now be very careful before you answer, because unless you are a land owner, you are basically suggesting legislation telling a land owner what they could and could not do with their property.

Also you are suggesting that size limits on the amount of land that can be hunted be instituted.

Is that what you are suggesting????