Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Ready to walk away

Copied from the first post....

Anyway I don't want to invest my time and $ into a property where others are benefitting.

Landowner offered to have the new crew split work and cost of plots and such....



As far as a fee.. there isnt a lease fee or anythiny but we usually end up with 500$ in the plots and we have to brush hog the remaining unplanted fields which takes about 16 hours + fuel cost, posted signs are due to be replaced we usually do that every 3 or 4 years.
That was the agreement years ago with the landowner.

So, now you'll end up with $250 in the plots & half the fuel cost.
Frankly, you've lead a rather lucky and reasonably sheltered life if that's a big investment in time/money for rights to hunt a place that you do not own.

What's the insurance situation? Are YOU covered for someone else's mistake?
Odds are family members will never pay a dime. Or do any labor. Seen it firsthand.

Again, and please don’t this the wrong way because I’m not saying it to be a dick, but it’s not your property. I’d just be grateful to the guy for letting me be there. Frankly all of that work you put in doesn’t even come close to what a lot of guys have to invest into a place to hunt. Not to mention that it benefitted you directly even if the owner received a side benefit from it, you still did it because you knew you’d reap the rewards and not just out of selfless altruism, right?

My point is go or stay, you shouldn’t be bitter about it because it was never yours to begin with. Some of us would kill to be in your shoes. Hell I’d trade places with you in heartbeat and I’d be super grateful to the landowner for letting me be there as long as you have…

Absolutely agree that the cost is more than fair, the post wasnt meant to debate cost. And I'm not sure where I said anything about being bitter. What I was alluding to in the original post is..... it's 65 acres....

Anyone who knows anything about killing any kind of mature buck knows it doesn't take long to booger up 65 acres... you may bump a shooter off there once and get away with it. Bump him twice and he either won't be back or will be nocturnal. Doesn't matter what state the land is in. Mature deer do not respond well to pressure. Maybe I've been blessed to be surrounded by good public land as well as have good access to private all of my hunting career.

Now sure some keyboard thumper will turn this into me being a horn hunter or keeping people off "my deer"..

That's not what I'm saying...

When we go afield the plan is to stack the odds in our favor. Sneak in undetected and catch the critters by surprise. If someone hunts a piece of land for 2 or 3 days in a row I don't want to sit there the next day after them knowing my chances are lower. I have other ares where I can keep the odds in my favor. I can use whatever resources be it time, gear and cash to further enhance my property or find more spots on public trying to hunt unpressured deer.


What I have decided to do is to meet with the landowner and see if we can secure archery season and let the new guys have rifle and try to work out an agreement from there. My son and I and my buddy thought it would be better for us if we focused on archery which we prefer anyway. We would try and get the new guys to take care of he brush cutting and we would handle the plots. If that's agreeable we will try it for 1 more season. If it's not agreeable I'll pull my stands and move on with no hard feelings.

Thanks for the comments. Some good points were made, especially the insurance end. It's a fugged up world in the courts and I don't want sued of someone gets hurt using one of stands or something.

“ Anyway I don't want to invest my time and $ into a property where others are benefitting”

Good thing for you the landowner didn’t feel that way up to now though right?

You're kinda special aren't ya....


Landowner offered me the deal to do the work for the privledge.
That was up to him..

Just the same as it is up to me to walk away from the parcel if I choose to.

Never said the nephew or owner don't have any rights to do anything but I have the option to move on. Noone is asking me to leave the parcel. I'm not obligated to continue to stay just as the landowner is not obligated to me for anything.



Funny how some guys understood the context of the thread but others don't.

Maybe you’re right and maybe I did misunderstand what you were saying and if so I apologize. It just sounded right bad to me when you made that statement and I’ll tell you why: years ago when I was a young Sergeant/ E5 I got transferred to a unit temporarily when my regular unit got decommissioned in Germany. Because I was only going to be there a short time they put me in a unit with all the short timers. It was pretty sweet because they left us alone with no real responsibility and all we did was kill time. My self and two other guys volunteered to work with the maintenance guys as a way to find something to do and we really helped the unit out because most of the real maintenance guys were lazy as f Uck.

I did some things for them that they had need for a long time and the First Sergeant took notice. He was appreciative and knew I was crazy about hunting. One week before a long holiday weekend he asked me if I wanted to hunt a ranch he had access too in the Hill Country. Turns out there was an old, very wealthy retired Colonel from the 1st Sgnt’s home town that owned the place, and this guy had known the First Sergeant since he was a young boy. Top and one of the platoon sergeants in that same unit had been hunting it since they were kids and they brought me along.

To make a long story longer, they were gonna work on an old hunting cabin when they got there and do some hunting as well. They wanted me to help out with some of the work and I would get some time to hunt the place also in return.

Here’s where it gets interesting, the day after we got there I met up with another guy that was allowed to hunt the place also. He was to this day one of the biggest pricks I’ve ever met in my entire life. He didn’t do a god damned thing to help us and just sat on his fat azz stuffing his fat face when he wasn’t out there road hunting. He acted as though he owned the place when he was with us, but was a bootlicking ass kisser when the actual owners were around.

I won’t go into all the details but needless to say, he made it clear he wasn’t real happy with us being there even though he’d only been allowed to hunt there for a few years prior himself. Not even close to as long as my two buddies - who were nothing but gentlemen and as nice as could be to this guy.

