Dear My Fence Hunting Neighbor

I, a 17 year old boy has had the privilege to grow up doing I believe is about as hands-on as you can get. I live on an extoic breeding ranch in the hill country; I fill protein feeders, bottle feed babies, and cut and stack firewood to sell so I have money to do things. My ranch is HF however we have a creek that is LF. Here I do all my hunting from hogs, axis, WT, predators, and varmints.
Two summers ago, I spotted the biggest axis I have ever seen. (35 in +, 24 in wide, just estimates) That afternoon I went out and bought a feeder, 5 bags of corn, a game camera, and a bale of alfalfa with my own money. I set up everything I bought and have maintained it to this day.
two months ago, the axis made their presence known on my game camera and wiping out my alfalfa. I caught a male on my camera and knew he would be a trophy. Over the next few weeks I would go and sit in a brush blind I made and watch this axis. He was growing. Brow tines were coming out, as well as extra points at the base of his brows and main beams, his main beams had also started. Time had gone by and his brows were about 12 inches long in velvet and main beams still growing. A week ago his caudals had shown. He was going to be a wall hanger I had watched for what seemed like ever.
Two days ago, I went out to academy with my money from Christmas and bought a Game Winner 2 man quad pod to hunt out of. I set it up with the help of my cousin, with intentions of shooting this trophy axis in mid May-June for when he comes out of velvet.
This evening I was out with my father replacing burnt out light out bulbs that light our main gate entrance and heard a gun shot. I knew immediately where the shot came from. The 100 feet wide and 10 acre long "property" you own. Matter of fact, a state, land granted easement, granted in the 1800s for ranchers to heard their cattle to the creek for water, that you claimed squatters rights on. Due to the fact your blind and feeder are so close to my property I went to make sure all of our exotics were accounted for and you hadn't shot them.
I drove up to your feeder, that pretty much lays on top of the HF, that is filled a month out of the year, and saw an axis laying there, in velvet. "Are there extra points at his bases?" I asked you hoping to identify whether or not it was the axis I had watched for so long. Then came the answer I dreaded to hear, "Yes."
"You know this axis would have a big one?" I questioned.
"There's no doubt he would. With 12 inch brows and 28 inch main beams at least just at the bottom of it's caudals."
"I've been dying for one of these, my wife told me next time I see him to shoot him. There's another one anyway."
You've ruined hunting for me for a good while. There will be no shoulder mounted axis above my bed anymore thanks to you shooting him. This rant is more of based on the fact that you shot him in velvet and not giving him a chance to grow. Now please, do me a favor take your feeder of my fence line before the fence "moves" and knocks it over.
Sincerely,
Your newest fence driver.



EDIT: After much speculation I went to investigate where the deer was shot because the deer's feet looked wet, I decided to go look for blood on our side or the creek. Sure enough a found a drag line mixed with blood and hair. The deer was shot on the opposite side of the creek, which we own, and drug across the creek bottom on to his strip of land. Pics this afternoon.

I can't say anything that will make a difference, but I'm sorry this type of thing goes on.

Yea, I hate it when people shoot wild animals on their own property before I get a chance to shoot them.

Wow sounds like a spoiled child and the world owes him a trophy because he worked hard...

Lesson to learn here is the the world is not fair even when you work hard. Success is never guaranteed.

So a guy shot a wild animal on his property and you're mad? Get over it. That animal didn't belong to you. Sounds to me like a spoiled little brat whining because someone beat him at something.

Sucks, man, but not really sure the guy did anything wrong whatsoever if he shot the deer on his property. If it's only 100 feet wide, there's really nowhere he can put a feeder that won't be close to a fence. He has just as much right to that buck as you do.

Sounds like you should have HF all the sides if you were worried about it...then again, folks on here argue that a HF doesn't keep them from traveling

Sucks, but not every hunter is the same and not every animal will stay on your property.

Your place is HF right? I am confused and sorry I am not a real good reader. He shot your axis deer off of your place or his place?

Sorry you didn't get your axis. But at the end of the day your still more "privileged" (as you put it) than most folks that are reading this, myself included. Let this experience build character in you and don't let it get you down.

Sounds like you need to buy a new one.

