Got A Good One For You

[Dknut]

I got on this lease a couple years ago with a couple friends of mine. They gave me ample warning about the land owner but I decided to move forward with the lease anyhow. Well, they were not exaggerating! Things continue to get worse every year. We've put up with it because we've harvested some pretty nice trophies. Over the years the trophies have dwindled (no coincidence the decline after he got off MLD). This past season the trophy buck were all but gone (only one was harvested).

I understand that the landowners are just that. They own the land and can do what they want with it, but some of this stuff that he's doing makes me think that's he's trying to run us off. Last year he shredded a part of a pasture during our hunt, not but 200 yards away from one of our more popular stand. We confronted him about this and he promised he would get all shredding done before/after deer season in the future. Fast forward to this season. He had been great this year. No confrontations, very pleasant to be around, and seemed like a new man. Then December came. In the middle of the rut we get a report from a lease member that he is pushing up and burning brush piles within 200 yards of his stand. A couple weeks later he shreds and plows a pasture, literally 50 yards past one of our feeders. I have pictures on my game cam of him driving past our feeders after 4:30PM. He waits till 3:00 every day to go out and feed his cattle and have even run into him at my blind as he was driving through the hunting pasture (no reason for him to be passing through there).
When confronted about this he gets defensive and will redirect with some silly complaint (like a shotgun shell he found on the ground in camp).

As a land owner in prime whitetail country you'd think he would be doing everything he could to promote a good hunting environment. The bigger his herd gets, the more in demand his lease would get. To me he seems to be doing everything he can to run his bucks into hiding and doesn't want them shot.

Everyone is more than likely leaving the lease this year due to the issues with the owner. It sucks, I really enjoy having a place to take my kids and have an opportunity to harvest a nice buck.

Anyone else have experiences with a landowner similar to this?

[Bayouboy]

Well, I leased a place in Groveton near Davey Crockett for 3 years from a guy who supposedly owned it. Needless to say he did not own it

I put a lot of work into the place until I found that out and left.

[ramrod]

So your saying there is an opening? :-)

[muzzlebrake]

I've been told that farming and ranching goes on 365 days a year and don't stop for a deer season. Lease money is bonus mailbox money to the landowners. If they depended solely on lease money then they in the wrong bidnez. Gonna be hard to find a place that don't have livestock or crops growing that need to be tended to year around unless it's some real small acreage somewhere.

[WItoTX]

Volunteer your time to get the tasks he is doing during deer hunting hours, next to your stand, done at more conducive times, and explain why you want to help.

If he says no, I think you know why, and make your decision from there.

[bowhunterhelm]

I have an exceptional land owner but our place is a working cattle ranch first and a deer lease second. If cows need to be moved or fed etc, they will be tended to first. Hasn't been much of a problem, the deer on our lease are pretty stupid as far as deer go. They see him and his trucks etc in the pastures every day and are used to it. Him working cattle doesn't seem to bother the hunting.

[Bucknaked]

It stinks but you were warned before you got on it !

[Dknut]

I've been told that farming and ranching goes on 365 days a year and don't stop for a deer season. Lease money is bonus mailbox money to the landowners. If they depended solely on lease money then they in the wrong bidnez. Gonna be hard to find a place that don't have livestock or crops growing that need to be tended to year around unless it's some real small acreage somewhere.

There aren't any crops and about 80 head of cattle. I understand the work needed for cattle, but not shredding new senderos (when there are already plenty).

[RiverRat1]

Why would big bucks disappear just because he drops MLD?

Deer are not that bothered by ranchers burning brush and shredding. Ranchers can only burn when burn bans are lifted. Now if he walks up and lights a fire on a Saturday morning with a guy in the blind LOL

[Dknut]

Volunteer your time to get the tasks he is doing during deer hunting hours, next to your stand, done at more conducive times, and explain why you want to help.

If he says no, I think you know why, and make your decision from there.

Yeah, we've done this. We shredded in years past in all our hunting areas and even areas he asked us to do. This work he was doing in December was new senderos not associated with hunting areas. Just random.

And he's not short on time. He has a ranch hand that he constantly struggles finding things for him to do, that's why it's extremely annoying that hunting season is when he has him shredding. Why not have him shred in September when he is looking for work?

Just doesn't make sense.

[coker737]

Leased Land in Erath County many year back. Oil and Gas companies were hitting up land owners big time. A week before opening day Gun season the owner let oil and gas in to do some THUMPING. How I found out was opening morning heading to our stands we see cords and sending boxes everywhere.

No one saw anything that morning. We confronted the landowner, and that’s when he informed us that they had machinery that was thumping the ground looking for oil and gas a few days ago. Needless to say we didn’t see any deer for at least a month. We were very disappointed.

