Lease rules question...

[whakm]

I won't go into details on the story, but I just want a consensus on what everyone's lease rules regarding harvests are. First a little background:

On my lease, we are allowed to take what TPWD says is legal, 3 does and 2 bucks, except that we have imposed upon ourselves part of the antler restriction rules. While we don't have to look for a deer that is 13" or wider, we are only allowed to take one "trophy" buck which is defined as any buck with forked antlers, and one "spike" which I need to clarify (does spike mean both antlers unbranched, or just one?). For reference, the deer population on this lease seems pretty high to me, but it's mostly does, very few bucks, and I've seen very few spikes also. We are trying to get the buck population up, but we also want to maintain plenty of does, because everyone likes to eat venison, and does eat just as good as bucks if not better.

Anyway, on your leases, say you shoot your trophy deer, but are unable to recover it for whatever reason. Would you be allowed to shoot another trophy deer, since you didn't recover the first? If allowed, would YOU PERSONALLY do that? What if you shot a doe and didn't recover it? Would you be allowed to write that doe off and shoot another doe (meaning you arrowed 4 does, but only recovered 3)? If allowed, would you do THAT since does are different than bucks, and you have a surplus of does anyway?

Thanks in advance guys, we had a couple of situations come up last weekend and I'm trying to get it ironed out. I can't find any law that says you can't shoot another deer if you fail to recover one that you shot (although you gave a good effort, to include calling in a tracking dog), so I don't think it's illegal to do that. There is nothing written in the rules of this lease that lines it out, I guess it's never been an issue in the past, but it'll be written in the rules next year, I'll make sure of that, just to make sure everyone is on the same page before they pay their money. I'm just trying to get a feel for what rules everyone else goes by. Of course, you could go to a different property, day lease, family land, whatever, and fill that extra tag you had left, if that's your preference, but I do know that some people will tear the tag out and destroy it if they wound a deer. Kind of like a moral/ethic high ground thing saying, "I made a bad shot, the deer suffered because of it, I'm going to suffer as well, by not allowing myself to shoot at another one."

We had the same issue on our lease not too many years ago because we had a couple of guys who would shoot at anything and it was always the same story " I think i hit him, I found a little blood but i cant figure out why he didnt go down". Those guys are no longer on the lease.
The rule on our lease is: you draw blood that's your deer. Now, we're not real sticklers on it when it comes to does so if you shoot one and cant find it no one gripes if you shoot another one to take its place. But none of the guys on our lease tags out. Usually 2-3 deer is a many as anyone takes. As far as bucks, if you draw blood you better not dare shoot another one. (you will be drawn and quartered). Our rule is if it's your "trophy deer" we better see a bill from the taxidermy. It's come back to bite me a couple of times when i shot what was a real nice 8 pointer and 15 minutes later (while I'm gathering my stuff to go get my deer) a huge 9 pointer walks by10 yards from my stand. All i could do is sit and smile.If it's a spike, it needs to be minimum 2 1/2 years old with horns at least as long as his ears.

[SB09]

On our place if you draw blood it counts, you've got to eat that tag. That's the way we've always done things. Only exception to that rule is if we get a game camera picture of whatever you shot in good health. We've had to hold people to this rule. Even though its not fun, we don't see it as fair to take another animal when the other one is presumed dead. Just about any managed ranch high or low fence is this same way.