Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Guests on your hunting lease

Don't have much 'lease' experience but have had to un-invite so called friends from hunting my little piece of heaven owned.
It's really simple: if YOU break OUR rules on OUR property YOU no longer have permission to hunt here.
It's happened twice in 25 years and neither person speaks to me.
I'm good with it as it showed their true selves.

Used to have some brothers come to camp back in the day. Good friends and coworkers of my dad’s. They became uninvited after one of the filled my dad’s cow tag for him, on opening morning without him ever even expressing the idea that they should do something like that. That was the final offense, they’d been given a pass on a couple similar shenanigans previously.

They didn’t speak for about a decade afterwards but have gotten past it now. They still haven’t been invited back though.

The guy I brought along one year just wanted to come hang out. Until we got there and he decided he should “share” my bull tag and would pay half if he killed one. When I told him that wasn’t happening he got pouty and stayed drunk for the next 6 days. I was embarrassed and nobody wanted him back.

We do not allow "guests" on our lease. Our rules are immediate family only which is defined as spouse and your children. On leases we were on in the past it was invariable that the "guests" always shot young bucks that the paying members had agreed to give a pass on to grow up. It is not fair to the paying members that follow the rules. Every place is different but we really like the immediate family only rule.

In the OP case I would not invite that guest back. If that person is a true friend they will understand they broke the rule and brought that upon themselves and not harbor any bad feelings.

Tell em bye.

NO guests allowed on lease = no problems. None of my hunting buddies know the location of our lease and I don't ask to hunt on their leases. Simple solution.

What rules were not obeyed?

The situation was that my son invited a friend from a non-hunting family to hunt with us last year. The boys had a good hunt and punched some tags. All went well, so we invited him back this year. All was fine the first weekend, with both boys punching their two RIVER WMA doe tags. They both had an "any deer" WAHOO WMA tag to fill, so we went out to the lease this past Saturday. The three of us were in the same ground blind, so I had what I thought was final approval over which deer they would shoot. The rules are the we don't shoot small bucks and we don't shoot does with spotted fawns. The boys decided who would shoot first by way of a coin flip before the season and then alternated shots from there on. Those rules worked fine last year and for opening weekend, but my son's friend shot a small buck after I specifically told him not to shoot it.

The shooter was using our gear, rifle/scope/ammo, and I bought the deer tags and habitat stamp for him. I was happy to do this and had planned to give him the rifle/scope combo for a high school graduation gift, but now I'm not so sure.

Being from a non-hunting family, is he actually clear on what a small buck is? Heck, half the guys I know that have hunted for a long time don't know the difference.

Being your son's friend puts you in an awkward situation.
Truthfully, at his young age, it might be an opportunity for a teaching moment. But if he did it just to be a contrarian and to satisfy his wants, I'd tell him to stay home.

What Skane said.

I'd just told him not to shoot it and less than a minute later he shot it. It was the only buck in the field, so there was no misunderstanding. When I asked him why he shot it, he said that he wanted to shoot a buck and punch his tag.

I pay for the lease, so I get to set the rules, Besides, if you shoot little bucks, they never get the opportunity to grow into whatever their potential is and isn't the whole point of shooting an animal with antlers to shoot one with either a large or unusual set of antlers?

That's blatant disregard, not a yootful mistake. He's burned the bridge. This will be a valuable life lesson.

Seems like he certainly knew not to do what he did but disobeyed your rules anyway. I would not invite him again and also explain why to him. Also explain to your son that if his friend gets mad with him about the situation he caused between himself and you then he isn’t a friend he needs anyway.

Based on this information I would not even think twice about letting the young man know that he is not going to be invited back to hunt. He needs to learn some life lessons. If my boss tells me not to do something and I do it anyway right in front of his face he would fire my butt.

Ahhhhh - well, then he'll be learning a very valuable life lesson from the last time he hunted with you. Enjoy the public land hunting, youngster!

He would have been sat down and talked to before the Deer was moved, and told not to expect to be asked back. Perhaps not forever, but most definitely for the immediate future. How he conducted himself in future interactions would be a large determining factor. How old is he?

well past the age of accountability.....

Reading back, I see he was getting ready to graduate from HS, so I agree.

However, I’ve learned more from my mistakes than my successes.

Yep, agreed.

We don't even allow spouses unless they become paying members.

And the child allowance stops when they graduate High School.