So here is how the story goes...

A friend of mine arrowed a very good buck this evening on my our property (we are the owners not leasers.) The buck ran out of sight but we had a good blood trail... for the first 80 yards or so then it stopped (weird, but that is another story.) We decided to go ahead and give the neighboring land owner a call and ask him if we could go onto his property in case the deer went on his place. We did this because we intended on finding the deer tonight and didn't want to call him at midnight if the trail were to go on that late.

The landowner proceeds to tell us that he doesn't want us on his property because he knows that the deer that we shoot on our property come from his property (more on this in a while) and that those are his deer. We told him that we will have to call the game warden and he told us that he wouldn't let the game warden on his place either. (things never got rude, just very matter of fact.) The guy is nuts because the deer didn't come from his property, it came from our property but that is beside the point anyways.

Well here is the deal; we have owned this property for about 30 years and the blinds haven't moved an inch. The deer have recently started using our property for bedding and feeding because we got rid of all our cows and let the place go wild over the past 10 years. We spend a lot of money and time each year planting rather large food plots and feeding corn year around. This guy has owned his property for about 4 years and now believes that because his property is hardwoods he owns all the deer in the area. We have only taken 2 bucks in the past 5 years letting a bunch of bucks walk for a few years. To the neighbor's credit, he does the same and we see eye to eye on this. Neither one of us shoot deer that don't need/aren't ready to be shot.

I just don't understand how this guy can think that he owns these deer. This just makes me sick especially because I never had any clue that this guy was going to be an a$$ hole. We are going to go back out in the morning and look for blood in the daylight. Hopefully we the deer kept on going like he was (into our woods) and didn't turn to the a@% hole's property. If it does turn, we will be forced to (as I understand it, by the law) call the game warden.

Anybody else feel my pain?
-cK

Looks like I will be going for neck shots from now on. I hate doing this though as I have recently converted to a strictly bow hunter.

Sounds like you need to send your neighbor an early Christmas card with Santa Claus and his reindeer on it.... explain to him that those are Santa's reindeer and that your neighbor won't be getting any Christmas presents this year!

What a jerk!

LOL the card should be followed up by an end-of-season report showing all of "his" deer that we shoot this year.

the bad thing is if you start a war, be ready for the battle.

TJ, I agree. I wouldn't have any problem with the guy getting a deer off my property, disallowing this would just be wasteful. I would like the same courtesy.

people dont own the deer the state of texas does, at least thats what they say. if you poach or shoot a dear outside of the law you pay the fines and pay the state the cost of replacing the deer.

No laws have been broken... or will be broken.

i think i may have been misunderstood, i was talking about the ownership of the deer.
i have alway given my fellow hunters around me the chance to retrieve deer, not only is it respect but just the right thing to do.
no matter how hard you try to get along with everyone some people just don't get it.
i guess thats why god made all of us different,
to challenge our intellect.

If you've already talked to him in a civil manner and he doesn't give a positive response you will never get anywhere with him and change his mind.

Move on, as it will only end up in, should I say it?

Another high fenced property which nobody really needs.

If it ever happens again I would try, but in the meanwhile I would hunt further from his fence, since a deer that goes on his property will be a lost deer!

But that's just me!

Why didn't you call the GW last night and get him/her involved??????

Sometimes all it takes is a phone call or a visit from the GW and him/her talking to someone like this neighbor to straighten out a whole bunch of stuff.

Now coming down on you about this, but in cases like this, folks need to start getting the GW involved A.S.A.P., and not really mess with coming on here for moral support until after things have been sorted out.

In a situation like you are in, there is the real possibility that the GW will have to be called, why not do that first and get that base covered. JMO.

Should have called the GW right after your conversation and see what he says. I would think the GW would have got this straightened out pretty quick.

Just curious, can a game warden force his neighbor to let him look for his deer? I wouldn't think he could, but don't know the answer.

I would think that a GW could go without the landowner's consent. From my understanding, in a circumstance like this, a GW technically doesn't have to ask, but I'm not 100% sure about that either, Helo.

If the deer did cross the property line and the shooter made reasonable attempts to be able to retrieve it and the landowner refused, wouldn't that be a case (albeit a weak case) for waste of game against the landowner?

I agree that the game warden should become involved. If you find that the blood trail leads onto your neighbor's property, the GW can act as the go-between for the two of you. I know that the neighbor CANNOT deny the GW access if the GW suspects a game law violation is taking place(not the case here). But the simple fact that your neighbor may deny access to the GW may give the GW reason to suspect that something fishy may be going on on the property.

The last thing that the neighbor wants is to be on the GW's "watch list." Many years ago, I was hunting a property in central Texas when the GW pulled into camp. He'd cut the lock at the main gate with bolt cutters. When he gave the ruined lock to the landowner, the patron said, "Why didn't you simply call me and I would have happily unlocked the gate for you?"

The GW replied, "Well then, you might have had time to hide any evidence of illegal activity." Fortunately, we were all perfectly legal. We invited the GW to eat lunch with us, and he did. But he didn't offer to replace the lock. Thereafter, the patron always left the gate unlocked, but latched, whenever hunting was going on.

The moral of the story is: always stay on the GW's good side. Your neighbor may have to learn this the hard way.

I don't think the game warden should be allowed to cut a gate just to check something. Now if he has a reason to suspect illegal activity, than yes he can cut the lock. Just because a game warden done something does not mean that he was in the right. I would have contacted his boss if he had cut my lock. There may have not been anything I could have done, but I would have worn out every posibilty. BTW I don't fear being on a game wardens watch list, because I don't break game laws. If I feel I am ever being harrased by a game warden I will file a suit against him.

I really have great respect for game wardens, but hate any warden that is abusing his power or doing things that are not legal or ethical for him to do. He has rules he has to go by just like we do.

But back to topic, I can't beleive a neighbor would not allow someone to track a deer.

There are usually 3 sides to a story, his side, the other side and what really happened. Just my opinion which is really not worth much because of the economic down turn but still something to think about.

While a GW has the right to cross boundary fences, it's my understanding that without landowner consent, he will not cross boundary lines to look for a deer.

Well if he knows its out there, he might find it before the yotes & buzzards do, he MIGHT have found it after you called too.

If it were truly his deer, then I'd shoot it for trespassing. End of story.