Honestly, not trying to stir the pot. Our debate in the other thread has made me wonder if my feelings on this are in a minority position. Not that it would change my position on it, but I just thought it would be fun to see how this shakes out.
Maybe a third option. Be friends with your neighbor, make QDM decisions together, have an understanding of not shooting over the fence but hunting the line is just fine. Considering I shelled out $20k an acre, pay the taxes, insurance, habitat improvements ect. ect.. I will hunt legal and wherever I please. Pics are live from the stand.
I think the 2nd poll question is phrased in a manner to import an intentional lack of consideration. Also, what do you consider "a little space"? Yes, I would sit right next to a fence. But I would do so only after making it clear to the neighbor I will never shoot across the fence I won't shoot a deer right as it is about to go onto his/her property I would also tell the neighbor they are free to point a trail cam right at my stand to verify I do neither. Heck, I'd offer one of mine. If they can't handle my obvious accommodations and attempts to belay their concern...well, tough titties.
The best spot I found on the new public land this year butts right up to the private land thicket. I need to get over in the off season and meet the landowners, shake their hands and ask for permission to track deer if needed. I will not shoot onto their property but I will hunt 30 yds from it. It is so thick at the private public border I bet they cant hunt within 100 yds of it on their side. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
I honestly don't know...the attitude and actions of the neighbor would, more than likely, determine which direction and how far things would go. If I actually owned hunting land next to someone else, I would try my very best to get along...but I won't be bullied or pushed. Public land next to private?...I would hunt that **** every day and twice on Sunday if it's where I need to be. Can't imagine anyone owning land that butts up to public and not already knowing and accepting that to be the norm.
As said above, I also have a stand that’s about 30 yards on the line. I also will not shoot over the fence and won’t track without permission from them every time. Let’s face it, deer travel fence rows and there’s no better way to see where they’re crossing then by looking at the fences. They have a stand about 60 yards from me, 10 yards off the fence, and actually facing our property. I’ve never seen them hunt it but it’s kind of a understanding and compromise. We’ve never had a problem with each other. I’m as big hunter as the next guy but dang they’re just deer...lol sometimes I think people need to remember that. Mathews Halon Black Eagle outlaws Magnus Buzzcut 4 blades Nasty combo
Yes, I'll hunt a fence line....with some considerations. Few things in life are black and white. I won't shoot a deer across a fence without permission. I have agreements with some neighbors and others really don't have deer traffic across the fence from my brush to their pasture. There are a million scenarios that could be considered.
If the neighbor is going to be upset with it, and you do it anyway, then you probably don't have a lot of consideration for their wishes. A little space is enough room to have a legitimate chance of recovering that deer without having to tromp all over the neighbors land.
Well, in that circumstance, your neighbor is not upset with you sitting on the fence, so you really are not answering the question as posed. In a perfect world, we would all do exactly as you describe.
I think the attempts I referenced above indicate a clear consideration and positive attempt at outreach in an attempt to assuage their concerns. However, if I were to put forth that much effort and they were still being d-bags about it, then you're right I would consider my property to be my concern and not give 2 schwits what they thought after that point. As to your definition of what constitutes a "little room"; sorry but if you are bow hunting in my opinion that wouldn't be anything less than a hundred yards which is ridiculous. While we all want that perfect double lung, tip over within sight shot; I've had to track many a double lung deer that went close to or over a hundred yards. Certainly almost all of them more than 50. And most of the deer I have shot ended up bolting in the direction they were already traveling- not to say that they won't do a 180; but it's certainly less common than the other way around. If a deer hops over from the other side of the fence I feel much more confident that if I shoot that it's going to take off deeper into my property vs. if I was hunting fifty or a hundred yards away from the property line and the deer was traveling towards the fence. I'm not necessarily trying to change your mind as you seem pretty set, I'm just showing that I have put a lot of thought into this and based on my experience and knowing my own ethics, I'm 110% comfortable sitting right on a fence line knowing I will abide by the law and be doing my best to increase the chances that whatever I shoot; I have the higher probability that it's going to stay on land I have legal access to.
