Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Brought first load of crap back from lease

I got off lease in central Texas. The four brothers are fighting over that place. We don’t know from one day to the next if we have a place or not. I didn’t want to be going up there in July to get my things. I’m gonna miss that place, but don’t to be in the middle of that. I have a piney woods lease, so I’ll have a place to go.

Sorry to hear of that

BTDT
Always a sh** show when the family starts
trying to get a piece of daddy's or pawpaw's
lifetime work
You're wise to bow out early in the game and
still have your goods.

Smart move on many levels.

I am glad we don't have to deal with that style of hunting up here.

My dad and brother lease a farm in Missouri. Drive down from WI to hunt occasionally. It's becoming more prevalent but "owning the land" is still the #1 way in WI/MI - IMO.

I wish we didn’t either.

Sorry to hear

I'll stop hunting the day I can't get it done with boots on the ground. I can't imagine need all that crap to hunt.

I felt that way until I got older

Thinking it's a regional thing. Hard to stomp around something that half ass resembles the thickness of the African bush but near as much roaming room.

Just sucks there isn't low pressured public ground or more opportunity to hunt private just by knocking on doors.

To each is own!

I feel yo' pain.

Have done that three times previously in the last 25 years.

Good luck in east Texas!

ya!

GWB

I feel your pain too.
Its no fun packing up all your stuff and bringing it home. I did it 3 years ago. I left a couple of ladder stands there. I couldn't get it all in one trip. Not worth driving 6 hours one way to go back for two leaners.

Good Luck on your piney woods lease.

This is about the sixth time for me. Cshit happens

Sorry to hear it.
At least you're getting it done before summer sets in.

That is what I worried about most

I’ve given up on “permission” hunting after some disappointment with a fickle and fussy landowner. Leasing isn’t common around here, lots of farms are now held in family trusts or otherwise complicated with multiple players. There’s 1400 acres of public land 20 minutes from my home, and a lot more within an hour or two. I don’t have much trouble making meat during our long seasons, and often have no one else around to contend with, especially if I stay off the places the dog-walkers frequent. My stands were removed during a recent “renovation” by the DNR, but they had already earned their keep, and it saved me the work of hauling them out. Trees are out for me now ‘cause I don’t bounce so good, replaced by a 21” tripod stool and a $3 kneeling cushion. Saw more deer last year than ever, maybe because I wasn’t tied to fixed locations and was able to adjust to the wind.

I have 4 tripods I’ll have to bring back next week

Reading these leasing stories makes me very grateful for the 40 acres of remote, undevelopable, jeep accessible land that I own here in NH. It is surrounded by 100's of acres of unposted private and public land. Certainly not the best deer population in the country but very light hunting pressure. I would hate to deal with the uncertainties of leasing which is, thankfully, uncommon here in New England.

I have it both ways. Here in New England, it's private friends land, mine and public land. In Mississippi, my brother and I are on a 550 acre lease.

Simply a case of working with what you've got.

Sorry to hear this Hanco. We've had the same property leased for 32 years.

Our little honey hole is going through the same thing. Headed to arbitration and delays keep coming by attorneys for a truly unique individual who has opposed every effort at settlement. Meanwhile a “church friend” may snatch 1/4 of it from us and some Long Island transplants are doing some serious brownnosing for another 1/4. The unique individual hates everybody involved and most likely will just give his 1/4 to friends. The last 1/4 belongs to a nice lady who has a benign brain tumor. Not looking good for the home team, us. Most beautiful land I’ve ever had to blessing of traversing.

That's why I am happy as a clam owning both of the small properties I own. My stand at the Alabama house is less than a 200 yard walk from my back door. Not the best place in the world but I will improve it and even if not there are already enough deer here to make do on .

East Texas? Not me. You could never be sure your stuff would be there when you return.

