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moosehunter

moosehunter

PMA Member
For 10 years I've hunted the same area on two different connecting farms. For about 8 years I pretty much had the area to myself for bow hunting anyway. A few years ago a big deer (Little Eddie) brought much attention to the area and it hasn't been the same since. Despite my efforts to shoot does for the one of the landowners he is now allowing more hunters on his property. One guy last year put up a stand not 50 yards from one of mine. In the last couple weeks I've been doing my stand work and discovered 6 more stands in just in one timber. I ended up just pulling mine out. Hopefully I can work out something with the other hunters so we each have an area. So I'm down to one farm that it's mostly just me. There's one other guy that has one stand in an area I don't hunt and one very casually partime hunter that may or may not even hunt there. I guess eventually all good things come to an end. I sure wished I owned my own place.......................
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Your story reminds me of hunting in the Nat. Forest up in MI. I tried it for 18 yrs. There was 100 sq miles of Nat forest around my house and I thought it would be a deer hunt paradise. Not,,so. There were people everywhere! You had to find a place way back,,which required much driving, and hauling. Now that I am in Iowa I am fortunate to have my own land. Only 40 acres, but it is mine to hunt. Only a 10 min walk to my stands.
 
I feel your pain. The very first farm I got permission to hunt was mine and a buddy's exclusive, along with my buddy's uncle who was a casual hunter. There was plenty of room for many, many setups and we worked well together. Well, one September the neighbor kid shoots (and never finds) a net typical booner during youth season. After that, everybody thought they should hunt that farm, since there was ONE good buck shot off it (and never found!) in the last 8 years. Sure, the three of us had good encounters over the years but never did put down a giant. It just got worse every year and now you don't see deer and it's littered, I mean littered with stands. We pulled ours out last year, all of them.
 
Sorry to hear that perry, great piece of ground to loose. I picked up a little one just down the road, but due to disagreements with some of the guys I hunt with and the landowner, I lost the big one in that area as well.
 
I hear ya Perry. My brother lost the only farm he's hunted in 10yrs this summer. It's a shame.

I've got several places to hunt but I look for small stuff that nobody else messes with. I've got 3 or 4 spots that are 20-30 acres. It's definitely frustrating. I'd love to own some for myself someday.
 
That is the very reason the location of most big bucks shot in my area are never disclosed. It's like walleye fishing. You can sit on your spot all day, and never be bothered. The minute you grab the net to land a nice walleye; every fisherman within sight is trying to jump in your boat.
 
Lost my spot last year two weeks after I shot my buck. Landowner (out of state guy) shows up and tells me I'm not welcome. He was real mad. Told him I had spoken with him a few years before and he told me to talk to the guy that farms it. I got permission from the farmer every year. Great guy. Landowner says "get your stands and get off my land". Never really said why other than I was taking advantage of him. Really sucks as I hunted that for 10 years, trapped beavers out for the farmer, fixed fences, called when cattle got out, and cut up a tree that fell on a fence and offered the farmer firewood. I would have done all this directly with the owner, but he's in Colorado. Sucks losing land. Hope to own some myself one day.
 
I should say that I'm still welcome there to hunt, in fact he want's me to stay and hunt cause he knows I knock down some does. When I 1st asked the guy to hunt there it was about like going through a job interview. He was very picky about who was on his land. Now there are three neighbors, a son-in-law to a neighbor, a future father-in-law to one of his son's and me. Six hunters on one farm is alot. At least he's been turning down strangers that stop and ask. Of course they're all after the same deer this year. Maybe with all the pressure on that farm that will keep Junior more on the other place next door. I guess I should be looking at it like I am greatful for the years I had there alone.

God, I hope Iowa doesn't change the NR law's. Sorry NR's...........
 
Amen to that Perry. Nothing against NR's but things are getting tougher all time without accelerating the issue by icreasing NR hunting privleges.
 
No question losing ground sucks. Our shotgun group is basically down to nothing that we don't own so I'm hanging it up and just hunting my ground. I have neighbors who will let anyone in and its like WWIII during the firearm seasons.
 
Hey, don't give up on your spot or the landowner. People (hunters) come and go, and it's always good to keep your friends and connections. Some guys are pretty fickle when it comes to big deer.....once little eddie gets whacked you might have the place to yourself again.

Guess it goes with the territory for all us saps who don't own ground.
 
A bunch of dirty doe hunting could keep you in landowner good graces and put the big one on another piece of property or nocturnal. You could make sure the landowner knows you killed x number of does, but struggled with all the pressure making the doe harvest difficult to the point you might give it up? I agree with River1 and Jimmie V.
 
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