Would like some opinions on this situation with my current deer hunting lease. There are 4 members that put in an equal amount for our property which we can deer hunt as well as goose hunt/dove hunt. To me the deer hunting is worth all the money and I'd prefer to not bring a guest to deer hunt. But we do have an open guest policy as long as the member is present of course. The owners of the property have had significant crop damage this year and would like us to harvest as many antlerless as possible, which I don't have a problem doing. So I suggested to the other members, if you bring a guest to deer hunt have them take a doe. My problem is if a member brings aguest on the property and he happens to shoot the wall hanger that you have been chasing all season would that not piss you off? Isn't that what I'm paying for? Or am I just being a selfish SOB? Please let me know what you think.[&:]

drakeman, it would depend on the hunter, if it was a young kid or for that matter a young to hunting person, or somebodies wife, i would enjoy that more than they would, i really like to see new people turned on to the outdoors, actuallyihave more difficulty when its someone that has killed a bunch of deer and they shoot an "average" buckjust so they can kill one that year or add another notch, so to speak, or if they have the mindset "oh i'll just kill whatever i see", those hunters should be limited to does if they want the meat, if not they could stay at home, i have been fortunate enough to have killed a few deer, if i kill another i'll feel even more blessed, if not, i hope a friend or a young hunter gets my shot

best of luck, this can be a touchy situation, hope it all works out and ya'll are all still friends

The problem is controlling the guest. If you could be sure the guest had the lease objectives in mind, then you could let the members decide if they wanted to give up their buck(s) to the guest. But you can't do that, can you?

I spend a lot of time educating the members as to what they can harvest, and I can't depend on some guest to just show up and do the right thing. We allow our guests to hunt the birds, quail and dove, as many hogs as they want, and we allow them to help us harvest does as per our harvest objectives, but they are NOT allowed to shoot bucks. Those ARE the big money animals. I've never had a problem with this policy on our land.

Having said that, I encourage members to bring guests to make the experience more enjoyable and because South Texas can be a dangerous place to hunt alone, but no bucks allowed.

Every club is different, so enjoy and good luck!

Drakeman,
Since your all paying equal amount of $$ for the lease, then all guest hunting should be agreed upon by members. Designating aDoe only quota is not unreasonable for guests.Keep in mind thetresspassing hunters that sometimes shoot the wall hanger buck! I personally would rather have a guest shoot the wall hanger and enjoy the experience. Good Luck!!

I will ome shoot a doe and promise I will not touch a buck even if it measures 500

I SAY JUSTSHOOT'EM ALL AND LET GOD SORT'EM OUT ;&gt)

ROLL TIDE
DD

Impose the earn a buck program for guests. They have to tag a doe before getting after a buck. It'll meet the owner's demand for antlerless harvests, bring the buck to doe ratio down, and lessen the chance of the wall-hanger being shot.

You all have some good points. Thanks for the honest input. Since I myself have hunted public land where taking a doe was required before a buck could be harvest, I think phades plan maybe the game plan. However, part of me agrees with rgarza and thinks the bucks should only be for paying customers (members). Considering the member in question just saw one of the biggest bucks of his life tonight on the farm...I may be able to convince him we need a better policy. I'll let you know how it goes.

Garza is spot on!! We had a lease close to San Angelo on the Concho river and we needed to harvest "ALOT OF DOE" an our lease guest rules were as follows.
Guests had to be with a lease member at all times.
Guests were not allowed to hunt for buck deer...
Guests were allowed to take there legal limit of doe...
Guests were allowed to shoot as many hogs as they could clean.
Only way a Guest could make a buck deer harvest was if there was a specific CULL deer that happened to come near them and the buck was oked by the lease memeber that was hunting with them....if a mistake was made about the deer being a cull the memeber was FINED a fee of 500.00..

Nothing wrong with having strict guest hunting rules. Let them shoot a few does if the group wants, but if you let it happen the moochers will take and take and take.