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bpul2113

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This is a story about extremes. The question is, "Exactly, how nuts are folks concerning deer on their property." I have a 480 acre property in Southern Iowa. It borders a property that has a common boundary of a mile. My farm has some timbered draws, a couple nice bottoms and some excellent pinch points. In three years of hunting the farm we have taken 2 bucks , mature deer that we had history with. I did have stands near the boundary of the two farms, 3 stands to be exact. This year we put up a shooting house about 200 yards from the boundary. My neighbors farm is somewhere in the 300 -600 acre range, he has a good amount of timber and his farm is well managed, the same as my farm. I am not sure what he has taken off the farm.

Now, the problem. I have a friend who takes some pay hunters on the farm and hunted the shooting house twice this year. The neighbor went nuts. He immediately put up 2 shooting houses right on the boundary, 1 foot off the fenceline. In addition, he has taken to actively riding the line in his truck and has his farm hands monitor any activity on my farm and then does whatever he can to disturb our hunts.

I spoke with him about this behavior. After we spoke I agreed to remove the stands near the line and remove the shooting house. I can understand his problem with stands near the line , so I removed them. I will remove the house in the spirit of trying to get along.

His response was to hire 2 bulldozers and cut a 40 foot road right on the fenceline, and push a log barrier in place to actively try to block any deer movement from his place to mine. This was after he agreed to not disturb a hunt my son was going to be doing on his late season muzzle loading hunt. There are other issues. He actually told me he thinks these are,"my deer, I feed them, I give them cover." This guy really thinks these are his deer.

How do you deal with a person so delusional. I want to be neighborly and not escalate this. But, where do I go from here.
 
I want to be neighborly and not escalate this. But, where do I go from here.
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Sell your 480,..buy about 2500 roughly 1500 miles northwest, have cash to spare and all kinds of neighborly who pretty muchdon't give 2 craps about the deer.
 
Sounds like a jerk. I would hunt it as you want. Him piling logs will keep deer off of his just as much as it will keep them off of yours. The deer will move where they want. As for his patrolling, get it on video, more than once and let the DNR handle it from there. It is illegal to interfere with a hunt. I do realize a person can drive wherever they want whenever they want on their own land and that it would be difficult to get him in trouble for doing so. Maybe talk to him again with a recorder in your pocket. You might be able to catch him saying something to the extent of him ruining your hunts. That along with some video would probably be enough. This is extreme I understand, but playing nice only goes so far with a dirtbag.

SaskGuy has a good idea as well!!
 
I'm going to read between the lines a little here and you can tell us if some of my assumptions are right or wrong. The way you describe your property, it's not a deer mecca, probably a pasture farm or open CRP. Any crops on it? Big foodplots? Why, with 480 acres, did you need to put 3 stands right on the line and put your box blind only 200 yds. from the fence? Does your neighbor live there and farm his ground and provide most of the timber for cover? Be honest. Are you kinda living off his crops and cover for your hunting opportunities? If any of this hits home then can't you see where he is coming from? If your farm has lots of food and cover, like his, you have every right to be irate and I'm right with you. If not, try and see it from his point of view. There was a similar situation down the road from me a few years ago. Guy put his farm in CRP and started a outfitting business. Then wouldn't control the population and the deer were destroying the neighbors' crops. Neighbors also hunted and had a lot of timber on their farms. But, can you see where they were a little put out by this guy trying to make money off the deer they were feeding? Just playing devil's advocate here for a different perspective.
 
I am not sure what he has taken off the farm.
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This to me is weird. You guys share a mile of property boundary and both clearly know each other are into hunting but you don't discuss it with each other. Wouldn't it just be easier to talk candidly about your hunitng and the deer around then to be secretive about so much and hoping to "beat" the neighbor at hunting. I'd be calling the guy to help me load the deer I killed and would expect the same from him if I were sharing a mile of property line with him.
 
Tough spot have been there before. Sounds like the neighbor is gone to do what he wants anyway. I say move the stands on the line but leave the shooting house. 200 yards from the line who the heck can hate on a guy for that?

The one thing about owning land is your neighbors and more often than not they can ruin a good thing. I would plant good food away from him and continue trying to be a good neighbor. The recording of him will get you no where unless he really does something bad. I know more real high profile TV types going through the same thing right now. I have already made my stance heard to my neighbors. You stay over there I stay over here and any issues you call me, period. No other bs will I tolerate. I'm not at all afraid to get it on if need be but dont want to go in that direction.

Past expeirence has shown me if you give to much neighbors will run you over. If you can form some kinda co-op with the guy maybe just maybe you both can reach a common goal for both of you? Thats the direction I would go before it gets too bad.

