Yea. When I bought the place only one guy hunted along one of my property lines. He and I met, we talked, we came to terms finally and he finally realized that shooting a deer out of my field from his side of the line would be a huge mistake. All was good for a couple seasons. Trail cams were showing outstanding bucks (killing one is another story of course), many young bucks, and a good amount of does.

About 3 years ago 3 other neighboring properties leased out all of their land. My land is in the middle of it all. None of those properties have much habitat so the deer come and go from my land to those areas. These guys shoot everything that moves. It is unfortunate, but nothing I can do about it other than go to the land owners and offer more money. I'm not about to do that. I bought my land through hard work. I have another 200 or so acres that I have been hunting for 17 years now that is free of outside pressure. My daughters and I just go deer hunt that ground for the most part anymore.

I figure things happen in cycles for a reason. These guys have killed all the deer off and simply ruined the quality of hunting for all of us. At some point the lease price won't be worth the handful of 60# deer left come deer season. They will stop paying and my hunting will hopefully return to normal in due time. But in the meantime it sure is frustrating.