Perhaps someone here has found some of my poaching blinds I put on other people's property.
I dodged two claymore mines and had to take down a couple of hidden game cams just to hunt in peace last time out.

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I dodged two claymore mines ...

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Before they went off, right?

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Has the OP ever said he has a lease on the property where the cows are?

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This is the crux of the issue to me. If he has a lease and the presence of the cattle has adversely affected the hunting (game camera photos of the cows at a feeder, for example), then OP seems to be due a partial refund (at a minimum) from the landowner.

OP is SOL if he merely has access to the property but no lease agreement.

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Has the OP ever said he has a lease on the property where the cows are?

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This is the crux of the issue to me. If he has a lease and the presence of the cattle has adversely affected the hunting (game camera photos of the cows at a feeder, for example), then OP seems to be due a partial refund (at a minimum) from the landowner.

OP is SOL if he merely has access to the property but no lease agreement.

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Wait...what? The presence of 2 cows adversely affecting hunting. Say that out loud. Unless we are talking about 6 acres here how can 2 cows hurt your hunting that much even if they do show up to your feeder on occasion?

I just can't see where making anything out of this is going to benefit anyone. Let the 2 primary parties work it out on their own. Deer hunters come and go, he has to be neighbors with this guy for a while...

So... even if the OP has a hunting lease... the onus for the "refund" for negatively affected hunting belongs to the landowner, not the cattle owner.

Also, if I read correctly, the said he "closed the gate," meaning these cattle didn't get in through a broken fence, but instead walked in through an open gate.

At the end of the day, I seriously doubt that 2 cows and 2 calves are really impacting anything.

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Has the OP ever said he has a lease on the property where the cows are?

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This is the crux of the issue to me. If he has a lease and the presence of the cattle has adversely affected the hunting (game camera photos of the cows at a feeder, for example), then OP seems to be due a partial refund (at a minimum) from the landowner.

OP is SOL if he merely has access to the property but no lease agreement.

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Wait...what? The presence of 2 cows adversely affecting hunting. Say that out loud. Unless we are talking about 6 acres here how can 2 cows hurt your hunting that much even if they do show up to your feeder on occasion?

I just can't see where making anything out of this is going to benefit anyone. Let the 2 primary parties work it out on their own. Deer hunters come and go, he has to be neighbors with this guy for a while...

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Suppose it is a small tract of land, and that the OP has a single stand with a single feeder. Now suppose that OP hasn't been seeing any deer while hunting, but the cows are frequent visitors. While this scenario may not be likely, it is possible. It's been my experience that cows make quite a bit of noise when moving through the woods/brush, and deer don't seem too fond of it (frequently temporarily leave altogether).

The bottom line is that IF the property was leased for hunting and the presence of cows was not disclosed beforehand, OP has an argument (particularly if he's brought it up and seemingly been ignored).

I appreciate that the two landowners maintaining a positive relationship is important here, but if the OP has leased the property for hunting, blowing him off in this case is inconsiderate at best.

Katy... you are right in every thing you said... be the OP's grievance would be with HIS landowner, not with the cattle owner. Any compensation or remediation would have to come from the party with whom he contracted.

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Suppose it is a small tract of land, and that the OP has a single stand with a single feeder. Now suppose that OP hasn't been seeing any deer while hunting, but the cows are frequent visitors.

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If you don't see deer, cows, pigs, raccoons, aoudads or turkeys at a feeder there is a good chance you don't have any....

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Suppose it is a small tract of land, and that the OP has a single stand with a single feeder. Now suppose that OP hasn't been seeing any deer while hunting, but the cows are frequent visitors.

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If you don't see deer, cows, pigs, raccoons, aoudads or turkeys at a feeder there is a good chance you don't have any....

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Trail cameras are wonderful (albeit lazy) scouting tools. If nothing shows up on camera, then your premise is correct.

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And they have both dropped calves.

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Brand em! They're yours!

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Tell the guy he has a couple days to remove them or call the sheriff.

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"You don't know your ass in the law here!"

"Maybe...but it's your ass that has a bullseye on it right now Jerry G."



"Maybe they didn't eat enough federal grass?"


"You good people know i wasn't gonna shoot nobody...right?"



"Riiiiiiiight."

Edit - I have no idea how I posted on this thread here. I hate the new mobile site. HATE IT.

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Trail cameras are wonderful (albeit lazy) scouting tools. If nothing shows up on camera, then your premise is correct.

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They are far better than just nosing around for yourself. You can't be out there 24/7.

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Trail cameras are wonderful (albeit lazy) scouting tools. If nothing shows up on camera, then your premise is correct.

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Lazy if you just stick them on a feed pen, maybe. They can be a tremendous tool if you have enough of them and know how to use them.

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Trail cameras are wonderful (albeit lazy) scouting tools. If nothing shows up on camera, then your premise is correct.

