I just want to know what all you guys do for a living that are paying $1500 plus for leases. I want to get into your career field so I can play with the big boys. My leasing days will be over before I know it. I thought the economy was doing bad, so why have the lease prices gone up even more? Sorry if I offended any lease brokers or landowners.

Jskin you didn't offend me, but here are my .02:
Price of land and places getting chopped up are two things that keeps making leases more expensive. I know the place we bought 5 years ago was around 500.00 dollars per acre now it is around 1000.00 dollars per acre. More places are being bought now are for recreation so that takes more leases off the table. If you notice in the other sections you hear all the time landowner sold the place so we lost our lease. Another thing is some of the hunters bring it on them selves. Notice I did say some, not all. Landowners get tired of messing with leasers and if they are going to lease, they are going to make it worth their while. Plus some landowners are management minded and don't want four or five people on 200 acres with all shooting up their tags or just having that many people having access to their property. Here is an example. We had a place we put up for lease just last year. It was a 1000 acres for four families 2500.00 each and each family could shoot off one tag. First off we asked for insurance policy and it took 5 months to get it done, next was the electricity was to be put in their name that took 5-6 months as well. They started leasing and sure enough the whole place caught on fire. We did give 5000.00 back last year to help them out. Now this year they wanted the same deal give some an inch they take a mile well we told them to hit the road and they will be refunded their money. There complaints were that the deer have all moved, but what they don't understand is this fire happened over a year ago and nothing is better deer food than a freshly burnt pasture with all of the rains and snow we have had this year. So mark it up here is another 1000 acres off the table, just not worth messing with the leasers to find the right one unless you just absolutely have to. As far as what I do for a living, I am a meat salesman. When I used to lease four years ago I would pay 2000.00 per year with 10 other guys on 6000 acres. It was worth the extra money for me for a bigger place and less people and knowing the place couldn't get shot up and you could pass up a big buck that was immature. Hope this helps and is stated above just my opinion.

Since I do a little of both I will give my answer and I am not offended.

1. I am a retired accountant and between my retirement and my wifes retirement and investments I make 100K + - per year. Everything I own is paid for and I am more than 60 years old and I have hunted on lease land since I was 6 years old.

2. In 1956 my dad made about 3000 dollars per year and paid about 100 per year for a lease in llano county.

3. The numbers of people hunting has grown like the population.
4. Expendable income has grown likewise. So a 2k hunting lease is less in their budget then a 100 dollar lease was in my dads budget.
5. Huntable land has decreased.
6. Anybody brokering lease must make at least 20% to break even.
7. So much of the land is owned by absentee land owners who do not want hunting, or reserve the hunting for the family, or want top dollar to lease.
8. Texas does not have hardly any state owned land.
9. Fear of lawsuit makes some very hesitant to lease.
Example You hunter starts a fire that does 200k in damage to neighbor property. You could be liable.
10. Most land keeps getting divided by the family or sold off to people who buy it for recreational use only and therefore it is taken out of the lease pool.

The absolute bottom line is hunting has become a business and it is strictly a matter of supply and demand. Look and number of high dollar gun store is the cities.

One of the big reasons the prices continue to go up because OUT OF STATE hunters with lots of cash continue to snatch up land. The last 25 years of hunting shows detailing the great hunting in Texas has not helped. 7 years ago I could get on a 5000 acre lease for 1000 dollars today that SAME lease is 3500 dollars a gun!!! Because Texas is almost 96% privately owned land the people that own the property know they have us by the BALLS!!! I used to love hunting here in Texas NOW I can't wait to get back to New York State where I can just walk out my back door hike up the hill behind the house and deer hunt for FREE!!!!

better get to walking.......


landowners have to make money too, its not all about how they can help the hunter.

I'm sorry, I cannot feel bad for someone who lives in a 250k house, drives a 50k truck with 15k worth of accesories on it complain about having to pay $1500-$2000 a year to lease.

If you want it bad enough, you will find a way to pay for it

Work in IT then.

Just blame the lease prices on the internet...

Isn't more land now deer hunted than it was 20-30 years ago though? There are plenty of deer in places that hardly had a deer for miles. Sure land gets bought and chopped but how much to make that big of difference overall? All the places I have hunted have been in the families for a very long time. Several have gotten bigger as they have added to their acreage.

Well I do well enough to be able to afford it per say but I just can't justify it.
You start with $1500 but thats not the end. If you are not careful you can spend that in corn, gas, and other expenses throughout the year.
IMO, it is greed driven. I think it all stems back to whoever has the most money. It becomes an auction, the lease goes to the highest bidder, forget the guy who has been leasing for the last 10 years with no problems whatsoever.
I mean are there that many landwoners out there that are truly dependent on the lease money to stay afloat. Most landowners I know that have enough land to lease are doing well enough. So I have a hard time believing some of the sob stories. They will sacrifice a good group of honest men to a group of city hunters that will pay more but will turnover year after year.
Now what.....

You can't stereotype. Most city hunters I know grew up in the sticks and left to make a living. If you hunt out west, the only hunters are from the city for the most part. All the towns are dying and there is plently of land to lease and not many hunters living there. Most of the locals work on ranches and could not give a crap about shooting a deer or turkey they see everyday. I don't hunt east Texas but it is different. But on my buddies place out west he manages, he has a had a group from East Texas lease from him though in the past two years. They rather drive 7 hours than hunt in their backyard I guess.

