Anyone ever lost there lease?

I am doing a little project on what happens when someone unexpectedly loses there lease. Anyone care to share there story and what they had to do with there blinds/feeders/other equipment? Also, how long did it take to find a new lease?

Been 4 years, owner retired sons took over closed down lease had two weeks to vacate. Have feeders, blinds, trailer and hunting materials stored. Just can't approve $2000 plus to lease to hunt. Fixed income now, retired.

yep, couple times, still looking for new lease

If the hunters haven't royally screwed up in some way, a LO giving only 2 weeks to vacate is being a complete sphincter.

Hunt long enough, and you will realize that the chances are good that you are going to, sooner or later, lose your current lease. Make the most of it, but always be "like a rolling stone" - ready to move on.

If you don't mind me asking, where did you store them?

We lost our lease this year. Half the blinds got chainsawed and we had a good bon fire, some equipment is at the new lease, some is in my backyard and sold some of it. My buddy has a nice 12 ft tower stand as a yard ornament until I can sell it. The rest is at another buddies ranch or it’s on loan to someone. I owe more than a few people some beer money for the help they’ve given me. I had 6 blinds, 7 corn feeders, 2 protein feeders, 2 hog traps and enough hog panels and t-posts to make 7 feeder pens.

Lost a couple of leases over the years due to landowners either passing or selling. We always had in our contract a minimum of 90 days to remove our property, which was legally binding in the event of a sale. Fortunately both times we found a lease within 30 - 45 minutes of the old one. First thing we did (outside of actively looking for another lease) was to bring all the feeders/blinds/t-posts/fencing etc. back to camp and staged for loading to the new place. It is a heck of a lot of hard work as you can imagine, and takes a bunch of time - not just transporting, but scouting new place for blind and feeder locations as well. We have been fortunate that both times we found leases quickly - either through friends or right here on THF.

We had one around Junction that was sold in our 7th year. The new LO gave us 72 hours to move our gear out. We stored our gear at different homes for a couple of years until we found a new lease.

Bow5, got them stored on my property in carport, shed and just outside. Got 2 acres.

3 big trailer houses,4 Morgan buildings(all plumbed and wired) connex, tractor and implements, walk in cooler, 4 portable garages, utility trailer, 3 2000 gal water tanks, truck, Jeep, 16 tower blinds, 27 corn feeders, 17 protein feeders, 17 cottonseed feeders,17 large feed pens, various bow blinds, tripods, etc. hope not to ever lose this place

It's the ultimate young man's game right? It will never happen to you. But it does. Hasn't to us yet, but there is always that chance. Every year. I think about all the summer work I do just to pack up as much as I can and get out. We don't want to improve the place too much. Keep the roof leaking just a bit, keep the screened in porch open in a couple of places, fence in disrepair just a bit. Keep the roads crappy so when the prospective buyer comes in when you don't know, he'll hit that rough spot and curse a little. I don't think I could get all my stuff off in two weeks, I'd think about the chainsaw and burn route myself.

First lease in Mason Co..... LO and sister divided the land among the grandkids, thing were good the first year. by the 4 year, grandsons had crazy ideas, started letting friends come out during the week the last year, called mid March and said we had two weeks to get our stuff off. One pasture went from 2300 acres and got divided into 6 owners, our pasture went from 1800 acres divided by 4 owners now.
2017, Brown county. LO had dementia, wanted payments in gold bars and went up to $15k for 300 acres. I heard the daughter sold half to the guy that owns the castle on Lk Brownwood.
We stored all our feeders, stands and my hut at a storage unit for 5 months till we found a new lease.

If I lose the lease i am on, i will not renew. I will sale all my feeders/blinds/stuff and just move to an outfitter basis.

By the time I added up all the damn trips/fuel/stuff out there I can just go on an outfitter hunt.

I would love to have some space of my own for my kiddos to grow up with the outdoors but leases come and go and with everyone moving into texas land is an high demand

Have lost 2 in the past both due to the guys who had grazing and hunting rights being kicked off the place. We paid those guys so we had to go as well. Had stands,feeders, jeep and all other items stored at a friends place in the country. There was one other lost due to owner passing and his son took over and we had to move. This time all my gear came to my back yard, it is big. Fortunately have been on the same lease now going on 18 years.
If I lost this lease I would get on another asap, I enjoy the activity too much. As long as I can walk I will hunt somewhere.

I lost a lease that I had been on over 10 years. The LO let his adult son take over leasing the ranch. The son had never done this before, and did not know what he was doing. He first wanted to raise the price, which was fair, because we were paying a below market rate. The problem started when he would not set a price, so I made an offer. Do to his lack of knowledge, business skill, and maturity, we never even had a conversation regarding my offer. He suddenly changed his mind, and said he would not lease it at all, or lease it to his friends. The main thing is to enjoy whatever lease you are on, and have a plan B ready when the time comes.

Lost a lease at Llano after 7 years because of one loud mouthed drunken lease member. He got belligerent with the LO so we all got kicked off. Gave us 60 days to get our stuff. The drunk was banned completely so we had to get his stuff for him.

Another time near Sabinal the owner just flat leased it out from under us. She knew we wouldn't pay double what we had been paying. Got a call from her telling me we had 2 weeks to get our stuff. The new hunters already had feeders in our pens when we got there.

Lost a good one 4 years ago. New neighbor liked the deer and the country. Made our LO a big offer. She felt terrible, but I don't hold it against her. Wouldn't have been so bad except we'd just built three big fancy new feed pens not 2 months prior, and about had all the big work done. Driving Tposts in the Llano Co rock by hand is no easy feet. Nor was pulling them right back out again.

