The WORST luck EVER!

[Horitexan]

After 7 months of peperation- thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of hard, sweaty work- the lease my buddy and I had was just jerked out from underneath us, without ANY warning and for no apparent reason! The only thing we were told was that the 'Trust' that owns the property suddenly decided that having hunters on the property posed a "liability" that they weren't "comfortable" with! Now, with the rut in full swing in the area, we're without a local place to hunt. Not to mention all the money we're out, the enormous investment of personal time (that could have been used as work time!) and the obliteration of all the hopes and dreams we had for this place.

The property we <strike>have</strike> had supposedly belonged to a wealth divorcee that my buddy (a private executive chef) cooks for and who offered us the property last April. Despite our efforts to pay her for the opportunity to hunt her 200 acres in Bastrop county, she refused. She told us to "just have a good time and make yourselves at home- you're welcome to hunt out there whenever you'd like, for as long as you like." Still, my friend discounted his services to the woman and to her son and his family! Stupid as it seems now, we never thought to get a written agreement. heck, the woman hardly ever even goes out there and we were using the totally undeveloped section of the ranch; so she and the ranch employees rarely even caught a glimpse of us. Man, WHAT A MISTAKE!

It is a great property with LOADS of potential and we've fed it heavily with corn and high protein- including regular feeding of thge roads- and even planted several food plots. We've been sucking some good deer and hogs onto the place with all our work, bumping the wildlife population considerably.

For the last 7 months we've worked and prepared for this month, clearing every feeder, food plot, blind, etc. with the woman and the ranch foreman. We even did simple ranch maintenence and cleanup on our own- just to be good hunters and to protect the awesome opportunity we'd stumbled upon. At least that's what we thought it was! Not once, during the entire time, was there any indication that there was any problem with us being out there or hunting out there; in fact, every time we tried to compensate the lady we were told it wasn't necessary and we were asked if we were having fun or having any luck- she actually acted excited every time we saw animals or saw the wildlife population growing.

Then, last Thursday, when i went hunting one evening I found the gate code had been changed when I tried to get out after the hunt. I ended up having to call the foreman to let me out of the gate. Then, the next morning, the lady calls up my buddy and says, "I don't actually own the ranch- it's owned by a "trust" for my kids (two adult males)- and the trust says their's a "liability issue" with you guys hunting out there. So, I need you to get your stuff off the property.....by the first of next week!" My buddy was so blown away he didn't even know what to say other than, "OK." When he called me and told me about it I couldn't believe it! I asked him why we couldn't sign a "Release From Liability" form for the trust or find SOME way to work out the issue- if that was really the issue. Since that first call from her, though, we have not been able to reach her OR the ranch foreman- we've left phone messages, sent text messages and sent emails- we've offered to sign a release, offered to pay for an attorney to write it up and offered to pay for any insurance they required. We haven't gotten a single response from her.

We have wracked our brains for a reason why she did this but it boils down to something with her that can't have anything to do with us; because we've made EVERY effort to respect her and what we had- we never even came close to giving her a reason to get mad at us. And up until THE DAY BEFORE she called to evict us, she was as friendly and interested as a person could be. Now she's totally uncommunicative and the definition of a dirty *%^$@# ^&%$& *^&% #$@&^*&!

I mean, if she didn't have the right to let us out there in the first place, how did it take 7 months for the "trust" to find out; and why would this all happen at the peak of the rut? Something isn't right; but we don't have any way of finding out the truth. All we are is STUCK OUT- in every possible way at the very worst possible time! What makes it even worse is that I just got my buddy interested in bowhunting and he's as gung-ho as a person can get about our sport. This was his opportunity to have a place close enough to home (Austin) to get some bowhunting skills in a hurry. As close as the place was, he would have been able to hunt more than the average hunter and the learning curve would have been really steep. he wanted, SO BADLY, to learn everything he could as fast as he could- to try and be the most ethical and best bowhunter he could be. That just kills me- that he was given this opportunity, took full advantage of it and worked his ass off, just to have it jerked away at the last second. All without any sort of rational explanation as to WHY!

We went out today and took down every stand, feeder and blind. We had to dump out over 800 pounds of corn and high protein feed because we just filled all the feeders and with no other property we had nowhere to put the corn. Now it's sitting in huge piles for the hogs to get.

I just had to post what happened to get it off my chest. There's absolutely nothing I, or my friend, can do about it except to suck it up and hope that we can find a couple of inexpensive doe hunts locally and begin looking for a new property to lease for next year, or an established lease to join for next year- that we can afford, hopefully. It's just making me sick. I've never had anything like this happen before- it's completely devastating. I figured if anyone would understand what I'm going through, and be willing to throw a little empathy my way, it'd be my fellow bowhunters.

