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Help Support TNDeer:
YOUR Buck?
- Thread starter TheLBLman
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backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
No idea if he had permission or not...
I feel your frustration. I wish I had some consolation for you but I don't. All I can chock it up to is that it's just part of the price you got to pay to have good hunting on your own dirt.
I worked my butt off and made lots of sacrifices throughout my life to put myself in a position of having dirt to call my own. When I got it, it was barren wide open woods. You could hunt days on end & never see the first deer. Through an investment of time, planning, intensive labor, and more money than I'd care tell my wife about, it's finally a place I can enjoy hunting because I see deer. Sometimes by God's grace I even tag a big buck. That's the overall return on investment. But it's not a straight climbing graph line. It zigzags up & down with wins and failures. I've had to see an awful lot of bucks grow up on camera only to be killed by somebody else, many before they had a chance to express their potential. Even the buck I killed this year had been shot at least twice by other hunters elsewhere, even though I'd been watching him enjoy my plots & bedding cover for years. Sure I felt invested in that buck but like so many others, if he were killed elsewhere then it would have been a loss. But I don't dwell on the moments. I focus on the trends, and have learned that in order to tag some of these bucks myself, I've got to accept that I'm going to lose some along the way to my neighbors.
Looking at it through that lens keeps my feet securely planted in the dirt of reality. That makes it hard to get too upset when bucks get taken by other hunters. I can't get jealous because I'm getting what I wanted, too, which is a property that produces big bucks for me to hunt. Just know that everything you do to benefit your land & enhance the hunting also by proxy enhances all of the surrounding properties possibly for miles. A little habitat work can have a big ripple effect. Your plots & browse & forbs & mast trees & security cover may very well have nurtured that huge buck the guy two farms away killed. He wouldn't have killed a big buck had you not created the environment for one to grow. Yet you get no thanks, no credit. He owes you nothing. That's just the harsh reality of it. It's easier to be happy for him than to be jealous.
Anything is possible, but yeah I'd be skeptical. Whether he had permission or not makes all the difference in the world. If he did then while still frustrating, it's hard to be too upset. If he didn't have permission I'd be boiling.
The logger in my situation did not have permission. There was an unpleasant exchange and a job shortened, but no warden was called. I would have urged the farmer to do so but he felt he'd already handled it well enough, so I respected his decision and dropped it. I can't stand poachers. They rank right up there with liars & thieves.
Snake
Well-Known Member
This is a type of catch 22 . Don't you think others hunting near your hunting ground feel exactly the same way you do ? I'll answer yes they do . It's human nature to feel this way but in all reality when we think this way we are dead wrong !! I have never even begun to think these deer I have on camera my deer I actually think the opposite that they are coming from adjoining property .
Even if a deer was born and grown on your property, only to be shot first time stepping off of it, it wasn't your deer. Deer roam everywhere. They're always coming from another property. All we can do is encourage them to spend a disproportionate amount of their lives on our property by providing the things a deer needs & wants. And while I'm not convinced we can help their antlers grow bigger, I do sincerely believe we can increase their odds of surviving into older age class by not only attracting them to spend time on, but also keeping them safe while on our property.
I've had several deer I was hunting killed by others. I have no problem with that. What irks me is passing a buck and someone shooting it just to throw the horns in a pile. I cannot get over that.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Considering the vast majority of bucks I have to hunt spend their summers in the neighbors' big ag fields, these are certainly not my bucks! If he's a hunter, imagine how the farmer next door feels, feeding these bucks all summer, just to have them move up onto a neighbor's place (mine) during deer season!
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
Actually, you would be surprised to find out this is not as uncommon as you suspect.
I know some experienced loggers pretty well, and they say once the local deer get acclimated to the sounds and big equipment moving, even a rutting buck will mostly ignore it as well (so long as the other deer aren't concerned).
