I kind of share the same philosophy. I've never paid more than $1,200 for a single lease in my life. I have access to other places that I can hunt all the hogs, varmints, and does I want. I'm always shopping around for land to lease that has better quality deer and I've come across some really interesting places, however, there is a point in which it is just not worth it. I just can't justify paying several thousand dollars more for the opportunity at a buck that will score 30" higher than where I'm at now. I would much rather put that money toward an out of state hunt. I've had the opportunity over the past few years to go on elk and pronghorn hunts, as well as a caribou trip on the Alaskan tundra. These hunts were FAR more fun and adventurous to me than to have shelled out $K’s on a “high dollar” deer lease and to pump deer full of protein for several years, ultimately to end up shooting a 150" plus buck coming into a feeder. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I will not continue to hunt deer that way, it is just hard to forgo what I consider much more enjoyable, adventurous, and memorable hunt. That occasional 150” plus buck will can easily end up costing much more trophy elk hunt for example, so that makes my decision easy.

Just another thought, I think that the commercialization of hunting (TV shows, products, commercials, ect.) and the internet have most definitely played a huge role in regard to the economics of hunting as it has done for just about everything else. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just one of the things that has changed since 10+ years ago. I guarantee you that if you were looking for a lease in 1995, you wouldn’t be checking any hunting forum or lease broker website on your smart phone during your lunch break. Chances are that you would most likely never even know about a lease 300 miles away. You would have actually had to get a newspaper (there may have been an online ad or two) or actually talk to someone face to face about leasing land with a person who probably doesn’t know or have access to info related to the going rate per acre either. All they would know is what their neighbor gets, what they got in the past, and what you’re willing to pay. The point is, they didn’t have access to a wealth of market information but now everyone does. The market has evolved to better balance the supply and demand.

A bit off topic: As for TV, they have done an incredible job promoting hunting in order to sell products. If you don’t believe me, the next time you see somebody driving a truck with a Browning or even a “YETI” stick on the back window of their vehicle. Yeti’s masterful sales and marketing department made coolers so “cool,” that people actually wear Yeti hats, shirts, and put stickers on their truck’s back window! I would have never thought in 100 years that coolers would be that cool, but they managed to convince some folks advertise their product for free. I’m not saying that Yetti’s aren’t great, but so is Colgate tooth paste…..I think they need a Colgate sticker on the back window too. For the record, yes, I have Yeti because my wife saw them advertised on outdoor channel during every commercial break and figured I would like to have one for my birthday; no, no way in hell I'm putting a sticker on my truck. Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is the fact that there are more targeted consumers than ever before, adding more demand for places to hunt while also allowing the leaser/leasee to fully understand the market.

Anyone that did levered buys of land over the last 20 years in Texas did well.

It's sad because just a few years ago I paid cash for 20 acres in Missouri. Today it has quadrupled in value.

+1. Anybody on here remember the days of hunting before game cameras, before 4 wheelers, before expensive protein feeds, before scents, befor
e grunt calls, etc., etc., etc. How'd we ever kill a deer back then?

or living without a cell phone or the internet or cable tv or air conditioning or indoor plumbing or a microwave....... isnt it great now compared to then? times change, things get easier, and i like that.

Yep most of those were handed down for free with no land payment.

Anyone can do it. If they want to.

Little riskier with the crude environment now.

But I've got buddies whose dads didn't trust the stock market and just bought land around San Antonio as a "safe place to park it" that are cashing million/month checks now from the Eagle Ford.

Obviously exceptions and some have outperformed and some have underperformed, but Texas land has been a multi-decade bull market with a few brief pullbacks.

Leverage only helps your cause in that circumstance.

+1. Anybody on here remember the days of hunting before game cameras, before 4 wheelers, before expensive protein feeds, before scents, befor
e grunt calls, etc., etc., etc. How'd we ever kill a deer back then?