My previous lease turned over four times in the decades we were on it. Finally, the fourth owner gave us the pink slip. We had great times there and it had plenty of deer including big bucks. Been on a new lease now for three years and have yet to kill a buck. Been some good ones taken but I just haven't seen the one I want yet. Lots of hogs and turkey to be hunted.

That's a rough deal Hanco. Been there and had hunting land access removed from me due to change of ownership and mostly urban sprawl. Not knowing one year to the next if I had a place, I bought my own farm. I'd love a much larger tract. However, money only goes so far.

Been there done that. It’s crazy how you accumulate at the lease. I’m going on my third season on my lease now. It’s not the greatest but it will do until something better comes along.

Hopefully you'll find another one.

Well it is nice to have so many animals to take pictures of. Nice also to help maintain the deer population, reduce the feral hog population and hunt coyotes whenever. It's very nice to have a place on site to sleep in a bed too. It's not just about hunting but the experiences one can set up on a nice lease. My favorite lease of all time ended when the owner died and his kids wanted to sell the property. Killed my biggest buck the last day I was able to hunt on that place. It was one tough piece of property.

It can be as bad at the places I've hunted around
Pecos, Sweetwater, San Angelo, Freer, etc. etc.
A lot of people never notice that there's been
trespassing at their lease unless something is
missing they're looking for.
The one I hunted in Coke county had the oilfield
gaugers helping themselves to whatever game
they wanted since they had a gate key and knew
the place from one fence to another.
If you don't live on a place daily, I can guarantee
the neighbors all know when you come and go.
Many that hunt will trespass during the middle of
the week when you're not there. Many times it's
not the neighbors that pillage your goods, it's
their dopehead kids, or somebody that hunted
with them as their "guest "
One place I hunted, the lease "manager" that
handled the dealings with the land owner
had brought his brother-in-law for a Christmas
trip as a guest, and the brother-in-law just took
it upon hisself to come hunt whenever he
decided that he wanted to, and eventually
started bringing guests of his own even
though he wasn't a lease member.
Stuff happens everywhere, sometimes you
just don't see it happening

There's places in E Texas I've hunted where
you're not going to walk and stalk whitetail deer.
They're wary enough to keep a hundred yards of
trees and brush and briars between you and them.
If you want to hunt those places, you'll have
to park in a treestand or a blind of some sort.
It's not like the classic field&stream red plaid
wool coat and ll bean boots in the snow doing
a whitetail tracking Benoit brothers hunt, or
clambering up a sheer rockface at 9000 feet
type thing.

Sorry to hear of an era ending this. Keep us posted on the new place.


Okie John

I been there. It sucked but I always enjoyed learning to hunt a new place.

Never fun losing your old stomping grounds. Seems the more a family has the more dysfunctional they become when the head of the family pushes up the daisy's

My landowner is 95, old school 3 rd grade education millionaire who made his money making moonshine, had his own saw mill and used his money to buy land.
His sons are taking over now and it's so iffy , it's all about who will pay the most money for the lease.
When he dies ill be in the same boat...uncertain times for sure.

It is heartbreaker to lose a good hunting spot. I feel your pain.

Exactly, very dense brush, have to hunt roads, pipelines etc

Going Thursday for another load

Went through that about 4 years ago….

Hunted a buddies place for about 10 years.. family land.

We split the land taxes, wasnt a free ride.

2 of his siblings wanted money more than land..


Got some stands, feeders.. left some.

Good / bad of it was we treated it like it was our own…

Need to make improvements, we did it. Need to fix a road or culvert, we did it.

I enjoyed it. Only deer ive mounted came off that place.

I feel your pain, bud. I hauled all my stuff out of the hunting club 2 weeks ago save for 2 cameras on solar. One of the landowners has 240 acres up for sale that would be part of my favorite areas and would block out several great parcels that I hunt. He’s asking way too much money for it but a new owner would not have to allow access after our lease is up in June. I dang sure don’t want to take a chance on it staying leased and having to retrieve my stuff and dance with rattlers and copperheads in the heat of summer. If we lose that part of the lease I’ll put my stands elsewhere.
Good luck!

