I have a 4xx acre place that I bought several years ago. On one side I have a 200 acre place, another side a 250 acre place and another side a 30 acre tract. Between the 3 properties, there are 5 feeders within 60-90 yards of my property line. Never been a big fan of the feeders being that close (especially when two of the properties have plenty of room to work with) but there's obviously nothing illegal or inherently dangerous with that if positioned carefully.

However, after hearing several shots from their stands this weekend after I heard their feeders go off I decided to look a little closer at their setup from my side of the fence and from aerial photos. I found that not only is the line of fire from the stands pointing straight at my property line, the height of stand and position of feeder is such that the bullet shot at that angle is lined up perfectly with a person walking or riding on the road along my fence. There is a tiny bit of brush the bullet needs to go through on one of the stands, but that kindof makes it worse since you wouldn't be able to tell if someone was on my side of the property.

The total distance from stand to my property is about 150 yards and 175 yards. I do not want to start drama with neighbor, but also don't like the idea of bullets shot across my property line where we frequently walk/run that road on our side of the fence line. My thought is to let this season play out and then try to reach out to neighbor after season and ask him to reverse the locations of the feeder and stands to shoot into their property. Is there any better way to address this? Am I being dramatic?

I would have a problem with the second set up and not so much the first. Welcome to Texas. Most people are guilty of sending rounds down range to neighboring property.

You're being reasonable. As part of the discussion, I would offer to physically help them move them.

From your aerials, I see a couple of issues that might present resistance. Feeders appear placed to catch deer traveling north south along that brush. If you're truly concerned about safety, you might offer for them to set their blind on your fence and feeder on the east side of the brush. Stands on fence lines tend to piss people off but it really is the safest.

Not sure where you are but feeders appear to be set to account for the dominant northeast and southeast wind that is common across a lot of the state.

If they're afternoon hunters, they also may be set so they have the afternoon sun to their back.

I see nothing wrong with a feeder on the property line BUT that can make everything wrong with a shooting setup that requires shooting even close to perpendicular to the property line.

If a bullet would pass over the fence line due to the necessary path of the shot with a miss, it needlessly sets up booth a potentially dangerous situation AND a crime.

The feeder by the fence line almost requires a shooting setup on one or the other side also on the fence line and shooting parallel to it, excepting bends or irregular shaped property lines, etc.


I.e. it will be a rare situation where you can legally and safely hunt a fence line feeder.

This photo probably puts a little more in context. The green is property line and red is feeder/stand shot direction. What's hard to tell from the photo is if they shot into their property there is a pretty good ridge line that helps protect rounds from going across property lines.

I've also included a picture of another neighbor. Although the feeder is closer to my property line, there is a ridge line that generally protects from stray bullets.

Edit, updated to show on one picture

I recently discovered a similar issue at our place. A neighbor has a blind set up about 300 yards from our house/100 yards from the fence, with a feeder almost directly in line between the two. There are some trees and brush- enough that he can't see through but a bullet easily could.

MouthBQ98 said:

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I see nothing wrong with a feeder on the property line BUT

I.e. it will be a rare situation where you can legally and safely hunt a fence line feeder.

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No to mention that it greatly increases chances of the shooter having to secure permission to trespass to recover game.

Very true

Deer are game of the people. While not ideal to purposely try and draw deer from neighbors, also not technically wrong. We used to politely ask they hunt their property with shot directions being into their property. If they declined, we tended to move our gut piles equal distance in and directly opposite their feeders until they got the message. Somehow seemed to time with a new war on pigs.

Bullet direction and leaving property is another issue.

Muzzleblast said:

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It's called Trespass by Bullet. Talk to your Game Warden.

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I've had this conversation with a few wardens concerning duck hunting and lakes owned by multiple different people. General consensus has been that yes it's illegal but they pretty much never write a citation for it because it's very hard to show evidence that it happened. Essentially we were told that if the warden didn't personally witness it, nothing they can do.

txags92 said:

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CS78 said:

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Muzzleblast said:

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It's called Trespass by Bullet. Talk to your Game Warden.

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I've had this conversation with a few wardens concerning duck hunting and lakes owned by multiple different people. General consensus has been that yes it's illegal but they pretty much never write a citation for it because it's very hard to show evidence that it happened. Essentially we were told that if the warden didn't personally witness it, nothing they can do.

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Getting overspray from falling bird shot is a completely different situation than a 2500 fps 100+ gr rifle bullet crossing the fence in your direction.

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From a safety standpoint, of course.

From a getting anything done about it, good luck! One warden specifically told me, he had never written that ticket and that was his explanation why.