[Dknut]

Why would big bucks disappear just because he drops MLD?

Deer are not that bothered by ranchers burning brush and shredding. Ranchers can only burn when burn bans are lifted. Now if he walks up and lights a fire on a Saturday morning with a guy in the blind LOL

I don't think they are disappearing because he dropped MLD. In the few years this place has been removed from MLD the amount of trash walking around has increased significantly. We are taking out the trash by what the lease allows us to but it's not enough to keep up. We're harvesting 5 culls when we should be harvesting 20. When we were on MLD we'd be allowed to harvest 15-20 trash bucks per season. Now that we're off, the trash is taking over.

As for the burning brush piles. I'd have to disagree. Deer are bothered by smoking piles of brush. What was once one of the most deer populated stand was desolate when he started burning the brush piles. And yes, the brush piles were still smoldering/smoking during the hunt.

[Smokeater]

Prolly has someone else wanting to lease it or thinks/knows he can get more money if y'all get mad and leave. Y'all have a contract?

We have cattle on our place too but he don't feed or do bs like that till after 10:00. If he see's our truck parked somewhere he goes and feeds somewhere else. Yeah, farming/ranching goes on year round but they don't have to be chickenscat about things.

[Smart]

I have an exceptional land owner but our place is a working cattle ranch first and a deer lease second. If cows need to be moved or fed etc, they will be tended to first. Hasn't been much of a problem, the deer on our lease are pretty stupid as far as deer go. They see him and his trucks etc in the pastures every day and are used to it. Him working cattle doesn't seem to bother the hunting.

Same here....Cows first....Hunters somewhere down the line. Our landowner is very friendly and courteous but if something needs to be done at that specific time, it needs to be done no matter who is on stand. Chalk it up and move on to the next day or weekend.

And agree with the mailbox money analogy. I try to keep that in mind when something interrupts my hunt.

[Drycreek3189]

I got on this lease a couple years ago with a couple friends of mine. They gave me ample warning about the land owner but I decided to move forward with the lease anyhow. Well, they were not exaggerating! Things continue to get worse every year. We've put up with it because we've harvested some pretty nice trophies. Over the years the trophies have dwindled (no coincidence the decline after he got off MLD). This past season the trophy buck were all but gone (only one was harvested).

I understand that the landowners are just that. They own the land and can do what they want with it, but some of this stuff that he's doing makes me think that's he's trying to run us off. Last year he shredded a part of a pasture during our hunt, not but 200 yards away from one of our more popular stand. We confronted him about this and he promised he would get all shredding done before/after deer season in the future. Fast forward to this season. He had been great this year. No confrontations, very pleasant to be around, and seemed like a new man. Then December came. In the middle of the rut we get a report from a lease member that he is pushing up and burning brush piles within 200 yards of his stand. A couple weeks later he shreds and plows a pasture, literally 50 yards past one of our feeders. I have pictures on my game cam of him driving past our feeders after 4:30PM. He waits till 3:00 every day to go out and feed his cattle and have even run into him at my blind as he was driving through the hunting pasture (no reason for him to be passing through there).
When confronted about this he gets defensive and will redirect with some silly complaint (like a shotgun shell he found on the ground in camp).

As a land owner in prime whitetail country you'd think he would be doing everything he could to promote a good hunting environment. The bigger his herd gets, the more in demand his lease would get. To me he seems to be doing everything he can to run his bucks into hiding and doesn't want them shot.

Everyone is more than likely leaving the lease this year due to the issues with the owner. It sucks, I really enjoy having a place to take my kids and have an opportunity to harvest a nice buck.

Anyone else have experiences with a landowner similar to this?

Yep. I had a 1,406 acre lease near Ballinger, very few really good bucks, but a ton of deer and always a chance for a mid 30s buck to be taken. Plenty of turkeys, quail if it rained enough. My landowner, who was a great guy, died in the spring of year 5, and his wife took over.

The first couple years were ok, then I think she began to get advice from others and began implementing rules. No moving stands, no travel trailers, watch how much water we used, feeding cows at peak hunting times, and raising the price every 3/4 years. By the time I had been there 18 years the drive was getting long and she was wearing on me. She then wanted to go up on the price again and I told her I was gonna leave because I had bought a place close to home to hunt. She offered the lease without the raise, I declined, and she literally cried. I knew a guy who wanted the lease and I sold him the stands and feeder pens, and the lease truck, traded the cabin I had built for future turkey hunting, gathered up our personal stuff and the feeders, and came home.

The guy that took it stayed five years, and the straw that broke his particular camel’s back was when she had a hoe and a dozer clearing a cross fence line on opening day of general season. That ended my turkey hunting………I miss it a little.