Recent conversation with a friend:

Me: Did you get any deer this year?
Friend: Yeah, got two doe and two spikes.
Me: You didn’t see any big ones?
Friend: On my place, we never see any big ones.
Me: Yeah, I think I know why.

That's the attitude my 13 adjoining landowners have.

I'm sure leaning towards a high fence in the future.

You can always try to put a deer management association together. Wouldn't THAT be fun?

Would you rather he shot 2 does and two 2 year old 8's or a 10?

Maybe he should only shoot mature deer in numbers that his land can support

How big is his place?

I don't see how shooting 2 does and 2 spikes is causing him to not see any mature deer in and of itself

Good luck getting them to do that!

I have one neighbor that's killed 7-8 deer so far this year. (On 5 acres...)

2 were bow shot and died on my place. Went to waste.

He called back in bow season and said he wanted to come look for a doe he'd head shot with a crossbow. Last he saw of it, it was crossing onto my ranch with the bolt sticking out of her head. It died about 75 yards from my house, and was putrid when I found it.

To these guys, it's all about getting their share. And everyone else's too.

Did it ever say how big his place was?

Maybe he should pay money for a lease and corn and equipment and take time off and watch deer then go to HEB and buy beef...

Would be cheaper easier and higher quality meat if he just bought beef and stayed home

I'm not sure how large his lease is. I know he's only paying about $1,000 a year in southeast Texas, so it's not a giant south Texas ranch. He told me if it's got fur, it's down. Hey, it's his lease and he can do what he wants.

But no matter what your management opinions are, it's just a fact that if you shoot them young, they don't get old. If people honestly don't care about having deer in the future, then they can shoot everything that breathes. Just don't complain later that there's no deer. It reminds me of some of my father's fishing buddies that used to say things like "That used to be a great fishing hole. Caught 300 crappie there one night." Yeah, it used to be great till you caught them all.

Personally I'd just as soon take account of what the land will support and not take any more. Usually that means letting them mature enough to reproduce. This friend has been shooting the first four deer he sees every year, which is why he's got what he has.

Thats why it depends what he is hunting on and what the density is like. Many parts of the state have way more deer than they should, he could be doing a lot more good than harm.

That's the common attitude.

Tell him they have hair not fur so shoot coons and yotes....

So shooting 2 does and 2 spikes has ruined the place LOL

I understand what your saying HS2, old habits are hard to break...

I always enjoy it when they throw in ‘We just don’t have good genetics, they don’t get big in our area’.

I've seen a number of people post pictures on various social media platforms of the "spikes" they harvested. I'd say the vast majority of these are simply yearling bucks.

Dr. Deer (James Kroll) published a series of articles about spikes. Interesting read. Many of these young spike bucks turn into decent bucks after letting them age a few years.

leave the spikes alone if you want the best opportunity for nicer bucks later on.

If moderate deer density and sufficient acreage he isnt hurting a thing and likely has several others that are better 1.5 year olds that will grow up and potentially be better than the spikes would have. If he is on 5 acres hope he has neighbors that arent like him. If its on a lease with 50 acres per gun and they all have the same mentality, then yeah its gonna be detrimental in short order.

Personally in my county i'd fill all the tags with does before i shot the spikes but you cant do that in all counties either.

What if the hunter did this on a 20 acre lease where the deer density is 1 deer per 15 acres?
What If other hunters around him are doing the same thing?
This could be a real problem is his larger place is bordered by a bunch of smaller ones and everybody has that same mindset.

I can very easily see the OP's frustration if he is management minded and this is happening.
Too many people who have the mindset that "I bought or leased this 20 acres so I'm within my rights to fill my tags". While they are certainly within their legal right to think and act that way, it doesn't mean it is morally the right thing to do IMHO.

I agree one should be a good steward of the land and take what the property will support, but thats a pretty blanket statement.

A buck will breed a doe as a yearling. A yearling doe can have a fawn.


So his shooting of the two does will not affect buck maturity at all. His shooting of the spikes I don't agree with but I doubt its why he isn't killing any mature bucks. He might just be a chitty hunter and can only fool the young ones

We have very few spikes on our place in Leon co the deer have a lot of browse through out the year the spikes we have seen are just yearlings and just 2 of them we did get a picture of an old buck with a long dagger 13” straight up and a long curly horn on the other side just one picture of him never c him while hunting he needs to go

Which is exactly why HF go up.

Good on you for not letting him chase them onto your property. If you allow it, you’ll only get more of it.

Time for a HF, at least on his side of your place.

Were it me, I’d call the neighbors & inform them of what’s heading their way (lotsa wounded deer) & talk them into HF the 5ac dipshit out.