The website is www.crownpinetimber.com. Click on "available leases", click the agree button and the counties in blue are the ones with available tracts to bid on.

I've come to learn that anything in life that is usually worthwhile has a cost to it, sometimes a high one...Snow skiing, deep sea fishing, top course golfing so why would hunting be much different.

A friend of mine was telling me just yesterday how crazy I am for paying 2k to hunt. I laughed and told him that I guess I could do what he does [ stay at home] or pay the going rate and hunt. If hunting for you is all about the money then you would not enjoy the hunt anyway. Like my dad always said [ IF YOU GONNA DANCE YOU GOTTA PAY THE FIDDLER ]

Yeah we pay 2 grand to hunt but the family and I get so much more out of it. If your complaining about spending the money just to hunt, then you are not truly utilizing your lease. We go monthly, we hunt, we work, we play, we blow off steam. Shoot Ride fish my wife and girls love the get away. It is like a mini vacation every month. In this high stress world I live in weekly it is the only thing that keeps me sane. I thank the lord weekly that I can afford the payments, feed, and gas. We live just barely above paycheck to paycheck, and my wife is tighter than granny, but she has no qualms saving the money to allow us our own little get away. Costs go up, that is just what they do, you can whine about it, be mad about it, but it is what it is.

Chuck is right...if a deer lease isn't nothing more than a place to kill a deer, you've got the wrong hobby. I, like him, use to look forward to going to the lease to get away and work. There's always something that can be done. Many men seek an answer to a problem they never will find. I believe a man said it like this, " Men go hunting all of their lives not knowing it isn't the deer their after." powdr

I like the prices high. Makes it easier for me to find a lease.

Thanks, for all the great shots. Everyone sure is quick to judge me, but what else should I expect?

I don't live paycheck to paycheck, but I do have a son in college and another on his way in a year, not to mention I also have a 13 year old daughter who is into cheerleading, etc. I would love to have the time to spend with all of my family out doors, but we would only have that chance about once a year, so paying $2500 a year to hunt deer, fish, etc. doesn't fit right now. Now as for the guys that posted the timber lands in east Tx, Thank You, that was great info that I plan to look into. As for you others that seem to have everything perfect in your world, God Bless ya!

Ramses, I didn't post much on East Texas other than giving some information heard second hand regarding poaching as well as this post below,

"I've come to learn that anything in life that is usually worthwhile has a cost to it, sometimes a high one...Snow skiing, deep sea fishing, top course golfing so why would hunting be much different."

If you found major offense to this, you may need to consider growing some thicker skin as it doesn't seem too personal IMO...

Some others posted about timber land in East Texas that I didn't know was available. For the rest of you, I just God Blessed you.............. Who needs thicker skin?

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Love listening to people whine about having to pay $2000 for year-round access to a multi-million dollar asset.

I dont mind the higher prices if the ranch is run right unlike the ranch I got off of. They try to cram too many hunters on a property these days, or say its managed when it really isnt.

I agree AZ, and "most" places will not allow you to bring family, and I understand they don't want all the deer shot up. I get that.

I enjoyed hunting with my dad as a child and as a father enjoyed it with my two oldest sons. I learned alot from my dad in the woods, some really great memories. Just seems the money situation has made deer leases extremly strict, and family unfriendly. Sure you can take the family during the summer but not during the season. In the 80's my dad never had a problem taking the family on his hunting trip. Now adays it is frowned upon. Am I right?

Texas used to have way more land than people that wanted to hunt that land. I'm not that old (35) and when I was in high school in San Antonio, I got invited on hunts down in the Golden Triangle all the time and told to shoot whatever I wanted. That was all on friend's leases that ran a few hundred dollars each.

Prices were low and restrictions were light because there just weren't many people hunting a lot of land.

Texas has doubled in population since then. Now there are more people that want to hunt than space available. It's creating a highly competitive environment where the hunters have to give up a lot to be appealing. Money included.

You could move to Oklahoma or Kansas I guess.

I'm on one of the tracts with Russ79. Good guy. The lease is extremely reasonable, and put some meat in the freezer last year. It wasn't anything to write home about, but the way I look at it is I spent a fraction of the cost as some of the bigger leases, it's near me, and accessible year round. I've hog hunted since deer season ended, gone out there just to escape the city and managed to put food on the table. I haven't shot or seen a wall hanger yet, only my second year, but it's an investment that I'm glad to make every year.

