Anyone else on Campbell Timber lease?

[rip2506]

Just curious if anyone else is on Campbell property and how you feel about the new hunting mandates. I am a management minded individual and want to see and shoot more quality bucks but being forced to do so has a different flavor than doing it by club or individual want too.. if you know what I mean..
I am looking forward to the 2012-2013 season.. I have already seen a couple of good bucks that did not get killed last year showing up on my cameras... its cool watching their antlers grow back in.

I will be at the meeting on June 2nd in Silsbee.

Anyone on MLD level 2 or 3 and how has that effected your annual hunting experience since there is now a deer quota placed on you lease.
How would you grade it.

Major effect - could not shoot but one or two bucks till herd was balanced or improved.

Little effect - still plenty of buck tags to go around

No effect - same ol same ol... if you saw em you could take em if you choose to and were legal..

This is the area I think most concerns our membership that there will not be enough buck tags to go around. (11 members)  To me its like my opening statement ... shooting 11 bucks has never happened since I have been on the lease.. but being told you can only take 3 has a different taste to it.  Irregardless I will stay on the lease in hopes to benefit down the road. It doesn't hurt that I have a great spot and with the recent thinning have one of the last true sanctuary thickets left..

[Be Smart]

Are on 3 now. can tell you the horns are much better. i have a hard time swallowing it to start. but will not change back now.

[rip2506]

Thanks Be Smart!  Attended the meeting in Silsbee was very informative there were a few guys who were on or going to level 3 and all seemed excited about it.  There was one table that believed none of the this management theory would work in East Texas and we are all a bunch of out laws or too uneducated to fill out the required forms accurately or honestly.  I kind of took offense to those comments because most of us are honest and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to see the improvements down the road... OR as my ol buddy used to say you can always go hunt type 2.. which brings up another common fear that the evil powers that be will raise the lease prices after we help grow all these massive deer... business is business and if it gets above my financial tolerance then there is always the Moore Plantation ( type 2) ! 

[Piratefan23]

Was on Campbell land in Evadale and got off when they told us we could only shoot 120 class or better. Most deer on that lease will not have a chance to get that big even with the new rules.

[rip2506]

[quote name="Piratefan23" post="1238042" timestamp="1342806006"]
Was on Campbell land in Evadale and got off when they told us we could only shoot 120 class or better. Most deer on that lease will not have a chance to get that big even with the new rules.
[/quote]

I hear ya Piratefan... I have done some serious camera scouting this year and have covered about 3/4 of our 1100 acres.. there were only 2 or 3 that would get the nod of being close to 120...however I have seen an 8pt (with huge G2s) survive (from 2010 to present) by his on craftiness and the fact that when he lingered for 30 minutes in front of two of my friends during the 2010 hunting season he was illegal with a 12 inch inside spread max... fine looking deer I am telling you.. I would have shot and asked questions later. Now today going into the 2012 hunting season he is is a 9 point ( would have never guessed that ) with a non - typical point ( 3 or 4 inches long)... growing between is 7 inch browe tine on his left side and 10 to 11 inch G2... Can you say HOSS.. I have shown pictures of this deer to veteran deer hunters from eastex to Kansas and they all say that this is a Special... Special Eastex deer.. probably pushing top 130's to lower 140's ( friend of mine killed a 157 inch deer on public land just down the road from our lease so they are out there).....Now i get it you can shoot 200 inch deer all over this country and bigger if you got the bucks.. but for a free ranging eastex deer he is a trophy.

I also get the fact that he is the only deer of his class on our 1100 acres.. last year I had two... a super fine 11pt with split browes (but he has vanished) and this guy....

I said all that to say this.. I for many years was a brown its down guy.. but now with the help of scouting cams I have seen tha light. There are some great deer out there if they can get to 5yrs old.. and that's the trick.. my super 9 is at least 5.5yrs old cause in 2010 he was a fine 8 pt that was just too narrow.. today he is 15 to 16 plus inside and I would have never guessed it.. I would and many others would tell you he will never be legal 13inches its in his genes to be narrow or more than a 8... never ever but I got proof and if I can figure our how to post pics I will send the proof.

