another post got me thinking of deer lease rules. do any of youre leases have rules and would you mind sharing. on our lease we dont have any rules but as time has gone on i think we all should sit down and make some up.

Yeah I dont let Dad eat beans or spicy food after lunch if he plans to sleep in the camper. That is rule number one!!!!!!!!!LOL Since it's just me and Dad on the lease there are no rules.

Not really. Just the usual, no poaching and no quail since that is leased out after Jan. 2. We have the no bucks or pay $500 rule unless they are 8 pts or better and outside the ears but I don't think you meant that kind of rule.

we only have 4 guys and 640acs, so we try and keep the rules simple, stay in your stand or on the roads till 0900 no shotgunning till everyone is done deer hunting, make sure we know where you are hunting and what time you will be back.

Funny you should ask. Have hunted on bro-in-laws land for 24 yrs. Simple rules...don't load up until in stand, stay in stand until picked up, unload before getting out of stand. This year, the cattle were removed and we started working on a WMplan. Decided to shoot NO deer this yr, just document what is seen, and shoot a hog, given the chance. Well, a 19yr old nephew pulled the trigger on a deer last wke. Said it was "too big" to pass up. We found alittle blood, but couldn't find the buck, after looking for 3 hrs. Needless to say, bro-in-law was pizzed. Awkward being family and having rules, but no set penalties.

I would recommend it. My family owns 185 acres with a trailer on it. We lease to a couple of friends and family to hunt with me and my dad.We haven't had rules, and there has been some misunderstandings this year. A few we are looking at: we raised the price $100 per person to help pay for year around food plots. everyone will have a feeder going year around. limit on age of children brought out and the ones hunting will have a hunter safety course (its the law), pitching in for food and utilities when they stay out at the trailer, and encourage not shooting younger deer. We are putting it in writing and would recommend the same so noone can say they don't remember that rule. I've learned that guidelines need to be set, especially if you own the land or are responsible for the lease.

Pick and choose from these if you want. These are the rules we have set on one of our ranches we have leased out to some hunters.

Rules:
1). No quail hunting. The owners have retained all quail hunting rights. They will not hunt quail until after deer season is over.
2). No dove hunting. Since dove season is so close to deer season, we feel that it will only be detrimental to the temperament of the deer on the lease.
3). No gun hunting for hogs out of someone else's stand or road hunting will be allowed during bow season. You must respect that bow hunters need undisturbed and quite conditions to be successful with a bow.
4). There are bow hunters on the lease and also adjacent to our lease. You will take care not to disturb the area during any active TPWD hunting season. Please respect the quiteness that is needed on the lease for any bow hunter to be successful in his hunt.
5). The number of deer that can be taken by each paid hunter is one mature 8 point buck or a mature spike and one doe.
6). Unlimited hogs (Harvested hogs must be taken for consumption or disposed of properly and not left laying around the ranch). We realize that some old bore hogs are not fit for eating and must be drug to a non-interfering location, such as the creek bottom.
7). The number of turkey that can be harvested will be as allowed by the TPWD regulations.
8). An unlimited number of varmints may be harvested. There are numerous coyotes and bobcats and we ask that you shoot these varmints.
9). Only immediate family members are allowed to accompany you during hunting season.
10). An immediate family member may take your doe, varmits, a hog and/or one turkey.
11). Since this is a one buck county and the hunter may not want to use his buck tag on a freak buck or mature spike, permission can and may be granted by the owner for a guest to harvest a particular buck that should be culled off the lease. If it's determined by the owner that a mature spike or a freak buck should be culled off the lease, permission will only be given after a detailed description of the cull buck is given by the owner. This culling will be determined by the owner prior to any cull buck being harvested by a guest.
12). All family member guests MUST be in the same stand as you are. You are not allowed to hunt separate at any time! Violation of this rule WILL result in immediate expulsion from the lease! NO EXCEPTIONS!
13). No blind or stand can be set up closer than 100 yards from any internal property fence line. No feeder can be set up between the stand and an internal fence line. This way, no one will be shooting at animals at their feeder in the direction of other hunters on other leases.
14). No feeder, blind or stand my be set up in the immediate vicinity of another existing blind or feeder without the mutual agreement of the other stand owner. This includes portable blinds! If there is a question about whether or not the blind or feeder that is to be set up is far enough from another existing feeder or blind, the decision of the lease manager in this matter will be final.
15). No one may keep others from hunting out of their blind while they are not on the ranch. It's an "open stand" lease. If the owner of the stand is hunting, it's "his/her" stand and you may not get in it without the stand owner's permission. You MUST call the owner of the stand prior to getting in their stand. If you are unable to contact them, you are not allowed to get in their stand! Some hunters may arrive at the lease later than you and it's not right that they come to hunt and find you in their stand. This has become a very sore subject, due to over abuse of people using other people's stands. If this problem can not be worked out during this season, the stands can and will at the descretion of the lease manager no longer be "open" and will be limited to be hunted by only the owner of the stand or hunted only with his written permission. Be advised that if another problem arrises with the "open stand" policy, the lease manager may change the stands to "owner only" during the season to solve the conflicts.
16). Travel with any type of vehicle is restricted to the existing roads. A trail to your feeder may be made, but used only for picking up game or filling your feeder.
17). No camp trailer may exceed 25' in length.
18). Wounded game may only be trailed into adjoining properties by first contacting either the owner, a game warden or the adjoining land owner for permission or instructions.
19). All trash must be taken out of the land. The leaving of trash or throwing trash on the property WILL be grounds for immediate eviction from the property.
20). Night hunting for hogs can only be done after the last day of the scheduled deer season until the end of Spring turkey season. No night hunting will be allowed during deer season. No firearms are allowed to be discharged at night during deer season except for personal protection.
21). Any sighting in of rifles will be done between the hours of 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm only. All rifles will be sighted in adjacent to the front gate. No exceptions!
22). All hunters are required to have their own feeder and stand. It's not fair for the other hunters to have the expense of feeding the game animals for months with a feeder and another hunter just hunt over their feeder without having any expense for feed.

