H20fwler
5 year old buck +
I was driving into town early just before light to run a couple errands and around the corner down the road from me about a half mile a brand-new white SUV was pulled up in a turn in. There are only three small woodlots on my block the rest is rotated crop fields, I own one, my neighbors own one and a mega farmer owns the third that is high fenced in to train yote dogs.
I've been seeing a pretty good buck and instantly thought my neighbor let someone hunt in his woods (I thought only his son in law hunted it during gun).
There is also a creek just to the south that hardly has any cover maybe ten feet either side and around 400 yards of it is on my block.
So ran my errands, got breakfast, texted my youngest son that someone must have seen the nice buck and was hunting behind us.
As I was driving home, I saw someone at the white SUV and pulled right over to ask where they were hunting. As I was rolling to a stop the guy says hello and calls me by name, it ended up being a guy I knew and had duck hunted a few times with twenty years ago. We chatted a little, he told me he had just missed a small buck and I got around to asking him where he was hunting. He said the on the one side of the creek and that his "group" had permission from the farmer...that peace of ground is sixty acres open farmed land that buts up to the creek. Then he says two other groups from town are hunting it too! So at least 7-8 guys hunting a little 400 yard strip along a creek...biggest tree maybe coffee can size, from creek edge to field is like ten feet. Like hunting a skinny fence row. None of the townies in the three groups are landowners besides the homes they have in town.
Then this guy asks me about seeing a big buck...I acted half dumb about it and he whips his phone out and shows me pics of the buck I've been watching. It has been cruising through my place daily or nightly, huge scrape line down one edge of my place and nice sized trees all rubbed up...I have seen him in my yard once early in morning and he ran in front of my car as I was about to pull in my drive after work two weeks ago. We also have a few does and a couple fawns we see regularly in the yard and while sitting in the stands.
The guy said he and all these other guys have some running bet on who will kill the big buck, although I can’t imagine any of them with so many guys tramping around that little strip of cover. Hopefully it will be one of my sons or I.
He then asks me if he hits a deer, and it runs into our woods can he go after it? I say no, call me, show me the blood trail and I'll go with with him and get it.
As I drove off I'm thinking those guys will shoot at every single deer they see regardless of size or age. They can each legally shoot three deer in our county. And that I did not like, I have planted all kinds of hard&soft mast trees and shrubs, food plots, cover, along with running a feeder year-round to keep them fat and sassy for the past ten years and I have spent a big chunk of $$ to be able to own a nice spot for my family to hunt.
I know I shouldn't feel any ownership to any animals that leave my property...but I still do a little.
And it just amazes me that so many guys are hunting that little strip that I wouldn't even bunny hunt, they are literally on top of each other. It does explain why rough ground prices in my area are stupid high...and I live in one of the lowest deer harvest counties in the state! The competition for hunting ground is just crazy.
End of rant.
I've been seeing a pretty good buck and instantly thought my neighbor let someone hunt in his woods (I thought only his son in law hunted it during gun).
There is also a creek just to the south that hardly has any cover maybe ten feet either side and around 400 yards of it is on my block.
So ran my errands, got breakfast, texted my youngest son that someone must have seen the nice buck and was hunting behind us.
As I was driving home, I saw someone at the white SUV and pulled right over to ask where they were hunting. As I was rolling to a stop the guy says hello and calls me by name, it ended up being a guy I knew and had duck hunted a few times with twenty years ago. We chatted a little, he told me he had just missed a small buck and I got around to asking him where he was hunting. He said the on the one side of the creek and that his "group" had permission from the farmer...that peace of ground is sixty acres open farmed land that buts up to the creek. Then he says two other groups from town are hunting it too! So at least 7-8 guys hunting a little 400 yard strip along a creek...biggest tree maybe coffee can size, from creek edge to field is like ten feet. Like hunting a skinny fence row. None of the townies in the three groups are landowners besides the homes they have in town.
Then this guy asks me about seeing a big buck...I acted half dumb about it and he whips his phone out and shows me pics of the buck I've been watching. It has been cruising through my place daily or nightly, huge scrape line down one edge of my place and nice sized trees all rubbed up...I have seen him in my yard once early in morning and he ran in front of my car as I was about to pull in my drive after work two weeks ago. We also have a few does and a couple fawns we see regularly in the yard and while sitting in the stands.
The guy said he and all these other guys have some running bet on who will kill the big buck, although I can’t imagine any of them with so many guys tramping around that little strip of cover. Hopefully it will be one of my sons or I.
He then asks me if he hits a deer, and it runs into our woods can he go after it? I say no, call me, show me the blood trail and I'll go with with him and get it.
As I drove off I'm thinking those guys will shoot at every single deer they see regardless of size or age. They can each legally shoot three deer in our county. And that I did not like, I have planted all kinds of hard&soft mast trees and shrubs, food plots, cover, along with running a feeder year-round to keep them fat and sassy for the past ten years and I have spent a big chunk of $$ to be able to own a nice spot for my family to hunt.
I know I shouldn't feel any ownership to any animals that leave my property...but I still do a little.
And it just amazes me that so many guys are hunting that little strip that I wouldn't even bunny hunt, they are literally on top of each other. It does explain why rough ground prices in my area are stupid high...and I live in one of the lowest deer harvest counties in the state! The competition for hunting ground is just crazy.
End of rant.