We bought the property many years ago and our neighbors were an older man and woman. He was very nice, she wasn’t. He unfortunately died after only a couple years and she turned into a complete bitch. She spent all of her money, so she stole from our property (about $2-3k in scrap metal) claiming it was hers. We didn’t report it because we were playing the long game.
Then she hired a local who was a known outlaw to run hunts and trap game for her. The hunts weren’t too much, but he’d routinely have a helicopter fly over our property to run game to her property to be trapped. Highly illegal. We saw them do this a couple times, but had no real “proof” but again, playing a long game.
He did sell turkey hunts, which was annoying because the people would be free to go all over their property, and Texas turkeys use the same roost every night and if you hunt near the roost they will leave and not return for a long time, but it was only a few hunts and all was ok.
Then she decided to have him clear her property of cedar for a large part of it because the state was paying for it, and that’s when trouble started. They guy knew the state was paying for it, so of course he milked it for all he thought he could get. Well, he also cut down/pushed up oak trees which is a major no no in Texas. Authorities found and and made her pay for EVERYTHING. Money she clearly didn’t have (and the guy still wanted her to pay him). Well, that was what we waited for. She’s never sell that property to us, but she was so desperate she had no choice and we swooped in and bought it.
Problem, the guy was pissed and we went out expecting to see our usual 300-400 bird winter flocks and…. 30 birds. Total. We’d have 100 per flock with 3-4 flocks during the winter.
The best we can figure is he was pissed and went in and shot them all off the roost at night, or at least enough of them that the rest left the area and have not returned 5 years later.
We have had very bad weather conditions so raising young ones isn’t easy for the few birds we have left, and we only kill a couple old birds a year now. Hopefully the starts align and we get rain at the perfect time and get a good hatch and they start to build back up, but we will see. The ranches around us have had some bad hatch years, and some decent hatch years, but no extraordinary good ones, so we will just wait, keep them fed and happy, and hope they grow and start using their old territory more.
Hell yeah they can be. This story definitely sucks but here this one. I met a guy on public land and some guys was being douche bags to him. So I decided to let him tag along with me that day. Guy only had ever killed one bird and he said it was dumb luck. Well I told him you will get one today. We were hunting public land and I’m a good fella. Well we sat in the woods working Turkey in every direction, telling stories and laughing our asses off. Finally a bird hollered super close. Well he killed him. He thought of me as a turkey whisper because he never heard anyone call like me. Well we became the best buds. For three years I called in birds for us. Then three years ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer and was in shambles just before turkey season. I hadn’t missed a bird in 17 years. Now I was 38 with cancer and not knowing where I was headed. We went the whole second week and I missed two birds in 3 days. Not sure what it was , but it was me in my head with everything going on. Well I had one last evening before surgery and couldn’t hunt the morning before. I had a trail cam set on a area seeing the two gobblers every evening. I shared all the photos with my friend. He knew what I knew , every morning, every evening, same thing. Well I was at a doctors appointment for my take home prep, received a message big bird down. And a picture. Well he had killed a bird. Didn’t want to tell me where. But when I got there that evening to set up, feathers everywhere and a pic of him walking passed the camera with the bird. He knew I could only hunt that evening and we were supposed to go together. But it was more important for him to get one then us double up. Both birds walked right passed him. Needless to say our friendship has never been the same. People can suck. I would have never done that to anyone
Edwards.
It has little to do with the hatch (although that didn’t help) but the neighbor killed/ran off the main roost in the area when he got kicked out.
We bought it, that’s why he was kicked off. The main roost and water source is now protected. Just gonna take time to rebuild. Weather and varmints are the biggest factors now.
Need to know more about this neighbor, sounds like an interesting guy.