Is this 10 acre "property" for sale by any chance

I can bet alot of money I know where this 10 acres is at. Maybe off of Wenegroth ( prob misspelled) road??? Is it a landowner or a leaser?

Ya know I have felt what you are feeling. You put in the time and effort to harvest that beautiful animal that you have on camera. Only to see someone else get the good fortune to take it. It doesn't feel good but wild animals are wild and they don't belong to either of us.

I have a hard time knowing exactly what is going on since I am not fluent in whatever language that is you posted in, but I get the idea that someone killed a free range axis on their property and you're sore about it because you somehow think you are the only one entitled to shoot that free ranging animal. If that's the case, then I don't really care, other than hoping he shoots the rest of them.....because he can.

Another crazy thread

He is legal to shoot what is on his property. Sorry you missed your opportunity but look at the facts, if it is on his property then he can shoot it. That may be tough for you to swallow but it is free game as long as it is legal and honest.

dont think this one is turning out quite as he expected...

Thats why you are supposed to shoot everything the first time you see it before your neighbor gets a chance to.

You guys are what makes management tough, we feed them and let them age and grow and your cheap asses shoot them as soon as they jump the fence. It's tough luck kid, but don't quit trying.

^^^if you don't like the inherent risks that you assume when you invest time & money in something you don't own, get a High Fence Some folks would call you out for being cheap by griping about your low-fence issues. Just sayin...

I read it again and had to laugh, how naive one is at 17. First off it's your dads ranch, not yours. He killed it by your HF, not the LF part. If you raise exotics, shoot one of your pet Axis deer, surely you can grow them bigger (plus they can't escape the HF). And maybe you need a new HF by the creek and you can just fix it if it ever floods again. Also welcome to the hill country where small tracts of land dominate the whole. One more thing I thought of, if your ranch is mostly HF except one little piece, you are killing the neighbors whitetail. How dare you!

I'd be willing to bet a lot of people posting on this thread spend more time and money managing their places than you do. I've let many a buck I could have killed with a throwing knife walk because they were too young only to find my neighbor skinning them later on. Don't get me wrong, I definitely gave him my two cents afterwards, but it didn't change anything, and I didn't expect it to.

It's a very simple point to take home: What you do with your land doesn't get to dictate what others do with theirs. The guy was well within his rights to shoot that animal.

That's hunting... Hunt his fence line.

Not to even mention the glaring obvious that this kid's dad has a HF place right next door that keeps a ton of animals from getting on this guy's tiny shred of land. Of course he shot it when he got the opportunity. He doesn't get many on 10 acres HFd out on 1 side.

Need to make one thread a sticky, whinning about neighbors hunting, all this nonsense could go there.

I like the part about the shooter saying "My wife told me to shoot it next time I saw it".

Don't know about y'all but I don't consult the "War Department" about what I animals I'm going to shoot or not shoot.

Mine said she would like to have a doe for meat. I said "then go shoot one, I'm not going to since our numbers can't justify it."

Correct. He doesn't own it. Which is my major arguement.

Explain, if it is an ingress/eagress easement then it is not his to hunt, squaters right are difficult to claim as notice should be served, and enforced by practice. Who owns the property? What is in the deed, how has he gotten it through squating?

Go chop more wood and spend YOUR OWN MONEY and high fence the poor guy out , if your that upset about it ! Most of us are not as BLESSED as you are .

LOL, you don't own it either. If you did, then you would not be posting a silly letter here and instead would be dealing with the game warden.

He hunts the same fence line you hunt? Shouldn't you sign the letter the same way you addressed it?

Dear Fence Hunting Neighbor,
.......

Sincerely,
Your Fence Hunting Neighbor.

Ok re-read & saw your edit. If he shot it on your property & you think you can prove it call the GW. Know this will cause problems for you in the future. It is aggrivating but life. You have to shoot them before someone else does. & they will.

sounds like a prison excape got shot whin it jumped the fence..

If the edit is true call the GW right NOW!!!!

Have his dad call the GW!

crazy

Where's that icon with the guy eating popcorn?

Take pictures of the drag line with blood and hair and trail where the deer was drug. Call GW.

Come on Glowka, out with it already. Did you call the GW?

Before I call GW tomorrow am, is there anything I can do if he can prove it was shot on his land but then jumped the fenc and he retrieved it so he doesn't waste the game.

