Of course the first thing that someone is going to come on here and say is that they dont want to make work out of hunting..neither do I.. I live in an area where hunting is kind of in virgin territory. We have great ranches that all have hunting outfits and plenty of leases around.those people are making a killin. What I am wondering about is small side business opportunities that some of you hill country and metro/east tx. folks may be taking advantage of that could supplement my income during the offseason in order to pay the lease. I am a coach/teacher. During the month of May and June I have some time to do such things. I am spending time improving my lease and fishing lake allen henry but I would like to learn something new. Any serious non jackass ideas would be greatly appreciated..thanks a bunch , cap

Turtle trapping and catching snakes. They are both fun and keep you out in the field for a couple hours a day if you want to do it that much. There are other non game critters you can collect also.

caprocker, easiest thing to me here is, guide or run day specials on your place. You can get as elborate as you want, or just do some day hunts. I am assuming you can run hunts on your lease??? I am sure you have hogs, turkeys ect. I don't know how well you know lake Allen Henry, but I also know there are guides, more so from Lubbock that do that on the side. Like I said you can turn it into something very small or go as big as you want. First step is getting your foot in the door. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I'VE GOT SEVERAL GOOD IDEAS, BUT I'M AFRAID I MIGHT ACCEDENTLY FALL IN THAT "JACKASS" CATAGORY JUST TRYING TO HELP... I'LL JUST STAY OVER ON THIS SIDE OF THE LINE WHERE IT'S SAFE.

7mag , the number one stipulation on our lease was no sub-leasing...i wish i could...i did think about taking out a loan and leasing a smaller place to guide hog hunts on year round...it would be a cool deal the only problem is that i dont think i could keep my head above water on supplemental feeding....O'Shay , bring it on just keep it friendly...i need to make 1500 skins to pay my lease...

Drive up to Lubbock and donate plasma like all the college students did to support their liquid appetite.

I once thought about getting a generator for my welder and going out to do some small oddjob welding. You know, like fix a gate hinge or something. Never had the time or money to get serious enough to figure out if I could make anything out of it.

The other one was to setup, rent and sell deer feeders, along with a service to fill them periodically. To make it work though, you'd have to have several places close together, or else you'd spend a fortune in gas.

Stand on the corner with a sign, "Need money for beer and deer lease. God Bless."

If I knew how to weld really well, I would make some affordable BBQ pits and sell them. Maybe some benches too.

Try making fire pits if you have access to a welder. There is a place in Ft. Worth that makes those huge butane tanks that you see at peoples houses. They have the end caps which do not meet the standards so they can't use them. About a year ago you could get them for 40.00 each. Get some metal tubing for legs, for an area to put things along the edge while cooking, and a grill you can swing on or off the fire. You can invest about 100.00 worth of materials and sell them for 550.00 to 600.00 ea. Make 4 or 6 of them and you have a pretty good chunk of change.

those are great ideas on the welding things. I have access to some pretty cheap pipe , pump barrel and used oilfield parts out here..i have built feeder "stands" and deer stands before that are pretty keen for taking into isolated areas..the feeder stands are separated to where you can carry them on a 4 wheeler and carry a 55 gallon drum on a separate run but all in one piece..i have to keep mine stout in order to fend off the bovine and heavy porcine attacks....maybe someone would buy those..thanks guys , cap

Before I bacame disabled I made deer stands, 4' and 6' high for box blinds that were 4x4 and 4x6. In about August I would put one in the driveway, and hunters would stop by and soon it was sold and another took its place. All it took was a cracker box welder and a torch for tools. The angle iron I bought at a salvage yard for srap metal prices.

what would you charge for a stand that size? did you also have the blind included or was the stand by itself??

That was 10 years ago, and I think I was ripping them off for around a $100 plus for the 4' 4x4. Expenses were a lot less, angle iron, cutting torch gases, and welding rods are a lot higher now.

And that was with no wood box on it, had a buddy that I was in on this that did that part.

I have made millions in Amway seriously the welding gig is a good idea. After I got out of the Marine Corp, and before I got married and had kids, I messed with pipe fence. You can pretty much name your price as low or high as you want, and you would be amazed how much folks will pay for fence without ever batting an eye. And there is plenty of work. Just before we quit doing it, we were turning work down because we were too busy.

check pm cap

Caprocker - PM sent

Just a thought for you, my son and I pay for our lease and lease expenses (corn, protien etc.) by taking care of a couple of country cemeteries. Yep it is work, but I sure like going to the lease. Want more info on how to get started, send me a PM.

I am wondering about cutting forewood. We have a ton of old dead formerly sprayed mesquites on our place. We also just had a seizmograph crew come in and doze senderos every 250 yards one mile wide from the front to the back of the place......all 1500 acres...plenty of fresh mesquite to cut ..just dont know what a cord of wood goes for..input would be appreciated

You need to check the Lubbock newspaper, a lot of times when we head to Ruidoso from Abilene we see trailers loaded with firewood, my guess is they are headed to Lubbock, we will see them on I20 and on the way to Post.

Caprocker,
If you have access to large quantities of dead (aged) mesquite wood, you could probably get in contact with Cagle's Steaks in LUbbock. They are located out near the Reese Center. They do all of their cooking over a mesquite fire. I know when I was working there, we had loads of wood coming in all the time because we used so much to cook our steaks and BBQ.

Just a thought.

Another idea is hiring on with someone that has guided hunts for hogs or exotics in the summer. You can make and average of $100 per day as a guide. Most hunts are 2-3 day hunts.
I can probably put you in contact with at least a couple outfitters that might need some help.

Send me a PM if you're interested.

I do all kands of things to make ends meet , you could start doing euro mounts , I build deer feeders , and put antler handels on knifes, all stuff you can do at home with little to no overhead, you can make as much cash as needed, last year I made almost 5k on the three things listed above !!!

I would love to learn how to make knives or put handles on them..send me some info by Pm or however you see fit..