If there's ANYTHING to be learned from my experience, it's to get your lease agreement written out in a LEGAL document/contract- so this doesn't happen. Had I only known! In our defense, though, this situation didn't seem to call for a lease contract when it was given to us.

If anyone has anything to say or any suggestions (as long as they're legal!) I'd love to hear them. I could sure use some propping up right now- I feel deflated. It helped a little to write this out- I don't know why, but it just does- so I hope you'll excuse the super long post. I just needed to vent a little, to people that can understand my emotions.

Sadly,

Nick

I you don't own it, always be ready for anything. Sorry to hear this

[jake-1024]

I know what you're going through and i think it's something every hunter (That doesn't own land) probably goes through at one time or another. I think you have the right attitude about just kinda taking that gut shot since you've pretty much done everything you can to keep the place. Pretty bad that this happened and i've had it happen to me before. It really sucks though that all the time and money you put into the place is pretty much wasted or going to somebody else that may be hunting out there. That was the case when we lost our lease.

[Videographer]

A similair story happened like this down in mexico last year.

The property mysteriously caught fire the day prior to Deer Season opening. It's weird how Karma ends up catching up to people.

Horitexan, hang in there and keep your head up. I know now it's hard, but good things come to good people. Stay positive!

[Bowwiz]

Sorry to read this...i feel for ya.Its seems alot of people are losing hunting areas.Its sad.

[txhunter]

Man, I hate to hear this happened. It sounds very fishy but there isn't much you can do.

[BUFF]

o wow tuff break

[Hot4huntin]

That bites! Sorry to hear of your misfortune, Nick! Hang tough!

[Graybow]

Thats terrible. Is kinda strange, just as the regular season gets here!

[Horitexan]

Thanks y'all! Yeah, it's really wierd- on so many levels. I don't think it'd bother me nearly as much if I knew what REALLY happened and WHY. th explanation we were given just didn't make any sense.

Thank god I have another place to hunt! I do work for Brushy Hill, down in Sabinal, so I get a chance to hunt pretty often. But having a place near where my studio is and where I could teach my buddy some of the basics of bowhunting was sure nice. Ah, well- what can ya do?

I'll be down in Sabinal working and hunting all week during Thanksgiving and that's right around the corner. I don't know if I've EVER looked forward to a week of working and hunting SO MUCH before! HAHA!

Thanks again everyone! I knew y'all would cheer me up a little!

Nick

[timhicks]

I hate to hear that..this kind of crap happened to me a few years back..I was asked to trap a spot of land loaded with hogs...I took about 200 hogs off this place in 3 months,,some dandies.
I thinking the guy was local and needed help didnt ask him to sign my waiver..Boy was I wrong..I had 2 traps on a place..about 1000 dollars worth of stuff. I left for China to adot Lauren to come back after leaving the trap tied open to find the gat locked with a different lock and the wife telling me the guy had hogs in my TRAPS..I wont say what I said to the overweight lady..but told her her husban better let me in now..
A few calls to the local game wardens who had been down there with me at times getting hogs out and I had them there..they cut the lock and said they knew the property was mine..we loaded all hogs which were in poor health because of lack of water and no corn were put swiftly on my horse trailor and the warden stayed with me till I got all my traps..I was bummed,,I was mad and I was gonna be vegiant..spelling..I was mad and wanted to get even..
I didnt do that and for some reason the game warden seemed to not like the fellow who was arrested and lost all guns and a truck last year for poaching...Hmm it will all work out in the end..I stillwish I had that spot..but I dont..but will not put my traps on another place without a landowner signing off a waiver

[Tomme]

I feel for you, and it does make you wonder if someone didn't really wave a bunch of money under her nose after they saw all the deer that you'd fed up for them. Good luck at Brushy Hill. Pete is a gentleman of the old school and one whose word you can trust.

[Chunky]

A similar thing happened to me not long ago. They promised me a written agreement and it never came. Then the rules changed and I had already paid and started feeding and work.

I told them I wanted compensation and if I didn't get it...I would take them to court. I would have done it to. You might lose because you did not actually have a contract, but on the other hand you might convince the judge/jury that you had a verbal agreement. In either case...win/lose...I was not just going to take it. In my case they decided it was easier to pay me off than go to court. I was still out a couple of hundred and lots of work...but it made me feel better.

Anyway, sorry to hear and good luck.