Yes, I have heard that said and I believe it to be true. You have proved my point. You are speaking of hunting seasons, bag limits, shooting hours, weapons allowed, etc, etc. You are speaking in terms of hunting privileges, not rights. The landowner/corporation has every right to erect an 8' fence. The OP's property rights do not extend beyond the survey stakes. One cannot claim to be an advocate of private property rights, yet try to dictate what another landowner does/does not, can/cannot do within the confines of his/her property.

Just to play the devil's advocate here, how do you guys feel about neighbors intentionally being obnoxious to prevent deer from going to your property, effectively ruining your hunting? You know, hunter harassment and such, speaking on a strictly ethical view point, leaving legalities out of it.

I grin, bear it and go on.

No different then if a gun range went in next to me, or hunting fence lines

I think deep down it would bother EVERYONE if it was done for that single purpose. My in-laws had their best hunting area more/less shut down from a neighbor (15K acres) putting up a high fence. No other portion of the 15K was high fenced except this part. The in-laws feeder was approx. 200 yards from the property line. This forced the deer around the fence through a big canyon to access the feeder. Ended up moving the feeder after they had cameras set up on their side pointed to our feeder.

They even high fenced the canyon, but eventually abandoned it after several patch repairs from flash floods.

50 years of hunting. That's a lot of memories. There are many that aren't that fortunate. I was reading this post again since this thing has gone from one side of the road to the other and almost in the ditch and back on the road again it appears..lol

When I read this again it also says that the ranch has no water, very little browse. I'm asking myself why has it come to this after 50 years of ownership? If you could never afford to improve the browse or bring in water collection stations to address this land being worthless for hunting and recreation without deer crossing it from your neighbors land that obviously must have water and browse then maybe it's time to sell it anyway.

As was stated numerous times, you can turn lemons into lemonade. 150 acres should bring enough to fund several years of a nice family lease to create more memories like you've had the last 50 years. I wish you good luck with however things turn out OP.

I also still believe that private property rights should allow you to build a high fence if you want to on your land.

Don't forget about the tax man should they decide to sell without a 10-31 Exchange. Their basis will be low and the check to the government will be large after fifty years of ownership. I would only sell as a last resort.

Good point. Maybe things will work out that they could find another place and they could use the 10-31 tax exemption. If not, better to sell if you can't afford what needs to be done to make it worth owning. There are worse scenarios then paying a 20% long term capital gain tax.

Never happen to me but I do have a total of 8 blinds and feeders now bordering 3 sides of my place, all but 2 are within 50 yards of the fence, 4 of them are on 10 and 20 acre parcels. My place is the only place in that area that hasn't been grubbed or sprayed and I have the only permanent water within 2 miles. The thought of Hi-Fencing is very tempting! Several people here have hunted my place and have seen what I'm talking about. Even had 2 cut holes in the sheep wire for the deer to get through. I've about had it with neighbors!

He never said what part of West Texas so I can only go by this area and 150 acres won't hold many deer. He said it had very little browse and no water which makes it much worse. It sounds as though it can not now nor has it ever held a huntable population of deer without the benefit of his neighbor. It also sounds allot like most of my neighbors. We can't all keep hunting my place.

I'm not going to wade through 8 pages.

But, I'm LMAO at folks getting upset because someone's neighbor upped the value of their land. Just go check it out, high fenced places sell at a pretty nice premium over low fenced places.

Oh and for all you folks who are whining about how they won't be able to hunt like they used to... That's an open admission that for all those years the OP's family depended on their neighbors' better stewardship to provide their deer.

And like BoBo said, if you don't have ground water you can build guzzlers.

I am pretty sure he is in the area around Vancourt, TX, about 20 miles east of San Angelo on the San Antonio highway on highway 87. Some of my old stomping grounds from about 40 years ago, north of 87 used to be cotton country, south used to be sheep and cattle.

I'll second that. Almost certain as well he's in the San Angelo area.

Bobo, please explain how the hill country deer we shot in the 70s and 80s, when we were lucky to see two-three deer per season, were the same size as the deer we kill off the same place now, when we see 5-20 deer per hunt, if its a density issue? According to you the deer 30-40 years ago should have been much larger, right?