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They are far better than just nosing around for yourself. You can't be out there 24/7.

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I agree completely. It's like a kid at Christmas looking at photos to see what's been coming around while you were out. I don't live where I hunt (as most of us don't), so it's a great tool in that regard.

They can, however, take some of the mystery out of the overall experience when you've got 24/7 surveillance over feed stations (I do this, so I'm not knocking it by any means).

You literally have no say in this matter.

A deer lease only grants you the right hunt the land. Unless it states specific matters in the lease agreement, you do not have any other rights or authority over the land. You do not have the rights to a cow free hunting area. You do not have exclusive right to hunt the land. If the owner wants to let Joe from down the road hunt for free on the place you pay for rights that is nothing but tough luck for you. Your only bargaining chip is your money and your willingness to part with it in exchange for hunting rights on the place next year. Unfortunately for you deer hunters are a dime a dozen. Deer leases are not.

If you are paying top dollar for hunting rights, only an idiot wouldn't put an exclusivity clause in the lease agreement. We walked away from a lease opportunity over this reason in Webb county years ago (the landowner indicated his sons would shoot "a few does and pigs" when we weren't hunting, but he wanted $5,000/gun for the lease, which was less than 2,000 acres if I recall correctly).

Now, if it's a relatively inexpensive lease, you may get what you pay for. As for the land being free of livestock, OP may or may not have a leg to stand on here. While some around here have mocked others for lease rules being made up by "homeowner association types", the OP provides an example where a detailed lease agreement would come in handy right about now. If it isn't in writing, it never happened and it's not covered.

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If you are paying top dollar for hunting rights, only an idiot wouldn't put an exclusivity clause in the lease agreement. We walked away from a lease opportunity over this reason in Webb county years ago (the landowner indicated his sons would shoot "a few does and pigs" when we weren't hunting, but he wanted $5,000/gun for the lease, which was less than 2,000 acres if I recall correctly).

Now, if it's a relatively inexpensive lease, you may get what you pay for. As for the land being free of livestock, OP may or may not have a leg to stand on here. While some around here have mocked others for lease rules being made up by "homeowner association types", the OP provides an example where a detailed lease agreement would come in handy right about now. If it isn't in writing, it never happened and it's not covered.

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You walked away and someone else walked right in. No sweat off of the land owners back.

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If you are paying top dollar for hunting rights, only an idiot wouldn't put an exclusivity clause in the lease agreement. We walked away from a lease opportunity over this reason in Webb county years ago (the landowner indicated his sons would shoot "a few does and pigs" when we weren't hunting, but he wanted $5,000/gun for the lease, which was less than 2,000 acres if I recall correctly).

Now, if it's a relatively inexpensive lease, you may get what you pay for. As for the land being free of livestock, OP may or may not have a leg to stand on here. While some around here have mocked others for lease rules being made up by "homeowner association types", the OP provides an example where a detailed lease agreement would come in handy right about now. If it isn't in writing, it never happened and it's not covered.

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You walked away and someone else walked right in. No sweat off of the land owners back.

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This is likely true in the short term, but if a landowner places any value on hunters that are management-minded, he'd be wise to strive for continuity and longevity with the hunters he leases to. If I knew I only planned on leasing a place for a year (for any reason, including feeling that the landowner didn't give a rats azz), then I might be inclined to adopt the "if it's brown, it's down" attitude (not a good thing for producing trophy bucks). String a few years of that together with high turnover, and the quality of animals harvested will decrease as will the asking price. Nobody wins in that scenario.

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Perhaps someone here has found some of my poaching blinds I put on other people's property.
I dodged two claymore mines and had to take down a couple of hidden game cams just to hunt in peace last time out.

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I will trade you your blinds back for my cows!

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If you are paying top dollar for hunting rights, only an idiot wouldn't put an exclusivity clause in the lease agreement. We walked away from a lease opportunity over this reason in Webb county years ago (the landowner indicated his sons would shoot "a few does and pigs" when we weren't hunting, but he wanted $5,000/gun for the lease, which was less than 2,000 acres if I recall correctly).

Now, if it's a relatively inexpensive lease, you may get what you pay for. As for the land being free of livestock, OP may or may not have a leg to stand on here. While some around here have mocked others for lease rules being made up by "homeowner association types", the OP provides an example where a detailed lease agreement would come in handy right about now. If it isn't in writing, it never happened and it's not covered.

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You walked away and someone else walked right in. No sweat off of the land owners back.

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This is likely true in the short term, but if a landowner places any value on hunters that are management-minded, he'd be wise to strive for continuity and longevity with the hunters he leases to. If I knew I only planned on leasing a place for a year (for any reason, including feeling that the landowner didn't give a rats azz), then I might be inclined to adopt the "if it's brown, it's down" attitude (not a good thing for producing trophy bucks). String a few years of that together with high turnover, and the quality of animals harvested will decrease as will the asking price. Nobody wins in that scenario.