Going to get more this morning, taking two trucks, one more trip next Tuesday should get the rest, except for Polaris.

More crap brought back

OK, Hanco, since you are showing all the stuff from your lease, I have a question. What is all the fencing for? Were you trapping hogs? We don't have any problems yet in Michigan, but I know you do in certain parts of Texas. Sorry about your lease and good luck with your piney woods lease

Yes, my hog panels were 34” high. When I built gates and began catching pigs I sooned learned many pigs could go over the 34 inches. I had a bunch of angle iron, cut pieces to 4 foot, raised fence to four feet. Some still jumped out, but it helped. Be thankful you don’t have pigs.

This pen was 34”, caught lots of young pigs, never raised it up to 4’






Some of the fence I raised up, pig went over, became hung up






All of those pieces of fence in little trailer were abandoned, some had the idea they could keep cows and pigs out with a 2’ fence……..not hardly. Cows would knock over their feeders, fuuuck them all up.


When I get time I’m going to repair one feeder pen, some of fence has some bullet issues. Then sell fence and a pig gate. Maybe 2 pens and pig gates. I wouldn’t know what to ask for one. I have two pens and gates in East Texas now. I don’t need six pens and pig gates. I have 8 damn feeders I need to do something with.

Sorry about your lease. Seems to be more common, both having to lease and then things getting screwed up when the family patriarch or matriarch passes on. Glad we own our property

I wish I did.

Sorry to hear about your lease, a good friend had the same thing happen just a few days ago and is about to start retrieving stands and feeders. He’d been on the lease for over 30 years. I had it happen about 8 years ago but we only lost half of it.

Good luck and take care

Thank you, all good things come to an end!

Sorry to hear your news. I’ve been through the same thing a couple of times. Once in Buffalo and another time outside Brady. Moving out is a lot of work.

Good luck finding another place in central Texas.

I have had the same problem with the guy with the grass lease on the same property. He would bring anybody he wanted out when he thought nobody would be there. They left fired brass in the stands, left deer dead around the feeders.

IIRC I've got about $150 per panel(not counting my labor) in square tubing and hog panel @16' each. Saloon Gates @ Academy are +/ $200.

IIRC you have jack up feeders with winches, bails, barrels, timer units. I'd imagine you could get $300 each.

ya!


GWB

I made my panels 8 feet, easier to handle. I’ve fixed the places that were bullet damaged. A dozen 8’ panels make a good size pen. I’ve sold two feeders for 400 apiece. Material for a feeder will kill 600.00

Sorry to hear about your lease Hanco, it had some pretty nice hill country bucks on it too.
I'm gonna miss seeing those pics of all the dead hogs (and occasional aoudad), those always made me smile. Bet them damn hogs are glad you're gone though!

Best of luck on the new east texas place!

Got lucky, sold one of my tower stands, might get all of my crap tomorrow, won’t have to go back. I gave away my old camper, won’t have to fool with it.

Its a lot of work to hunt in Texas.

I got it all today, hell of a way to spend your birthday

We know a lot of farmer who grow corn and beans. They want the deer gone and are a bit flexible. But, everyone wants the money now. Pay for a lease or hit the road kind of thing. I have a renter who plants corn and beans and he is a one deer and done kind of guy. After he has his, he's not too picky about sharing the deer. I don't hunt deer anymore so I let friends and family do their part. I don't charge anyone a fee but I have more folks asking than what 48 acres can provide. If only the neighbors were so generous.

kwg

Most people don’t like others on their property

Can you blame them?

No, I do not

Loosing hunting ground of any kind is a kick in the gut. Half of our lease is up for sale. We’ll get the boot sooner or later.

