We are a brand new operation and we need hunters, but bookings are slow!! Take a look at our site longleaf hunting reserve and let us know what you think or ideas you may have. We have a great place, great deer, great hogs - we need great guest. Thanks to all who reply!

You need a well designed, High Quality T-shirt for your Hunting Operation. If you don't believe me, ask 7Mag. After he got a T-shirt for his Outfit, his bookings increased 98.999% PM me if I can help you.

Not sure what you have to spend for advertising but we have a few 30 second commercial slots left open that will put your operation in front of about 4 million hunters 4 times a week for 26 weeks. thats over 100 commercials.

We are also going to do a DVD release in December, this will circulate 100's of times for years to come and is a great way for hunters to see your operation and your place.



Give us a holler if we can help.

Ken and Rachel Dabbs
Hunt Wicked Close T.V.
817-694-3931

You might consider getting an outfitter to book your hunts for you. Most outfitters charge a small commission on each hunt booked. Their is no upfront cost to you other than things like covering the cost of vendor booth's at hunting shows and things like that. All outfitters work differently and their are some good ones and some bad ones. Whether you hire an outfitter or not having someone whose sole responsibility is getting hunters to the ranch will go a long way.

You also might consider lowering the cost of some of the hunts you offer to get a steady flow of clients thru the ranch for the first year or two. Then when you are established and well known to your target market set the prices at what you think is fair for both parties.

I checked your site. Nothing wrong with your site, but I will address some areas that I would change. With the economy the way it is, it has been slow for ALL hunting ranches. I also have a hunting ranch, but I only have exotics, no hogs or whitetail.

I have hunted in east Texas all my life. East Texas hunting is some of the hardest hunting any where no matter how good or how long your management has been in place. If you take a trophy in east Texas it is a great accomplishment, but most people know the odds of that happening is very slim. The bucks can be there, but they usually don't show up, but only for a picture at night.

If I had this property and putting up a fence was out of the question, I would make my deer hunts a no kill no pay type hunt. If they didn't kill a deer they only would have to pay for the guide/lodge fee. You might have more takers if you do that. In east Texas deer just don't go to feeders like they do in the hill country and south Texas. People know that, and that is why they go other places than east Texas.

Your hog hunts are to high. The hunting industry is very competitive and if you are going to survive you have to get customers in there by slashing the prices. Also it is going to be hard to compete with a fenced ranch. They have a much greater success rate than a free range ranch will have. In the last two years there has been a lot of hunting ranches that have went out of business.

I hope you don't think I am being critical of your business. I have been doing this for almost 8 years now and I have seen a lot of people come and go. Sounds like you have a nice place. Hope things work out for you.

location is going to be the thing that will hurt the place. Something has to be there for folks to opt out of booking a hunt in other parts of the state that are "word of mouth" more reputable for holding big deer. The places that are churning over a decent profit out there in that area aren't doing a whole lot of deer and exotic hunts anymore, but have shifted over to asking a pretty penny to shoot breeder bucks or upland bird hunts. Just my $.02, but good luck this season.

If anything, I shy away from a websites that aren't simplified.

Good grief, all those classes of deer and inches, like most hunters would have a clue what the amount of money they were shooting at.

Unless you put a guide with each hunter and have the guide tell him thats a class 3 deer, and its a 500 dollar deer, most likely guys will pass on these leases.

I'll say this, If a guy from Houston came to Abilene to hunt pigs, he's paying those fees in gas, so might as well put it to paper, how much to drive an hour out of Houston and hunt and be home in 24 hrs?

or drive to Abilene, gas, food, and lodging and cheaper hunting fee, 2 hogs per day, 100 a day or 150 for 2 days 4 hogs total.

Oneway requires little travel, the the other will require over night stay, gas, lodging and food?

You are close to Houston with a tons of hunters close.

I suggest you look on some of the biggest hunting forums in texas, largest members, pick a couple and bring them out for some cheap/free hog huning showing them some deer along the way.

Word of mouth on those forums will be better than a placed ad.

I would stay away from the pricing you have posted for now. I would price by the hunt. What I mean is a set fee for everybody at the same price. I would price these hunts by what the average buck is going to be shot during the season. As an example, if you shoot 10 bucks that average 128 and you feel that $2,000 is fair then charge everyone the same price and let them shoot what they want. At the end of the season look at what was shot and what you would have gotten by your method and what you actually got from the hunts that year and see which way made you the most money. You could also charge $250 per day to hunt as example and a trophy fee of $1,500 as an example on taking of a buck. Once you get some hunters and a reputation it will take off for you.

I agree with the word of mouth suggestions. I met a guy starting a hunting opperation and he offered me and my wife a great deal on a management and doe hunt. We went and paid a more than fair price the first year and now are great friends and spend more on the trophy hunts now. We also help sell hunts as often as we can. I fully undestand that in time I will be priced out of my ability to hunt his place, but that is ok since I want to see a friends business and dreams succeed.

Thanks for the replies. One issue we do have and one thing we had to consider when pricing is our MLD permit. We have a very limited number of bucks that can be harvested (10) and very strict management guidelines, therefore, we must guide every deer hunt. We will be making some changes to our pricing, but with that in mind - any more suggestions?

