Are there leases available where a man can pay for one spot and bring his wife and kids and hunt off his tags all at once?

Alot of guys are talking about family leases? What is a family lease? It sounds like camp would get crowded and the hunting would be poor.

My next question is if your allowed one guest and a guy on the lease wants to bring his two sons (8-10 years old) what is the right thing to do? Hunting is a family activity but is this the right lease for this hunter?


I appreciate ya'lls input and opinions.

Depends on the lease. Some are okay with allowing kids to hunt parents tags. Others do not want the children.

Just have to ask around and know the rules before paying

Honestly i have wondered the same thing. I have always been on leases with family member's and never had the issue. Now i have the whole place to my self for my wife, and 3 kiddos. LO lets them hunt on their own tags not mine.

I would think family friendly would mean they can go to camp with the paid hunter, hunt with the paid hunter. And if they shoot anything would come off the allotted tags for the paid hunter. I would think with 2 kiddos most places would only let you bring 1 at a time.

I wouldn't assume anything when it comes to a deer lease.

There are as many types of leases and rules as there are leases.

Generally, "family" leases mean family is welcome to be on property and in some cases can hunt off your quota. I've seen this work and I've seen it abused. "Within reason" has a lot of interpretation and different meanings to different people.

Different leases, different rules...but yes, there are leases that let you bring friends and family. Our lease allows one friend at a time. All guests and family members have to hunt with a paying member, but can shoot does and culls off their own tags. Trophy deer is considered the paying member, no matter who shot it.

Kids are always welcome and encouraged. Same rules apply for them, but if you have two kids, they can both hunt with you. Again, doesn't matter if one shoots a trophy, still counts as the paying members buck. Culls and doe are free for all.

At what point does the kid become a "hunter"? ( 16-18-20) I like the kids are welcome!

I would think 16 and under. Reason being is youth season is 16 and under but that is just my

On ones I've been on kids were consider those still in school up to age 21, or those that were military until 21. If they didn't head to college or join the military they got cut off at 18.

Pretty much sums it up for us, but since the guest policy so closely resembles the kid policy, it isn't a major issue. One of the guys on the lease brings his son up every year when he is home from the military. The son is almost 40 and is either considered a guest or kid, same difference.

I like that policy. Anyone that serves this nation should get a chance to get out and relax in the woods. When i was in the Marine Corps some of the best times i had was when i would come home and just sit in the deer blind. I honestly did not care if i took a deer or not, it was relaxing.

IMO, there are serious leases and family leases. Typically, the two do not mix. A major part of hunting for me is sharing the experience with others. People complain all the time about rules and being told what they can and can't do, but we have rules in all aspects of our lives. At the lease, they are more to address the complaining that comes with getting a group of people from different walks of life together and to give an expectation to new members of what they are getting.

I see a lot of posts that people say there is no need for rules or I wouldn't be on a place that has rules or I wouldn't be on a place with that many people and I get that. But, the experiences from other hunters, good and bad is a big part of it to me. Sharing stories at a camp fire is too.

I enjoy both styles, the big family place and the small serious place. I am blessed enough that I have both, but if I had to give one up, it would be the serious place.

We can agree to disagree, I think our lease is pretty serious and family friendly.

But we agree on almost everything else

Your lease isn't serious...you play on your phone all day and wait for your daughter to get there so you can tag along while she actually hunts

You are correct though, there are some leases that are a mixture of both...or serious leases that are kid friendly. Most the serious leases I have been on or been too didn't allow much "extra" activity that is associated with kids being around.

But yes, we do agree on most things cheers:

There is only four of us so no reason for all the headaches, I still don't get how these guys hunt with 10 or 15 or more just amazes me

There are 20 on mine

Couldn't do it

On our place family is welcome after the first two weeks of the season. The stipulations are;

Immediate family only.
I am to be notified of family members being present BEFORE they arrive.
Your family members hunt out of your stand, on their own tags and with you present. You are responsible for them.
Family members are spike and doe only hunters. Shoot all the hogs, coyotes, and raccoons you want.

I like to think my rules are pretty reasonable and family friendly. All of my hunters seem happy.

Exactly... An old guy a few hundred yards down the river from us when I was a kid would set on his little dock the whole day sometimes fishing... Had a cane pole and bobber with line in the water the whole day... He'd pull it out every now and then and bait the hook so he could catch a few panfish for dinner.....
Places I hunt, if I kill something, I have to recover it, clean it (really good), notify the forester, and meet him to either put it in his cooler or weigh it so I can buy it my self... Prolly gonna start taking the wife's camera with me as a primary weapon for deer....

Not so much

Lots of deer nazi's up in here damn!

I agree - much depends on what the objective of the lease is. I have been on hill country leases that were not managing for trophies due to neighbors who will shoot the first deer they see with horns - usually on those guest are welcome and family shoots off of members tag. I have (and am currently) on a south texas lease that is expensive but the members are serious trophy hunters. We limit guest to one adult who must be with member at all times. We do allow a spouse and child at a time but that is rare - some hunters actually prefer not to have a bunch of kids running around camp and the lease - one idea that we use is to designate a "family weekend" where we all spouses, children, grandchildren all at once.

Out of my years of being on leases the number one issue I have seen is guest rules being abused - nothing wrong at all with a lease that allows family and guest but if there are not some limits it usually gets out of control quickly

The hill country lease I've been on for the past two years is "family friendly." They also make that pretty clear to new people who get on the lease. From what I've seen over the past couple of years, it's not uncommon to see 8 to 10 kids in the sub-13 year old age bracket running around the week around Thanksgiving or the week around Christmas. Other weekends, because of school and sports, you don't see many, if any kids running around. So I think it works out pretty well for the handful of folks that may not want to deal with a bunch of kids. We also have a lot of members that have been on the lease around 20 years and have seen each others kids grow up out there. So they tend to be very supportive of bringing the kids out to hunt. We get one trophy buck per year, no matter who shots it, and then the kids are supposed to hunt off the paying members tags. However, given the amount of does we need to take each year, no one seems to mind if you need to go over your individual tag limit (not that I've seen anyone do that in the past couple of years).