To be perfectly honest, even if the neighbor took issue with it I could care less. My property that I paid for and pay taxes on goes right to the fence line. Fences are deer highways, i deer hunt. Oklahoma State law reads that if I shoot a deer on my side of the fence, goes over the fence and piles up. If the landowner does not give me permission to recover a call to the warden and I have the right to retrieve. It goes both ways. I take more issue with the yahoo that set up a feeder 20 yards from my north fence line on his mother in laws five acres and shot five deer last year. Not a damn thing I could do about it until a friend and I witnessed him gut shoot a doe with a rifle, let it hop the fence and made zero effort to recover it. One call to the warden and a confession later lead to a fine and revocation of his hunting license for ten years. After dealing with ne'er do well trespassers, welfare riding trailer trash pit bull owners and a tractor thief (thank god for lojack). A guy sitting on the fence line is really the least of my problems, thankfully he had the decision making skills not to trespass.
also, I have to say if I lived my life worried that other people are going to be upset with my rational opinions and legal actions....well, let's just say I'd never get out of bed.
Lets not lump pitbulls in with people like that. Its not their fault somebody like that owns them lol.
Respectfully what I’m doing on my side shouldn’t be of their concern. I’m hoping to buy hunting specific property in the next year or two. I’ll likely be able to afford 40 acres or so. For me to have very little risk of a deer going over the line I’d have to hunt basically less than half the ground I’d be paying for. I’ll likely do everything I can to hold and attract deer to the middle of that property though. I’m never hunting the lines as a primary strategy, and I’ve never had a scenario where I was trying to kill deer coming off a neighbors piece, but if that’s where I need to be to kill the deer I’ve patterned I’m going for it.
Ya your not trying to stir the pot at all The neighbors I have around my farm are gun slingers and shoot whatever, I practice QDMA. I been passing younger deer for the past several years, I go out in gun season with my bow just to make sure they don’t come onto my prop. I hunt the property boundary all the time, I have never and will never shoot over the prop line. I had deer walk right down the fence row multiple times and I did not shoot. I have killed bucks that walked right off the neighbors ridge and down to the creek where I hunt and I have zero shame to it at all, I use the other neighbors prop layout to help pattern where the deer come and go from on my prop and I set up Accordingly. I put in multiple food plots and have a sanctuary bedding area. The farm is only 150 acres so they come and go. Hunt where you want just as long as your on your prop and following state laws.
I would not hunt the neighbors fence. I would make sure I was on the right hand side of the center of the fence then it would be my fence. Then I could do as I pleased!
There is no way you could build a good relationship with a neighbor by hunting the fence against their wishes. I would back off and give it time to work things out which could be a few years. I would show a lot of respect to my neighbor in hopes working well with each other in the future. In that time frame if the neighbor doesn’t want to show any respect back then I will go about my hunting the way I need to. I’m not selfish but I won’t be taken advantage of . Years ago I hunted a fence because no one was ever seen hunting next to us. Hunted that same tree for 10 years and then all of the sudden a no trespassing sign popped up and a double ladder stand was on the field edge in front of me about 60 yards. I pulled my stand and moved back in the woods quite a ways. I believe they only gun hunt as we have never crossed paths but that’s the way it goes. You have to show respect if you want respect.
it's a rare piece of property that has everything a deer needs. Food, water, bedding, cover for travel. Certainly very rare to be able to afford one that does, anyway. The vast majority of us are trying to target deer as they travel from one core need to another; therefore odds are the majority of us are trying to get deer as they come off of or before they get on to another property. Despite what we all see on TV, the majority of us don't hunt over a destination plot- we gotta catch them in transit. Fencelines and hedgerows are deer superhighways. They also happen to be common property delineations. Nature of the beast.
So by your line of thinking that hunter sort of disrespects you and you go out of your way to defer? Only you can decide if it's worth addressing with (notice I did not say confronting) the neighbor, but I would say you got bullied off of your own property line.