He has to have permission from you/landowner before retreiving the animal. I have the Kendall county GW's phone number if you need it, I had to call one tonight about something.

If you know his name (the shooters) PM me, I know half of Kendalia and I'm curious who it is.

I'd be willing to bet a lot of people posting on this thread spend more time and money managing their places than you do. I've let many a buck I could have killed with a throwing knife walk because they were too young only to find my neighbor skinning them later on. Don't get me wrong, I definitely gave him my two cents afterwards, but it didn't change anything, and I didn't expect it to.
Cam-I'd be willing to take you up on that at any point. The point is that the kid was letting a young deer walk, surely many of you have let deer walk for one reason or another. If it hops the fence and gets shot then damn the luck, he can still say it sucks on a forum just like all of you have an opinion.

I'm confused !! Did this happen to the OP or his son or is it just a general letter ?

The OP is the son of the land owner.

Love to see those pics......

Drag marks and blood across creek.

I don't know the guy. I haven't seen him on that land before but have seen people hunting on this strip. I might have been a relative that was over for the holidays.
I have the Kendall co GW in my phone book.

I've read this thread and just wondering why everyone had dog piled this kid for ranting?

Seems like I've read several post on here before about someone hunting on the fence line and everyone get's pissed at the fence hunters.

Is it because this kid is privileged?

i have to agree with hopedale

I don't care about being criticized. I was ranting because he shoots and does nothing for the deer. He feeds once a year and shoots everything. Esp. because there's foul play here.

Hey Glowka, I asked before but not sure I got the answer. Does this guy get his axcess from Wengenroth road? There might be several pieces of land like this but I have a cousin (kinda like a cousin anyways) that has a piece of land that touches a place just like what you are describing. If your dad bought yalls place from a Jennings & Campbell then I know its def the same place.
If I remember correctly my uncle who runs her ranch isn't real fond of that landowner either.

I'm reading three separate rants here:
The guy is hunting near a fenceline - He can do what he wants on his side of the fence (assuming he has permission to hunt that land).
The guy shoots animals and doesn't feed much - He can do what he wants on his side of the fence (assuming he has permission to hunt that land).
The guy shot across the fence onto the OP's land - This is complete crap and the guy needs to be reported and prosecuted for it.

The situation you're describing sucks, but there's not much you or a GW can do about it. Even with your photos, unless you can get the hunter to admit to the GW what he did, it will be very hard to pin it on him.

Furthermore, as for hunting on his 10 acre strip of land, that is his right. My suggestion would be to talk to him, let him know you found his tracks, and ask for an explanation on why he came onto your property. As for everything else, it's his property, and he can hunt wherever he wants on it.

I jumped on him prior to the edit he made to justify his rant. That is/was a key piece of info that shouldn't have been left out.

Prior to the edit the story sounded like kid who thought a wild animal belonged to him since he has a feeder. After the edit, it makes a little more sense. But it would make more sense if he called the game warden immediately.

Everything posted before the word "EDIT" is pointless and not worthy of a rant.

Young Man, there are a lot of deer and animals in the world..don't get to caught up in this..When you have small places
this and more happens..No one owns these animals, you worked at it and you learned a lot..By the way..Axis are legal to hunt at nite..they aren't regulated in most counties..In Bandera County the sausage folks from Kerrville used to come to Alkek's and shoot them w/a 223 and silencer and process them right there..One
of Alkek's guys told me they regularly shot 20 or more at a time.
DD

Im not even gonna comment other than, Be glad you have the land you have kid.

What forensic technique did you use to determine the location of the shooting? I am intrigued. I don't doubt the animal could have been shot and run. Such is discussed here quite frequently. So how do you know know it was shot on YOUR land? That you have blood and drag marks isn't sufficient. Anyone who has had an animal run across the fence line after being shot and had to drag it back had undoubedly made the same sort of blood trail. I have with hogs. I have also had animals not start pumping out blood until some distance from where they were shot.

That you said the feet looked wet is quite interesting because that is exactly what you would expect if the animal was shot, then crossed the creek where it fell dead and then was dragged back by the hunter.



You missed ... on noting the ownership of the strip of land, Glowka said...