Also, I would just as soon fill up (12 - 16 hunters) with hog hunters every weekend, but the deer hunting returns greater $$$/hunter. Any more thoughts?

vote come nov. - just kidding ( sort of) lower prices till things pick up, its tough all over. i've been doing this long before it became fashionable to be a "outfitter" and its hard getting started. word of mouth, donate some hunts to different groups to auction off. just remember it's hard work to do it right and you won't get rich anytime soon...

Not sure why but the "reserve" part of the name bugs me. Why not longleaf ranch?

On another note I would do the 10 hunts at the 2995 price and not have the 1,2,3. A lot of guys you will get on the trophy hunt will shoot a 130" deer and be the biggest of their lives and pay the 2995. I believe you are shortchanging yourself there.

On another note if you want a cheaper hunt offer a management hunt at 1995 for your management bucks.

Hog hunts are too high. Very few hunters are willing to pay extra for a "trophy" boar.

Price per inch over 140 is too high. Will scare guy's off pulling the trigger if they think it's going to cost $3-4K extra to shoot a muy grande.

Need to be careful on "how" scoring is done. Gross? Net? Green Dry?

Any ranch i have ever worked for we would set a price and that would be for the biggest or smallest animal of that species you could harvest non of this per inch, the only thing we ever made diff was it was cheaper for a management,

on the website, 1800 acres has been under management for over 20 years and produced bucks scoring upto 190 B&C. Outstanding, love that part.

You charge a good fee, I would be expecting some posted game cam pictures weekly getting some guys blood boiling.

Surely after 20 years, you would pretty much know the 10-15 bucks to be hunted for this seasons 10 alloted bucks, you would think there would be some nice deer on this place after 20 years of management. Prices should be alot easier to nail down.

Todays game cams give an owner a very good look at his upcoming inventory from months to weeks to the opening of the season.

folks will look at you like you have lost your mind in those parts if you call a place you hunt a "ranch".

longleaf...if you are looking for a place to donate/raffle or auction off a hunt, Diboll Day is coming up soon. They do the same thing with hunts from out at Boggy Slough, but there are plenty of opportunities to get word spread around and money for a hunt w/o money coming out of your pocket. Just something to look into.

I'm not an outfitter or land owner ... just a hunter. My 2 cents:
Your website look/layout - very nice.
Hog pricing - needs improvement.
Deer pricing - seems fair BUT I know the potential studs that walk your neck of the woods ... in fact there is one hanging my wall from opening day 1988 - taken off Hwy 356 about 5 miles north of Onalaska.
Combo pricing with hogs and/or does is a plus.
Simplify your deer pricing. And not just on your website but something I have yet to see on any ranch/outfitter site. Instead of just listing price per inch range, why not actually show a picture of a 125 class deer/rack with the price listed as a caption, then a 145 class with price, etc. My point is these websites tend to show plenty of pictures of deer alive and harvested ... why not use some of those same pictures on the price page as just a basic example of each class of buck?
Almost forgot, I'm no marketing genius but you are next door to one of the best blue cat lakes in the state (Livingston) ... what about an early season and a late season fish fry/hunt weekend?

Just a regular dude,

Your Hogs are way to expensive. They should be your bait to get your deer hunters in. looks like yall feed good stuff to deer and hogs. Kill em out or put the hog mony back in feed money.

Your deer pricing is confusing

Any pics of your lodging?

Thanks again to everyone that took the time to help. I have one last idea I have been kicking around that is more or less a throw-back from my younger days in high school and college. My buddies would gather up at the lease around lunch for a grilled burger or two and some kicking around. An hour or two before dark we would each take to our stand for an evening of bow-hunting hogs (we shied away from the night hunting back then). We would have a couple of "winner takes all pots" going and would meet back up to talk, brag and laugh for a few more hours after dark. We always had a great time and made some memories that we still talk about 25 years later!

With that in mind, I am considering a 1 day Hog Slam. Serve a great, late lunch or early supper and let everyone meet & trash-talk over a pig in the ground. Then break up for an evening and all-night bow hunt for pigs. I would probably set a limit of about 3 porkers per person, no size restrictions. I could easily set up 12+ stands for hogs at night, so there would be plenty of room for three or four small groups. Charge about $125 per hunter and $40 for non-hunters.

Any imrpovements on the idea or suggestions would be great. Also, if you think you might be interested in such a hunt, let me know!

I agree with BIL. I know the area and you would be better served (and probably haqve a better chance of some bookings) if you offered hogs free just to thin the overpopulation.

Need to smplify the deer pricing and maybe offer more does (I'm assuming you're on a MLD program).

Your web site mentions lodging, but no discription or pictures.

I might have an interest if you disclose more than a few game cam pics, mostly taken at one feeder day and night.

HPJ

This would work. Could get a THF group fairly easily on this. But why the restriction to bows only?

Your hog hunts are to high.

There are no Trophy Hogs 199 pounds... sorry that is just a mid size hog

Reasons for bow only restrictions are mainly safety, but also a lot of booming at night would attract unnecessary attention, disturb anyone and everything for a month afterward (and that would give me a headache). I also think bowhunting at night is one of the biggest thrills I have experienced and it would just add a little more spice to the event.

Not to be a smart A**, but I bet there would be a bunch of stuff running around out there the next day with arrows stuck in different parts of their bodies and very few actually dead.

+1 on this. Bow hunting at night greatly reduces recovery percentage.