This happened to me twice. Spent 4-5 years improving the hunting and using quality deer management techniques just to loose the properties when they were sold. Was a real kick in the nads to see pic's of our best bucks the landowner had requested to "show off to family" in a full page ad in Lands of Texas magazine.

Only ever ran into one issue and it’s a different kind of story. I have only ever leased one property and it was only for one year because of an incident im about to share.

Friend of mine had an unreal lease around Noodle, TX. He had shot 145-165 inch deer every year for 3-4 years in a row. Amazing turkey hunting and he was the only one on the lease. He had done deal with his uncle, added me for only $500. No contract or anything like that. I shot a nice 140 inch deer that season and was excited for next year.

Spring turkey season comes around and he asks me if I would take him turkey hunting as he had never done it. Sounded awesome to me. We go hunting and everything was fine. About a week later I get a call from his uncle chewing my [censored]! Apparently he had this placed leased for Turkey and they had me on camera decked in camo carrying a Turkey decoy and shotgun. So I was asked to never come back again…

Needless to say I was none to happy with my buddy. He claimed he didn’t know.

Back in 1987 I was on a 1,300 acre lease up in Cass County with two OC buddies and some co-workers. The Ram Rod for the lease was from the Texarkana area and had family members from Texarkana on that lease also, there was 13 of us with designated hunting areas.
Rules were no wives or girlfriends allowed and absolutely no bringing any friends or family to hunt.

In my tripod opening morning, around 8:00 am, I hear voices then see one of the other hunters (OC buddy) with his wife come strolling through my hunting area like it was a Sunday walk in the park. This same person accidentally let it slip that he was taking his brother out there hunting during the weekdays when the rest of us were working.

While out at the lease the hunters that lived up in that area bragged about poaching all year round. These peeps were so bad they would road hunt to and from the lease or if it was slow drive around the general area outside of our lease road hunting. Only hunted that one year there.

As bad as those N.E TX people were, they had stiff competition from a large west TX lease that I was a guest on several times not too long ago.

I was not perfect in my younger years. Back in 1989 I might have shot one more buck than I should have off of a lease in Coke County that had herds of deer, also might have shot more than the legal limit of doves on several occasions before 1992 or 1993, been squeaky clean ever since.
Matter of fact one of the ranchers that lives fairly close to where I hunt in Jack County that I have known forever calls me a Boy Scout.

Reminds of a guy we had that would put deer crap in his pockets for scent cover. Maybe it works? But I am not filling my pockets with $#!t

Hate to say it, but unless you can secure a long-term lease, it's probably best to approach every lease as if it will be your last year to hunt it and be equipped to move everything out in a week or two.

Nothing too bad compared to some of yall. I had a buddy that got on a lease with me and ended up going thru a nasty divorce. He thought he was gonna make my camper the place to take his bounce back chicks, even made a copy of the keys without asking. Nope, I know damn well his fat arse wasn't bringing his own sheets or doin any laundry.

I PO'd a guy that thought he was lease manager cuz I questioned his buddy's adult son shooting a tiny 4 pt. I wasn't being an ahole about it, but he sent a certified letter to me and my brother informing us we weren't welcome back. I spoke to the landowner, who didn't take kindly to him thinking he ran his place, and they were the ones that ended up not returning.

Also had a great place a half hour away that a buddy and I had to take our 10-12 yo boys duck hunting. We knew about it cuz my buddy was friends with the previous owner. It turned out the folks on the property were renting and didn't have authority to sublease. After they took our money, which luckily wasn't much, they took somebody else's money to lease the same pond, too. That was an awkward morning when they showed up. Then a 3rd guy showed up that actually knew the landowner. Luckily that guy was very understanding and we worked it out. He was on here at one point, but don't remember his name. Won't make any assumptions any more LOL.

I heard about some landowner who kept letting a hunter come down for free, but found himself dismayed after the repeated display of political signs.

I had a neighbor when I lived in Roanoke that was on a lease. They had a lease member that had a heart condition and snorted some white powder at times. They got back to the cabin after a morning hunt and found him dead with some white powder under his nose.

I have been on the same 8 person 1 guest spot lease for about 13 years. Fortunately we have never had any real problems. My brother is lease manager and I have to put up with him complaining about lease members that complain to him. Most of the time it 1 lease member complaining about something another one did or didn't do. We had one guy that ticked off one of the landowners once. Fortunately he made it easy on my brother when the next year payment came due and he wanted more time.

Buzzsaw made a good point that we should hunt with friends, or at least people we know. The good leases I’ve been on were with folks I knew. The bad ones weren’t.

when we have to fill a place we always go to our existing members first to see if they know of a good candidate - that has worked well for us

That one hurts!

Yep. Had long term lease in place, but tht goes out the window when the land is sold. Afterwards I switched to being an outfitter for a very good friend. Swapped lease headaches for idiot hunting customer headaches.

It’s too long to type but I got fooled and let a dfw guy on a few years back and he and his guests

Shot 12 times on opening morning

Killed a turkey hen opening morning with a rifle

Shot 6 times opening evening

Killed a yearling

Sent me pics of yearling after I chewed him out about it asking if they were old enough to shoot

A member was 90% sure he saw them sighting in a rifle on the county road but we could never really prove it and it was before they had met

He was just baffled when I kicked him off at the end of the year, didn’t understand what he did at all. Showed up a few weeks after his lease was up to get his stuff, brought two friends, and tried to target shoot while they were there.