Was lucky to find another lease 15 min down the road. One weekend rolled three big trailers in, loaded up all the blinds, feeders, and storage building, made a couple trips, and moved them down the road. Then the work of getting everything set up and cleared started all over again.

Our lease agreement has a provision that if we lose the lease for ANY reason we have 60 days to remove our stuff. Leases come and go. Hold it loosely, remember you don't own it, and enjoy the time there.

too many to list ...

Our current land owner is in an retirement home and the family is already talking about selling, so we know it just a matter of time. This is why my blind is made of framed panels. I can break down the walls and have it flat on a the trailer in an hour. If I loose lease there will be a lot of hunting gear in my back yard.

I lost one 10 years ago. Was the perfect lease for me. 320 acres, secluded, and I was the only hunter. Had some nice deer, plenty of hogs, dove, quail, and bordered a reservoir so had excellent duck hunting and great fishing. Pretty much everything I could ask for in a lease except running water/electricity. A local rancher rented me a room in a mobile home for $50/night which was quite nice and spacious compared to the local motels. Camped out there many times too when the weather was nice. Had it for several years. The guy I leased it from only charged me $2,000/year which I thought was reasonable considering I had exclusive hunting rights.

Turns out the guy was sub-leasing it to me after winning the lease in a yearly auction. Apparently, it was some sort of corps land (I forget what the situation was). Didn't know this until he called and said I had to move out immediately. Someone outbid him unexpectedly.

It was quite painful to lose it as there were no other hunters in the area and I passed up several nice bucks to let them grow and spread their genes. Would've taken one that season too... and I lost it several months before deer season. Had to rush out there to grab my two crank down feeders. Ended up leaving a 3rd feeder (cheap Academy one) out there as I didn't have enough room in the truck and it wasn't worth the 6 hour drive and gas/lodging. Also forgot a game cam. Oops. Didn't have a place to hunt that season which was a huge bummer since it's my main hobby.

After being on leases for 25 years... I finally had enough and decided to buy a ranch with my father. Best decision I ever made. Though my wife and mother may disagree

I drive back and forth to my place, usually on weekends, and am amazed at the numbers of pickups and trailers heading west loaded with blinds, feeders, ATVs, and gear. I doubt there is a weekend during the summer when on I-20 between Weatherford and Cisco that I do not see 5 or 6 loaded trailers. Either lots of y'all are getting new leases every year, or lots are losing leases. I feel for you too, that is a ton of work!

Yep. I remember hunting the Spaeth ranch in Mason cty. $500 a gun. 5 deer, lots of turkey and fishing in the Llano river. House with water and electricity. Deer would field dress about 60lbs. What a paradise. We were young and dumb. We left on our own. Fools we were. This was back in 1980.

Can you believe some people are so foolish they are told they are no longer welcome, and to take their belongings at the end of the season, keep their money and not come back? I may start a thread on losers we have all had to deal with and remove from our group. I only had to tell this to one guy in a life time of hunting.

Yes, been there too many times. Last lease was about an hours drive from me in North Texas area. Leased it for 2 yrs , 580 acres for $1000. Granted this was a friends place (thus the price) and they had a few weekends a year with family, but it was a good lease with plenty of wildlife. There was 3 of us on it and bow hunted only. Had an old cabin we refurbished and made livable, water and electric. Surrounded by 100's of farm/cattle acreage. Well the old man died and his kids wanted money (typical story)….they ended up selling it at the end of deer season and within a few days they neighbor rancher came thru and said we were welcome to keep the lease , but the new price was $2000 per … I told him we'd have our stuff off by the end of the week. This was 2008, would love to find another, but won't pay those ranchers taxes for the use and haven't been on one since.

"If I lost this lease I would get on another asap,"

Trust me, lots easier said than done. There are far more hunters than private land to hunt

Same here, my dad and his uncle and a cousin started on the White ranch in the late 60s and paid $15 for a two week season. We moved to his sisters place when I started in 74 and it was $25 for the month. Bad thing was we got a month of hunting and had to pull everything off after Thanksgiving. His thought is if we couldn't shoot 4 or 5 deer each in a month, a other month wouldn't help. Finally got off that pasture in the mid 80- camp split up because of one of the cousins and another, to the back pasturewhere we stayed till 2007, when we got a full season for $800.
Great place lots of deer, awesome view of the Blue Mountain in the evenings.

I got sick of leasing in 1998, that's when I bought the ranch. Before that I only had one lease in Menard that was pretty good and I left it to go hunt big deer in south Texas and Mexico. That was ok but the drive was a killer so I found another place up here on the Brazos with a Lake Fork fishing guide. Turns out he was a poacher and sold day hunts on the place during the week, that's when I said to heck with leasing and bought my own.

I never got kicked off a place but I had a couple of guys double their price on me and basically forced me to leave.

Lost 2 because the owners passed away

Yep - I tell our hunters that we will not endanger our entire lease with the LO over one guy not following the rules. Have had to enforce that several times -

Have never been on a lease until a few years ago and have always hunted on family or in-law property.

I can honestly say the best case for leasing a place is from a loaded landowner who doesn't need the money and only cares that land and wildlife are taken care of.

Great advice. Don't fix the place up too much.

Same here.

If there is one thing you can count on in life it's change. Sometimes it turns into an opportunity, sometimes not.

The last one I lost was bought out from under me. Turned out to be the best thing that's happened to my hunting experience. I ended up on the Pitchfork. That was ten years ago and I'm going into my eleventh year.

The only people it won't happen to are the landowners themselves. It can be a big undertaking when you have several years of equipment spread out over thousands of acres. That's when you count it down; start thinking of worse things you could be dealing with and get it done.