I was talking with a couple friends of mine today and we had an interesting conversation about lease pricing. We were discussing the different prices we would pay per gun for a lease that had the potential for certain size deer. Thought it would be interesting to see what others thought. Basically talking about what we would pay for a quality place with potential at an X size deer. Of course everyone knows you aren't guaranteed anything at anytime.

The scenario is a lease 2 hours from your house, low fence, ranch house lodging, feeders and blinds provided, 400-500 acres per gun, year round all game.

What would you pay for below? Or what do you think market rate would be...

120 Type B&C Potential - X $ Per Gun

140 Type Potential -

150-160+ Type Potential -

I will trade a certain fella a really nice spotted Bobcat for a 150-160+ spot on a lease

I'm holding out for black panther!

Okay..how about 2 nice spotted Bobcats for a 150-160+ spot on a lease.....

I don't really know just what I would pay. Depends on the exact place. Right now, I'm on a place with about 900 acres to the hunter. House to stay in. Blinds and feeders provided. 120 class deer, no problem. 130-140 attainable with enough time put in. Very low pressure. Great buck to doe ratio. Great overall numbers. $3250 a year. That's more than I ever thought about paying, but I feel like it's a great value.

It's all about deer density and acres per hunter to get big deer consistently. the reason you see so many deer out of south texas is not because the deer are just naturally bigger, it's because there are often ranches that hunt 800-1000 acres per hunter. I did it for a while, but with the kids being small, I just hunt on a small place, and we shoot what they like for the most part.

It's hard to break the "deer management" mindset though, even my ten year old passed 5 bucks last weekend, and ended up shooting a nice 11 point the day after christmas. of course... with my boys being 8 and 10, EVERYTHING they shoot becomes eligible in their eyes for a full body mount. oh well, I didn't think they were cut out for college anyway!

but to answer your question, assuming the other lease characteristics were good, I'd pay 2000, 3500, and 5500-7000 respectively.. I'd pay more if the acreage was increased and also depending on what was there... house, walk in cooler, etc.

Yeah it was an interesting conversation and there are definitely a lot of variables. Mainly just wondering if others/market are in the same range as we were thinking. We're trying to decide on a couple new leases to add to what we currently have.

That's a heck of a deal. 40 acres high fenced ok?

As long as they are not tagged and are wild native deer. I'll spot and stalk only with bow.

I'll dart, remove tags, and have them scored before you get here.

Bling is a deal killer for me. The hole from old Bling is still a deal killer. Sorry you will have to come up with another plan for these 2 cats.

Let me get on the phone and order some more in.

I say try not to market what you may or may not get just come up with a reasonable rate based one the going rates in the area. if some one lands a massive buck good for them. don't try and sell 5 people on one picture of a massive buck. I personally would stay away from a place like that.. then again i'm not interested in shooting bucks i'm a meat hunter not trying to stuff anything. so when I look for my lease next year I may spend $2000 but I will not shoot any bucks I will just pay to be able to hunt hogs and culls.

Still be a deal killer. You can't move a deer legally via breeder or TTT without Bling and/or tattoo.

For me the biggest drawback on any lease is who is on it and how many are on it. I want to be able to enjoy hunting the place at any time. It is more about the property itself and how it hunts more so than the price paid. What has happened to the land in the past and what is planned for the future is important. Is the lease long term would be another major concern for me.

I predict the cost for leases, especially in South Texas, will continue an upwards climb. With the Eagle Shale some ranches are either overrun with oil field activity or the rancher is getting so much $$ from the oil that they decide not to mess with hunters any longer. As a result, the number of available properties will continue to shrink causing price increase due to higher demand. Just my 2 cents.

I try not to think about how much I spend every year on deer hunting.

X2 ... for me there are some things that are more important when considering a lease than the price and the potential antler size of bucks. I agree with everything STXranchman said, but would add that I want to see a fair amount of deer. I wouldn't expect it to be a petting zoo, but I'm not going to be happy if I'm not seeing 3+ deer on average per sitting.

It is. I was gonna say 3K for the OP's scenario. 'course, I have know idea what all them 120, 130, 140 numbers mean.

Where I hunt, it might as well be live weight.

You have the best lease in Texas.

If I could find a lease that produced 140+ at 2-2500 I'd be all over it! Especially if house, stand and feeders wee included.

Up until 2008 a lease like that was $280, now it's 1500-2000 in our hood.

For Paducah/Childress yes it is waited 8yrs to get on, last place I had up there was $2,250