Need Your Opinion on selling hog hunts.

I need your opinion about if this would be worth this for both me and any hunters. Small property, but has 50 acre hardwood creek bottom. Feel free to express yourself.
We have a lot of hogs that come out of the creek bottom. Here is what I am thinking.

Hog Hunting
Very basic, no frills hunt.
One hour southwest of Texarkana, near Hughes Springs.
100 acres consisting of 50 acres of pine plantation and 50 acres of huge oak tree creek bottom. Northern boundary of property is Kelly Creek.
What we don’t supply: guide, meals, lodging, guns, or lights on feeders.
What we do supply: dry camp site, 2 nice stands and feeders.
There is a motel and good restaurant nine miles away in Hughes Springs.
Conditions of hunt:
Arrive after 5pm on Friday.
Hunt until Saturday at noon. 3 hog limit per person.
Cost of hunt $100 each with two person minimum plus two bags of corn. If you would like to have your son, daughter, wife sitting with you in the stand but not hunting. No charge.
At this time of the year, because of the rain and mud holes you will need an ATV/UTV to get to the stands or be able to walk in ¾ of a mile. During summer months a pickup truck will do just fine. No problem anytime of the year at all getting to the camp site that is 300 yards off of main road.
We don’t guarantee our hunts….it is hunting. However, I will check the cameras and if no hogs came in Friday night, you may continue to hunt until Sunday at noon for free. If hogs did come in and you were asleep in the stand, that is on you.
If you killed hogs on Friday night and want to hunt again on Saturday night, that can be arranged for an additional $75 per person.
We only do hunts the second and fourth Friday of the month so as not to over hunt the hogs.

I think your projected prices are more than reasonable and a lot more competitive than what I normally see for similar hunts. I think the only risk I see here is that -from experience- if you put a lot of pressure on them in a relatively small area, they'll get pretty savvy on you real quick and potentially avoid the area.

The only thing I have a problem with is the arrival time being AFTER 5 PM. That doesn't give much time in the winter to get in and set up.4pm would be more reasonable.

Otherwise, sounds pretty darned good.

I thought that also, but I still work for a living and can't get there until 5. As you said, it would be no problem in the summer but only give you about 45 minutes before dark to set up and get to the stands in the middle of winter.

I think I would include lights on the feeders.

Add a $35 motion activated light to each feeder. How else are they going to see unless they buy scope mounted lights and sit with it on the whole time which is not feasible. Feeder lights need to be there full time. We run The Boar Light. I wouldn't trust anyone without a feeder light. Might end up with dead deer...

I think it s too high
You should lower your price
Or extend day

I charge $250 person , 600 acres
Friday 6pm - Sunday afternoon
5 feeders , no corn needed
Old rustic cabin to sleep in , on cot
No limits

Well, here is my thoughts.

His prices are fine IF the hogs are in fact true free range hogs and not high fence hogs.

There is nothing worse than paying for a hunt and only getting shot opportunities at 60 lb sounders or undernourished pigs....

You could raise your price by 50.00 if you were an hour and a half closer to DFW

I think the prices are fine as long as there is a feeder light.

I doubt this will last more than a few hunts. I think the hogs will stop coming to your property. I could be wrong though. But sounds good to me

The cost is reasonable, but I think you'll find people balking at bringing bags of corn.
Plus, you will have to rotate the hunts- hunt a weekend, wait three, hunt a weekend, etc. If not, the hogs will be gone after 3-4 weeks of steady hunting.

Your pricing is OK but I agree with others that you should add feeder lights and some may disfavor having to stop and buy corn, so make it option of $100 + 2 bags corn or $125. I'd also extend the time especially if you can't accommodate before 5pm on Friday. Suggest end time of 2 or 3pm if not hunting Sat night if your hunters are camping out. Since it is not guided and I assume you will not be on site, you should really think about atv/utv rules because some people have no respect/clue and will after hunting joy ride and mud up your piece of heaven; also no target shooting (place is too small and that will also deter your objective).

I have properties in E TX just south of you about 30 miles. They are a little larger tracts each with improved pastures, pines, hardwoods with large cutover thickets, sloughs and back up to large bottom tracts. We have year round wet creeks and ponds. Infested with hogs. I have multiple feeders running year round and have lights on feeders after deer season. We are able to move about to different locations to keep our pressure down as the hogs do become vary wary with hunting. We don't do paid hunts just family and invited guests. And FYI my experience is that when E TX spring starts greening up it gets pretty hard to pattern them at feeders (but if you have improved pasture they will be rooting up the world!)

Thank you everyone for your advice and opinions. I'm not sure what I will do. But if I do take hunters, I will let you know how it comes out.

I thought of selling 2 day minimum hunts on my place but the legal liabilities deterred me. Are you going to have a signed contract by each hunter? It sucks the world has come to this but you have to cover your 6. Think about it, you meet the hunter, nice guy, he hunts and falls out of stand and God knows what happens to him. That nice guy may know it was his fault, but his wife could sue your *ss off. Also, like was said, if you aren't there, folks could do who knows what and trash your place. I think a long term lease to 1 or 2 guys is the way to go if you choose to try that. I decided against it.

I am assuming this is your property? If it were me, I would invest in some liability insurance. I wouldn't want to lose my place over someone shooting themselves in the foot climbing into one of my stands. Even if you are in the right, getting dragged into court over something frivolous would get expensive real quick. My two cents. To me its not worth the headache.

Wow, that's something to know.

Yeah, I don't see how it will be sustainable for more than a few weeks on a low fence place that size. Won't take hogs to learn where the stand locations are or that they are being shot at less on the neighbor's place. If the OP is going to run hunts I would make them spread out as much as possible,

Here is the law...
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CP/htm/CP.75A.htm

It does not seem to protect the landowner from harm done on an adjacent land, for example, when your hunter shoots and his bullet goes across the fence line and hits the neighbor's $25,000 prize bull, $200,000 tractor, etc. Activities conducted on your land that result in damage, injury, or death on another land may still find you liable, or so it would seem.

Or, is this covered somewhere else?




Whether or not it is sustainable depends not so much on the size of the property but on the habitat inside and outside of the property. We hunt a property in Montague Texas that is less than 100 acres. We shoot hogs off of it on a regular basis, sometimes multiple times a weekend.

www.elusivewildlife.com
Get the $79.00 Sportsman's light and put one on each feeder. Zero maintenance and the hunters can see. Your first two man hunt will pay for them. Go with green.

And you can do that multiple weekends in a row? Our place in San jac county is a bout the same size but if we shoot hogs off it more than 2 or 3 weeks In a row it may be a month or two before we really start seeing them again as they learn to avid the pressure pretty quickly. We may kill 3 to 5 a weekend for a couple weekends but it turns into a ghost town for a while after