Speaking of wild hogs, ground pig patties make a fine burger. Salt, pepper, garlic and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce.. Dammit!
😃

I look at the equipment and fees you have tied up in your lease and see enough money to outfit a small camping trailer and the ability to hunt deer anywhere in the country. I've killed deer in just a few states(WA, MN, WI) but travel all across the west hunting coyotes. I see deer everywhere on public lands.

WI has 500,000 hunters out for nine days and I can still hunt and track(if snow) on public lands.

Deer seasons are short compared to what he can do year round.

It’s a year around lease. I go up there about once a month to catch pigs, swim and fish in the creek

And so do I, I can fish any lake, hunt birds anywhere I want, hunt deer anywhere I want, some year I've spent as much 6 months on the road hunting and fishing. It only costs me gas and license fees, I live in my hunting truck. Free cAmping on BLM, National forest, national grasslands,. Free camping on the road at truck stops, walmarts, some hospital parking lots. Low cost camping at county fairgrounds with hookups.

I'd be bored to death hunting the same 500 acres.

You’re comparing two totally different types of hunting/fun.

Just farting around with the hogs 24/7/365 is a ball of fun. I don’t know about Texas, but for Arkansas doesn’t even require a hunting license on private ground for hogs.

Hanco doesn’t have to draw a tag or wait for points.
Or.. sleep in the Walmart parking lot. 😃

But he's stuck on the same.patch of ground and wondering if he's going to be able to go back again next year or is somebody going to out bid him for the place.

You can hunt and fish year round for free here. Tons of public land. All of my deer hunting equipment fits in my pockets. It goes into the woods with me in the morning and comes out with me at night. I spent less than 200.00 total on deer hunting last season. That covered my license/tags, gas and cartridges and I killed 6 deer. No lease fees, no feeders, no bait, no stands. Don't need any of it. There is something to hunt and fish for every month of the year and it can all be done on public land/lakes/ponds/rivers/streams of which there are tons in every direction within a half hour of home. If you know people you can also still get permission to hunt private just for the asking. Every landowner ain't a money grubbin fuuck here yet. Deer hunting costs most of you a pretty penny while it actually saves me money by not having to buy my meat at the grocery. Of course you do actually have to learn how to hunt as bait/feeders are illegal and there ain't no food plots, crop fields or shooting houses on public land.

I bet his lease fees are far cheaper than what fuel would cost to travel the nation year round. Not to mention thousands of miles a year on a vehicle.

As far as wondering if the ground is available next year that goes for anybody who hunts private unless they own it.

Yep, I too am nailed down to small parcels but it's the way I have hunted for 40 years. Never gave much thought to it.

Different strokes for different folks. Different regions, different methods. It's not a 1 shoe fits all world.

He doesn't have to learn how to hunt either. Just bait shyt in and kill it from the comfort of an elevated shooting house. Turn him loose in 5 million acres of public forest I doubt he'd be able to find a deer.

No guarantees in life. Just like a country song, guy’s wife runs off with his truck and his dog. 😃
Expect the unexpected, it’ll happen.

Nothing wrong with being stuck on the same piece of ground. No worries of some peckerhead walking in on ya.. etc

I hunt public and private they both have positives and negatives. I’ll take private most days.
To each his own.

Was hunting deer on public a couple years ago. Hour and a half before daylight. Parked on the edge of the gravel road. Got back to my truck after dark and there was a note under my wiper blade.

“You parked right where I hunt, I’ve hunted here for years. Thanks for f-ing up my day!”

Ouachita National Forest 1.4 million acres

He may fool ya.

How well do you know him?

DF

He may very well. Don't know much history other than he said he tried hunting public land in Texas once and it scared the crap out of him.. I bet there's a lot of people today that've never tried any other way and would be lost without their feeders/bait/food plots to sit over .

I hunted a 10,000 acre place in Ozone Texas. It was open enough a hunter could walk and hunt. It was my favorite place ever. I liked easing up on a large canyon, used a wrist rocket to launch rocks into the brush in bottoms to see what came running out. I killed a lot of good bucks that way. They would come flying out, stop to see WTF. That was fun. Every place else was too thick, had to go the stand and feeder program.

