I've been on THF for years but never posted. So here goes.... Been looking for a lease since last fall. I'm on several pay sights with no luck and constantly monitor chamber sites. This past wkd me and a buddy hit the road and tried what everyone says to do, hit locals, feed stores, cafe's, hardware stores, and any gas station with a peg board posting. I left Houston and he left DFW. We met in Lampasas, this is our ideal area and surrounding areas. We hit every spot in Lampasas, San Saba, Llano, and Burnet to no avail. I called 6 people through lease websites and never got a call back. Why post an add and never respond? The ad has been up for a while too. We even stayed the night to see if someone would return my calls and nothing, any nothing today. Prices are skyrocketing and a lot of places don't want kids. We're supposed to teach our kids about the outdoors and what life is outside of the city but don't bring your kids. We are willing to pay a fair price and then some but it is getting to be impossible without having to drive 6 hrs. I've been there and done that and spend more time on the road that at the lease. I'm gonna keep looking but after 30yrs of deer hunting this is getting depressing. Hunted E TX for last 2 yrs and never again. Please don't try to convince me on E TX. Always hunted S and W Tx. I'm not trying to feed my family but just want to knock a couple deer down and sit around a fire with good friends. Thanks for reading ya'll. I ain't giving up. Real hunters never give up....

Sorry to here it is going so bad for you. Keep at it and you will come up with something.

I saw a place near Lampasas for lease over on TBH. What's wrong with E TX if you just want to sit around the fire with friends and shoot a couple of deer?

No deer, lots of poaching, toothless women, meth head thieves that will take all of your stuff, too many hunters per acreage, can't see very far in trees, what few deer are found tend to be small and are cut down before their prime, etc.

Well I meant besides the obvious.

Thanks Don. You are right rifleman. It's another world in E Tx

Totally agree e texas a joke saw a add on here for a club think it was 3k acers maybe 32 ppl on it and allowed guest. That's just stupid. But to help out look on craigslist seen a couple down that way some times got my place in west texas off there and it's a awesome place just never know what will come avaliable

100 acres per person is probably doable is certain parts of E Texas with harvest restrictions in place.

Actually where I hunt the harvest "restrictions" made it worse. Before them a hunter could kill 1 buck and 0 Doe during rifle season. Now a hunter can kill 2 bucks and 2 Doe during rifle season. Granted finding a buck that's legal is tough other than spikes but that still allows for 3 extra deer to be legally killed per hunter. In a region that's broken up into so many small properties it's wiping them out.

I'm not talking about ARs. I'm talking about self-implemented lease restrictions.

Ok, gotcha. Lots more leases are going that direction around here for sure. Which is good. If we all went by TP&W game limits we would have nothing to hunt.

We have a couple openings on our lease between Junction and Ft.McKavett the price is $1500 per spot with feeding requirements we have 9 spots on 1000 acres, 100 acres set aside for the landowner. Bag limit is 1-trophy 1-cull 1-doe and one axis buck over 20". We have a campsite with water / elec. If you are interested call Rocky @ 512-420-7510. My name is Roy.

Thanks Roy. I've got 3 guns total and trying to stay less than 4 hrs from Houston and DFW until we absolutely have to. That's very reasonable for that great area

Yeah, restrictions where only 1/4-1/6 shoot mature bucks.

The add leases are a joke... id rather hunt here than anywere else in Tx. Its not all poached and full of crack heads... but the leases you see that are filled and come up for lease again the next year right away.... well shame on anyone who thought that was a good deal just because it was cheap.. google map is your friend.. also knowing the locals, and knocking on doors goes much further than you would think... just don't quit after the first no.. or the 10th.. its all about how dedicated your going to be to the place... poaching, theft, crackheads... can be handled

Im on a 500acre lease with 9 other people... never had a single issue or lack of game

The people on it are very picky on what they shoot also and are locals so it does help

I am about to give up on Texas deer hunting. I am tired of the greed and ridiculous prices that people charge. It seems a new trophy ranch or lease pops up every week with even higher prices then the rest. I still have my lease in West Texas but if it comes to an end I am done. I will be an out of state trophy hunter from then on. This year me and my fiance are going on a Wisconsin trophy hunt. I am going to shoot a 200-230 class buck and she will shoot a 140 class. We are paying $7500 total for the both of us. Try to find a deal like that in Texas. I might just drive to Wisconsin every year if it turns out to be an awesome hunt.

I'm sorry Texas' roaring economy angers you.

It's not "greed" for people to charge the going rate. That's determined by the buyers (people leasing), not the sellers (landowners).

Soooooooooooo your going to pay to fly, food, trip cost ect.... to go hand a guy some cash and he drives you to a stand and boom boom... your trip and hunting is over in 2-3 days....

Just don't get it

Deercharmer, I do not know what your budget is but it is going to be hard to find anything decent for less than $1500-2000. Competition, greed, and middle men have driven the price up.

That said, hang in there. We are getting into that time where lease payments and installments are due and it seems each year, quite a few lease openings start popping up when people who committed decide not to pay.

Just have your ducks in a row because when they do open up, they can go pretty quick. That probably means your group has to be in a position to agree that one person can commit for the group.

Good luck.

[quote=cameron00]I'm sorry Texas' roaring economy angers you.

It's not "greed" for people to charge the going rate. That's determined by the buyers (people leasing), not the sellers (landowners). [/quot

All I'm saying is when you can get way more for less money out of state it makes no sense to keep hunting these 120 pound Texas deer. You can shoot a 200-300 pound monster up north cheaper. And no I am not flying I can drive my diesel pickup round trip for $600 dollars.

I get what you're saying but it's all about what the individual is looking for. If you want to hunt for a week a year and shoot a giant you can do it cheaper out of state for sure. I had a friend tell me about a guy in Illinois that was willing to lease me year-round access to his farm for hunting for $500 per year. It has a fully furnished house with a washer/dryer in the basement. I thought to myself that it had to be some sort of scam or something. There's no way you can get a year-round lease in Illinois for $500 a year right? I thought it over for a while and decided it was worth the $500 gamble and I sent the Landowner a check for 2 spots on the lease for myself and my uncle without ever laying eyes on the place. Come October I called him and told him I was headed that way and he gave me directions to the farm. I drove up there and he handed me keys to the house and showed me the property. It was corn and soybean fields with a beautiful mature timber river bottom land mixed in. I could not believe for $500 I had year-round access to hunt it with a fully furnished house included. I have been on that place for 3 years now. The price is great but the opportunity for me to actually go hunt it is very limited. It amounts to me being able to hunt it 1 week per year. As cheap as it is I still would not be able to drop my Texas hunting leases. It's worth a lot to me to be able to jump in the truck and go hunting any time I want to.

Yep I have a cousin that drives to Missouri every year for two weeks and limits out on deer every year. He pays the landowner $800 bucks and he is done. He has taken some nice bucks too. I still have my Texas lease that i enjoy. But as hard as it is to find leases and the price most are asking if i lost it i would do much better out of state. I like to go on trophy hunts also and going out of state saves a lot of money.

For some folks it's not about how fast you can get tags filled. Some of the worst managed places are full of folks looking to fill tags in a hurry.