Now Campbell rules are as follows 14 inch inside OR 3.5 years old. The 3.5 i can deal with because that is not asking much.. that is when most of these bucks or just beginning to look like wall hangers but if you can show a little trigger control... you may find yourself with something very special like the buck I previously mentioned...

I am telling you I hope he survives another year just to see the improvement if any.. the jury is still out on when a buck really maxes out it's true potential 4.5,5.5,6.5,7.  who knows... I will tell you this if big boy steps out in front of me.. WE will never find out cause I am carry a 300. wby mag  just for this special occasion... ( usually shoot a .2506 thus the name REST IN PEACE .2506 and yall thought that was my initials) to give him a DIRT NAP and brotha I have been burning shells and flinging arrows getting ready.

13 inch rule works... Campbell mandates will work.. price of leases will probably go up.... but I am going to enjoy tha ride.

ps  good friend just left a south texas lease to enjoy the piney woods in bronson.. you say WHAT?  He said brotha I can fish ( bass, crappie) play golf and hunt deer in all in one area and have running water.. that's paradise.

[rip2506]

A guy came into my carwash yesterday that is hunting Campbell land west of Jasper... he had a cool picture or not so cool if you were him of a Mountain lion with the buck he was going to harvest this year in his mouth. CRAZY!!!! :o

[tvc184]

That poor lion has been blamed for killing that deer in 37 states.

[bullets13]

[quote name="tvc" post="1245901" timestamp="1345159927"]
That poor lion has been blamed for killing that deer in 37 states.
[/quote]

bwahaha, so true.

[rip2506]

[quote name="bullets13" post="1245936" timestamp="1345164724"]
[quote author=tvc link=topic=100028.msg1245901#msg1245901 date=1345159927]
That poor lion has been blamed for killing that deer in 37 states.
[/quote]

bwahaha, so true.

[/quote]

No sh*t  that no good!!!!

[rip2506]

Some one teach me how to post photos again and i will post an awesome ( In my humble opinion) deer picture.

[olddadt49]

Campbell took over our lease this year. We have been on this same land since before 1984. We are on about 1400 ac near Rockland and have killed many very nice deer over the years. The main problem with the rules I have is when they were issued ( which was after the lease  was signed) And the way they arbitrarily said the camp sites need to be repaired up to an unspecified condition  and hog traps needing repair had to be taken home to repair then brought back, nothing buried but removed and properly disposed of etc. They even complained about a feed barrel that was stored under a small tin lean-to type shed. We are still trying to get a grip on the rules. Sure hope things get better. Maybe they will after the dust settles next year.

[rip2506]

Anyone make the Jasper Co-op meeting a few weeks ago

[Uncle Si]

I spent the last dollar I will EVER spend on Campbell property two years ago when they came to my lease that had been leased by our family since 1980 and told us we had to relocate stands that had been in place for 10+ years because they were on main roadways. These stands were on OLD logging roads that could not be accessed by car or truck, 4wheeler only trails.  They then proceeded to tell us that we owed them money for missing pines where our food plots were.  These food plots were in the same places they were when Temple owned the land and this property had not been "pine" harvested since Campbell took over.  They said we could not plow or disc any part of their property (even food plots) and ONLY the main road ditches could be mowed, you were not allowed to mow shooting lanes.

Since then I was told by a TPWD employee that Campbell met with them and told them that within the next couple years they would begin auctioning or making available all Campbell land for lease (including existing leases) each year.  If someone out bid you for your existing lease you would be given the oppurtunity to match the bid or vacate the property.  The TPWD employee went on to tell me that Campbell said they were going to place their OWN trail cameras on each lease (in a locked box) and post those pictures on the website where people view the property for bid. 

I understand that the property belongs to them and they can do whatever they like with it, but those folks are "money mad" and dont care that 3 or 4 generations of families have poured blood, sweat, tears, and bundles of money into caring for THEIR property, they are simply just looking for more money.  THis is why I choose to not share MY money with them anymore.

The draw back for this for me personally is that most property available for lease in East Texas/Western LA is owned by Campbell and since leaving my lease two years ago I have not found another but fortunately for me we have several hundred acres that is owned by my family that I hunt.