What is your position on this "Monster Buck rule" when hunting on his land?
 

OK, I have to admit that I am somewhat new to White Tail deer hunting. I have been going now for three years. My cousin, who is also one of my best friends has a few places we can go hunt on because of his family gave him permission to hunt their land.

Yesterday, we were at a piece of property for the evening hunt. We watched 3 decent sized does and 3 yearlings playing in the field coming up towards where we were sitting. We had tree stands on opposite sides of the mini field. Then a Huge Buck came into the field. Still about 120 yards away. He had a clear 11pt rack. that we counted with the binoculars. His body was absolutely gigantic. Thick neck and looked very powerful.

He never came to close because as he moved closer, the neighbors dog (about 200 yards away+) started barking and the Big Buck and all the does got scared and bolted away. We watched him keep coming in for an hour or so before he got spooked. That was the biggest buck we have seen there this year and last year. He would have looked awesome on one of our walls!

As we are driving home, my cousin tells me that he doesn't want me to shoot that huge Buck because its his land. That he doesn't think it's right for me to shoot that buck because he is the one that got permission to hunt that land. Any other buck or doe is fair game.

I told him that I can see his point if he wanted the first shot at the buck, that if I had a clear shot first I wouldn't take it until he had a chance to drop it first. But, if he shot and missed, then the next time I will take him down. He didn't think that was right either.

I gave him a scenario of what if he got his Buck tag on another buck, so he has tagged out for Bucks. What if the Huge Buck came in, could I shoot it? He said, no, its my land and I want the big buck.

I told him that everyone goes hunting for the chance at a trophy buck. That its not fair that I would have to give up my trophy buck shot because you got permission to hunt there. I told him good luck hunting this season and that I would go elsewhere so that I can get my trophy buck. Whats the point of going hunting if the biggest buck walks by your tree stand and you have a great shot and cant take it?

Who is in the right here? Is that the way it really is when you go with someone and hunt on their land? I guess I'm looking for some good points either way so this doesn't divide our friendship.

You're in a sticky situation there. Your cousin did get the permission and you are technically a guest of his on the property so you are at his mercy. I can't say I agree with your cousin on that aspect of not allowing you to shoot the big deer if provides you the opportunity to me that is selfish and rude. It is not like he's been hunting this deer perviously no time or effort invested in this animal. As far as dividing the friendship goes his comments have already started that otherwise you wouldn't be on here asking for advice. And no that is not how it really goes when you hunt with someone on their land. I no longer have any private property to hunt but when I did the rules were simple we only took the animals that the land owner said we could (which in most cases was any legal deer), I had a rule on bucks that we didn't shoot them unless there were something we were going to put on the wall (no reason to go shooting all the small deer). There were no animals that I would say you couldn't hunt because they were mine. Hunting seems to be 50/50 Hardwork/Luck.

IMHO Your cousin is not in the right but its his sandbox he's just letting you play in it. Good luck and Good Hunting!

Hello Midwestbucksrocks and welcome to the forum.

I think what you are looking for here is some sort of validation to your point where someone will tell you that it is ok for you to do something that someone else told you was not ok to do.

The point of my rant is that the person that you are hunting with is immature and all they are out for is themselves.

I hunt most every legal day of the year and I have dozens of hunting spots that are open for me to hunt, anytime I please. No land owner has ever given me any restrictions beyond staying away from the farm area, house, barn animals etc or to stay away from an area they have reserved for family members. One person has over 1000 posted acres that his family members owns jointly and they do not allow anyone other then family members to hunt there the first week. I always respect their wishes - because I want to be welcome to hunt there in the future.

Large animals turns normally nice people into greedy animals that cannot be dealt with. You had two options, if the land you were hunting on was owned by family members, you could approach those family members on your own and ask them what their opinion was about you hunting on their land and if you were allowed to hunt anything that you wanted - without the other family members permission.

Or you can find your own place to hunt.

Eventually, someone will shoot that big buck and the feud will be over. But the problem will still remain - do you want to hunt with someone that is a bung hole? To be successful in anything in life, you must surround yourself with other people who also wants to be successful. If not - the people who are only there to put in their time and get paid for what they are doing will drag you down to their level until you act and become just like them.

My advice is to find a new hunting partner. In time your cousin will come around and apologize to you for his actions. If he doesn't, then that just goes to show you that he is only out for himself, and was probably raised to be that way and is not the kind of person that you would want to hang around with anyhow - unless you were raised to be the same way.

