Are you located anywhere around MD? If so ill be up for some late season action ...I am not real big on management but if it has 4 legs and a white tail its game!
We have almost 100 acres that is our family farm. Pretty much my dad and I hunt it and my brother when he's not deployed. My uncle occasionally uses the property for big cookouts or the like but doesn't hunt. A couple of tips regarding friends hunting, be careful about enlisting help for projects and stuff because then there is the underlying "you owe them" kind of deal and no keys, control all access. If your brother ends up hunting with you and he is a trophy hunter he should understand that is very easy to over hunt 100 acres and attention to entry/exit routes, wind direction, bedding area disruption, etc is even more important on these size properties and he or anyone you do take hunting should hunt it how you'd like, follow your rules whatever they may be. Like someone else suggested you should tell him you don't recommend him dropping out of his club as hunting on your land will be primarily for you and the kids and anything else will be by invite only with you there. We used to invite family and friends on special occasions like a big hunt on Thanksgiving weekend maybe something like that could be helpful. Good luck, above all else enjoy your land, life is short.
Its your land to do with as you please. Your dream, your money. Just be upfront and honest early on. After time, you will likely invite friends and family, but for now, dont be ashamed to be a little selfish with YOUR land. You earned that right.
Congrats to you for earning your own hunting land. I hope to be in your situation some day. (I'm thinking mega millions lottery) I am fortunate to have a very good hunting and fishing relationship with my brother. I would let him on my land before I ever step foot on it and be fine with that. Other folks like a neighbors, ect...it would work itself out in time, if they were close hunting buddies. If they were not, it would likely not be a problem either as they would not be allowed to hunt it. Either way, you now have what I like to call a high class problem. It's a good one to have.
Its your land and you do what you want with it. You have to get a feel for the land and see what it is all about. The land that I hunt I invite a friend every now and then and have fun hunting with them but when it comes down to it, its my land to hunt and they understand that.
If you are like most of us probably are, you worked your butt off to buy this property. Personally I owned an apartment building for 19 years in order to buy my property. It was NOT easy money, there were many occasions where I cleaned or painted all night took a shower and worked my day job. There were also difficult and deadbeat tenents to deal with. That being said, I might come across as being a little selfish with my land. I also have neighboring land owners in the same boat with me. The conseses is that you and your family should do all the work and incurr all the costs because as one of the other posters has commented, people tend to get the idea that they are owed what they think they are owed. Also, it will not be long until working the land with food plots and timber and habitat improvement will provide just as much fun and satisfation as hunting. Believe me it will happen. Plus you will become addicted to using trail cameras all season long. Back to the main topic, if you do invite people make it real clear that each time it is this time only or soon they will show up whenever they please. They will also start bring their other friends and one day you will find people hunting your land that you have never met. It happened to me. You might point out that 100 acres is easy to stink up with more than your family hunting and when you have the land figured out at that point you will decide how many other people will be able to hunt it. I do invite friends to hunt my property and it requires just a little tact to juggle all the considerations. Just be glad you didn't win the MegaBucks lottery.
Thanks for the responses and input. It was hard for me to post this thread but I figured this would be a good place to do it. Although I wouldn't mind having the problem of winning the Megabucks either.....
Guests only kill does for the next twenty years-and only on Thursdays. The ante is $400 per year... The cool thing, you get to make the rules! Once established, adhere to them!
Ignor them all except the brother, they will get the hint. If the bro wanted a place to hunt you 2 should have been land owners together and that never works. Tell him when the big bucks by your standard start to show up you will let him know. He too should be able to take the hint.
yeah unless they put in on it, i'd hold firm! shoot i dont see anything wrong with you asking them to help you get things up and running the way you want and still not let em hunt there... in time you will gradually open the gates, but for now you gotta learn the rocks and trees !
I personally couldn't imagine telling my brother, Dad, nephews that they couldn't hunt on my place ... my Dad would get free reign, as he deserves it .... the others I would let hunt in areas they choose as long as it didn't mess up my spot ... and I would allow them to hunt it when I wasn't there as well ... but that's me ....