Our lease agreement is almost like TheHag's, except our rancher makes us sign a "Hold Harmless" clause. If one of our group brings a minor child, their spouse must also sign the lease agreement.

Other than that, shoot a immature buck and you have to clean the dishes for the rest of the season.

Looks like some good rules HAG, you've cover about everything.

Born4Horns, is this "Hold Harmless" clause, have to do with the minor child, if not what is it and why does the spouse have to sign the agreement. I'm not downing it, I'm just trying to understand it. My wife have not a clue about hunting or lease rules.

wow hag thats alot. and thats what i asked for thanks.

WE have used something like what the Hag says in the past,,,the guys who shoot their deer first couple of weekend still have to keep their feeder going the whole season...One guy did not do it and he did not get asked back the next year...

The only other rule we had was if you were driving in to hunt on a morning, you had to be there an hour and a half before shooting light....if not, don't come in until after 10...and for the afternoon, you had to be there before 2:30 or you had to wait until dark. That was my rule since my stand was close to the gate and I watched two lease members come in right at deer thirty.....and run some deer off.

All of that crap should just be a given and Bradbury those hour rules are insane! I've been on a lease with 6 guys for 7 years and we just show respect and do what we all think is right and if something does come up we always vote and majority wins period. No one person can make any rule!

Sounds to me like a dumb place to put a stand?

I really enjoy it when people get irate over what someone else posts. I do it myself, and feel that I do a good job of it, but that is beside the point. This whole thing is the reason why I can be in on the place I hunt, with the people I hunt with, and probably couldn't be on a place with a single person participating in these forums. Common courtesey, common sence, respecting the land owner and the folks you are hunting with, and the rules and regulations set down by TP&W are really all the rules you need on any place. Hunting is supposed to be enjoyable, not a contest. If people want to have a code of conduct, rules, or whatever, and everyone hunting the place agrees to them, then that is good enough. I believe this started out with someone wanting to know if people had rules set up for the place they hunt. I don't think that persons intentions was to get people sniping at each other, over the way they operate their lease. This is supposed to be a place to share opinions and ideas. Not a place to rip some one apart just because they do things differently than you.

Everyone who has a lease that has no rules other than the standard rule of courtesy must consider themselves fortunate. I also hunt on such a lease but I have also hunted on those leases where you have various other people with different levels of hunting knowledge and upbringing if you know what I mean. You have to lay down rules in cases like that in order to keep it fun, and keep from making a pleasurable experience into something a lot more undesirable. Dealing with numbers of people just like this forum is not an easy task. Ask the moderators of this forum. Same goes with a lease. If you don't have a bunch of guys that are willing to leave the me first attitudes at home then there will be a problem even if it's a family lease. Personally the rules are made for those bigger leases and those leases that have a problem with over killing and need some sort of management to bring them back to where the land owner or lease manager would like them to be.
As far as not hunting next to a gate. That's all about the situation. I've had a blind near a gate, and what I mean near would not necessarily mean right next to it. If you've spent any time in the woods you know that sound travels long distances, and a rowdy approach to the gate, such as playing the radio, talking and laughing as well as slamming car doors can break the silence especially if the guy that is in the stand got there an hour before even a hint of daylight in the cold just to settle in and not spook the game only to have someone show up just moments before the crack of dawn slamming doors and whatnot. The poor guy just sat there all that time in the cold for nothing. You have to use common sense and common courtesy, and there seems to be a major lack of it on some deer leases. Thus the need for those terrible bad rules.