I had a friend that owned a farm, who I gave hundreds of pounds of deer meat. That has never once invited me in for supper. Who asked for some deer sausage the other day. When I told him that I expected him to give me some deer steaks out of his deer this year - got offensive with me and said that there isn't many steaks in a deer. I said right back to him - that there is just as many steaks in your deer as there was in mine! I also carried out deer livers and hearts out of the woods many miles and hand delivered them to his house - only to be treated the same way you were the other day.

Needless to say - he is going to be looking for a new hunting partner this year.

Well the way I look at is. He isn't that great of a friend or cousin then. Sounds to me like he let selfishness take over his better judgement. I wounldn't hunt the land again. If he wants the deer then let him go for it. I don't know if I could resist letting him walk knowing why I had to let him walk.

Good Luck!

I don't agree with your cousin either. If you were hunting with me I'd be happy as heck if you put down that big one.
I hope everything works out. Good luck!

It's not a sticky situation what so ever.
Your a guest of your cousin, the owner (your aunt or uncle I presume or his inlaws) of the land didn't tell you couldn't shoot it which means your allowed to shoot.
Shoot and answer the questions later.
Your cousin is a selfish moron amongst other descriptive words. Some best friend you got there dude.
Honestly if I were you I would never hunt with him again.But go directly to the owner and have them make the decision.
But if I were you I would kill it mount it,and find another place to hunt.
AND find another best friend.

Wow....if I invite someone on our land, I know he has the chance of bagging a big buck and hope that he does, otherwise I wouldn't ask. I have a buddy that has been leasing his land to the same group of people for 15 years (200+ acres for $500 dollars, bow and gun) last year he walked his property after season and found a set of sheds that scored 90+ inches a piece. So this spring he set some trail cameras out and got a pic of the buck on his property. After 15 years he told these people that he's no longer leasing the land to them. Its crazy what a big deer can do. Your better off not going with him. If you do shoot something nice it won't be the same. Good luck

Wow! Thank you all for your advice. I thought I was in the right. A thing that really bothers me about this whole ordeal is that the first year we went hunting, I pulled a lot of strings to go on this commercial property, that used to be a Nitrogen Plant. They have the biggest population of deer according to the state of Nebraska. That land has a strict no-hunting policy, but we did the demo of the plant and I became a friend to the land owner. At the end of the project I asked if I could hunt there with a few people. He reluctantly agreed, but only muzzle loader and I was fine with that. We each had to give them our proof of licenses and id's to be approved. It was a big process. We even had to arrange it with the authorities because the policy is that its illegal to hunt there, so we had to get approved there too.

Before we went, I told them that they have several Trophy Bucks there and that I wanted someone in the group to take one down. We only had 6 days to hunt then this opportunity was over. I was the one that went thru a very long tedious process to get us all approved, yet I never told them they could not hunt the trophy bucks. I am all about the "team" as I believe hunting is somewhat a team spot, or at least is more fun when you have shared stories with a hunting buddy. I honestly would have wanted to be the one that took the trophy buck down, but that year one of the other guys I took there got a 12 pt. nice buck and I can honestly say I was happy for him and to be apart of the tracking and field dressing. It was my first year and that experience was awesome.

Thank you all because this helps me to figure out that if he doesn't change his view on this, that I will hunt elsewhere and not go back hunting with him again.

Ask for your own permission and have no second thoughts :D

I have a question. Did you help put the stands or do any work to assist in this yrs hunt, also did he put any size restrictions on you b4 yesterdays hunt?
The reason I ask is I had a similar situation happen a few yrs back, my best friend and I worked all summer long to put up stands and helped each other out for our "best" hunting spots. We had agreed that we could both hunt ea. others stands except the one stand that was our "sweet spot". Well needless to say, he hunted one of my other stands and kills a nice, wide 8pt. At 1st I was a little ticked off, but we had ea. spoken about this and he reminded me of it. We are still best friends today.
My suggestion is if he's truely your best friend and you want to continue to hunt w/him, it would be to have your hunting rules in place and know where you stand w/ea. other going forward. Tell him its your land and I'll honor your request this yr but if you don't kill him and Im going to continue to hunt w/you and help hang stands and work the property then starting next yr everything is fair game. If he cant agree w/that then Id be out of there looking for another place to hunt. JM .02 cents worth.

BTW, I don't agree w/what he said and is doing. I think Id have to find another place to hunt but w/hunting season upon us its going to be very hard to find a place to hunt.