Unfortunately, yes I have. Its becoming a normal occurrence in my area. Where about are you located? It started happening in the early 90s around Concord and Cabarrus county It seemed to slack off a bit around 08 when the economy tanked but building is wide open again these days. I can't help but wonder if we will have anywhere to hunt in 25 years...
Unfortunately I see this every day with work. I walk tracts a land that still have stands on them that will ultimately be developments. It's almost worse that losing a single tract myself since I have to see dozens a year.
Too many times to count....and its always very sad. It's weird, (but, strangely, sometimes kinda fun) to ride around and reminisce about past hunts in some of these developed areas. There are dozens of places I can drive through where I can see kids playing in their yards or whatever and recall a deer or a turkey I killed in that very spot....or a hunt I had there once, or a stand I used to have in a tree there, etc. A lot of folks on this forum can tell you the same....most I would venture to say, in fact.
Yes!! The irony in it all was that the company I work for did all the grading and utility work for the development after it was sold. Killed my first turkey there and had lots of memorable deer hunts with my grandfather, wife, and brother there as well. The area used to be called green level, now it’s just part of cary!
Yes, over the years I have seen several thousand acres go from timberland/farm land to housing development. Some of the land I hunted, other land was land that buddies hunted.
Yes, but I’ve also had/have properties where developments were built on bordering properties and it helped our hunting tremendously the next year and still to this day.