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Not all landowners are wise, and some are just unwilling to put up with high maintenance hunters, or the least little bit of drama. Recent oil prices have also made many landowners a lot less willing to mess with deer hunters. Your points are all valid Katy, but really management minded hunters aren't really all that hard to find. In the current environment hunters will always be easier to find than places to hunt, and landowners know that. It's best to approach any hunting rights, wether purchased or simply granted, as a privilege, and avoid making extraordinary demands of a landowner, or meddling in his/her business.

As a kid, I remember our cows would always leave the herd to calve. Then they'd rejoin when the calf was bigger. Also, if these cattle are anything like my father-in-law's herd, you can lead them anywhere with a sack of cake/ cubes. Find the spot in the fence where they crossed and shake a half empty sack of cake at them. You can probably fix the problem yourself in less than 10 minutes. Just make sure the calves can cross too .

We usually run our neighbors cows back across the fence, or at the very least pen them up and call. We have 4 low water crossings on our place so we trade cows with the neighbors 2-3 times a year. Part of it.

Sherrif isn't going to do ****

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Not all landowners are wise, and some are just unwilling to put up with high maintenance hunters, or the least little bit of drama. Recent oil prices have also made many landowners a lot less willing to mess with deer hunters. Your points are all valid Katy, but really management minded hunters aren't really all that hard to find. In the current environment hunters will always be easier to find than places to hunt, and landowners know that. It's best to approach any hunting rights, whether purchased or simply granted, as a privilege, and avoid making extraordinary demands of a landowner, or meddling in his/her business.

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Like any business there are people who try to absolutely maximize profit and there are people who try to build relationships while remaining profitable. In my mind a long-running agreement with reasonable people is way better than a revolving door of clients with no personal/emotional investment. I just believe the latter is more valuable in the long run even if it ends up in a little less cash.

I've been on leases where the relationship was perfect. And as a result I sometimes gave up an entire day of hunting to fix a fence, repair a water leak, etc. I've also been on leases where the landowner just saw me as a sack of cash. In those instances if I was watching liquid gold flow off his property and into the ditch I don't think I would have bothered to tell him because he was an ass and I was just trying to get value out of my check before I left the next year to find a better place.

If your landowner values you, and the possible long term relationship the lease could become then you can sit down and come to a reasonable agreement. If he sees you as a sack of cash he won't do dick and you should leave as soon as your lease is up. Just my $0.02 and it applies to all businesses/customers, not just leasing arrangements.

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Not all landowners are wise, and some are just unwilling to put up with high maintenance hunters, or the least little bit of drama. Recent oil prices have also made many landowners a lot less willing to mess with deer hunters. Your points are all valid Katy, but really management minded hunters aren't really all that hard to find. In the current environment hunters will always be easier to find than places to hunt, and landowners know that. It's best to approach any hunting rights, whether purchased or simply granted, as a privilege, and avoid making extraordinary demands of a landowner, or meddling in his/her business.

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Like any business there are people who try to absolutely maximize profit and there are people who try to build relationships while remaining profitable. In my mind a long-running agreement with reasonable people is way better than a revolving door of clients with no personal/emotional investment. I just believe the latter is more valuable in the long run even if it ends up in a little less cash.

I've been on leases where the relationship was perfect. And as a result I sometimes gave up an entire day of hunting to fix a fence, repair a water leak, etc. I've also been on leases where the landowner just saw me as a sack of cash. In those instances if I was watching liquid gold flow off his property and into the ditch I don't think I would have bothered to tell him because he was an ass and I was just trying to get value out of my check before I left the next year to find a better place.

If your landowner values you, and the possible long term relationship the lease could become then you can sit down and come to a reasonable agreement. If he sees you as a sack of cash he won't do dick and you should leave as soon as your lease is up. Just my $0.02 and it applies to all businesses/customers, not just leasing arrangements.

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No question Sean, you've described with incredible accuracy the last 2 places I've been on, the first lasted until an outfitter filled the landowners head with promises, the other lasted 12 years and would still be going were it not for heirs jostling for control.

My point is that if you want the landowner to value you as an asset and not just a revenue stream, then you need to first value him, and his land as something you are privileged to have access to. If you want to be considered a valuable asset by your landowner, you would be better off not to demand recompense for hunts interrupted by stray livestock, and interfere with his relationships with surrounding landowners.

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My point is that if you want the landowner to value you as an asset and not just a revenue stream, then you need to first value him, and his land as something you are privileged to have access to. If you want to be considered a valuable asset by your landowner, you would be better off not to demand recompense for hunts interrupted by stray livestock, and interfere with his relationships with surrounding landowners.

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Blue star for your attitude, sir!

Sadly, nothing stays the same forever.

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Calves? What calves??

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Calf fry it is!

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I'm not sure if this means what you think it means....

Veal balls!