Best buck yet

[WeedyJ]

So I was out of the country and, my buddy, who puts in as much work as I do on the property, gave permission to some guy that I do not know to hunt. The guy said he wanted a doe or a hog. He was not told specifically not to shoot a buck. Then I get this photo from my apologetic buddy. At first, I was pi**ed off, but then I realized that the management I started 2 years ago may be starting to work. He lacks some of the mass we sometimes see in our area, and is a bit younger (I think) than I would have taken, but oh well. He's the biggest from my property in the 10 years that I have owned it. Hopefully he's the first and smallest of more to come!


.

 

[Big Snow Man]

Can I come down and hunt a hog or a doe next ? LOL. Nice buck

 

[WeedyJ]

My buddy was very apologetic to me, but I only laughed because the guy was hunting HIS favorite stand!

 

[bwoods11]

Wow, you are more receptive to losing a huge buck than I would be! Had that happen one time, hunt a doe, but shot a buck... Didn’t get invited back.
That’s a nice buck.

 

[g squared 23]

I like your attitude, at the end of the day, it’s JUST deer hunting, it’d be dumb to strain or fracture a friendship over it. There will be plenty more to come, but either way, we’ll enjoy the ride.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WeedyJ]

I like your attitude, at the end of the day, it’s JUST deer hunting, it’d be dumb to strain or fracture a friendship over it. There will be plenty more to come, but either way, we’ll enjoy the ride.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh I can't lose a guy that does 50% of the work on my place!

 

[Bill]

I’m glad you’re happy. And I believe you are. The next 7 times won’t go as well. As time goes on I predict you and you’re friend may both come to a conclusion. Don’t be serious or don’t invite guests.

My brother and I finally came to the latter conclusion. Always exceptions, we still love to have a youth hunter each year. but I had to go as far as disappointing my father in law. No skin in the game makes it very hard to get willing participants in your game...

That’s not to say the first decision is wrong either. It’s a personal choice and neither is easy.

 

[Someday isle]

It’s just a personal decisIon all of us have to make. Our property is small and I’m the sole owner so it’s easy for me to decide who hunts and who doesn’t. Anyone I invite is welcome to shoot what they want. I don’t own the deer, just the land. I’d think that if I had a partner we’d need very specific rules on who hunts and when. If you’re happy, he’s happy, and the hunter didn’t break and rules, any laws, and didn’t tear anything up that’s good for everyone.

Nice Buck though. You’re clearly doing something right.

 

[weekender21]

Man, what a dandy!

 

[SwampCat]

Great buck. I have had some one time guests shoot some nice bucks - but I just look at it like big bucks are hard to get a shot at. That might have been the only chance all season somebody had of killing it on your property. And much better on your property than your neighbor’s. I have nine bucks on the wall and another in the freezer from this past weekend that will be mounted - making ten. I have killed one of them. Any big one killed on my place gets mounted and stays at my house. Nobody has complained about that yet.

Did you have pictures of that deer?

 

[WeedyJ]

Great buck. I have had some one time guests shoot some nice bucks - but I just look at it like big bucks are hard to get a shot at. That might have been the only chance all season somebody had of killing it on your property. And much better on your property than your neighbor’s. I have nine bucks on the wall and another in the freezer from this past weekend that will be mounted - making ten. I have killed one of them. Any big one killed on my place gets mounted and stays at my house. Nobody has complained about that yet.

Did you have pictures of that deer?

No. But my buddy had not checked cameras recently, so of course he went screaming over to the property 2 hours away after work the next day just to check:-). Alas, no evidence on camera. If that buck HAD been on camera, I think Mike would've mounted his own head for not checking :-) And you're right that we might not have seen him anyway. I'm new to the habitat game, and am just learning about doe factories. That seems to be what I am creating, so will shift some tactics moving forward. Some nice bucks have already been taken across the road in unkempt pine stands with little to no management. Mike called me this morning to let me know he went by this morning and saw a nice buck leaving the property around 6:30 am. Live and learn. For now, gonna hunt the rut hard and manage does moving forward.

