When it comes to a deer lease again I have seen it over and over. A verbal agreement even with a friend is useless IMO on a deer lease - get everything in writing.
Sorry this happened to you

"Land owner decides to put up a feeder and camera on the land being leased outside of the fence."

I think that is a pretty clear indication your landowner had every intention of hunting his land, so I am not sure why you are surprised he shot a deer under his feeder. Most "Target" bucks are on more than one hunters target list if they know it is walking around in their midst. Nothing unusual about that. One of the places I hunt is a work and hog control for hunting lease. Not only can the landowner's family and guest hunt his land too, we provide the stand and feeder for them. We come out way ahead considering the work we do is not anything more than we would be doing if we had to pay for our lease. We see it as hunting for free. If the value of your work is more than what you would pay for a lease or spot on a lease, or if the way it played out really bother's you, perhaps it is time to find a different lease. Preferably with a contract, set rules, and management plan. Yet if the work/lease balance is in your favor, shoot a different buck this year, suck it up and congratulate your landowner, and now knowing the cards on the table for next year, hunt harder next season to beat your landowner lease partner to the next target buck.

I will say this, never ever ever share a picture of a living target buck to your landowner, lease partners, neighboring lessees, or neighboring landowner. Don't even tell them you have seen it if they show you a picture. That is a sure way to make your target buck someone else's target buck. Unless you don't mind if the person you shared with may shoot it before you do.

Trading work to hunt with the fellow that owns the land sounds like a sweetheart deal.

My lease is shared with the LO and we both hunt the same deer. Some years he gets the big one and others I do. The sad part is I share most years the neighbors shot the deer we target all year, but deer move around a lot and I most of the time shoot one that I didn't even see on camera all year. That is hunting. Ibwould just enjoy the time you have in the field and be grateful that you have a private place to hunt. It is getting harder and harder to find one., and most of the ones you can find cost a pretty penny. Good luck and be thankful for what you do have.

You get to trade work for hunting and your even questioning this situation? That’s pretty stupid to me but to each their own,

With nothing on paper my only problem would be if it was safe to shoot into that area from the HF side.....

That's what I was thinking. I would ask folks on here what they pay for their deer leases and reevaluate my perceptions.

Wait until you drag a 2 person 18’ deer stand weights in excess of 100 pounds over a mile through the river bottoms to set up a rut stand deep in the public, and then find evidence somebody else is using it. That’s public lol.

Work is not free guys. I put in more than what the lease is worth. I dont work for free and i dont think yall would either. So if i would of paid cash I wouldnt be a dumb [censored]? I'm not understanding the reasoning behind that. I am grateful for the opportunity to be on any property because yes its getting crazy. There has to be respect. If you figure up how much work was done and the size of property i paid over 50 dollars an acres for the last 4 years.

Eagleeye, I think all is fine with you. Seems you have reason to be bothered but all you’re doing is asking what we think to validate your feelings. Carry on.

Just trying to learn from it and move on. Sorry I have no one else to have conversation about it with.

These are important details. Based on this I would stop helping him and move on to another lease. If you put that much time and effort into it, then the relationship is over. Put your time and effort into earning the money to pay for a better lease.

I would still wait until the end of deer season to say anything. Just try to remain on good terns until seasons end, and come in on the last day to get all your chit off the property and vamoose. He will figure it out eventually.

Bryan that is the plan.

I totally understand your frustration but before you ditch your place to hunt you might do some research on how hard a lease is to find and what it’s going to cost. It sounds to me like you have a truly sweetheart deal going and you may come to realize that too late by letting emotions get the better of you. Would you have been as upset if a neighbor killed the deer? Deer come and go but a place to hunt is insanely hard to find these days regardless of the cost,

A
When I was growing up exchanging work for access was a common arrangement. Regardless of how some may conduct themselves, a verbal contract is a legally binding instrument. Pursuing monetary reimbursement for your work will most likely bring an end to your hunting arrangement and your friendship with the landowner. 100% your call how you address it since you alone will have to shoulder the outcome.

I have done the research. It is crazy. I appreciate this place more than any of yall probably realize. I am not mad the deer was shot. It happens. The way it was done is hard to chew on. You all have a good ole day. Happy hunting.

That’s completely understandable, I’d still let some time pass before you pull the plug on it if I were you. You seem like a pretty level headed guy so you’ll make the best decision that’s right for you. If you think the guys approachable with a conversation about it after the season ends and you’ve made your mind up to leave without a resolution to the situation I’d ask him about it before you pack up your gear, definitely couldn’t hurt at that point but I’d probably keep quite if you’ve chosen to stay.

Deer big or small make some people act silly and I’d say this guy obviously falls into that category so it’s a coin flip at best with his mentality once you bring it up. Where I’m stuck is the fact he has a high fenced portion of his ranch and he’s shooting deer outside the fence, seems odd unless he’s shot out the fenced deer. I like big deer as much as the next guy but apparently I’m not as mad at them as he is lol

I agree why shoot a deer when you have some inside. It comes down to greed. He has sold all of his studs.

I’d be weary he might just close the gate and keep your stuff if you try to discuss the matter. He obviously doesn’t care about your agreement, he put a feeder up and hunted it after he gave you his word to leave that spot alone. In his mind you may be the lucky recipient of his generosity. He might just close his gate and not allow you to enter his property if you try to have a uncomfortable discussion with him about your terms.

I have seen plenty of stories like that on this forum, about land owners closing their gates and not allowing guys to get their stuff back.

I agree I have to tread lightly here.

If that is what you take from my post then you are way past the average level of clueless. What if that buck got drug down by coyotes or got killed by another buck or broke a leg crossing a fence or got hit by a car? Surely there are other bucks running around to hunt if that one got dead. Right? Go after one of them and hunt for the sake of the hunt.

You’d think so. I I made this agreement with my land once and it ended a friendship. One days work=one day’s hunt, keys to the gate and house. Fully furnished house, running water, electricity, more than what is needed. I still got burned.

I would say the first time he put up a feeder and hunted it, whether he killed anything or not it doesn’t matter. This isn’t a case of landowner lets the kid down the road hunt for mending fences and brush hogging. It’s different from that. The details matter here.

If you want to hunt purely for the sake of the hunt there are plenty of opportunities on corps land for that. If you really feel that way then even why even bother to pursue whitetails at all?

I know everyone does it differently but on our lease we are first come first serve with community blinds throughout the season (other than the first weekend when we draw for picking stands - it only lets members pick which stand they want that weekend but does not guarantee any particular deer).

We have ten members on 9000 acres and share all trail camera pics with every hunter that we get during the off season. We take down all cameras during the season.

We all also share live videos and pics we take during the season from our stands with all of our other hunters. So in our case nobody "owns" or "has rights" to any one deer.

Maybe not the set up for everybody but at the end of the day our members get just as excited about another member killing their best deer as if they shot the deer. We all know that if we are patient our day will come.