My AR Restrictions post and ensuing discussions and debate has really got me thinking. Specifically, lots of opinion and experiences were given around neighbors and even some fellow hunters adhering to or subscribing to "brown is down", greatly limiting harvests of abundant mature bucks. With that in mind, what do you all recommend is best philosophy/policies to gain "buy in/agreement" amongst neighbors and/or fellow property hunters? How do you effectively sell your objectives to them? Another, food for thought type discussion....

Very difficult for smaller property owners to agree on it IME. I'm in the camp of harvester older mature bucks instead of younger immature bucks no matter the antler configuration. There is no substitute for age.

back in the late 1990s, a friend of mine (city guy, non-hunter) & his wife bought about 115 acres in northern Burnet county and he converted it over to a wildlife improvement exemption so as to not have to run livestock. He then realized he was not equipped to do all the necessary work to get to what his plan stated nor the knowledge of what he had gotten himself into. He reached out to me since I was an avid outdoorsman and hunter with equipment to help him reach his goals. In turn, I got to hunt his place, which also gave me some incentive to really make needed improvements. He and his wife did the light work on hand trimming cedars but I took on the much more labor intensive work of plowing & planting food plots and putting out supplemental feeders. I did this all for free since he was a friend (and I got to hunt). After the first year, I took it upon myself to go meet all the adjoining neighboring landowners and their lease hunters. I had done some research on improving the herd, population, etc. and started sharing that info with those neighbors & their hunters with some skepticism to start but they all agreed to give it a try. All total, probably around 1500 acres ... after 2 years they were all pretty much on the same page of taking a bunch of does and being very selective on bucks, learning how to better age, feeding and planting plots. After about 4-5 years, the process was really showing with drastically improved size and age of the bucks, buck to doe ratio was getting a lot better. I kept in pretty close contact with the LOs & neighboring hunters and they were all very appreciative on my dreams of improving their hunting environment (some had been hunting the area for decades) and the caliber of deer that were now being taken.

communication was the key, taking the time to reach out and showing others how to make things better for the area ...

Show them successful examples of management from their neck of the woods. Some people won't care regardless of what you do to educate or help them

Never gonna happen. Spend your energy elsewhere. No one wants to "enter negotiations" when it comes to hunting. They're gonna have to come up with the idea on their own.

I have a good relationship with two of my neighbors and we agree that we shoot mature deer only.

Another neighbor is buck only and two neighbors don’t hunt at all.

Guy caddy corner to me just died and supposedly his son inherited it so we will see what this season brings.


A lot of times guys will go into it with good intentions but will fudge on it for guests, kids, empty freezers, etc.

For me, getting neighbors to shoot does is the challenge.

I high fenced, that's how I solved it. I tried for about 20 years to grow and hold mature deer. My success rate for 4yr old bucks was about a 15-20% average. Just finally got tired of feeding and growing deer for the neighbors to shoot. I just couldn't do it on 1100 acres.

'Got a neighbor that advertises "quality deer management practices." He doesn't do chit...'cept wound deer. 'All smoke and mirrors. Poser.

A lot of folks want to manage for bigger deer, but don’t want to go without managing to shoot a buck….😁

I've got another neighbor across the road that's reached out two of the last years, during the droughts, and said he wasn't seeing that many fawns. It was his polite way of telling me I shouldn't shoot does. I did and will continue to hammer does until I decide it's time to stop. Body weights are improving, along with the horns. He's now selling his place. 'Nice enough man and did organize a couple of neighbor gatherings, meet with TPWD biologist, etcetera. Then he got tired of the drive from Houston.

People's observation skills also vary by a great degree when it comes to seeing wildlife on their own place with a lot of factors entering into to why.

I just wish more people, especially around me, wouldn't just throw their hands up regarding pigs, instead of at least occasionally killing some. I personally think laziness has a lot to do with it.

I sold the cows and went with a Game Management plan. I have to submit an annual plan , with receipts, about the steps I’ve taken.

One easy one is supplemental water. I have stock tanks/ponds that provide water for wildlife. Yeah, I fish them and keep the bills from the fish feed.

Another is supplemental feeding. I keep my corn receipts but also buy mineral lick blocks. Hogs mostly go after them.

I supplementally feed fish. That evidently qualifies as wildlife.

I plant food plots; generally wheat if we get rain at the right time. This hasn’t happened in 5 years due to rain.

I sprayed a bunch of poison oak. I took before and after pictures and receipts for chemicals.

Clear noxious brush so it will allow other more desirable stuff to grow.

I shoot hogs that compete with deer for resources.

There are other stuff that you are allowed to do.

KEEP RECEIPTS and provide them. Instead of saying that you did something, provide photographic evidence with pictures of kids enjoying themselves fishing, etc. I invited my granddaughters Girl Scout pack several times for a day in the country. I included those pics of young girls fishing and helping me plant food plots.

Also, I take pictures of every pond or source of water.

BTW, I found that I had to have a grazing exemption before going to wildlife. No problem. I had been running cows and got tired of fixing fences.

Lease the place for grazing, with contracts, for a couple of years. Then convert to wildlife.

On our wildlife exemption, we buy all our feed local.

We have nice 3 year old deer (10 points) that get taken by the neighboring properties every season. I`ve only take 4 mature bucks in the last 10 years so I feel like I`ve done my part. Nothing I can do about someone who owns their land and wants to shoot a young buck. I think ours is hurt by smaller pieces of property (60-70 acres) where 2-3 family members are killing legal bucks. We have 140 acres and take 1 legal / mature buck for 2 hunters. I started hunting with a crossbow in 2020 to try and get a jump on the neighbors but still haven`t had a buck I want to put an arrow come by.

I don't remember the exact way it works, but there is a wildlife cooperative in my area that was formed to do exactly what you want to do. They have annual meetings, membership is optional, but they ask you to collect jawbones from harvests, etc. Basically if you join, you are agreeing in principal to manage the portion of the herd that's on your place using their guidelines, which are pretty much QDMA. I didn't join as I am already doing the things I want to do but I may in the future. Contact your local TPWD official and they might be able to help get you started.

Edit - You get a lot more buy in from the locals when somebody official shows up to talk. Start with an invite to 10-15 of your neighbors, feed them a meal, and have a TPWD biologist talk about a program.

Edit - FOUND IT! https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/associations/areas/?area=134 There may already be one in your area.

This page has a list by county of existing groups:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/associations/county_list/

^^Thanks for posting.

Only one between Kerr and Kimble...with a HUGE amount of hunters and hunting ranches. That should tell you something.

So do I.

According to most studies, you can talk to all the neighbors you want, but unless acreage is in the TENS OF THOUSANDS, you aren’t really managing much. 3.5 years is what you can expect on any smaller management scale. After that, luck is going to play a significant role. I still try to only shoot mature deer myself, but if a 3.5 yo deer brings great joy and satisfaction to someone else, I want to be happy for them too. Deer tend to turn otherwise good people rather nasty it seems.

very well said Texas...as long as it was legal it would be fine with me.

As texas said, it is funny how deer can make people weird…momey and power do the same thing and its usually all about control and ego.


Bottom line, communicate with your neighbors. If they are on board, great. Ain’t a thing you can do
If they are not. But at least you know.