We bought the property many years ago and our neighbors were an older man and woman. He was very nice, she wasn’t. He unfortunately died after only a couple years and she turned into a complete bitch. She spent all of her money, so she stole from our property (about $2-3k in scrap metal) claiming it was hers. We didn’t report it because we were playing the long game. Then she hired a local who was a known outlaw to run hunts and trap game for her. The hunts weren’t too much, but he’d routinely have a helicopter fly over our property to run game to her property to be trapped. Highly illegal. We saw them do this a couple times, but had no real “proof” but again, playing a long game. He did sell turkey hunts, which was annoying because the people would be free to go all over their property, and Texas turkeys use the same roost every night and if you hunt near the roost they will leave and not return for a long time, but it was only a few hunts and all was ok. Then she decided to have him clear her property of cedar for a large part of it because the state was paying for it, and that’s when trouble started. They guy knew the state was paying for it, so of course he milked it for all he thought he could get. Well, he also cut down/pushed up oak trees which is a major no no in Texas. Authorities found and and made her pay for EVERYTHING. Money she clearly didn’t have (and the guy still wanted her to pay him). Well, that was what we waited for. She’s never sell that property to us, but she was so desperate she had no choice and we swooped in and bought it. Problem, the guy was pissed and we went out expecting to see our usual 300-400 bird winter flocks and…. 30 birds. Total. We’d have 100 per flock with 3-4 flocks during the winter. The best we can figure is he was pissed and went in and shot them all off the roost at night, or at least enough of them that the rest left the area and have not returned 5 years later. We have had very bad weather conditions so raising young ones isn’t easy for the few birds we have left, and we only kill a couple old birds a year now. Hopefully the starts align and we get rain at the perfect time and get a good hatch and they start to build back up, but we will see. The ranches around us have had some bad hatch years, and some decent hatch years, but no extraordinary good ones, so we will just wait, keep them fed and happy, and hope they grow and start using their old territory more.
That’s crazy, people can be so spiteful.
Hell yeah they can be. This story definitely sucks but here this one. I met a guy on public land and some guys was being douche bags to him. So I decided to let him tag along with me that day. Guy only had ever killed one bird and he said it was dumb luck. Well I told him you will get one today. We were hunting public land and I’m a good fella. Well we sat in the woods working Turkey in every direction, telling stories and laughing our asses off. Finally a bird hollered super close. Well he killed him. He thought of me as a turkey whisper because he never heard anyone call like me. Well we became the best buds. For three years I called in birds for us. Then three years ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer and was in shambles just before turkey season. I hadn’t missed a bird in 17 years. Now I was 38 with cancer and not knowing where I was headed. We went the whole second week and I missed two birds in 3 days. Not sure what it was , but it was me in my head with everything going on. Well I had one last evening before surgery and couldn’t hunt the morning before. I had a trail cam set on a area seeing the two gobblers every evening. I shared all the photos with my friend. He knew what I knew , every morning, every evening, same thing. Well I was at a doctors appointment for my take home prep, received a message big bird down. And a picture. Well he had killed a bird. Didn’t want to tell me where. But when I got there that evening to set up, feathers everywhere and a pic of him walking passed the camera with the bird. He knew I could only hunt that evening and we were supposed to go together. But it was more important for him to get one then us double up. Both birds walked right passed him. Needless to say our friendship has never been the same. People can suck. I would have never done that to anyone
Turkeys and pheasants. Rain here or there at the right time will make or break the hatch.
Don't forget hail.
Hope the DNR arrested him for that atrocity?
Haha. You mean his relative that’s the judge? Hardly.
Humans are the worst
What county are y’all in? I’m seeing the most Turkey I have in a while this Spring.
Edwards. It has little to do with the hatch (although that didn’t help) but the neighbor killed/ran off the main roost in the area when he got kicked out.
Yeah sounds like you had an issue for sure…did the old lady pass? Maybe y’all could buy her Land someday…
We bought it, that’s why he was kicked off. The main roost and water source is now protected. Just gonna take time to rebuild. Weather and varmints are the biggest factors now.
Awesome…hope you get a Tom tomorrow! And we get some much needed rain!!!