so many lease requests

Is it just me but does t it look like the people looking for hunting leases has seen a jump this year compared to previous years on THF?

It's that time of the year. From now til just after season, people who didn't like their lease this year will be hoping to get a jump on finding a lease for next season.

I also think that there are fewer leases around, as property is being sold, or changing hands thru inheritance, & new owners don't want deer hunters, or want to hunt the new place for themselves.

I'm betting in 10 years it's gonna be extremely difficult to find a lease. All these people moving to Texas will change many things.

Bingo, couldn't have said it any better Maximus!

and a lot of folks are looking for a place to harvest deer (easy harvest) and not 'hunting' deer

when I tell folks most of the deer on my place are nocturnal I never hear from them


deer leases are getting more expensive, but so has everyone's paychecks getting bigger over time

Yes, but not at the same rate....

I'm always looking, but what's the point of posting on here with so many others looking?

I'm one of those poor souls who had their lease sold out from underneath them. It's getting really hard to find a lease. Also, this side is flooded with "me too" lease request, so it's not very useful.

IMO, most good leases go to friends and have a waiting list. I know the place I have been on for the last 20 years has never posted in a newspaper, on the forum, etc. Someone always knows someone looking for a good lease. New leases from folks that don't hunt aren't going to be posted on the forum. Most will go onto other sites because the owner or the manager doesn't hunt, so they will go where they know. I have seen some good places on here and some good deals, but many are going to be from brokers or middle men.

If good leases were easy to find or were cheap...they wouldn't stay that way for long. Logic behind it doesn't make sense.

Moderators, I've suggested before and I'll suggest again...

Can we please split the Land/Leases section into two... looking-for-land/lease and have-land/lease?

Thanks,
Mickey

That would be equivalent to breaking it to the have and have not's

You could even break it down further to groups looking and single spot openings/requests.

I've looked at some places, but I'm not going through setting up feeder, moving travel trailer, etc. just to decide in a year it's not for me. Life's too short to put up with a marginal place or marginal personalities. I'm fortunate in that I have a small home place I can hunt on until I find the right place.

I do think that advertising lease openings here or on lease-finding sites is like a restaurant that advertises constantly on the TV - there's something wrong. Not always, but the chances of something being screwy go way up.

Having leases cut out from under you even thought you've had a long standing relationship with the owners is one of the reasons I walked away from hunting 14 years ago. In fact, pretty much my whole family since we all hunted on same lease. It's only been recently, as my kids have begun to mature that I got back in it. Just bite the bullet on prices; there's no $600 leases anymore (or I haven't found one). Friends, co-workers, word of mouth ...there are a lot of suggestions but patience and persistence are the best suggestions of all. Fell into a good group of guys from here this year and plan to keep hanging with them...

WARNING - I know I'm contradicting myself and not taking my own advice, but out of boredom and desperation I plunked down my 30 bucks for 6 months on Texas Lease Connection. I've joined about 3 times now, off and on every 3 years or so. I've found and gone on a couple of places (neat ranches, but pretty run down; still communicate with the ranchers and consider them friends), but each time I join it looks worse. This time bordering on pitiful. I'm hoping it's the time of year, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Don't waste your money.

Thanks for the heads up.

As someone that has three tracts of land leased and seen hunters come and go it doesn't always mean the place is bad. In this time of instant gratification and getting something without really having to work for it (the environment that the youth of today comes up in) sometimes folks give up too easily. I live in east Texas and don't mind hunting east Texas but it is harder than most places. I have yet to see a deer this year but we have had a really good buck killed on one of my leases and another good one seen. I pay to hunt on two of the three places I have leased (I just manage the third) and pay just over $1000 total. If I were to get on a lease where I am guaranteed to see deer every time I would be hunting less and paying more. One of my leases is less than a mile from my house and the other is seven miles from the house so I get to hunt every weekend and every afternoon after work during bow season. I haven't killed a deer in three years but that was my choice- last year I passed on a really nice 10 pt. during bow season because he was a little young. Being so close to my leases provides me the opportunity to do the other things that I enjoy about the hunting experience- creating food plots, scouting new hunting areas, checking the game cameras, etc. without taking away too much time away from the wife (who doesn't hunt and doesn't really understand why I like to do these other things). I have lease members that might come once during the off season and maybe two or three times during the season and don't understand why they can't kill a deer. It has been my experience that you get out of something what you put into it. I know folks that would rather go without a lease and complain than hunt east Texas and for those I have no sympathy.

