I was talking to a friend of mine this past weekend and we were discussing how long to ask for a lease contract. This would be on a place that was new. My gut feeling was 3 years. What have you found in your experiences?

I would ask to lease for a year, then if you like it ask for something long term.. That way there is no comitment if something is haywire w/ the place..

1 year to start with just because the land owner is a nice guy in january does not mean he'll be the same nice guy in november. And just because it might look like it has a ton of deer on the property does not mean it will. Give it a full year even 2 then decide if you want to be there long term.

We do 5yr min so you know what to expect of the land and the wildlife/genetics.
Then we can feed a high protein solution and actually see what our first year does/bucks are capable of,just my .02(age/nutrition)
What can you learn in 1yr?????
Good luck!

We've always done a five year contract with a first year out clause for you as well as the land owner. Then we try to extend the lease after four years which generally works out well.We were on our last for some up to 15 years.

Just make sure you have an out clause after the first year. You can't always tell what the neighboring hunters will be doing that could really mess with your area if it is not real big. Landowners realationships on the day you sign up may change six months down the road when they decide they need to change their farm/cattle operation for the year. Lots of stuff to figure out that takes time not to mention the deer on the place. Some threads lately on this forum have shown that a few landowners are very unscrupulous in how they think a hunting lease agreement works. Good luck.

Believe me you can learn a chit pot load!! Look at some
of the threads on this forum in the deer hunting section.
Some times you dont see eye to eye w/ the landowner/guys on the
lease, managment practices, etc.. Many times people decive you
at first but once you get to know them things change. If you
know nothing about the lease 5 yrs is way toooo long.. You
dont want to be miserable and stuck somewhere, it sure takes the
fun out of hunting..