Leased Hunting Property

[ByronBob]

The farmer I've hunted on for many years has decided to lease some of his land out to different hunting clubs in the area. The place I've hunted on is no longer available to me as some other guys coughed up some money.
After talking to the farmer last weekend he mentioned to me he'd be willing to offer to me something similar to what he's doing now. The deal is 1200 dollars for 250 acres of hunting property. With 6 guys were talking about 200 per guy per year.
Does this sound reasonable?? I've known this farmer for over 15 years and it seems that this is the way things are progressing around here. Everything is posted now a days and he's cashing in on the action. There is quite a bit of state land in the area to hunt but I don't know how that is as far as how many guys are hunting it ect....

 

[Wannafish]

Don't know about there, but here we lease 80 acres for $1200, and 120 acres with a small rustic cabin for $3000.

Sounds like a good deal to me.

 

[MossRoad]

That equates to about 55 cents a day. Are you going to get $200 worth of enjoyment out of it? If so, do it. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Also, I'd try out the state land and see how it goes. Can't hurt.

 

[SkyPup]

We have forty members in our private hunt club, each pay $2,400 annually for a 47,000 acre lease.

 

[TBAR]

Here are some rates here in Texas.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Spring Turkey lease or day hunt. 9,000 acres in Upton Co. Texas. Will allow up to 16 longbeards. Cabin with electric and water. This is for the 2004 Spring Turkey season
, lots of nice toms $5,000.00 for season or $600 for 3 day hunt 2 birds, meals and lodging provided )</font>

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( 2004-2005 Quail lease. The lease will be for Jan. and Feb after deer season. Cabin with electric and water. Lots of quail mostly blues. 9,000 acres in Upton County Texas
. Place is under year round feeding program. $13,500.00 could make package deal for quail lease and spring turkey lease. )</font>

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Quail Lease Available, 9,000 acres Upton,Co. Texas. For Jan. and Feb. 05. Lots of birds, 70% blues and 30% bobs. Cabin with electric and water, shower and stove. $1.00 p
)</font>


TBAR

 

[RanchMan]

Yea, free is nice but you do get a benefit for your money. The main one is certainty - you know who should be there and who shouldn't, along with more definite availability (i.e. they aren't letting another "friend" hunt it that weekend or such and freeze you out.)

Didn't do much research on the web, but did come across this site which lists some hunting leases in NY. To see if the deal he is making you is "good" or not you need to consider what other leases in the same general area with the same type of productivity go for. Do some more direct comparison - i.e. find some ads in the paper and such.

Don't know how they do things in up North, but something that would concern me is the density of the hunter population. 6 hunters for 250 acres seems like an awful lot to me. (now if they hunted a max of 3 or so concurrently that would still be a bit high, but more reasonable.) Just a knee jerk reaction...

 

[ByronBob]

My thought (just mine) is put the money into some property of my own and hunt on state land. I don't need a big piece of my own just to sleep on. We have pull behind campers we stay in and just open the door and load up the guns. Buying my own place won't be that easy.
It seems the farmer isn't out to gouge us anyway. I've always given him a "thank you" card with a gift card in it before but now he's looking for a bigger gift I guess.
As for leasing (which is still an option) do you draw up contracts and get lawyers involved??

 

[stevenf]

ByronBob, this is probably a little off the mark for your post and you sure don't want your farmer friend to read it but I own and live on 347+ acres located close to Boerne, Texas. We have been preparing the ranch for 5 years (cleanup, feeding, planting food plots and installing small stocked lakes or ponds as ya'll would call them. We opened up the ranch this year to hunters bear in mind that we are less than 30 miles from San Antonio, We leased it to 4 hunters, no family no guest, no blinds, no feeders, no lodge no nothing provided. We are getting 2,000 per hunter and as soon as we get our house finished and turn the cabin we live in over to the hunters the price will be 2,500 each for the season starting in Oct and ending mid January. They are getting a pretty good deal and they feel fortunate to be allowed on the ranch as it's not been hunted in 5 years we allow 1 exotic, 1 trophy white-tail buck, 1 cull buck, 3 white-tailed does, 2 turkey and 2 feral hogs additional animals that they want above their limits are priced for instance an additional exotic is $500.
I know this is not what you would like to hear but the wild west is gone most land especially in Texas is privately owned and I make more money for my family this way than if I planted crops in the valleys and ran cattle on the rest. It's a sign of the times and probably your best defense against the cost of hunting is buy a place yourself or if this isn't an option try to find some like minded hunters and buy one as a coop the only thing about a coop is the rules have to be spelled out and they need to be enforced or all your buddies will have their families and their families and their buddies using the land for other things and depending on the acreage and available wildlife the numbers in the coop need to be such that the land isn't overhunted or it will be slim pickings in a hurry. You also should have a buyouy clause or first right of refusal document in the coop agreement so that you can hopefully control who is in the coop in case one of the coop owners wishes to sell his or her interest.
Stevenf

 

[fishman]

Byronbob,

Stevenf's prices are not unreasonable. In fact, I've seen folks pay a lot more for a lot less around here (TX). I passed on a $700 lease this year because of a general lack of $, but will look at it again next year.

But 6 hunters for 250 acres seems like too much for me. Three hunters max, I would think, unless the terrain is really hilly and wooded.

Is leasing hunting land good for hunting in general? That's an argument that cuts both ways. Unfortunately, expensive leases with no family priviledges put the kabosh on new hunters. But the extra money sure encourages landowners to consider wildlife when ranching.

Hunting leases are here to stay, and will spread to include every state. Now the new thing is fishing leases.

 

[MossRoad]

<font color="blue"> do you draw up contracts and get lawyers involved?? </font>

You probably don't have to get lawyers involved, but you should definately get everything in writing. I mean everything. Dates, times, people's names, insurance, etc...

Does he realize that once he charges people to hunt there he greatly increases his liability. That $200 might not even cover his insurance increase, if he even has insurance.