I like saskguys response, move to the Battle River area in Saskatchewan and problem
solved. Thats my next move.
 
turkeyriver

I totally see where you are coming from, so let me explain things further. My farm is not a crp farm, of the 450+ acres we have over 200 are planted to row crop corn/bean rotation. In addition, we have 5 food plots planted with a total food plot acerage around 9 acres. We have some good wooded bottoms that total around 40-50 acres of timber. All in all it is very good deer country. The area is well managed and some big names are in the area. I am not saying that deer dont come on to my property from the neighbor in question, some very well do. There are well managed areas all around me, thats why i am there! Again, we have taken 2 deer in 3 years, not counting does. I really don't want to be at odds with this person, I have found nobody wins this sort of thing. BTW, I have spoken to him and tried to reason with him. I have moved stands that are sore points and even though it goes against my grain i will move the house if that would help. But, he has already put in the road that he said he would hold off on. Honestly, I would work with this guy if he would work with me. I am not asking anything other then we just leave each other alone. I know he doesnt know me, he may think I am a criminal as far as I know. I am not. I dont get a lot of time to hunt, I am a operating room nurse and have limited amount of time. I was a Ranger for 6 years 10 months and 14 days and I can do the hard ass thing, but holy shit, it's a deer for christ sake. I hate to sound like Rodney King, but "can't we all just get along."
 
Goarmy

I like the Saskatchewan thing also, have hunted there a few times and loved it.

I could always move back to Alaska and start guiding again, but I like to hunt instead of taking someone else.

Sask is really cool, great waterfowl,deer,moose and elk, not to mention bear. But nonresident aliens can only buy 10 acres. Since I am a Health Care Professional I could easily take advantage of their medical specialty rules, but still only be able to buy 10 acres
 
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"I have moved stands that are sore points and even though it goes against my grain i will move the house if that would help"

I can see possibly moving some stands right on the property line, but move a shooting house that's already 200yds in!! That is ridiculous!!! How far away from the fence are you supposed to hunt, 250, 300, 1000yds??? If you own it you should be able to hunt every sq inch of it if you want, as long as your not encroaching on there homestead or something.. And why can he put 2 of them up, only 1 ft from the fenceline!! if it were me, the neighbor n I would be having a SERIOUS talk, your a ranger n let him know that, n you won't just let him walk all over you!!! Let him know your management goals, n possibly share pics, stories, ect.. might or might not work?? But If you let him dictate how and where you hunt your own farm, it'll only get worse IMO... Been there, done that! Personal experience with one of these hunting TV show couples, has completely changed my perspective of what they do, n I lost all respect for them, there show, there brand, ect.. good luck..
 
In the interest of maintaining good neighborly relations, I think setting stands right on the property line is best avoided in most cases and in any case, it is not proper to shoot across property lines. But I certainly wouldn't feel compelled to move stands that are 200 yards away from the line, etc. I wouldn't even move them if they were 40-50 yards away from the line.

It sounds like the other guy is being a jerk, which is unfortunate, but I wouldn't let him shove you around. It's your property, enjoy it all I say.
 
I have a neighbor in Iowa that was very upset that I posted my land. He said he "didnt like the signs". We had talked before and got along, then he saw the signs and said don't you trust me. I said yes I do, but I always post every farm for legal and liability reasons.

The other neighbor has a ladder stand literally 3 feet from my fence line. Ive called him, sent him a note, asked the other neighbor to have him call me, he just won't return my call?


What do you do? Well, right now I am just going to work on my farm and not worry about it. If it gets worse with no cooperation, then I will sell it and buy bigger?

I feel your pain, it shouldn't be like this. One habitat option would be planting rows of trees along your border...cedar/plum/shingle oak then you can't see him and he can't see you
 
This is why I'm afraid to buy land. This whole deer thing is getting crazy. Bad neighbors, lost friendships, tresspassers, shed poachers, arguments on what is biologically correct...

They are deer, hunting them is supposed to be fun right?:confused:
 
Funny you mention being a ranger. The neighbors to me were checking me out kinda funny and after my stern but not mean talk they asked me what I did? I said I will just say I work for the govt and lets leave it at that.

I may be alone now but in 6 hours 12 guys will be here from Brag, then lets talk.
 
I would say that you did the right thing, yet he chose to make it worse. (You went far and beyond if you moved a stand 200 yards from the property line) You could be bold in your response but it will likely start a neighbor fued. It might be worth killing him with kindness first. Maybe start out by sending Christmas cards or maybe a pre-season letter describing your plans, maybe share some trail cam pics. Show him that you are trying to get along. I would take some more steps to try to get along and if those attempts fail then get bold in your response. At the same time the tree screen idea seems like a good one, although it will take some time to block the view from one property onto the other.

My guess is that what upsets him is the paying hunters being allowed on. He likely views you as an outfitter and not just a landowner. You have every right to do it and if your area has celebrity landowners then yours insn't the only one I'm sure. This might be exactly why he is upset. If he has seen it happen to farms all around and then hears that you are taking paying hunters out, he likely views you the same as the others. Again, entirely your right but possibly the cause of his anger.

Good luck. As frustrating as it is, remember that you are living the dream of owning your own property, and a large one at that. Most of us can only dream about it!:way:
 
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