Mercedes-Benz C-Class station wagon and trailer - photo

[Frank S]

I grew up on our family's farm, so I know about stupid deer hunters. The property next to ours was leased out every year to hunters who'd come down from Atlanta to shoot stuff and drink beer. One year, they shot and killed one of our dogs about 10 feet from Mama while she was picking up pecans in our orchard. The game warden came out and did a necropsy, but didn't find the bullet, and he went down to the hunt camp to talk to the idiots, but nobody knew a thing. Back then, we had a split season that took a break during part of November (if I remember correctly). Well, while the hunters were gone, the steer we were raising for the freezer got out, went down to their hunt camp, and trashed their big army tent and everything else. When they got back for the second half of the season, they came up to the house all mad and asking didn't we have a cow there. But Hubert had gone off to the freezer locker by then. So no, we didn't have a cow, and that was that. I kinda hated that ended up being his fate after his good deed.

I've also walked up on hunters in my deer stands on our property only to be yelled at and told I needed to leave their land before they called the law. It's a good thing we knew the sheriff and game and fish folks well.

There is a more or less landlocked property behind me of not quite 4 acres, for years we thought it was part of our property but according to the county, no it belonged to some woman back East in Dallas. One day out of the blue she shows up at our place and said her son was going to be camping and hunting back there and wondered if he could drive across our land instead of having to drive way around to my neighbors place to cross by the easement dedicated to it.
I said fine by me if he drives across as long as he respects closed gates and doesn't rip roar around in his buggy tearing up the fields he is more than welcome to camp on your land and if he needs water there is a tap over there but he can't hunt back there.
Why not she asked its my land? Well it is and it isn't while you may own the 4 acres, Texas law clearly states that the minimum sized parcel of land which is legal to hunt on is 10 acres and even at that there are certain restrictions particularly if any adjacent properties have live stock which might be grazing near the fence row Your property is surrounded on 3 sides by my neighbor to the East, on his several hundred acres at any given time he may have a couple hundred cattle grazing, so even if you did have the state's minimum of 10 acres the only direction he could shoot would be towards my shop and house. The first bullet that ricochets off some of my equipment or strikes my shop or house or happens to hit me my wife or our animals I will drive my backhoe back there and bury his camp site with him in it then Tell the sheriff where the body can be found. I doubt if he will even bother to have it exhumed. We've been haggling over the value of the land for a couple years now but she, nor her son has ever sat foot on their property