Question:
This past season, the adjoining property owner placed 2 deer stands about 50
foot from me inside his fence line. From the looks of the terrain, it appears
that the better hunting is on my side of the fence.....and it's pretty clear
that both sides of the fence can be hunted from the stands.
If fact, this past season, we came up on one of the other property owner's
hunters with a buck on my property......about 100 ft inside my property line.
The buck had been killed from the stand on the other side of the fence. It
still isn't real clear where the buck was killed.
I didn't see much problem with this last season and I'm wanting to get along
with all my neighbors, but.... next season....there will be more hunters on my
property and they're wanting to hunt the area across from where the adjoining
property owner's stands are located.
there's some consideration being given by my hunters to planting a food
plot in this area on my side of the fence.
I was wondering if anyone has any advice about how best to handle this? Do you
think it will work itself out?.... or should I take some initiative to help
things along?
Answer:
My dad has a small place north of San Antonio that borders a 4,000
acre ranch that leases to quite a few hunters. A couple of years ago,
during the summer, he was checking cattle and came across a guy
working hard to clear brush from the fenceline and give himself a good
view of the 25 acre field there. The only problem was that both sides
of the fence he was clearing was on my dads property. When my dad
spoke to him he was very excited about this new spot he had found, and
he was looking forward to hunting that spot in the fall. When dad
finished explaining that he was 250 yards outside of his lease area he
lost his enthusiasm very quickly. I joked with my dad later that he
should have let the guy work a few more hours to clean his fenceline
so I could put my tripod there later.
In summary, approach the land owner with the standpoint that he might
have hunters that aren't aware of the boundary fences and that they
might want to move them since you're going to have hunters in that
pasture that might make those blinds unsafe and less productive for
hunting. This gives your neighbor the opportunity to correct the
problem without having any blame put on him or his hunters. If the
problem doesn't get solved then you might have to find another more
direct solution.
