GMMAT

Well....it won't be with these guys (if that tells you anything).

As far as anyone around me knows, this year.....I haven't seen a buck. I won't show photos....don't share game cam photos.....and I won't let 'em know if I have one at the taxi.

Nothing but does in my woods......and they can drive an hour to "hunt whatever they want". My shop owner lives, LITERALLY, 300 yds from a woodlot Rob/PA and I hunted, last year (I think we saw 13, that morning).

MountainHunter

I think I must be missing something here, GMMAT.

You invited these guys into a pretty specific win-win situation: they can come to your property to shoot does. They get a place to hunt, and, if they do well, some venison. You get your does thinned. What’s not clear about that? If you invite someone over for dinner, does that mean they can walk home with your stereo when they leave just because you invited them to your house?

Are these guys Afghans? I ask because that is the only culture I know of where this might be accepted practice (my brother-in-law’s best friend is an American-born Afghan, and, apparently, in their culture, if you invite someone to your house, they can use it any way they want, take anything they want and stay as long as they want (as in weeks, if they want to), and, as a good host, you’re supposed to smile and let them)

I have a farmer friend who has given me an invite similar to yours (he has herds of deer that are completely out of control and eat his corn crops). But he explicitly tells me that, if I see a good buck, I can shoot him with my bow but not with a gun (and I never hunt with a gun), because he respects people who hunt with bows and it’s OK with him for me to shoot any animal, but that he would prefer I shoot only does. His rules. I respect them. And I would respect them if it was a does-only invite, too.

Don’t’ invite these guys and don’t feel badly about not doing it! It’s your land, your rules.

fshafly2

GMMAT
I also setrules on my farm. I invite friends and an occasional acquaintance to bowhunt. They knowmy rules.

You are not being selfish ifyour inviteessay they cannot abide by your rules, THEY ARE the selfish ones!!

Lack of respect for landowners' desires has otherwise closed off a lot of property to hunting...

Hang tough
-fsh

frog5533

I would take back the invitation. I respect the people that I hunt with and honestly I have one guy that I know I can trust with any hunting ground or rules that I have laid out. I took one guy hunting on my prime spot one time (turkey hunting but there's some monster bucks in there). That's all it took for him to call the landowner 7 months before Iasked formy usual permission and now he's in there and I'm out. This is kind of a different subject but to me it all comes down to having respect for those that you hunt with. You asked for their help in thinning does, you didn't give them permission to hunt your land freely.

fetzeriiif

These seem to be different situations. You were given permission to hunt does on the farmers property. As I read it, GMMAT invited them to come hunting with him. If you invite someone to come hunting with you, you shouldn't expect them to follow different rules than you. Maybe I misunderstood the situation. Either way, it is definitely GMMAT's right to do what ever he chooses.

SwampCollie

Here is a situation I was in, acctually a couple of them.

First off, I started bow hunting through the generosity of a very rich, and powerful land owner (Ted Turner.... you know... TBS, CNN, The Atlanta Braves etc etc). He allowed cadets from The Citadel (where I went to college), where his two sons went in the 80's, to bow hunt does and hogs only on his 5600 plantation, every Wednesday of the fall semester. Very strict rules applied, and often, on the very last day we would be hunting, the caretaker would allow us to shoot a trophy buck, if we saw one. No one ever did on the last day (karma), but who cares?!? If someone offered you the chance to hunt in such a target rich environment as that, but as part of a management plan, wouldn't you play by the rules? Espeically considering that for almost 20 years, everyone else had too? On my first four bowhunts EVER (all there at Hope Plantation), I took three deer and a hog. The place is that covered up in game! Its amazing!

Then, this past fall, my boss (at the time) offered me membership to his lease for a MUCH reduced price from his other members, on the condition I would thin out the does, and let bucks walk, (although I was allowed to take one buck, trophy quality only, but I never got a shot at the one I wanted). His members were paying close to $1500 for the right to shoot bucks, and I was on the same place, for $250 running rampant on does. And they were glad to have me. If I would have opened up and broken rules... that would have been that. And I would of had no place to hunt.

Bottom line, is that its not selfish to restrict guests. They aren't paying the taxes on the land, or the leases or any of that. Beggers cannot be choosers.

hillbillyhunter1

I think as fetreriif said, Some of these replies are nothing like the situation that GMMAtt stated. And no offense to you personally GMMATT. He asked these guys if they wanted to come hunting to thin some does. Then when they accepted, he said "you know it's does only, right?"

So it seems, in the initial invitation, even though they may have known that their "mission" was to shoot does, they may not have known that that precluded them from shooting a "big buck" if it should happen to walk past, right? Hence, GMMATT had to make sure they understood after they had accepted, right?, by saying,"you know it's doe(s) only". He said this, according to his post, after they had accepted.

Then they said "i'm going to shoot a big buck if he happens to walk by". Perhaps they were either testing GMMATT to see what he'd say (maybe they thought he'd say "ok, no problem")or warning him that that's what they would do, giving him ample opportunity to withdrawl his invitation. That's not being selfish on their part. They told him whatthey would do. I'm surethey realize that he can live with that or tell them to "take a hike"

Many of you act like this is some great invitation "to come out to my place and shoot does only". While some peolple may desperately need places (any places) to hang a stand and hope for no more than a doe. Many don't. I suspect that the owner of a bow shop and a regular who's an excellent3D shooter have several places to hunt already. They might have thought they were doing him a favor, not the other way round.

I myself have several places to hunt and If anyone asked me to come to their place to shoot doe(s) butto notdare shoot any bucks, in essence, imo, because they wanted them all for themselves, I'd decline.I might in ablatently honest way say "I'll come, but I'll shoot a big buck, if I have the chance", knowing that the ball would be back in GMMATT's court to say "ok" or "forget it then". That's not being selfish on my part. Just being honest about my intentions.

Obviously if there were some other legitimate reason why NOBODY (including GMMATT)could shoot a buck, that would be different

Also, GMMAtt,obviously felt a slight rebuke from this incident, perhaps because those guys didn't see an invitation with those kind of strings attached as "any great shakes". Either way, It's Gmmatt's total perogative to do whatever he wants. Still, it's not the same as if these guys were dying for any place to sit in a tree and begging him for an opportunity.

GMMAT

Hillbilly...."fair" assessment....but the 3D buddy DID ask me. He has a place to hunt.....an hour's drive from his house. I live 3 min.

And to tell you the truth......if ANYONE asked me to come help them thin does......and I knew them and had the time.....I'd do it with absolutely no reservations. I wouldn't think twice about it.

fetzeriiif

Would you do iteven if you had not shot a buck yet and it was the middle of the season? I would probably pass. Had I shot a buck already or the season was coming to an end and I wanted meat, it would be a different story.

bkalbach

i dont think it's selfish.
i think it's disrespectful of them to come back with "but if a big buck comes through Im shootin him." you made them an offer, and you hold all the chips. it's not open to haggling. they can take it, as is, or leave it.