You have been on a lease for 10 years, owner does not overgraze and in most years has a very huntable numbers. With this year being a total dud. What do you believe is fair for the next hunting season?

Quail Leases single choice
	No Discount
	25% Discount
	50% Discount
	100% Discount
Votes accepted starting: 01/22/10 03:49 PM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

In this scenerio no refund expected. On the flip side how many of us have offered to pay more in a really good yr.

I voted no discount, the land owner/lease manager can not control the weather. In my years of deer hunting I have found that these guy are in it for the money and as a free market guy I don't want people limiting my income or any body elses. If he doesn't get the full payment from you he will just re-lease it to the next group and get a full payment from them and I hate moving.

So in a good years you want to pay a premium? Find a good lease with a good rancher and hope the rain gods treat you right.

Someone has been setting the higher price. I voted 50% discount. I was on the Archer county lease for only one year. Some of the other members had been on there for several years. It was a 1,000 round trip for me. I didn't go back for free. That CC guy went to his Rotan lease twice this year and shot 2 birds. How much do you think he's willing to pay?

Quail lease money is going to go away if the hunting does not improve.

Don't expect any discount...its a business...but they know whether there are birds or not...don't let them kid you!

Chet I don't like the fact we have to pay anything at all to hunt good yr. or bad. I still remember when you could knock on doors and find all the places you could hunt in a yrs. time. The fact is the landowners hold all the cards. Can't think of a more independant bunch than Texas ranchers. I know we won't get anywhere trying to tell them how to run their ranches and when or how many cattle to graze. And if we get into a situation where we ask for money back when they're no birds, then we should'nt be surprized if they ask for more when the bird crop is exceptional. My advise is to establish a relationship w/ a ranch in good quail country wait out the bad yrs. Their are still some out there that will treat you right. Frustration levels are high right now. To me this has become alot like buying tickets for your favorite team and then asking for a refund if they don't make the superbowl. Don't think that will work either.

Well I'm a Kansas boy and in the seventies you could go up the the farm house and get permission to hunt, I did it for years. Then the deer hunters started leasing all over the country and the farm/rancher saw that he could charge for what was free. It didn't help that some hunters trashed his property, left gates open etc. Those days are over and finding the right lease is the key now.

But the rancher doesn't control the weather, and I don't think we can expect a refund in the bad years anymore than we would want to pay more in the good. Some may dicount to keep leases full but that's about it. It pushes some of us out of the lease business and thats unfortunate. Heck I'm retired and on sort of a fixed income and may have to give it up and spend my time on the lake if prices get any higher. But till that happens I'm hopeing for good rain, good dogs, and lower gas prices.............

I can also remember when I could pick up the telephone and tell the operator to call mom and she knew who to call.

Those days are over and if you expect a refund because of no rain and no quail you will find a lot of landowners getting out of leasing. We quit leasing for a lot less reasons than that.

Wow, you are an old fart...............

My vote was 50%

I still can be done. I've done it within the last three years.

I'm not telling where, but it can be done.

I used to buy a couple of hundred pounds of pecans to take with me.

And i'm not saying refund of this years money, but if I was on a lease for ten years and had paid big bucks all ten of those years, I think after a bad year it would only be fair for them to discount it for the next year at least some. I guaran dam tee you if the Quail pop. got better & better, the lease would go up.

Lease agreements could be x number of dollars per bird killed. Problem solved, assuming the hunters tell the truth. But, since quail hunters appear to be wealthy -- most of them -- why would they lie about something like that?

postoak, I know alot of quail hunters none of them are wealthy.

Some people don't shoot many birds purposely. I know Tigger said he doesn't. I don't have to kill a bunch, but I do like to see them. For dog work if nothing else.
The amount of birds you shoot does not determine if you've had a successful hunt.
I just don't like water hauls.

That is what I am trying to get at and for survey sake there has not been a rate increase per acre in the ten years.

Well, I've only met two, and they were both well off, CEOs. But you guys *sound* like you have money. I don't think you would complain about paying what worked out to $100/bird. That's not a game most can play.

Bird dogging is a disease. It's like dope to most of us. We pay what we have to pay, but the thing is that I'm smart enough, to not pay for a barren pasture. I live across the road from the old Sugarland farms, which are called the Foster farms. Here's what I can do without getting in my pickup;

This is on wild birds a half a mile from my house:



This is on a pen raised bird a half a mile from my house:



This is on wild birds a half a mile from my house:



The point is that I can afford $100 per bird and have paid more, just like CC, but I'm not in the mood to pay for nothing, and drive 1,000 miles to pay.

I have ocean front property in arizona for sale

I'll take it! LOL

Put down my last dog in June 2009,first time since 1959 i have not owned Bird dogs( even owned them for three yrs i was in the Army). I have hunted Jacksboro,Seymour,Paducah,Rule,Monday,Knox City,Goree,Olney,area.Even hunted the area south of Arlington to Mansfield till i came home from Nam.
Shot my last Quail Feb.of 2007,i will not pay what the going rates are now,so for me it's OVER.
Told my wife this year for Christmas i wanted a lease with the quail like i was used to seeing 20 yrs ago, enough 410 shells and a new KAWA.mule,wanted to hunt everyday for the season.
The last day of the season i was going to set the mule on fire shoot the dog then myself.That's how much i will miss it!

If she finds you a lease like they were 20 years ago and you burn the mule and shoot the dog, I can't use the shells but I'd like to work something out with you about the lease...........

Bet Bill would take that mule!