Many loggers are honorable, and won't poach your bucks, but some are every bit the opposite, and often have more shooting opportunities than those hunting the property. Beware the ones with a rifle in their skidder/loader cabs, as well as those coming in before daylight & leaving after dark, as that's the pattern I've found often distinguishing the poachers from the ones who wouldn't.
Last year, I killed a very old doe that the loggers put me on. They could have poached her most any day from either their loader or skidders, and she had zero concern for their nearby presence.
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I think you're looking at it wrong. That buck would not have made you happy if you shot it, but it made someone else happy. Who cares what the other person does with the horns?
I grew up in Pennsylvania and was taught/learned from loggers to hunt just off of where they were cutting. When they shut down the saws and headed out the deer came in for the twig tips and/or would be on the tops in the morning before they got back. Especially the pulp cutters. Back then permission was a lot easier too.
I don't get upset when a neighbor takes a nice buck, but I was upset when I drove one to the neighbor's back porch on opening day afternoon when I accidently jumped the huge thing going back to the blind. He went screaming out of there and didn't slow down. I knew right where he was because I saw him take a tree down. He went straight down parallel to the creek. A few minutes later, after I'm in the blind, I hear a dog bark about 3/4 mile away out at the road and two minutes after that I heard the shot. Guessing the dog alerted him and he shot it from his window in his underwear during a commercial break while watching football. You're welcome! lol. Suffice it to say, there was no activity at that blind the next few times so I moved to a blind I had not hunted before. Took a buck an hour after sitting down that afternoon.
One of these days I'll go down a couple houses and meet him, but I'll wait a few visits before asking him how his deer hunting has been. Prefer him to be a friend. Heck, I'd be happy to text him trail cam pics so he knows what's out here if he's interested in holding off on the smaller bucks. However, I will try harder to not push "my" (lol) bucks to his back door. Heard him shoot yesterday afternoon, but I was winterizing things and putting plastic up over the screen windows for the chicken coups, etc.
There is a neighbor I haven't met yet, but have spoken on the phone with and we text, who had 3 people hunting this year. The previous owner was the only one before this. Decided to put cameras back there on the property line since no one is able to control what non-owners might do back there. He hasn't communicated since I put them up. Oops! I will reach out though...again, prefer a friend.
They might not be my deer, but it is my property...
One of these days I'll go down a couple houses and meet him, but I'll wait a few visits before asking him how his deer hunting has been. Prefer him to be a friend. Heck, I'd be happy to text him trail cam pics so he knows what's out here if he's interested in holding off on the smaller bucks. However, I will try harder to not push "my" (lol) bucks to his back door. Heard him shoot yesterday afternoon, but I was winterizing things and putting plastic up over the screen windows for the chicken coups, etc.
There is a neighbor I haven't met yet, but have spoken on the phone with and we text, who had 3 people hunting this year. The previous owner was the only one before this. Decided to put cameras back there on the property line since no one is able to control what non-owners might do back there. He hasn't communicated since I put them up. Oops! I will reach out though...again, prefer a friend.
They might not be my deer, but it is my property...
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
The way I see it, God gives us the deer and a buck will be presented to you for harvest. Then it's your deer. If the neighbor kills the buck you've been after legally, take it up with God and be happy for the neighbor. It's a rare thing to kill a targeted buck, which makes it that much more special. But, I will be happy with I great buck I didn't target too. It's like a gift I didn't deserve.
Not really the same topic but.. on a side note I've noticed non Hunters who enjoy watching deer in their yard claim that those are their deer! Would hate the thought of someone shooting their deer!
My thoughts could rabbit hole into several directions, but I'll keep it simple. If you have a like minded neighbor who shares your goals & is willing to set standards for themselves, then you're very lucky and should be grateful.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I remember Dr. Woods telling me about two adjoining clubs that independently hired him to help manage their properties, although neither knew the other club has also hired him. Members of both clubs said the exact same thing: "Those guys next door shoot everything. We could never pass up bucks and expect them to survive." So you just never know what your neighbors are thinking until you ask or propose a cooperative effort.