The only thing I wished it had was a pond to fish, but East Texas is full of fishing holes so that's not really a big deal imo.

Hunting is not a race to the top- I have been hunting for almost 40 years and have yet to put a head on the wall. Like Patrick (TheCloudX)said above, hunting for me is a get away and putting meat on the table. The lease that Patrick is on, I have passed on several nice 10 pts. because they were young and there are other deer to shoot. I am looking for bang for the buck with a modest investment. I could spend more to get on a lease with trophy animals and maybe get to hunt three times in a season or I can do what I am doing, lease timber company land that is reasonably priced and close, and hunt every day.

Cameron00,

Well said.

It is supply and demand. Someone has a product (land) and someone has a want or need (hunter). The landowner wants to maximize his investment. In Texas there is a large demand which raises the price. No different than any other business or product. Not sure why leases maybe perceived different than other products?

Concerning the Campbell's timber lease suggestions...I wasn't aware that Campbell's wants you to live in the same county that your leasing. Kind of throws a wrench into the leasing timber property.

To you guys who are leasing or have leased in the past, help me out here. Is that a set in stone requirement? Or more of a preference on their part? My friend lives in Polk Co, and the places available near him are mostly Jasper and Newton...anyone have an answer? He moved here from Missouri and asked me about finding a lease and I pointed him to their website. He looked at 2 of them and went to put a bid in on one, and they asked if he lived in that county, and he isn't sure if he needs to continue to look elsewhere, and I have no clue what to tell him. PM me or post here, either way thanks in advance for any help.

The cost of deer leases is a wonderful thing. It's market driven and the market is man's best friend. Because of a healthy dose of private property and that beautiful free market, we have the best hunting (in Texas) on this planet.

And there are prices from FREE (cost only sweat equity) to whatever you can imagine. If you don't want to pay $, then find a landowner that needs some help and they'll let you hunt SOMETHING.

Only lazy people in Texas can't hunt. Let your frustration drive you to do something about it. But please, don't whine about the cost of leases. It's bad form, and it proves you haven't really put much thought into it.

TxDispatcher, who told you that you have to live in the same county that you are leasing in to lease from Campbell? Campbell doesn't care ( I don't think)where you live as long as you pay your lease fee. It has been awhile since I bid on a tract so I guess I forgot the asked that question. They may prefer to do that but I find it hard to believe they would turn down money if you were either the highest bidder or the only bidder for a tract. In east Texas I think it is helpful in order to be able to keep an eye on things, and not just poachers and thieves. They will not let you know when they are going to cut and like I am having to deal with a lot lately, they will not tell you when a drilling crew or pipeline crew will be working on the property. If I didn't live in the county where I lease and showed up a month before season started to fill feeders and find that half the trees are gone or there is a pipeline in the middle of your foodplot I believe I would be upset. There are tracts up for lease now in different counties, but there will be others I am sure that will come open- we are just a couple of weeks into renewing so some that didn't get renewed will probably start showing up soon.

Tell your friend to go ahead and bid on a tract, but don't put all your eggs in one basket. Once they take a tract down off their website it won't be long before you find out if it is a winning bid but you can turn it down if you find something in the meantime.

Thanks Russ I'll pass that info on to him. He said that it is one of the questions when you go to bid. This late in the game, I suggested he go ahead and bid...not sure if he did or not, but I'll find out and tell him to try it. I would let him hunt with me, but my place just isn't big enough. Of course, if he needs someone, I may join him...just didn't want to drive 4+ hours when I can hunt my back pasture every morning and evening

I decided to buy land for the single fact I could not take my wife or a friend etc.. even though they did not hunt.

I also did not like paying the cost and lining someone else's pockets. I may not have 2000 acres, but most the places usually have 300-500 acres per person max anyway, so pointless to have a huge lease but lots of hunters and people you may not get along with.

To each their own, but I love owning my own place.

R

Not quite sure what you mean by lining someone pockets. I can promise you lease money does not even begin to touch what it cost to own and maintain a ranch. Lucky to cover taxes and a few expenses.

Not sure about that. Close personal friend of mine has 250 acres (in big deer country) that he leases for $7500 a year. He said it pays the payment for the entire year.