I dont think that there are many leases where everyone on it has common sence or any courtesy, I wish that there were more, just relze im not saying that you guys dont have sence or courtesy but that there are many who dont, Unfortunatly some of us people who want to hunt must put up with them, I think some rules are good and to be honest I think that they are needed because you now as well as I do that some people really dont care about others. I feel that if rules dont need to be set and people just to do what is right, then why do we have any laws at all, the answer would be cause people dont always do what is right, with out rules on a lease where there are people that do not have common sence or courtesy, I think that some rules must be set.

yea i didnt want this to get out of hand. i picked up on some good ideas.i took my fishing partner hunting this weekend. nobody else was at the lease this weekend so i took him over to a blind that only gets hunted during bow season. when i found the blind i found the mess. there was about a 6-pack of beer bottles under the blind. even though they wasnt mine. i felt embarset of the mess. i knew whos they are cause his blind is the same way. i bet if the land owner see's it he will be pee-od.. i know there is allways unwritten rules and i think we need writtin rules also o ours. so people pick up there trash. thanks for all the replys.

Wow Bradbury you take everything anybody says on here so personally. You didn't tell everyone that you shoot record book deer out of the "gate" stand or anything else you just stated that you had a stand where you could see the gate I think you should have shot them dead for even thinking about using that gate after hours! oh and as far as keeping the feeders running all year....I'm sure I will get an ear full but I think its unethical because then the young deer only use feeders instead of watching mom all summer. We take our feeders down in Feb. and put them back up Sept. its just what we think is right.

Didn't I see in an earlier post you say that you never paid to hunt and didn't have a lease you just hunted all over the state for free?

I've enjoyed reading some of your post but I'm glad your not on my lease!

AdventureTX: The way I read Steves post was he was answering a post that critizied his choice of rules and stand placement. Isn't this what a disscussion forum is about? Seems to be somewhat of a misunderstanding!
This is why lease rules have come about. It's to make it perfectly clear and so that nobody is being singled out as trying to make the rules, or singling out just one individual on a whim, that they are doing something wrong. This way everyone agrees and knows what is expected of everyone from the start. If a person can't abide by the rules, then maybe it's time to move on to another lease. It's for a purpose of keeping tensions, and misunderstandings down, and if a person has a problem with rules then that person is probably the culprit that caused the rules to be written. But this is my interpretation from years of experience as to why rules are needed.....To keep a person from taking it personal.

Sometimes rules that we think we wouldn't ever need and that sound ridiculous are the ones that seem to be the ones that are so over abused.

Take for instance the rule that says your guest must hunt in the same stand as yours.

I went to my bow stand one evening (I bow hunt during gun season) only to find the son of one of the lease holders sitting in it with his rifle. I then went to my gun stand to find his son-in-law sitting in that one. I didn't think my best friend was coming so I went to hunt out of his stand. There was the father (and lease holder) sitting in my friend's stand. So, I knew that his stand had to be empty. Wrong!!! There was my best friend that was searching for a stand to sit in also. We just decided that we should drive over and sit in our trucks and watch OUR feeders through the windshield of our trucks from about 30 yards away. So, he had 2 other people there and took up 3 stands that weren't even his to sit in!

Gun hunting out of a devoted bow hunter's tripod stand is grounds for a shooting!

Sometimes rules just have to be made if you have hunters from different ways of life.

Then there's the guys that think the rules are stupid and just don't obey them, thinking that no one will ever know.

For instance... We had a 13 point 1 1/2 year old buck at my bow stand. I took pictures of the buck and we discussed how awesome he would be in 3 more years or so. It was agreed that no one would shoot this young buck that had the potential of being a record book buck. There was even a picture of him taped to my stand saying "Shoot him and you're off the lease". Well, one weekend he quit coming to my feeder. Figured he just was roaming. One year later, I saw a picture of one of the lease holders holding the buck. So, there will always be those that don't care and will do things that we think are just a "given" and don't need to be mentioned.