Are you even hunting this deer anymore jshouse? Just wondering.

Well, anything to report?

Good question

Anything interesting lately? Sightings? Pics?

no sightings and no pics of him in over 6 weeks. i texted the pics of him to my southern neighbor the other night and he doesnt even believe that that buck is out there, swears he's never seen him. i checked cams yesterday and still only does and dinks.

i secured another property down the road to the west that according to the LO, who lives in dallas and hasnt been to the place in 3-4 years, hasnt been hunted in 5+ years and shouldnt be hunted now. well, didnt take long to follow the truck tracks and footprints to a pop up and feeder. i backed out and moved over to the more secluded east side and poured out some corn and hung a camera about 20 yards from a big scrape. i am gonna run out there this evening and see whats moving over there. the LO is hard to get on the phone but i will let him know about the feeder and stand and will probably leave a note on the gate tonight.

i still have the camera going on the other property to the east of mine too so if the big one is moving around anywhere out there hopefully i will pick him up at some point.

still hoping but it might be wise to start taking bets on which day in march he will come back.

I've got dibs on the 8th.

I'll let him out of his cage on late Jan. this year

welp, was all excited to go hunt the new place last night and i rush out there, get out to my spot at about 445p and as i am getting setup to watch a big meadow to my left and my hand corn to my right, i hear "do you have permission to be out here?"

WTF!

turns out this guy "has permission" from someone else that "has permission" from someone that knew the landowner before he died, and his dad is about 200 yards to the east of us and he has two buddies on the west side of the place where i found the feeder and pop up on sunday.

all of these guys live next to this property and he said they have all hunted it for years, so my dilemma now is do i call the landowner and try to get it all sorted out, possibly getting these guys kicked off the place knowing they live within walking distance of anything i put out there? or, do i figure that my buck isnt over there anyway with all the guys hunting over there and just let it be?

anyway, i packed up and ran over to my place, had a few does mingling around in the plot but nothing else. i am going back either thursday or friday and am going to move that old green gravity feeder to the back of the place and fill it with everything i can find and see if its like a bat signal that calls all the old boys back.

Now I understand why Big disappears when hunting season starts. All that human activity concentrated on those small tracts of land. That is why I don't hunt urban properties. I think if you see that nice ten again you need to give it a dirt nap before it becomes as smart as BIG.

You should let the landowner know but be prepared to move all your stuff and get out of there. If they've hunted it that much and haven't killed him yet, I don't think he's been there anyway.

But that don't mean they should still be able to over hunt it like that just because the owner isn't around and they feel entitled to it. I hate guys like that. Had trouble with a guy like that last year. He lived across the street and assumed he could hunt wherever because " I live out here". Told him I don't give a damn if you lived under the cattle guard at the front gate...it's not your's. Got the LO involved and almost had to take it to the warden to solve the issue.......idiots, I swear.

well luckily i didnt have anything setup but a camera and i took that with me yesterday.

What was on the camera?

Is there a thread with pics of this deer ? The more I read the more I want to see what your after.

some does, a few small bucks and a big ol fat gnarly 8pt that wont make ar's. i went to school with the guy i ran into, never talked to him though, and he was saying i could hunt out there if i wanted, that we should all get together and work out a schedule, he probably wouldnt have been so giving if they knew a 160" deer was out there.

there are pics on page 12 and more scattered through the thread. u can search my posts for "big is coming along" for more pics.

I'd let things be then and mark that pressured place off the list of possible hideouts.

The fact that he is inviting a guy he never talked to since high school to hunt this place with everybody else on it pisses me off more. It's not their land and your sure they don't have the LO's permission?

That's BS! I'd tell the LO in a heart beat. I don't think BIG is around there, but its still wrong.

Unless they shoot him, then yeah, he could have been there. You see any ground scrapes that read "Big wuz here"

thats what i am thinking too, although one of the guys has already told my uncle, who lives out there, that he has the place leased and i dont need to be going out there anymore....so he has raised some pride issues i will have to deal with, it may work out for him and it may not lol. i might wait and see how the season turns out and revisit this issue if needed. it would be a good little place to lease and i am not sure the LO is benefiting from the "lease" that is supposedly in place now.

well when i brought up the LO's name i think he realized he might have permission from someone that dont and he was just trying to keep everything kosher.

Who's the LO?

i could tell you, but then....

lol