Sorry, by city folk I mean people that have more money than sense. You know what I mean.

Yeah, my neighbor. He is an attorney and only allowed as a guest with me to shoot does. His porsche would have a tough time anyway.

I am a career student and lucky.

I believe you mean people who spend their disposable income on things that you do not want to or do not have the disposable income to spend.

In my opinion the person who has more money then since is the guy that buys a new deer rife rather then pay for health insurance for his family.

Also the last time I checked my insurance did not stay the same or go down because I was a nice guy, the same way when I bought a car, filled up with gas, went out to eat, bought a suit. It is called free enterprise and supply and demand. The more bucks chasing an item cause the price to go up.

Well, if you are talking about the greed from the landowners perspective, the example I gave you on the 1000 acre place cost 1,000,000.00 to buy and was leased for 10,000.00. At making a mere 1% of you initial investment, it will not even pay the interest on the bank note. So the greed definitely doesn't lie with the landowner. For us it is better to not weed out the bad apples to find a good one.

again, it is not written anywhere that the landowner HAS to lease at all. be thankful that he is opening up his property to hunters in the first place.

80% of the landowners I know, don't lease there property what so ever.

as for the the greed part, gas prices go up, food prices go up, wages increase, but the lease has to stay the same???? how is tht fair?

there are exceptions to every rule, some landowners do chicken**** things to good leasers, but just as often hunters take full advantage of teh landowner "because they are paying for it". if they are going to get the short end of the stick, might as well make more money on it. not saying this is each and every group, but it is quite a few.

that is about all your going to make on a average place....

if i were gonna lease my land for hunting...the only way I'd do it is thru and outfitter that I know and trust...that way he can keep and eye on them

Its not about what one does for a living or what he drives or how much his house is..To me if u love the sport of hunting and the outdoors a man will do anything and a way to pay for lease dues... Especially if they have children we all Texans know we have to pay to play the game I wouldn"t hunt any where else but Tx..

I don't know of too many people who has seen their wages increase as of late. There are lots of people out of work and those who usually get raises have not been getting them. Y'all are all making good points and I appreciate the feedback. It just worries me because it seems the lease prices are rising at a much higher pace than the growth of the economy. The 1500 leases this year will be 2000 next year and so on. Bottom line is the tradition of hunting is soon to suffer for lots of hunters.

jskin, I agree with everything you say, but until it gets to where the lease brokers or land owners are left holding the bag the price will continue on an upwards trend. I know that 2 years ago I took a substantial hickey on a lease. I also know of a top end lease that is looking for hunters and the lease manager might have to give up the lease and then who knows what the land owner will do.

ARE YOU SERIOUS? I live in a 1 bedroom apartment, drive a 9000 dollar 2 wheel drive suburban and make 40k a year it is the person "YOU" described that is the problem!!! not us common folk that can no longer afford to pay these outrageous prices set by the GREEDY land owners......

If you look hard enough you will find one in your budget range. This forum should not be your only resourse. I used to play golf around once a week. At 50 bucks a round, 200 bucks a month, 2500 bucks a year average. I still suck at golf and haven't played for years. Now I have a lease, less expensive, and having fun.

ARE YOU SERIOUS? I live in a 1 bedroom apartment, drive a 9000 dollar 2 wheel drive suburban and make 40k a year it is the person "YOU" described that is the problem!!! not us common folk that can no longer afford to pay these outrageous prices set by the GREEDY land owners...... [/quote]

You kinda lumped all land owners that lease into one category. I don’t think that all land owners or even the majorities are greedy I feel like you pay for what you get plus its their land they don’t have to lease any of it. It’s up to you what you’re willing to pay and if you cant afford then there is always type 2.

you wanna act like that.....I'll tell it to you straight.

there is no such thing as a greedy landowner....they worked hard, or someone in there family did, and was able to afford to purchase land. no where is it written that they are obligated to lease land at what you deem a resonable rate, for you to hunt on.

I am blessed to have family that owns a place in south texas...and blessed to have friends that own land. I got to hunt a grand total of TWO days last year, I changed careers and have had my income cut almost in half, and spent the majority of the winter guiding hunts instead of hunting. I know how it feels to not be able to hunt.....this was the 2nd year in a row i didn't hunt and we own the damn ranch.

don't give me some sob story about greedy landowners....if you wanna hunt that bad, take up a side job, cut lawns, whatever...to pay for a lease, corn, etc. cut out cable t.v, eating out, movies,trips to the bar, etc, to pay for a lease.

its YOUR responsibility to be able to afford the lease, not the landowners

DUDE? whose fault is THAT? YOURS not Mine! YOU CHOSE to not to hunt even though you own land! The majority of the hunters on here don't have that luxury...

To respond to a post above; there is such a thing as a greedy land owner. The last place I leased had a land-owner selling day-hunts behind our backs which one of our hunters happened upon coincidently on the internet. He was also trapping some of the exotics on the place during hunting season to sell. He didn't ask us if we were alright with either and although it was his right to do whatever he liked to do with his own land, that is greed.

it is all market driven, if we want it we pay for it. Hunting is a Texas passion so we find a way to pay for it. My family gets far more use out of our lease all year long than we get out of a summer vacation. Thats just a choice we make.