This is partly to get how others would handle it, and what would you do.
I want to preface by saying that we really really like our place. It's roughly 400 acres with 4 guys on it total. My brother and I and another couple brothers. All of the people on the lease have the same chemistry. Nothing but good fun between us.
There are tons of deer on our place, no huge 150 class deer but plenty of deer where you see 20 or so every hunt and will shoot 130's all day. Besides the deer population our landowner is there every weekend. This is good and bad, but mostly good. He has had this land since the 40's(it was his dad's before). They have always kept it pristine. He does stuff for us if we ask him, he has every tool you could ever need from a screwdriver to a huge tractor to a bulldozer. Honestly if you didn't want to you wouldn't have to even go to the lease from Jan-Septemeber. He takes care of it and will fill the feeders if we ask him to. We're up around the San Saba area on the Colorado. We make our own rules. It's a 5 deer county and he says shoot them all lol..if you shoot a good buck in the morning he tells you to get another one that evening. We don't do this. Our rule is 1 trophy and 1 cull..
So here's the bad parts. He's a man that is stuck in his ways. I know we all are to a certain extent, but his solution to everything is if you don't like it, tough. He has a buddy that is a local. The landowner actually doesn't live there but the weekend. This guy that is a local is a waste, he's on disability getting checks because he has a hurt back, although you would never know it I've seen him picking up and carrying and working like everyone else. The landowner stores a car at his house, so every year the "buddy" comes and shoots a doe or spike is what we were told(not told originally when we signed up). But learned of the rule fairly quickly. We kind of had to accept it or not. We chose to instead of cause any tension basically just say ok.
There is a neighbor to our ranch that is friends with the landowner as well. This past weekend he came down and was doing the normal BS'ing, he asked a couple members to come over and watch football Sunday. They went and to make a long story short the neighbor said, the "buddy" shot an 8 point droptine at our place on the last weekend or day of the season last year. This is a deer another member watched all year long.
So to say were all upset is an understatement. We feel like we've been cheated. The horrible thing to all of this is we really love the place. We love it so much so that we're contemplating how to fix the problem with the landowner. The issue with that is, there is no way to police it and the landowner will likely say eat pooh..
So my question is do you talk to him about it and if you like the answers try to work it out, understood there is always the good chance it could happen again or just enjoy the lease this year and pack it up and find something else next year. What would be a suggested way it could be fixed? Any ideas?
Just a couple side notes. We are not heavily managing this place to the tune of feeding protein and everything. We try to shoot mature deer, but that's about our limit. We don't pay an arm and a leg either. We have tons of deer, and a lot of bucks as well. Just a side note.
Sorry for the long read..
I want to preface by saying that we really really like our place. It's roughly 400 acres with 4 guys on it total. My brother and I and another couple brothers. All of the people on the lease have the same chemistry. Nothing but good fun between us.
There are tons of deer on our place, no huge 150 class deer but plenty of deer where you see 20 or so every hunt and will shoot 130's all day. Besides the deer population our landowner is there every weekend. This is good and bad, but mostly good. He has had this land since the 40's(it was his dad's before). They have always kept it pristine. He does stuff for us if we ask him, he has every tool you could ever need from a screwdriver to a huge tractor to a bulldozer. Honestly if you didn't want to you wouldn't have to even go to the lease from Jan-Septemeber. He takes care of it and will fill the feeders if we ask him to. We're up around the San Saba area on the Colorado. We make our own rules. It's a 5 deer county and he says shoot them all lol..if you shoot a good buck in the morning he tells you to get another one that evening. We don't do this. Our rule is 1 trophy and 1 cull..
So here's the bad parts. He's a man that is stuck in his ways. I know we all are to a certain extent, but his solution to everything is if you don't like it, tough. He has a buddy that is a local. The landowner actually doesn't live there but the weekend. This guy that is a local is a waste, he's on disability getting checks because he has a hurt back, although you would never know it I've seen him picking up and carrying and working like everyone else. The landowner stores a car at his house, so every year the "buddy" comes and shoots a doe or spike is what we were told(not told originally when we signed up). But learned of the rule fairly quickly. We kind of had to accept it or not. We chose to instead of cause any tension basically just say ok.
There is a neighbor to our ranch that is friends with the landowner as well. This past weekend he came down and was doing the normal BS'ing, he asked a couple members to come over and watch football Sunday. They went and to make a long story short the neighbor said, the "buddy" shot an 8 point droptine at our place on the last weekend or day of the season last year. This is a deer another member watched all year long.
So to say were all upset is an understatement. We feel like we've been cheated. The horrible thing to all of this is we really love the place. We love it so much so that we're contemplating how to fix the problem with the landowner. The issue with that is, there is no way to police it and the landowner will likely say eat pooh..
So my question is do you talk to him about it and if you like the answers try to work it out, understood there is always the good chance it could happen again or just enjoy the lease this year and pack it up and find something else next year. What would be a suggested way it could be fixed? Any ideas?
Just a couple side notes. We are not heavily managing this place to the tune of feeding protein and everything. We try to shoot mature deer, but that's about our limit. We don't pay an arm and a leg either. We have tons of deer, and a lot of bucks as well. Just a side note.
Sorry for the long read..
Comment