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

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.

You're far more impressed with you than I am, that's for sure.

There's an old saying, "Money talks, B.S. walks".

Responsibility, as in who's paying the upkeep and who's paying the property taxes.... Surely not poachers, surely not free loaders.

Now, if a land owner wants to open his property to the public, gratis, so be it. It's his choice.

But, unfortunately, that open door policy, often over time, causes problems, trash, litter, gates left open, equipment vandalized or stollen, livestock injured or stollen, etc. Of course, not everyone does that, but enough that most landowners don't have that policy. Or if they did, they revert to controlled access. And, all too often those decisions are from their experiences of being overly "generous" (naive) granting free access....

Just ask ranch owners, talk to them, hear their stories. I have and some of their accounts are pretty interesting. All my property is in Louisiana with controlled access. I'd for sure do the same if I was in TX.

DF

DF, that is the current state of NYS land ownership.
Everyone local thinks they can walk all over it because "PawPaw" did 50 years ago.
Don't get me started on the ATV's/UTV's and Jeeps.
And those locals help themselves to whatever they find there too. If they don't want it they damage it.

That is what is causing an increase in POSTED signs and the painting of boundary trees on private lands.

Hanco, change is inevitable. Enjoy the memories. and keep looking for the next opportunity!

Sounds like you've got lots of dirtbags in the South. Why am I not surprised ? Like I said we had VERY FEW problems over the years by allowing folks to hunt and my maternal grandfathers farm was never posted from the time he bough it in 1946 until his death in 2003. Of course the new owner, a non resident from the city, posted it up before the ink was dry on his deed. The thing I find most annoying is that many of these new landowners got THEIR start in hunting on other peoples land who graciously allowed THEM access for free. Now there,.... are some truly selfish dirtbags for you.

Why the heck did you not buy that farm yourself? Hmmmmmm

I ain't a farmer. What would I do with it ? I sure don't need it for hunting. I've got thousands of acres of State forest 2 miles up the road plus permission to hunt private totalling a few thousand more in 6 Counties, including my neighbors 326 acres right next door. Like I said before, it's still possible to get permission just for the asking here if you know people. The practice of leasing/paying for access hasn't completely taken over everywhere quite yet.

Enjoy your state land hunting.
But do not disparage those private landowners of their right to hold and manage their property as they see fit.
They pay for that right.
So when I hunt other's lands on invite or permission, I gift something. Helping out with the taxes is the right thing to do.

Yes. Loved that place, south of town, close to the Devils River. A guy named Bob Childress owned many thousands of acres there.

Blackheart seems to be in pain. Something must be hurting him…