So you have a work for lease agreement with the landowner. You perform said work and you can hunt this amount of the property outside of a high fence area. Land owner decides to put up a feeder and camera on the land being leased outside of the fence. Shoots your target buck through the high fence. ?!?!

I can tell you that as a landowner, I have never leased my property to any hunter with an exclusivity clause. You got that in writing did you? If not, why do you think you have ownership of a deer on a high fence ranch that isn't your high fence ranch?

This deer wasnt inside the high fence. No one was claiming ownership of any deer.

If there’s no agreement about who has exclusive hunting rights outside of the high fence then the LO can shoot or hunt as they wish in that area.

I think he means the LO was in the high fence and shot through said high fence, killing the OP's target buck that was standing on the low fence area that he bartered labor to hunt on.

'Sounds like only a loose, verbal agreement and the LO's not too ethical, or still just ate up with hunting himself, or both. Also could have been his paying lessees inside the high fence that got excited.

At any rate, time to find a new place to hunt. And pay for it.

Lesson learned.

How about this. You pay to hunt a property and the LO makes certain bucks off limits, so he and his wife can shoot them. I have an uncle that does this BS.

Or you lease land and during the week, when nobody is there, the LO is selling day hunts. My brother in law had that happen to him and his buddies.


If it’s not your land, you have no say in the matter. Ethics are dead.

If you don’t have it in writing then you should know it’s likely coming. Caveat emptor.

Sounds like you didn't cover about the landowner being able to hunt as well, I am sure you assumed he wouldn't which most people probably would. Just have to file this under your lessons learned section for future agreements.

His property,his desires. If you like hunting there I wouldn't raise a stink about it.

I know there is no legal actions to take. Just curious what the common thought about this was.

Just another a$$hole landowner that wants it both ways. I don't lease my land but If I did I would we wouldn't have to talk about me hunting it too, It would be your lease.

If nobody is claiming ownership, why did you think it was "your" target buck?

That deer belongs to the state (if native), so there is ownership, absolutely. If it is an exotic, it belongs to whomever's property it is on. As such, it is only your target buck in your mind. That is still the landowner's and/or on the landowner's property. Unless you have an exclusive use lease, he still gets access. Moreover, he may allow others to hunt. Bucks are first come, first serve in Texas.

Thoughts? You should have had a better lease agreement if you didn't want the landowner shooting deer on his own land. That is the bottom line. When it comes to disagreements, handshake/verbal hunting leases are nearly worthless as are vague written leases. If you want exclusivity, get it in writing. Otherwise, maybe your landowner is a jerk, but the duty is on you to protect your wishes before you start hunting. You didn't do that in this case, or you would have legal action that you could take.

I couldn't agree more the deer belongs to the state. It can be shot by anyone with a hunting license. I was told verbally he would never hunt "our" deer. I'm not looking for a hug. I'm just curious what the general opinion was. Thank you!

Legal, yes
Ethical, no
Clean your wounds and move on

Compliment the LO on a good harvest.

This is why everyone should have a written and signed lease agreement that the LO and each lease member signs each season. In ours it allows our LO (or his family) to take one trophy buck per season.

I think everybody claims a target buck. “My” target buck lives on public ground. He is probably someone else’s target buck but he is also still “my” target buck.

It’s a pretty nasty thing to make an agreement with somebody and then shoot “his” target buck.

But if I owned a piece of property like that, anyone that I share it with for any reason needs to understand, I would never give up hunting on it myself. And nobody is going to give you “exclusive” hunting rights for doing some work for them. After working hard all my life to pay for a piece of ground I would never give anyone “exclusive” hunting rights, not for all the gold in Fort Knox. I am 43 years old, and sleep less than 3 hours at least a couple times a week, just working towards that goal. Only one day off a week, probably sleep half of it lol. And just took a vacation the first time in over 3 years.

Did he shoot it while you were on the property hunting that buck? Were you there to see him shoot it through that fence? Or what? Are you saying he put that feeder out to intentionally sabotage your chances of getting that buck? Did he not know it was there at all prior to you hunting it? Do you have a feeder on the property?

Depending on the circumstances, sure i might agree he was wrong for that, but that doesn’t make you right to expect exclusive hunting rights, and definitely doesn’t make it ok to post about it on the world wide web if anyone on this forum has any idea who owns the property. Because public humiliation is not ok either.

“Your” ?

If he told you that you would have exclusive hunting rights, then it’s just plain sorry on his part. IMO you should hunt enough to where you feel square with the owner for the work you’ve provided and then bow out.

Im not here to publicly sabotage anyone. If i wanted to to do that I would name properties and people. The feeder was intentionally setup to pull deer from my feeder and setup 200 yards away. We are supposed to be friends also. He sent me photos of the deer and I explain that was the deer i was hunting. I was sent photos of the deer dead hours later. Its just a deer. I'm trying to learn from this going forward. Thats all.

This is key info. As it is verbal, you have no real recourse. But it sounds like the LO is telling you one thing and then doing another. If it were me, I would point out to the land owner that he broke y'alls verbal contract, and decline to do any more work for him. I would also remove all of my stuff from the property before you have that conversation with him.

So shoot a different buck. Too many hunters are wrapped around "their" deer when it is still walking. A deer only belongs to the person that hangs a tag on it. I would suggest the OP is hunting for the wrong reasons.

Yes Sir i will try. I dont shoot anything that moves. I'm pretty selective, probably the reason this buck was able to get to his size. I let him go the past 2 yrs.