Could be I was projecting my thoughts and feelings about this guy on you, so if that’s the case I do apologize. It just kind stuck in my craw when I read that thing you wrote about not wanting to do any work if it wasn’t going to benefit you only.

Have a friend who is a pecan farmer. For years he allowed me free access to all of his properties. To show my appreciation, I did all of his electrical work - and charged him nothing.

After deer season, I would go to one of his groves - shoot hogs - and pile up sticks for the privilege

In time he decided to build a pecan cleaning plant. He asked me to do all of the electrical work. I had been doing all of his work - after work - and this was more than I wanted to do in my off time. But, because he had been so generous to me, I agreed to do it.

I wired the buildings - designed and installed all of the motor control for the machinery. This took a lot of time. I charged him nothing. I even had my 20 year-old son out to help me on Saturdays.

One Saturday, my farmer friend came and talked to me as I worked. He offered to give me complete control over one of his farms. He told me that if I wanted, I could organize a club, charge dues, and keep the money in exchange for my work.

My first question:

"Are you going to hunt the property"?

Second question:

"Are you going to allow your harvesters to hunt the property?"

He answered yes to both questions.

I answered him thusly, "Thank you for you offer - but - if I accepted - it would ruin or friendship.

You see, I knew his hunting habits and I knew the habits of his harvesters. I knew that if I were to be in charge of a club - and they were members - he an his harvesters would be the first to be kicked out of the club!

I finished the work - charged him nothing - and life was good.

I said all that to say this. Sometimes you have to back away. Especially when "family" is involved. You had a good run. Be thankful for time you had.

Deer hunting will bring out the worst in people. I have seen it often over the years. Preserve your friendship - let the land go.

One size does not fit all. In my case I moved to north Idaho in 1964. Main attraction was hunting and fishing on plenty of public land. Spent the next 25 years doing just that. It was a good move. For all the same reasons that are being discussed on this thread, things were changing. More people and more BS. In 1988 I bought 40 acres of fairly remote timber ground about 70 miles from home. This property was surrounded on 3 sides by National Forest. I slowly developed it at first by tent camping, then a small camp trailer and eventually with a small cabin and a few out buildings. Now I have a couple of wildlife food plots, atv trails, and permanent hunting blinds. I hunt mostly on my own property now. Me and my wife spend at least 2-3 days a week up there 9 months of the year. My wife don't like the cold and snow so I go up alone off and on through out the winter.
If your so inclined, it can be done. I worked 30 years for the U.S.F.S. and never made a ton of money. Just a working stiff with a dream. Best move I ever made and its all worth it.

Sixty five acres? I could shoot the whole place from a single point. I need that much just to turn my truck around.

65 acres around here isn't a lot but is no slouch either.

We have hunted on as little as 5 acres.

20-80 acre pieces are pretty common.

Dryfly,

Thanks for the clarification. Your situation is similar to what I'm trying to avoid. Which over some past experiences is why I solely hunt with family and a few close friends.

I see that I totally misread the situation now and again my sincere apologies. I hope it works out well for you. Best to you and yours…

DF24

Got involved with a father and son. We ended up on a 280 acre deer/pig/turkey/squirrel lease.
We hunted it about 5 years until the idiot landowner let some jerk lease it out from under us!
About two years later, I get a call from the dad! He's leased the property again. The other leasor left the landowner high and dry.
Four years later, the landowner died. The heirs immediately kicked the cattle raiser and the house renters off the property...but left us alone! (?) When hunting season ended, we tried to lease for the next year. Heck, they didn't even know we were leasing! WE got kicked off.
The heirs finally sold the place at auction.

On a whim, I went to the county abstract office and looked up the current land owner. Lo and behold, the landowner owns the container company that services my home!

So, I called him.
"I don't turkey hunt!"
I told him, "IF you will allow me to turkey hunt in the spring, I won't even THINK about deer hunting!"
I ended up with spring turkey season hunting rights! 😃!
....and a promise to kill all the hogs I could! LOL!

Agreed! I feel for hunters that are confined to tiny hunting plots looking over the same tired section of woods every day......Hb

Back in the late 60's, early 70's, a friend of mine had a 5 acre deer lease up near Montalba, TX.
The area is known for it's sandy land and growing black eye, purple hull and a variety of other peas.
His little 5 acre plot sat right between two huge pea fields. He killed near "Booner" bucks almost every year!
Way too many tried desperately to lease his little honey hole out from under him, but his relationship with the landowner was good.

It ain't the size of the plot. It's the location of the plot.

Location.
Location.
Location.

The first 30 years of my hunting life was on 400 acres.

I've also hunted small parcels.

Time and fiscal restraints may sometimes confine a hunter to what can be located and/or afforded.
Don't feel bad for hunters on small plots. Feel good that they are out doing what they can with what they have.
Not everybody can drive a Rolls Royce or shoot 200" bucks.

. Yeah for me it would be torture to sit in a stand and look at the same 5 acres of woods day after day, i am used to scouting/hunting thousands of acres of rugged National Forest, it aint easy to find a buck id shoot but I am lucky to live in an area where there is more public hunting land than i could possibly hunt in a lifetime......Hb

I consider 400 acres a small parcel, I was on a 550 acre lease with 4 other guys for a while and i thought it sucked!...but i do understand your point.....Hb