thou speaketh the truth right out of my mouth

I don't understand 'instant gratification' of seeing deer every time one goes to the woods

I quit hunting for over 10 years because it was TOO EASY
I used to hunt Kerrville, Llano, Mason Co
back then I can kill a season's tags in one day ... I called that 'harvest' and hang my rifles up

the last time I hunted and one I called truly hunting was in Mason Co, 1998
no feeders, no blinds, no time to scout, slept 5 days in tents, found crossing trails and just sit and wait

I paid my fees to 'hunt' and enjoy the land,,, and nothing about 'seeing' or 'shooting'
Folks that relate cost of lease to amount of deer seen/shot will be easily discouraged

the 'me, me , me' and 'instant gratification' generation will be in for a surprise,

It can be "that" easy in ETX. A lot just has to do with stand set-ups and being picky in prior years.

I think one reason for becoming so picky about what deer you shoot (by many on these forums) is because of the feeders. You can easily shoot one deer on each sitting on many leases, and so, they began to talk about shooting only mature bucks, or even "personal best" bucks only, just to make it harder.

I'd say that feeders are more of a reason for high turnover than anything. Majority of folks will pick a spot, set up a feeder as far away from their stand as they reasonable can and put a camera on it. Majority of bigger deer I see are 300yds past the feeders. That's fine if you can see it, if you're hunting a tighter viewing area you're SOL. With most being corporate land you can't do a lot to alter things to catch that kind of cross traffic.

I agree completely on the instant gratification. folks just want to go out someplace and shoot something. they don't want to pay much..they don't want to have to wait. they are more interested in shooting than hunting. and most don't know what to do with a deer once they've killed it.

too many folks think that once they've paid a lease that they now "own" something. you don't own anything. yes you've bought permission to hunt on the owners terms. but that doesn't mean you have run of the place. and just because you paid your fee doesn't mean your guaranteed anything.

hunting doesn't have to be expensive. but owning land and keeping up with any sort of feeding program or other wildlife improvements costs money. don't assume that because someone has land that they owe you something.

so many folks these days wanting to shoot at everything in sight. so many assault rifles and shooting at hogs at night, and everything else. nothing wrong with it I don't guess....but your older generation folks who own the property....it freaks them out. you're not going to find many who will want you coming out and doing that.

leases turn over mostly because the hunter broke the rules...or had unreaslitic expectations of the property and decided to leave. there are some scams out there I know. but most aren't that way.

I fully understand folks wanting a place in the country. but they gotta understand they are like a guest in someone's home. yes its business...it costs money...but you need to present yourself as someone that the owner would want to invite out whether you were paying or not.

and when the hunting is slow....they want to drink, and or shoot at whatever else they can find. you won't find many folks wanting to lease to this sort of group.

I moved go east Texas (Tyler) over 7 years ago. I wouldn't mind hunting this area at all. I just find it hard to pay what some people are wanting ie. $1500 to hunt 10, yes ten acres. Or on the other end to hunt 500 acres and to keep the dues down to $5-600, they put 8-10 people on it. And with typical timber land, the 3000 acres with 30 members. Go to look at it and at least half of it is clear cut. Half of what's left is so thick that it is not accessible, so everyone is stacked up in one general area.

I don't mind putting in the work. Helped start a lease back home. Lots of work with minimal payback for a few years but it is worth it.

Sorry for the rant. Just need to vent a little I suppose

Chad

that's a good idea. I am on the land owner side trying to get a handle on averages and expectations in my market. My goal is to promote a fair but profitable and successful lease opportunity for all parties involved.