 

[ssesox]

I have 3 friends/family that only gun hunt with me on my properties which are only 140 acres. They get 2-4 days to deer hunt each year and they enjoy eating venison. I also enjoy their company and gun deer season is a hell of a lot more fun with friends. I enjoy their excitement, stories, cocktails, blood trails, hanging deer etc. I don't have any rules on what they can kill. IF they want some meat I encourage them to shoot a doe or 1.5 yr old buck. They see several more yearling bucks than mature does every opening weekend. Last season my neighbor pulls into my parking lot to talk to me and see's my 3 buddies with 3- 1.5 yr bucks and a nubby buck. He couldn't believe I was letting these guys kill those young bucks and ruining the deer herd. It did make me a little uneasy but I also thought it was funny because this guy is so uptight when it comes to deer. I don't want be a QDM Nazi and ruin their fun and their meat gathering. At the end of the day its just a deer, a renewable resource and I would rather they kill 3- 1.5 yr than nice up and comers 2.5 or 3.5 yr olds. As for some dude I don't know killing one of the biggest deer on my land. I would be pissed.

 

[bigbendmarine]

WeedyJ, first off congrats on the work paying off with a nice buck!

I grew up across the state line, not too far from Lake Greenwood. Guessing you may have heard about it if you follow the GON forum -- fella not too far from you in Wrens just killed a nice one as well about a week ago.

On the subject of drawing big ones to your place, few painful lessons I learned on my place both sound related to your share -- first I cut back to caring for and hunting my place alone after having a couple of friends hunt it with me the first year I bought it. I didn't like the ever-increasing "friend of a friend" requests that started coming in, and the coming and goings of my buds alone DEFINITELY pushed the local adult buck population to visit almost exclusively on a nocturnal basis.

After making the firm decision to go it alone I decided to treat my place as much like a sanctuary as I possibly could, sometimes a challenge as I live on it and to fish have to walk or drive down the center of my acreage. Whereas when few buddies were hunting it and stands saw sits a couple of times a week, I cut my hunting WAY back opting to mainly only sit when cold fronts pushed down and made winds favorable for my stands. Lowering the intrusion factor worked like a charm, with adult bucks making fairly dependable visits to my plots in daylight when cold (and being in North Florida I'm calling cold anything around 50 degrees or below! ).

Not sure what the hunting pressure for you is like on neighboring properties, but if heavy at all the lower you can make the pressure on your place, especially if you have some decent cover, the more that minimal intrusive targeted cold front attacks can work wonders. Afraid to jinx myself with our gun season yet to start, but for past three years I've been able to harvest a self-limited 2 bucks on my fairly limited "hit list", and done so with single-digit sits across our nearly three-month-long season.

Don't get me wrong I agree with others... really is about what you want to accomplish. Filling the freezer will never be a problem if you've got a doe factory, but if it's the biggest boys you're after "less" can be FAR BETTER when it comes to minimizing intrusion by others so that wily old bucks are able to judge your place as safer than surrounding areas.

 

[Tree Spud]

Weedy ... nice buck, too bad someone who has no investment or respect for your rules took it. If your buddy let him on to shoot a doe or hog, and he shot a buck, the guy broke the rules plain and simple. Your buddy pretty much broke the trust you had in him by making a decision that impacted you without discussing with you first.

I was once that guy who wanted to be friendly and give in without pushing back. Once you get known as the guy who wants to go along to get along and can be taken advantage of, you'll start to be taken advantage of on a regular basis. People showing up hunting when you are not there, guests inviting guest of their own, trespassers, etc. I once let the old guy across the street come on my property with his old beagle to do a little rabbit hunting. Found out through a different neighbor that he was giving the key to my gate to his 4 sons and their buddies who were duck hunting on on my ponds and bow hunting my tree stands during the week when I was not there. He was also giving permission to other strangers to hunt it. Took me a long time to gain control back of my property after that mess.

As others have stated you can choose to handle any way you would like. Fortunately or unfortunately you are in a partnership with your buddy on this property. If you are not in agreement on the property rules, one person eventually starts to take advantage of the other. Rules are about respect, always good to have everyone in the boat rowing the same direction.

 

[WeedyJ]

WeedyJ, first off congrats on the work paying off with a nice buck!

I grew up across the state line, not too far from Lake Greenwood. Guessing you may have heard about it if you follow the GON forum -- fella not too far from you in Wrens just killed a nice one as well about a week ago.

On the subject of drawing big ones to your place, few painful lessons I learned on my place both sound related to your share -- first I cut back to caring for and hunting my place alone after having a couple of friends hunt it with me the first year I bought it. I didn't like the ever-increasing "friend of a friend" requests that started coming in, and the coming and goings of my buds alone DEFINITELY pushed the local adult buck population to visit almost exclusively on a nocturnal basis.

