The past couple years I've hunted on buddies land, or on guided hunts. I'm looking to get on a whitetail lease next year, and have a few questions for the experts on here about what I can expect expense wise to get set up. There will be a few buddies, and myself. Obviously, there will be the fees for the lease. Besides that, I can think of the following things that are needed to get set up:

-Stands/Blinds
-Truck/4-wheeler that can get around the lease
-Feeders
-Corn
-Living quarters with water and power
-Any necessary tools for clearing land as needed for feeders/stands

Any advice on costs that I can expect (other than whatever the lease fee is) to get a lease going in the first year, and additional items I missed above would be extremely helpful. I'm trying to get it all budgeted out before I jump into anything.

Thanks!

It costs way too dang much! But i love it!

Materials to build pens around your feeders if there is livestock.
Liability Insurance.

x2

The blind and feeders are one time expense. Many places have cabins or older homes which can be used for shelter. You will probably need a source for heat, electric or propane heater. You may not need more than a chain saw and loppers for limited brush removal. You may not need a 4 wheeler. You may need T-posts and wire for a feeder pen and T-posts or metal stakes for the legs on your feeder. Cows and hogs do turn them over at times.

Blinds can run you a few hundred to a few thousand, depending on whether you build it, or you buy it. Can always get started cheap with a couple tripods. 4 wheeler is probably not necessary, a 2WD truck or SUV will get you around 90% of places when its dry. Feeders, maybe 200 a piece, don't get the mickey mouse feeders with plastic barrels and segmented legs. Corn, depends on how much you spend, how many feeders you are keeping going. I'd estimate 200 a year per feeder, feeding Sept-January, depends on how heavy. Living quarters, hopefully find a place with some, or buy a trailer, can get a cheap pop up or something like it for 1000 I'd bet.

It can be as cheap or expensive as you make it.

Yep, I'd budget about 200 bucks for a feeder pen made of hog panels and t-posts.

Not needs... really none of them are. I usually have a feeder and a lockon stand at each lease.. that's all. $200 max plus corn..

But you need to figure in gas more than anything and go from there

sleep in your truck

I spend around 5K/year but thats feed,gas, and groceries minus stand, feeders, Suzuki Samurai , cost of lease..If I didnt love it I wouldnt pay it.

My thoughts as well. Im thinking road feeder and a couple sacks of corn.

Were did you buy a samurai???? did he have his own sword??

You can make it as simple or as complicated as you like.

Nothing says you need to set up feeders and blinds, but here in TX everybody does. If you camp and each man funds a tripod and one corn feeder you can get out for ~$450 for initial setup and corn, then add gas and food. You can walk in to stands and use a game cart to retrieve deer from place you can't drive a truck. A pair of good lopping shears will go a long way to clearing lanes and trimming roads, and you can skin your deer on a good tree limb.

If you start talking trailers, ATVs, protein feeders, feed pens, elevated box blinds, game cameras, etc the cost goes up from there.

To answer your question, each man at our place spends about $300 per year on corn and another $400 per year on protein. We each have about $400 tied up in feeders (corn and protein), another $500 or so tied up in blinds, and $250 in feed pens. We build alot of our own stuff. Our place has a simple cabin and we stay there. I find that I generally invest about $500 each year into improving the place. After that the spend is all on toys. I built an electric golf cart to cruise around in, so I dropped a little more coin than normal this year.

Fixed it for ya..lol

Sssshhhhh....don't let the cat out of the bag. Everyone needs to finance a 4 wheel drive truck with the biggest off road tires they can find to pull their new ATV to the lease. If you don't, your not cool, you won't be able to tell everyone about your samurai, and you probably won't shoot a trophy buck.

Once you get everything the way you like it, you lose your lease, lol.

On the cheap, probably $750-1K. For nicer stuff, blinds, feeders, feeder pens, etc. Probably $5K or so.

Alcohol can be a considerable expense. And the Smores components really add up!

Seriously though, aside from some standard luxuries (blinds, feeders, ATV/UTV) the only things I purchased were a chain saw and Mr. Buddy Portable heater - neither of which were necessary. Now that I think about it, nothing is necessary except for the land, a gun, a box of bullets and a license. Oh and like somebody else mentioned, fuel to get to and fro. In my case, diesel adds up fast too!

Thanks everyone. A lot of good advice here. It's good to know you can basically get started for relatively inexpensive, and add in the luxuries as time goes on.

Can you please expand upon the liability insurance? I haven't heard of anyone mentioning that before.

-Protein feeders - Outback makes some good ones... we have a 3,000lb gravity one
-Corn feeders - Sweeny makes the best IMO
-Interlocking panels for feeders if you have cattle and or pigs
-Tower blinds - Boss makes the best IMO
-Trail cams - Reconnex makes the best...period!

My real answer should have been "immaterial in the grand scheme of things"; once you make that harvesting shot on a nice one, all is forgotten..

Minimums
Stand/blind: $100-300
Feeder and corn to fill it: $150. Add $50-100 if you need a pen.

Everything else is extra. Go Bears.

Craigs list can be your friend when finances are tight. Also the classified's here and on the TFF can help with ezpenses. You don't have to have all new stuff to get out and enjoy youself.