That's a rare and pretty cool thing the landowner did.

X2

That’s good people. It says a lot for your group. I miss the days when landowners were happy to have people come out and pay to hunt. Ranchers have changed like the rest of the world. I remember when being invited up to the house for supper was a regular deal. Ranchers like that didn’t make me mind missing a day of hunting to fix a windmill, help with cattle, or fix a fence.

Just got a call from my quail lease boss. Landowner rode the lease out recently, didnt see many birds but there’s decent cover. Also ranch roads are destroyed by oilfield traffic. He’s willing to refund all money if we don’t want to hunt, or 1/2 the lease payment and we can still hunt. The group consensus is take the refund so we’ve got a place to run the dogs. What few birds that’ll be pointed are safe, non of us are that good of a shot.

Well Cinch(is) and Bucket(was) on a lease that shut down one Dec for lack of birds a few years ago. Then for 2 or 3 years our rancher in effect held the lease for us without payment. One year offered to let us run dogs after 1st of Jan but don't remember if any one used it. When the birds made a comeback we were back on some of the best quail pastures out west. At least as many good ranchers as bad in my opinion.