About ten years ago, I was in the same position - some of my 15 adjacent property owners were shooting MY deer - both more than I thought they should be, and smaller than I thought they should be. After enough bitching and whining, I got a meeting together with the state’s head deer biologist, assistant deer biologist, and the local regional biologist. I served them lunch, and we rode all around my place. The could find nothing within reason to advise as far as improving my habitat. My complaints generally centered around my neighbors and what I considered was too liberal bag limits - basically, I wanted everyone else to kill fewer deer, so we could kill more and bigger deer.
G&f basically agreed I had a challenge with 15 adjacent property owners - most of who deer hunted. BUT, they also explained they were having this same type meeting with farmers and insurance companies demanding a decrease in deer density. They told me to try to form some type of co-op with the adjacent landowners that might cater more to my desires. They said they could not manage every little corner of every county to everyone’s benefit. So, basically no help.
I tried to talk to most of the neighbors. Of the six adjacent land owners who owned more than 40 acres, four were agreeable, one was not, and one didnt matter because they were high fenced. The smaller ten and 20 acre land owners saw no benefit. THis is poor country, and most of them were meat hunters. Many of them said they couldnt raise or grow deer on 15 acres and freely admitted they used a corn feeder to draw deer off my property so they could kill the first three to five legal deer they saw to fill their freezers. They were of no help.
It became painfully obvious most of my neighbors would not change their deer hunting ways to benefit my selfishness - as some called me. And they werent lying. I decided then and there it would fall on my shoulders.
Long story short, I implemented a few management practices that changed both my deer numbers and deer quality - over a seven year span. I used to view it as my neighbors were ruining my hunting - and I cant deny, that is the definition of selfishness. I now view it as a game. I try to counter my neighbor’s moves, and improve my playing field. I have more deer now - and maybe a few larger bucks - but we kill a greater share of them than we used to. No, we dont kill booners - nobody has in this county. But we usually kill at least one upper end buck for this area every year.
But, it has become boring. I spent more of my time hunting public where I could kill a deer and not feel like I disrupted my management on my own ground. Then, enter my grand daughters. They brought excitement back to hunting. No, I have not abandoned my management goals, but I have relaxed them. I get much more excited to see one of my grand daughters kill a basket racked 8 pt than me killing a 150” deer. The infrequency of harvesting only the very top end deer had become extremely boring to me - and the grand daughters have brought back excitement and me back to my senses. Even my 45 year old son admitted this last weekend we were ruined.
G&f basically agreed I had a challenge with 15 adjacent property owners - most of who deer hunted. BUT, they also explained they were having this same type meeting with farmers and insurance companies demanding a decrease in deer density. They told me to try to form some type of co-op with the adjacent landowners that might cater more to my desires. They said they could not manage every little corner of every county to everyone’s benefit. So, basically no help.
I tried to talk to most of the neighbors. Of the six adjacent land owners who owned more than 40 acres, four were agreeable, one was not, and one didnt matter because they were high fenced. The smaller ten and 20 acre land owners saw no benefit. THis is poor country, and most of them were meat hunters. Many of them said they couldnt raise or grow deer on 15 acres and freely admitted they used a corn feeder to draw deer off my property so they could kill the first three to five legal deer they saw to fill their freezers. They were of no help.
It became painfully obvious most of my neighbors would not change their deer hunting ways to benefit my selfishness - as some called me. And they werent lying. I decided then and there it would fall on my shoulders.
Long story short, I implemented a few management practices that changed both my deer numbers and deer quality - over a seven year span. I used to view it as my neighbors were ruining my hunting - and I cant deny, that is the definition of selfishness. I now view it as a game. I try to counter my neighbor’s moves, and improve my playing field. I have more deer now - and maybe a few larger bucks - but we kill a greater share of them than we used to. No, we dont kill booners - nobody has in this county. But we usually kill at least one upper end buck for this area every year.
But, it has become boring. I spent more of my time hunting public where I could kill a deer and not feel like I disrupted my management on my own ground. Then, enter my grand daughters. They brought excitement back to hunting. No, I have not abandoned my management goals, but I have relaxed them. I get much more excited to see one of my grand daughters kill a basket racked 8 pt than me killing a 150” deer. The infrequency of harvesting only the very top end deer had become extremely boring to me - and the grand daughters have brought back excitement and me back to my senses. Even my 45 year old son admitted this last weekend we were ruined.
