That completely sucks!
How do you keep such a good number of bucks with neighbors like that? I watch your thread; you have multiple year histories with certain bucks, you see new bucks every yr, and you/your wife shoot great deer on a consistent basis. It seems like the odds aren't stacked in your favor...
I think maybe because some are poor shots...some bucks are wounded but make it like the "Hurt 9" buck and the big buck I killed with my Muzzleloader in 2014. We are also in big woods area so solid woods in every direction so some of the bigger wiser deer can feel a little pressure and disappear into the wilderness for a period of time and then we have a bunch of subsistence type hunters around us who just shoot deer period so we lose a bunch of does and small bucks.
0ur 80 has a 160 right next door to our east that is broken up into 16 10 acre "Hunting Camps/subsistence off the grid" type camps with several living on these year around. 3 of the 10's have electricity but the rest do not and they seem to change hands all the time so when you have no problem with one last year all of a sudden the next year you have heck with it. Very stressful! I have been wanting to get my posted signs up for about the past month for that side but right now I am trying to keep our place as quiet as possible but may have to start posting it after work tomorrow because rifle season is this coming Saturday for the legal guys and even with a fence I want the word out as well...
On our west side we have a lady who has several adult sons who hunt on her long skinny 30 acres that runs back to about 3/4 of the depth of our property and her house is at the very back of the property and right against our fence. They see deer from the house along a powerline easement to their place and shoot them there regardless of season. the other west neighbors are also kill them with anything you have in your hand type folks but from the truck decals I believe they fancy themselves to be "Trophy Hunters". Someone owns the land south of our place but I am not sure who and I heard a deer get for sure poached in there on Saturday. I could hear them talking from our house and the 4 wheeler came in and loaded it up and left but I don't think the owners poached it. I think from listening to where the 4 wheeler went that it is some folks from some really ratty trailers about 1/4 - 1/2 mile further west. My North Neighbor is a farmer with a few cows that mainly eat in some fields down lower but some really brushy semi open type area is near our fence. They have family and friends that hunt there but I never really see anyone in there except turkey and rifle season. During rifle pressure can be heavy or light depending on the day. I don't get a poaching vibe from that property but every other one around is poacherville deluxe and that last one could be this year just depending on who comes out to hunt.
I am a native American and a lot of the folks that live in the area are native American as well and some of the culture from that is just shoot a deer when you want it. I know this year our tribe gave every registered tribal member over the age of 16 a hunting license with a buck deer and a turkey tag for free, even the non-hunters. A bunch of these families will try to kill a "Buck Deer" for every HH member (Party Hunting). The Buck deer tag is good for rifle season only but I know for a fact some just read it as good for killing with a rifle whenever because they feel it is owed to them...I do not...I understand a resource can be taken advantage of and can be over-utilized and so we need to follow harvest guidelines to make sure there are enough for everyone.
The odds are truly stacked and if we were in more open ground type area I would foresee we could not possibly see or take deer like we sometimes have the opportunity at but luckily rough country with lots of vertical ridges, hollows, switchbacks and heavily forested keeps some nice deer alive but we do lose some very nice deer to poachers yearly such as a buck I named "Brows" last year and a couple really big 10 point bucks with one poached in 2014 and the other poached last winter after seasons were over...
Long but explanatory of my frustration...If someone was looking to buy a property for big deer I am afraid ours has so many strikes against it that most all would pass yet thankfully a bunch of our neighbors are inept even with firearms during archery only or even non deer hunting periods so we get "lucky" from time to time....
