I'm having a little bit of an ethical dilemma. I went to scout/ look for sheds on a piece of property that I hunt with 4 other guys. One of the guys that originally had permission to this piece of property brought a few of us onto the property. The property is approximately 100 acres with about 65% being wooded and the rest is fields. After checking some trails cams today, I have videos/pictures of 2 REALLY good bucks for our area. None of the other guys run trail cameras in the area and I doubt any of them have seen these bucks. The area I that my cameras were located in is "reserved" for the guy who had hunting permissions. It happens to be the best spot on the property and that location is always where we see good bucks. Whenever anybody else hunts that area, he gets mad even when he's not around. I get that he's the one who obtained permission, but I don't believe it's fair for others not to be able to hunt that area. Would you guys show the other guys on the property pictures and videos of those bucks even though you have no chance to hunt the "good" spot or would you keep it to yourself?
I wouldn't show him anything. it is likely going to get you and the two others booted right out of there completely. if you shoot one of those giant bucks you are almost guaranteed to lose a friend in the process. those bucks aren't in his spot 24/7. find other areas of that property that don't have as much pressure and see if the bucks show up. they will be holding up in the most unlikely spots. 65 acres isn't big enough for 4 guys. I would start looking for new property if it was me. I see you are from ny. there is tons of awesome public land there. find some of those huge tracts of public and hunt in deep. you might surprise yourself with whats there.
The reason he gets mad at you guys for going into his area is because he knows those bucks are in there. If he set up the rule before you got in on the lease, then you should respect them. It's a easy way to lose a friend, he won't trust you and kick you out most likely. I have had this happen to me. If you don't like the rules, then only you can change things. Maybe time to move on at that point.
100 acres is tiny to segment for 4 dudes. I would seek public land options. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Yup, what other said. I guess I’m lucky enough with the hunting partners I have. If my buddy (who introduced me to our local spot) knew a big buck was in area near one of his stands and he couldn’t hunt it for whatever reason, he would tell me to get my butt up in his stand and kill that buck. I Never got the greed thing? Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Not a lot of public land in my area. The areas that are available for hunting to the public are usually overcrowded. I think I have to start looking into leases.
If I had equal permission to hunt a property I would hunt any spot I chose. That guy is being greedy. Terrible. I used to really be discouraged by the place I currently hunt. Seeing a buck over 100 inches is a treat. But I get to roam 50,000 acres and don't have to ask anyone a darn thing. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
I have a similar situation on the piece of property I hunt with similar frustrations. Personally for me I wouldn’t be forth coming with offering up pics but I do respect the other hunters and areas they set up in. Those bucks aren’t just gonna be in his little area and they’ll move around. You just have to have a little luck on your side. Obviously if you wanna stay on the property you have to respect his area but if the bucks come to your area, nothing he can do about it.
I can speak for the flip side.... I have obtained a 400 acres peice and to help manage it over the last 5 years I brought on a friend and allowed him to bring his brother. It took about 4 years for them to think it was their property as opposed to a gift that I in fact suppled annually. They stopped following the rules and I booted them. Not trying to be a **** but don't waste what you have. Further point, on a 100 acre peice those bucks are all over it you just need to figure out when. Good luck
this is exactly why I can't figure out why guys are begging that we need more hunters in the woods? we are all sitting here discussing how to find areas where there isn't any people. or how to get away from people.
Slight hijack here, but along the same lines. Waaaaayyyyyy back before gps, before magazine articles, before every kind of video or internet learning thats available today, us ol timers had to beat the brush to find our spots. I am one of those guys. I spent so much time pouring over topo maps at my local DEC that they knew me by name. I would spend a couple days reading topo's and then 3 days scouting. Every week, week after week. year after year I found good spots. So I brought my pal or two into those spots. The pals had kids. No problem bring the kids we'll teachem to hunt. And teachem we did. As they got older they brought their pals to those spots. So as you can guess those good spots arn't so good anymore. So here's the kicker. Now too old to bust the brush like when I was younger we ask the kids who are now 20 to 30 yrs. old to take us to a few good spots. "What are you nuts? We're not taking you into "OUR" spots. You'll kill all of "OUR" deer. I literally spent thousands of hrs. researching areas to hunt so I kinda understand him getting upset about the others hunting "His spot". Something called respect. Look it up. Not too much of it around anymore. '
Not going to sugar coat it man...I find the fact you even put the cameras up in his area offensive. You knew he wanted to keep his area "his area", he got you in there in the first place so maybe show a little more respect. On a smallish property like that he's not asking much as those deer are not going to stay exclusively in "his area". Looks like a greedy lack of respect on your part to me and from my perspective. I'd keep the pics to myself and remove the cameras and focus on what I could hunt without stepping on the guys toes. If I wanted to run cameras I'd put them over in an area I could hunt without kicking someone in the nads or stabbing them in the back. Utterly atrocious etiquette IMHO.
Camera was there prior to being told to not hunt that spot. I left it there for the season as to not disturb anything. Removed it after the season. I'm trying to do everything to not step on toes. The question was whether to show the pics, not to get into any other specifics.