The reasons in this thread, and more, are why i am afraid to lease. I don’t even want to fool with it.

If i had a good group to go in with, that give me a warm fuzzy feeling and always happy to see you, and a land owner in the same category, i’d lease. Regardless of how good or bad the hunting might be. But i have not found it.

I think the dream lease is with a group of people that makes it feel like going home for Christmas all season long. If you got a good group like that it don’t matter how it starts. The hunting will get better and it will always be a good time.

I almost started a lease with a fellow at work, that has leased with his family members for decades/generstions but they started running dogs (for deer). And he got sick of it. But i guess they straightened things out because he stopped talking about it.

I don’t press the subject. No point. I don’t wanna hunt with people that are not happy to see and be around me. And don’t want to hunt with people that i don’t like for that matter.

Just like anything else. You don’t play ball or bowl or watch the game with people you don’t cherish your time together.

I am probably the problem lol

I was on a lease that you couldn’t shoot a buck under 4 years old or you had to pay a $1000 penalty. The lease manager was a real prick and he was the one who got to figure out the age of the deer and it didn’t matter if you got it professionally aged or not.

So one of the guys on our lease sees a very nice 3 year old buck and passed on it knowing it was too young. The lease manager then sends an email to all of us with the subject line of “$1000 deer” with the buck’s picture pointing out all of its distinguishing characteristics saying not to shoot him because he’s no more than a 3 year old deer.

Well guess who shoots this same exact buck just a few weeks later…. This P.O.S. goes on to say how it’s not the same buck, which it obviously was, and how this one is a 4 year old buck so he doesn’t need to pay the penalty. That was my last year on that lease… F you Mark

I look at my lease like it`s a one year lease even though I`ve been on it for 6 years now with no issues and a good relationship with the LO. I`ve also been on leases for as long as 9 years and then owner dies, leaves it to his son who dies 3 years later and leaves it to his son who decides him, and other family members want to hunt it. Another one that a friend let me on after they had been on it for 10 years and the owner comes and tells us he is selling the place on opening weekend. I had only been on the place for 2 month and already knew I was one and done. Lots of deer killed that last year between payee`s, family and friends. Tomorrows aren`t guaranteed.

We had a fellow who actually had the hunting rights leased from the owner. We paid our lease fee to him and he supposedly paid the owner. A problem developed between the owner and the guy we paid money to, never knew what it was. The owner kicked us all off because of that one guys actions. Hated that because it was a good lease.

Only one that comes to mind. Lease member with two teenage sons. Always complaining how the up and coming bucks near his area kept disappearing. He was poaching high end deer that did not yet meet our MLD age criteria with a suppressed rifle and teaching the same to his sons. A couple of the hunters witnessed him retrieve a buck they had stashed in a cooler along the property line from the neighbors property. No coincidence that the high end young bucks stopped disappearing as soon as he was sacked. Same guy also shot the adjacent landowners lab in the hind leg. The owner of the lab filed civil charges and won in court. The guy drug landowner into the law suit because he had deep pockets. It ended up costing the landowner thousands of dollars.

We have always signed 3-5 year lease agreements on our lease. LO builds in some minimal price increases but at least we are secure for some years at a time.

Reading this thread one might assume your lease will inevitably be ripped out from under you, as soon as your best management practices have paid off.

Seems like it might be worth it just to save your money and do a week long paid hunt once every couple or three years, compared to leasing.

How big should a good family sized deer lease be? Say, for about 8 hunters to shoot one deer per year apiece? And about how much would it cost per year to secure that property?

I have been on 1 lease in my life. I was the only member that wasn’t a member of their family, but they sure made me feel like I was. It was a great experience for me. I found that lease off of this forum.

Was on my first lease for 14 years when I moved. The others are still on it. I have been on my current lease for 18 years and am heading into # 19. We typically sign lease contracts for 4 - 6 at a time. At renewal, the animals, facilities and pasture are in better condition than at the inception of the renewal term.

That guy TEXASLEFTY is pretty worthless. I put him on a perfect buck twice and he preferred to run his heater and eat snacks, didn’t take the shot. All I got out of it was a day of hard work tearing down old fence and filling feeders. I may only have him back ten, fifteen more times before I kick him off.

Wow, lots of leasing horror stories all over this place, scary. Hunted 2-3 different South Texas ranches over a 55+ year period and worse thing we ever encountered was the "know it better" than everyone hunter. Knew the best hunting caliber, .270 per him, best spot and stalk methods, best deer cleaning methods, breaking the pelvic bone to extract bladder as opposed to ring around the A hole cutout, etc.etc. Ole Ron C. knew it all and he wasn't afraid to let you know about it, he also knew the best Baffin Bay fishing spots and techniques, free boat floating amongst the rocks of Baffin and either live shrimp and popping corks and/or free shrimp-ing . There was close to nothing Ron C. couldn't or didn't do. Ultimately, we all would hear Ron and his spill then basically do and go about our own ways. Ron was like the old factory 5pm horn going off at shifts end, he just required being heard. Nothing more/nothing less....