A lot could be said for the ways some game is hunted in Africa. Something tells me the brush country in Texas resembles portions of the bush in Africa.

As far as public ground in TX if it is a minimal as they say there will be hunters everywhere. Kind of like a few public area I know here in MO if they're close to larger cities/towns or military bases.

You gotta do what you gotta do I guess. The stand/feeder program would quickly bore the shyt outta me. No doubt an effective way to kill deer but that's just it, it's killing not hunting. You don't even have to be a good rifleman/marksman, what with a built in rest and all.. Nor do you need to learn to read sign, track, stalk, learn what deer prefer to feed on in the forest, where they'll likely be found at different times under varying weather conditions, where the bucks prefer to bed etc. etc. etc... All important stuff as there aren't many deer in a vast, mature forest and there's a whole bunch of it where they'll rarely if ever be found. Without the proper knowledge/skills, your chances of success will be slim. Hell, even little kids with very little knowledge or skill and no experience can kill deer from a stand overlooking a feeder/bait so where's the challenge/thrill/satisfaction in that ?

Ignorance vs. stupidity.

I don't think you are stupid, but.......

Your ignorance is on display most every time you reply/post about how we hunt in Texas.

"Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals.[10] The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to exploit the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, etc.), for recreation/taxidermy (see trophy hunting), although it may also be done for non-exploitative reasons such as removing predators dangerous to humans or domestic animals (e.g. wolf hunting), to eliminate pests and nuisance animals that damage crops/livestock/poultry or spread diseases (see varminting), for trade/tourism (see safari), or for ecological conservation against overpopulation and invasive species.
Recreationally hunted species are generally referred to as the game, and are usually mammals and birds. A person participating in a hunt is a hunter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting

I realize that once a topic is posted, that the direction that thread takes is "fair game" for any and all. This thread was about losing a lease. Most folks here in Texas and most likely any area that has private land hunted by leaseholders understand and can relate to Hanco's predicament.

In the 25 years or so that I've enjoyed differing hunting forums, I continue to be amused by folks such as yourself who seem to see it as their duty/mission to criticize how we hunt considering that it is a way of life of which they have little or no experience.



Quien Sabe,

GWB

I like having my own things, my own stand, feeders, etc. I don’t like the idea of people wandering up on me that I don’t know. I don’t like the idea of walking up on another hunter. There are dummies that will shoot anything that moves.

Don’t you mean, Ozona?

Even though I am six miles in off the road and have exclusive rights to 1,700 acres out of a low fenced/no fenced ranch of som 60K acres, I wear a headlight walking in to the stand in the dark in both the AM and in the PM. Deer don't wear headlights and where I hunt, an old fart such as I is not the top predator. I like seeing what is charging me in the dark.









ya!

GWB

Geedubya,

I think most any critter, 2 or 4 legged, messing with you would be in a heap of trouble...

DF

I’ve once been the unwilling participant of a Mountain Lion encounter. I will never forget it & don’t want to do that again. I pack my 45 Super anytime I go afield, no matter what I am doing.

Though 20 miles away from my current lease, there were 4 lions captured on a game camera a couple of months back. You never know where they may appear. I would hate to have to kill one. But, they are a very real contingency in Texas, anytime or anywhere.

I'm not the least bit ignorant of how you go about what you call hunting in Texas. Many Texas members post about it with pictures regularly including yourself. I think it's unfortunate in a sense what you are reduced to doing but if it blows your skirt up and as you say, it's your only viable option due to impenetrable cover, so be it. I do wish you had kept it there though, as I've watched your practices of trophy buck management and leasing spread across the Country like a fuucking disease and thereby do more to damage/ruin the sport than anything else I could possibly name. If you can't see how this is so, it is you who is truly either ignorant or stupid.

