This year I'm considering a lease that will cost a considerable amount of money and I need some feedback regarding the land owners right to hunt the property.

The land owner wants to continue hunting the property after it's been leased. Do any of you have similar issues with your land owners and what type of agreements do you have with your land owner regarding this issue?

he can work it all he wants, its his land. how many acres is it?
if it is small, move on....ya dont need anyone fugging up yer hunt. if its 1200 acres, dont swet it.

The lease is roughly 1,300 acres with 4 hunters.

We've had that arrangement before in South Texas, key is to find out the hunting expectations/needs of the LO. In our case, he wasn't much of a hunter, neither was their family and he was only out 1-2 times seasonally and maybe harvested a doe or spike. Really no big deal and created tons of trust between him and us. On the other hand, if he tips his hat to you that he's a serious minded hunter and so are his family and extended family (friends/in-laws), then I'd consider moving on...

I would have serious doubts about getting on a lease that the LO has hunting rights to the place and can bring guest. If it was just the LO, I might be a little less reluctant.

If I did get on a place that the LO could hunt the place too, I would want it set up as if he was another hunter within the group. He would need to follow the same rules, have a stand, feeder, etc. His guest should have to follow the same rules as the guest that the people leasing it do.

I would not worry about it as long as it is just the LO
He can realistically have 7-10 hunters comfortably on that place

Coming from a LO that does hunt hard and has other people hunting the land with him, here are some pointers.

1) The LO has complete say and you will never have equal say
2) Make sure you get along with LO before signing anything long term
3) You should pay less than market rate for the lease (beause of what said above).
4) See if you can get on the lease for a 3 month trial at first, this will let you know if you "fit" in with the style of the LO

Everyone is different, but family always comes first, just keep that in mind as well.

I have that issue also.I have 800 acre lease and lo hunts and lets her boyfriend and family hunt.my 3rd year and im leaving the lease.It eventually will irritate you.If ur paying prime money.If u really like the place I would atleast ask him not to hunt it till after Thanksgiving.The only problem is everyone is looking for a lease and landowners know it.

I would think that as long as this is understood upfront and accepted, no big deal....

be carefull

be carefull

If the LO has family that likes to hunt this could be a disaster around Thanksgiving and Christmas, all the work you have done managing deer and food plots will be destroyed when 5 or 6 people come in and shoot young bucks.
If you have a contract and each lease member including the LO can only take his legal tag limit of deer regardless of how many guest he brings then you are okay.
That way it would not matter how many guest could hunt but you know how many deer could be harvested, only 4-5 per paying lease member regardless of who shoots them.

Wouldn't work for me. If I'm paying the bill to hunt and then the LO, his friends and family are coming in and hunting too, it's not going to work out.

The LO needs to decide if he needs to hunt or needs the money. If he wants to hunt then he can set out a portion of the property for himself.

If he has no more respect for his hunters than this it's not going to work out. Too many LO's regard hunters as a necessary evil. They need the money but don't want to deal with relinquishing some rights on their property. Can't have it both ways.

However, if you just want a place to get away and get some meat you can work. If you want to manage for bigger, older bucks, it probably won't work.

We've notified the land owner that we're not interested if he and his guest will hunt the property. I feel we're offering market value per acre and shouldn't be worried about him or his family showing up whenever they want to hunt. In addition to offering a competitive price, we offered to make improvements to the current camp site. The LO needs to decide if he wants a place to hunt, or the money. Now we wait to hear back from the LO.

Tuff call but I would have passed on this as well, We just left a prime lease in Palo Pinto county in April due to the owners complete lack of respect for us and her complete disregard for our rights during hunting season. Per the hunting lease agreement she & her workers were not supposed to be doing any ranch work during hunting season unless it was between the hours of 11am and 3pm and we were to be notified in advance! The last straw for us was when she showed up 2 days before the opening of spring turkey season with a D9N Cat bulldozer to clear the last remaining virgin old growth forest on her 780 acres. We pleaded with her NOT to do it as it was the only place left on her ranch where the deer & turkey could go during the day to bed down and not be bothered! She basically told us to screw off! So we packed out stuff and left! BTW she raised the price of the lease to $2000 per gun and the property has not been leased since we left!

if it has the right size deer thats plenty of land to work with... what part of tx is it in?

I have been on a lease for 12 years where the landowner wants to let his son and grandson hunt...It has been ongoing issues esp since his grandson is now in college and is there at the ranch every weekend...I would recommend you have the lease scaled down 300 acres and let him have that part..It will be a issue at some point in time....promise...!!

good question

Devide the lease by 5 instead of 4 and let him hunt a spot. If he brings guest? is he allowing you the same rights if so, no problem. Other words make him part of the lease and everyone follows the same rules. If he is not in for that, say see you.

We meet with the LO and he's agrees that we'll have exclusive access. So we're moving forward and hope it all works out in the end. The property is in the Abilene area.

Sounds good

I dang sure would be very hesitant in paying a high dollar lease with possibilties of unexpected additional guests showing up other than the LO. For all we know his "family" may be the Brady bunch and all love to hunt. If I did get on the lease I would pick the most remote hardest place to get to and then have locks on all my stands. I put an awful lot of hard work into my areas I hunt to have someone come in a mess things up. If it's someone I give permission to hunt it's one thing but I have had occasions in the past where folks hunted our stands and trashed them up, and deer sightings dramatically dropped. best of luck to you.

We are putting in out in the lease that protects us from this issue. Other than the LO agreement and the out we're putting in the contract, I'm not sure what else we can do.

Do not hunt with the LO. We leased land in sydney TX for 6K anfd the LO shot a typical 10 that went 171 with a 25.5" inside spread. Would have been our buck of a lifetime instead it went on his wall and I paid for it

If I were you I would start looking for a new lease. Similar thing happened to the group I hunted with, we had been there 35 yes, 35 years. We didn,t allow a new son in law in, the next year we were told to get off the property.
Blood is thicker than friend ship.