Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Ready to walk away

From a 65 acre property I've had exclusive permission to for the last 10 years. The landowner nephew and buddies are now allowed to hunt it.. Nephew is 20 something maybe 30..
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. Just opens up cans of worms I don't feel like dealing with. I prefer to hunt away from others. Unless family. I don't want to hunt where someone else just fogged it up not knowing how to hunt the wind or properly enter and exit..


My hunting buddy and son think we should hold on if we can keep archery secured.

I think we should bail.


We killed a pile of deer there and some damn good ones. Hate to end the memories but hate a hassle also.

It hurts.
Were you saving up for the last 10 years to buy something?
Always be looking. Always.

Might be worth it to try it one more year. You’ll still likely have the place to yourself much of the season. Lots of guys don’t really go out that much. You might even like the new guys. I’d still have a backup plan in case it becomes a hassle. If they’re not bow hunters you might already have a good buck by the time firearm season rolls around.

The bigger issue may be that there’ll be no room for your buddy and his son. Would you hunt the place alone? Might be awkward to disinvite your two buds. Maybe the three of you can work out another place while you still do some hunting on the old property.

Meet with the nephew to "coordinate." You'll know what to do within ten minutes.


Okie John

Good advice.

Wife and I bought 57 acres in '18. This place im talking about is a patch of our old stomping grounds. The nostalgia of it is the hard part. We do have a deer camp down the road 2 miless so that also makes this property nice to hold on to. Everything else around camp is posted or you have to walk 3 miles to get to public.

Where the wife and I live now on our 57 is surrounded by public. Which is why I have more of a mind to walk away. I could hunt here at home the rest of my life and do just fine.

But I do like John's idea.

No idea if these new fellas archery hunt or not. If we retain the archery and get a day or 2 in rifle I guess thats good enough. Especially if the cost gets split. My buddy is also on good terms with the landowner so im certain we are good to go there.

Good luck with the deal. Maybe something works out just fine.
Youth can help with the workload.
I find it harder to put up with things I can't control as I get older.
Peace and quiet on your own land is worth every penny paid to get it. Enjoy it often.

Probably worth the effort to at least talk with the guy, BUT “buddies” more than likely will futz it up for everyone. Buddies usually mean more and more buddies, and a small property just can’t absorb a lot of pressure. I doubt very much that the new guys will be willing to forgo Archery season.

I’d be looking into convenient Public Lands. I’ve found that they can be enjoyable and productive if you can avoid weekends and sometimes opening days.

Sounds like you already made up your mind.

All good things come to an end

I would not walk away just yet. Feel them out and see what you will be dealing with. see who shows up and who deosent. If they have other hunting properties they may not be there ( your Place) all that much. people with more then one property tend to gravitate to the one that has the best hunting. Last if you can,switch things up on them and hunt the middle of the week then, you will not be dealing with them on the weekends.

I'd walk away from it

Hell that isn’t a big enough property for 3 people.

I’d try to lease it from the owner and have it all locked down. Whatever leases go for add a little $ and see if he will bite

if that doesn’t work feel it out I guess. But sounds like this is probably the end

What you don't know yet is how dedicated or involved these other two guys are as hunters. Do they hunt just on the weekend or once a year type social hunters? If so, you may not be out much other than an occasional weekend. I'd give it a season or two to see how it shakes out. Have them put their share of the work in and set expectation early.

On that note, I've lost lost property so many times over the years that I started saving. I bought 93 acres for the family and I to have our own place where we could control the situation. I've not regretted the decision.

NW PA with tens of thousands acres of open land and you are worrying about 65 acres?

Suggestion, sign up for HuntX and you will also find additional large pieces that are not GL and open to hunting.

It's nice to have private parcels to have some control. Plant plots. Hunt and not be disturbed by others.

I've got onx and use it extensively. I play in the ANF and SGL alot CP also. Probably headed shed hunting on ANF after work.

i have had this happen to me on my uncles land i was the only person hunting there then more people showed up with permission too so what i did was buy some land and keep it too my family only son daughter ,son in law , grandson , one true friend who is like family maybe better and me for deer season. i make the rules boys and myself one 8 pt. or better , daughter and grandson what ever no more than two any deer.

Or if you go further back than anyone else like i do, I have never seen another soul hunting the areas of National Forest I hike into....Id say Pappys advice is spot on....Good luck 👍....Hb

Unfortunately nothing lasts forever. Learned a long time ago hunting leased land. Equipment needed to be on wheels. Hasbeen

I'd run

When you don't own the property why do you feel that you should have exclusive access or make rules as to who does ?

