kinda frustrated

what do yall think???
i hunt in a lease that has a 3400 acre block that is surrounded by other leases.
as a whole, there are no managment practices, not for land or quality animals. no food plots or anything like that and most folks will shoot the first buck they see while regulating the doe harvest to one per year then here in arkansas we can kill three bucks. so these guys are doing the exact opposite than what even common logic would recomend.
i have talked about quality land and herd management and having land surrounded by over pressured propeties we could really have pristene hunting land. but these old school guys quickly shot my discussion down.
again what do yall think or what would you do???

Do you have the hole 3400 acre block to yourself or your group?

If that is the case i would think that would be enough ground to go ahead and manage it.

as long as there is a place to sleep and eat your deer will stay on your lease

this is just my thought and i could be wrong.

no you are so right. thats how i feel. the block is for the group. i have tried to get somebody, anybody to get involved in management. but the core group of older guys are all about, well nothing really. but as a guy that just pays to hunt there i cant justifyably spend my money and too much time to manage land then i pass the two or three year old 8 or something and several minutes later some ole guy shoots it or as was the case last year, a year and half six point was taken 30 mins after i let it walk.
what do i do to get these guys involved??

yeah that is not good, sound like they dont care for rack size like you do. and that is going to be bad for you. sounds like you have tried to talk to them about it to no avel. I dont know how to convience them use less you can get some kind of documents to show them how it will help.

other than that i dont know what else to tell ya. maybe if you have other places to hunt then go that rout.

if it was me i wouldnt pay to hunt there

sorry to here about your situation

I understand that you are feeling helpless but its just a case of different mindsets. I will give the guys the benifit of the doubt and just say that some people arent worried about mature deer or horn size. If shooting the first deer that walks by them, no matter the size, is what gets them that unbelievably excited feeling then so be it. I guess we cant judge them on that too much, but its obvious to me that maybe you need to keep your ears open for a new lease to get in on. One with people that have the same goals in mind as far as managing the deer herd and what age and size of shooter bucks yall want to take off the land. Hopefully it will work out for you and you will be connecting with a big boy soon.

maybe you can get someone from QDMA locally to come out and talk to the group...... show them what management is about and what can happen if they do it.

They could answer questions for the group....maybe that would help coming form them instead of you....

I agree wiht Mark. Try to get someone from QDMA involved. It also might help if you can get a guys or two that feels the same as you on your side before you approach the whole group as a little back up. My guess is that more people than just you probably feel that way, even if they are not the majority. If those two things don't work, find a new place to hunt...

Yeah I think that Mark has the best idea. There is a lot of articles in the QDMA mag about this kind of situation and they always seem to bring an outsider in (usually from the QDMA) to speak to the group as a whole. It is hard we are trying to do the same here in MD on our family farm. It has taken a couple of years of talking to them and showing trail camera pics of the potiential that some of the bucks have. But to this day we still have some "OLD SCHOOL" guys that don't want to wait and every year we just try to preach what we practice. Maybe one day it will sink in. Don't give up if this is the only place you have to hunt. It will be hard to make them see the light but it can be done. It just takes time. Good luck and heck if you do find a better lease then it will be there (OLD SCHOOL GUYS) loss.

Well said Mark...

Thats tough right there. Everyone has given you some great advice. Hope something works out for you.

thanks everyone. that is all great advice. and i will just stay patient and hunt hard. i do after all only give 350 a year to hunt this place and it is only 10 mins from my front door so im lucky to have a set up like that anyway.
thanks again.
whitetail fanAtic