Critters were on the move tonight. We saw two truck loads of deer, several coons and stumbled upon a bbq donor.
Thermal toys are too much fun!

As I understand Texas history and how it came into the Union as a Republic, not as a territory, vast acreages weren’t originally govt. land.

If the govt has TX land they bought it or arranged for it. In the territories it was all govt land until homesteaded or bought. So, public free hunting land in TX isn’t that plentiful as it may be in states that were territories.

Correct me if I’m wrong. So, Texicans usually lease or own land where they hunt. And trespassing isn’t tolerated. Well maybe except govt protected illegals, specially in South Texas. Better not bag one of them, unless you wanna do life in the big house.

DF

Texas hunters brought all that onto themselves. The practice of paying to hunt private land I mean. Nobody had ever heard of such a thing as a hunting lease or considered paying to deer hunt private land here when I started hunting back in the '70's. There was still much private land that wasn't posted back then and if it wasn't posted it was generally understood it could be hunted without asking permission. Both of my grandfathers and my uncle owned farms here back then. None of them ever posted. Permission to hunt most land that was posted could be obtained simply by asking. No landowners expected to be paid to hunt. Combine the practice of QDM/trophy buck management, the trophy buck hunting craze and the desire of more affluent trophy hunters to exclude competition for those bucks and I give you the pay to hunt lease system.

Blackheart, What state do you hunt in?

I personally like the Texas model, ownership ruling the day, trespassers not welcomed.

I know that can cause some envy to those wanting free range, but property rights mean something in TX.

In Louisiana, we're not as strict on trespassers, but should be.

Timber companies with vast acreages, for years allowed free access. Then, they discovered that they could lease those lands to hunters. Hunting clubs actually took better care of the land which the companies liked, plus some additional revenue for them. Locals who thought they had some implied "birth right" to those lands, "cause Uncle Bob and grandpa hunting there for decades", found out that ownership rather than perceived birth rights ruled the day. Some of those people became vicious, burned camps and ATV's, did all kinda hostile stuff to the lease holders. It took a while for law enforcement to arrest enough of them to cap that behavior. It finally settled down, lease holders policing their leases, land owners pleased with the new arrangement for a number of reasons.

A good friend has 2,000 acres of hardwood bottom land on the Red River. He high fenced around a thousand acres, mainly to keep the natives and poachers out. He got together with surrounding land owners; they hired a retired Game Warden, had him deputized by the local sheriff, paid him to patrol the area. That has worked out pretty well. Ownership does mean something, even in Louisiana. How can one build a camp, have a conservation program, grow nice deer with poachers stealing your game. The answer, you can't and shouldn't have to.

DF

Blackheart, Get off your high horse, I have been hunting public and private Ranch's sense the late 1940s I was born on a 50,000 ranch in North Western Colorado, I can't remember when we didn't sell guided hunts on public and private land, it sounds like you think you are Danial Boone, and Davy Crockett, and everyone else is a FOOL,your more impressed with yourself than anyone else is. Rio7

You aren't trespassing on land that you have permission to hunt. You've been under your "system" down South for so long you just can't even fathom that. My grandparents and uncle had very few problems from not posting and allowing folks to hunt. Once a fence got left open and the heifers got out. The neighbor who forgot to close the gate apologised profusely and he and his sons helped get the stock rounded up. Heck, a farmer down the road from us when I was growing up actively recruited people to deer hunt on his land and encouraged them to shoot anything and everything they could. He had no use for deer and saw them only as criop eating pests to be eliminated. He in fact paid me for woodchucks I killed on his property when I was a kid. Texans might be wise to take notes on such when it comes to their hog infestations but no , they're too fuucking greedy and would rather bitch about the damage hogs cause incessantly. License sales are plummeting due to the lease system and the inability of many , particularly youngsters, to afford to pay to play. It's killing the the future of the sport.