Jeez, at least meet up and talk to the nephew. Find out what his intentions and expectations are and go from there. He may be only out for a trophy only or just fill a tag. Does he intend to bring all his buddies or keep it limited. He is not the landowner either. Talk to the landowner and maybe have a meeting with landowner, nephew and everyone involved. Maybe work on some rules and exchange phone numbers too.

Damn right me too.....I quit hunting private land many years ago ( way too much drama) and have never looked back.....Hb

Same here - I haven't hunted private land in probably 25 years. No need, Kansas has more public hunting than I could hunt in a lifetime and I've gone entire rifle deer seasons without seeing another hunter afield.

Thats great! I love hunting vast tracts of public land. I have not hunted private land since 2001, I said goodby to the drama 👍......Hb

I'd wait it out. The nephew may be a very casual or opening day only kind of hunter. I'd keep it through one more season.

I'd leave... I just don't want the intrusion and people hunting the wrong winds and "scouting" all the time etc... not for me. Too many other good places to hunt to have several people crowded in on 65 acres every week.

If your not paying for it I would keep it as an available option but look around for some more. I wouldn't invest on any food plots or that sort of improvement. The other guys interest may disintegrate quickly. I’m on a 4000 acre lease with 9 other hunters and you have the same concerns even on a big tract.

Have you hunted with them before? How do you know they're "going to fog it up" and not work as hard as you? They might work harder and hunt better than you do....give them a chance any maybe you can all benefit. It kinda sounds like the landowner is doing you a favor by giving you a chance to hunt it even though he's going to let his family hunt it now.

Sure sounds cheaper than buying land.

Good things end, went last weekend to get two stands I had on a lease, 14 hunters killed one legal deer in two years.

Been watching your posts thinking that same thing

I think you should give it a chance.
These fellas might be some really good-hearted guys.

been there, plot no one had hunted, I started putting out corn ect, the the land owner buddies were there to reap the benifits, I pulled my feeders and left

Seems every time I lose a piece of property another one comes available. I had a 2 acre tract in a suburban Atlanta that was awesome. Killed lots of deer and several nice bucks over a 10 year period. Then one day the owner gave permission to another guy. The guy put his blind up 3 yards away from my climber when I went to the store at lunch. Came back an hour later to get back in the stand and he was sitting in his blind. Public land in Georgia means hordes of people unless you plan on hunting weekdays and walking 2-3 miles in. Which means you're dragging a deer 2-3 miles back. I bought a house with 30 acres and then bought 25 acres adjoining it. Best investment ever. NO more dealing with jack asses.

Jeepers! That is one tough deer!

We all shot him 3 times!

I was about to say the same thing. The whole post reeks of entitlement. Unless the OP is paying a fee for the privilege.

Sounds like a My House My Rules situation. If I didn't like the new setup Id leave it to the guy's nephew. I got two small farms of my own to hunt so I'm set in two states.

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

I can't say at the times I've been through there.
Back towards Athens, there's several big game
ranches and elk ranches and the former governor's
place, and his late son's place further toward
Montalba. And back on the opposite side of
the highway is the hf trophy ranch where that guy
that makes all those videos of his massive whitetail
archery kills. Almost the whole stretch of the
highway from Henderson cty to the other side of
Anderson has gone all high fence. Lots of massive
antlers for those so inclined and have the bank account
to play the game. Way way way out of my price range.
Sincerely happy for those that can

At least Montalba has the Dollar General.
About all I can afford in that area.
Used to have an affordable bbq sandwich joint.
Haven't stopped at the new Bradford cafe.
The old burnt down place was ok

Ain't got much to say. Last time I traveled that country was the fall of '69 going to school at "Hig-Jig". Do you remember "Henderson County Junior College"?

Waylon Jennings and Jessie Colter had bought themselves a secluded spot somewhere east of Blackfoot.
Knew some folks that had land between Montalba and Bois D'Arc back east of Hwy 19 that left me hunt a time or two. Never saw a hair.
Growing up in Palestine (1950's, 1960's), if anybody said they deer hunted in Anderson county, you laughed at them.
Derr were about as scarce as hen's teeth! LOL!
We had a lease over in Leon county.
When they built the Coffield prison up near Tennessee Colony, TDC was still growing all their own veggies. Huge crops to feed the entire prison system and the deer followed.
By 1980, I moved out of the area. Haven't been back since....except to visit. 😃