After making the firm decision to go it alone I decided to treat my place as much like a sanctuary as I possibly could, sometimes a challenge as I live on it and to fish have to walk or drive down the center of my acreage. Whereas when few buddies were hunting it and stands saw sits a couple of times a week, I cut my hunting WAY back opting to mainly only sit when cold fronts pushed down and made winds favorable for my stands. Lowering the intrusion factor worked like a charm, with adult bucks making fairly dependable visits to my plots in daylight when cold (and being in North Florida I'm calling cold anything around 50 degrees or below! ).

Not sure what the hunting pressure for you is like on neighboring properties, but if heavy at all the lower you can make the pressure on your place, especially if you have some decent cover, the more that minimal intrusive targeted cold front attacks can work wonders. Afraid to jinx myself with our gun season yet to start, but for past three years I've been able to harvest a self-limited 2 bucks on my fairly limited "hit list", and done so with single-digit sits across our nearly three-month-long season.

Don't get me wrong I agree with others... really is about what you want to accomplish. Filling the freezer will never be a problem if you've got a doe factory, but if it's the biggest boys you're after "less" can be FAR BETTER when it comes to minimizing intrusion by others so that wily old bucks are able to judge your place as safer than surrounding areas.

Honestly we aren't great about keeping out of the area as we should be. There's a part of me that has to admit I enjoy just getting out and seeing all of the wildlife, even if I never get a big buck. I do seem to have the plots on one side of my property, with the option of extending food across more of it, through the pines. Or I could focus more on enhancing those areas for bucks.

 

[swat1018]

I'd be pretty cautious about buying into the whole "Doe Factory" BS.

 

[Mortenson]

Life got a whole lot easier when my dad and I finally said "no more" to all our hunters. We were very generous for a lotta years. Over the years, dozens of different people filled their freezers and walls from hunting on us. They were mostly thankful and did offer to lend a hand occasionally although we wouldn't accept offers to work or gifts. It was the fact that we grew to enjoy our deer hunting more through years, and with all the other hunters, it was basically just an opening day deal any longer. Too much pressure. Hunting was good on opening day, and someone would get a trophy, then you'd sit the rest of the season and not see much. I feel like we lost out on a lot of opportunities all through years. I don't have any bitterness at all, just glad we finally made the decision about 7 years ago. Now the answer is simply NO.

 

[WeedyJ]

Weedy ... nice buck, too bad someone who has no investment or respect for your rules took it. If your buddy let him on to shoot a doe or hog, and he shot a buck, the guy broke the rules plain and simple. Your buddy pretty much broke the trust you had in him by making a decision that impacted you without discussing with you first.

I was once that guy who wanted to be friendly and give in without pushing back. Once you get known as the guy who wants to go along to get along and can be taken advantage of, you'll start to be taken advantage of on a regular basis. People showing up hunting when you are not there, guests inviting guest of their own, trespassers, etc. I once let the old guy across the street come on my property with his old beagle to do a little rabbit hunting. Found out through a different neighbor that he was giving the key to my gate to his 4 sons and their buddies who were duck hunting on on my ponds and bow hunting my tree stands during the week when I was not there. He was also giving permission to other strangers to hunt it. Took me a long time to gain control back of my property after that mess.

As others have stated you can choose to handle any way you would like. Fortunately or unfortunately you are in a partnership with your buddy on this property. If you are not in agreement on the property rules, one person eventually starts to take advantage of the other. Rules are about respect, always good to have everyone in the boat rowing the same direction.

We've had our chat :-) Rules in p

I'd be pretty cautious about buying into the whole "Doe Factory" BS.

Tell me more. The doe factory is new to me but seems to reflect what has happened at my property. My buddy and I are honest in that we realize we probably are too invasive in the property during hunting season and we hunt it weekly.

 

[WeedyJ]

There is another guy we are always happy to let hunt pigs on the property. We even let him have his friends come get our hogs as well.His name is Phil and one of his friends is Trevor. I have them listed in my phone under their occupations: Game Warden Phil and DC Metro Police Trevor:-)

 

[Rit]

I’d rather have some does the next few weeks than not.

That’s a tough situation between you and your friend. But Mr. “I’d like to kill a hog or doe” would surely be the last time he hunted after shooting that deer.

I simply found it easier to just tell everyone no. I have several friends and even a few in-laws that ask every year to hunt. Funny though when it’s 15 degrees in February and I am looking for someone to help me open trails, cut up fallen trees, or help plant fall plots in August at 100 degrees I don’t get any responses.