In the late 70's and early 80's, you could not find a deer on our 10k acres and none had been seen before that. Ranch has been owned by the same family since around the turn of the century. Early 80's, the rancher started seeing a few deer but we're rare. In 1986 he killed a 164" and in 88' a 157" was found dead in a pond. Record rainfalls in the early 90's appearantly gave the herd a boost, because by 96-97, we were over populated. Being that the country then was mainly sheep and goat country and add an extra few hundred mouths to feed, the overall quality and body size dropped dramatically from 8-10 years prior.

Overall population and available resources have a direct correlation with antler size and body size. Most places in the Hill Country have a population problem and are well over their CC, especially when combined with the livestock typical in the region.

Llano area is a perfect example of this. The area is notorious for small bodies deer and small antlers, but there are ranches that manage the herd and have implemented sound practices combined with supplemental feeding to produce some great deer while right down the road the weekend warriors are killing the same deer they were killing 30 years ago.

The genetics are the same, the deer just don't have the resources to allow them to reach their max genetic potential. Like our ranch, the genetics are there to produce the same quality of deer it did in the late 80's, but the available resources and land are not available to allow them to do so. If 100 deer were competing for those resources instead of 700, there chances would increase dramatically of recieving the resources.

There are also theories about the antler size of a "growing herd" and what the "leading edges" of that herd are capable of producing, but you didn't ask that

So which place do you drive through to get to your property?

Just leave the gate open lol

I wouldn't pay a dime, as a matter of fact I would tell the one who wants to high fence the financial negative impact he will have on you and you will be considering legal action if he does high fence...

What legal action?

The only negative impact will be him having to shoot his own deer and not the ones he can lure in from his neighbor. From his own description his place didn't sound exactly like deer central.

Here's an example of what's going on around my place. The gentleman that owns 20 acres to the south of me has 10 acres pasture and 10 acres plowed and barren. In the middle of his plowed field he has built a mound and set and old car on top, right beside the fence he has a feeder and a high blind. Year before last there was a total of 3 deer taken off my place (2 by my wife and 1 by a friend) and that's on 3 sections. Between my neighbor his sons and his friends they took a total of 11 deer on his place. Keep in mind that's just 1 blind and 1 neighbor, there's 7 more blinds and 5 more neighbors. I think it's fair to say that there's around 20 deer a year get shot from jumping or crawling through the fence to get to my neighbors fence line feeders. There's 2 things I can do about it and one I already do and that's feed like the thunder on my place and try and keep them on my side of the fence or I break down and put up a Hi-fence. Been at it here for 20 years and it seems like every year another blind pop's up on the fence line. A Hi-fence will most certainly end the negative impact that I'm seeing and feeling.

If you can't tell by now I have an increasing dislike for fence line hunters and the impact they have on their neighbors. Do they have the right to hunt their place as they choose you damn right but I also have the right to shut them off should I choose. More and more large parcel owners are doing just that and it's not because they want to, Hi-fence ain't cheap! They do it to preserve what little they have left in hopes of securing a little bit of something for their next generation. I go to extremes to limit the number of deer taken off of my place to insure I have a healthy population of deer, some of the biggest bucks in the county consistently come off of my place. When your neighbors are shooting what ever jumps are crawls through the fence it negates allot of the hard work and stewardship you've put in place. So the next time somebody complains about being hi-fenced out I'm going to be hard pressed to garner any sympathy and I'll have to bite my lip to keep from asking them why they think it was done.

And I'm sorry some here seemed to have completely missed the point you were trying to make.

That and $1.00, you might get a cup of coffee. You are clueless !!!!

Just thinking out-loud... OP was already HF'd off from the cotton grower? why? Now , for some reason, the new outfit wants to also HF their place off, which just happens to be the remaining 3 sides, why?. Also, are they going to HF the remaining property or just the line adjoining the OP?

Just wondering what the motivation would be and if the cotton grower has fenced off other neighbors. Could this be a result of a perceived, lack of management, or over harvest?

Usually 2 sides to every story. May be a reaction to action IDK

That's quite possible Western. However if he and the other landowner were on the same management page and trusted one another why couldn't they agree to high fence both places together so the small parcel fella would still have a place to hunt? It'd be a weird situation I'm sure, but I think it'd be a nice gesture if they could work together. They could somewhat split up some fence cost this way. One guy saving a little $$$ and the other saving his hunting. Just a thought

That has to be one of the dumbest statement I have ever read on this forum.

That would be a good thing. Big LO has no incentive to do that though. Whole reason for the HF is to keep the animals on their place and under their control.'

Until the state establishes laws governing the height of a fence one can place on their property boundary not much I could do about it. I personally don't like them but must and do accept them..