However, then in the edit, Glowka does in fact refer to the strip of land as the shooter's, LOL.

I'll defend him here. What he meant was this strip was orignally an easement so people couldnt get landlocked. But the shooter most likely does indeed own it now because of the way tax rolls work and what not (basically squaters rights).
Even if the buck ran onto Glowkas property the shooter was legally required to contact the landowner of the property that the deer ran onto, not necessarily an easy matter and either way it's gonna be trespassing. So it's a lose lose for the shooter if he follows the law.

This is well said also.

To the folks criticizing Glowka because he's been "dealt a better hunting hand " than you, please grow up a bit and lay off the kid.

He's probably been told, like I was, that if you work hard and you do the right thing, that it'll pay off in the end. Those of us who are older realize that it's not true and for lack of a better term, $hit happens.

It's a sucky lesson to learn, but it's better to learn it when you're young than when you're a grown [censored] man trying to provide a living for your family and you work for a company that has bad morals and ethics and you don't get a fair shake then. (I know from personal experience)

But Glowka, you've learned your lesson, so please don't put your feeder right next to the fence line and expect any other results than what you got.

I feel bad for you Glowka, but that's why I like the challenge of low fence hunting. If he was in your high fence then you could have fed him up as long as you wanted, more likely not to have neighbor poach, and you could have shot him when you wanted hard horned. you just experienced some of the biggest challenges of low fence with surprise you had a nice animal, trying to pin him down, and then a neighbor ended up poaching him.

Shooting across property lines is very hard to prove unless you have direct and indisputable evidence. That said, I remember about 30+ years ago when I was a kid down in Starr county (South Texas) we were hunting and heard a gunshot which sounded really close to our property line. As luck would have it, the our landowner was out hunting with us and while out quail hunting later that morning near where the shot was heard, we came across a center neck shot spike about 200 yards off the fenceline. About that time, the neighbors were driving down the fenceline towards us possibly to retrieve the spike. Anyhow, the our landowner flagged them and told them they could come up to our camphouse to retrieve the spike and the GW would be there too. In the next 3 years, we never heard any close property gunshots. This was a pretty clear cut case; not sure that your's was as clearcut, IMO.

Im still amazed that your 17 and you said your WIFE said to shoot it. your married and 17 years old

He was quoting the shooter.

He didn't shoot it. The neighbor did. His neighbor is the married one.

Look on the bright side...
You now own the following - deer feeder, game camera and a Game Winner 2 man quad pod stand.
When I was 17 years old I hunted corn piles while perch up in a tree sitting on a 2x6.

lol you learn a lot through the yrs I was 17 a long time ago

Dang sure A LOT of older folks who should know better than to jump on a youngster. Why not give advice or something than acting like a bunch of asses. Yes, his letter might not be to mature , but neither is he. He is 17. Maybe instead of most folks on here complaining that hes a spoiled ask some questions and offer some good hunter advice. Heck most of you act like experts on every other topic on this forum, why not now? Lets help a fellow young hunter who might pass on this tradition and lifestyle get a solution or point him in the right direction instead of calling him names. Some of you so called adults need to grow up.

Unless you're hunting a high fence area, you should ALWAYS consider any deer you see on your place as property of the state, which means they belong to everyone. While you are free to feed and nuture them, you do so with the knowledge they may end up in someone else's ice chest.

OP:

I own 330-ish acres and we have a lot of free-roaming low-fenced animals. I have time and time again seen beautiful Axis and deer that I wanted to wait to shoot and they disappear, never to be seen again.

It sucks, but that is how it is.

You can prove there was blood on the ground and you can prove it is fresh, but, in the end, you won't be able to prove anything short of a blood analysis and that "AN" axis was shot.

The most you can hope for is, without a picture of him shooting it and getting it, the GW will "keep an eye on him".

So, the moral of the story is, you can either spend a LOT of time being angry or a lot of time hunting something or somewhere else.

I feel your pain.. and, again, it blows.. I hear ya.. but you are spending a lot of anger and a lot of time and energy on something that, in the end, won't get that deer back, won't "force him" to stop hunting where and how he hunts.

Get a camera or two, place them along the fence, and the next time he crosses it, you will have proof of trespassing SO LONG as you mark the fenceline.

Good luck!

Russ