When you lease, you should always go into it as a short term even with a so called long term agreement.
As long as you don't own the land, you are setting yourself up for a disappointment down the line, or as they say, "sooner or later!"
Spend thousands on a lease fixing it up, and then watch how soon the rug gets pulled out from under you!

This sure seems to be true. Same thing applies to all of the effort to manage the deer herd. Grow bigger bucks and watch how the price goes up.

A bud and his brother took over a 900ac south tex lease that had been abused. Started out really cheap...they did tons of work and managed it properly. After 9yrs there they had it clicking right. Seeing good deer but they only took one trophy a year. LO had been raising price a bit each year as hunting improved. After 12yrs, in consecutive years, they took a 160 and 171...and had many good bucks. These boys knew the game so went to LO with a huge price offer to like 7500ea...15K for lease (were paying10) with just the two of em being only hunters. LO made a verbal with em and said he’d amend the lease agreement on the new price.
Two weeks later he sent em an email saying it’s a no go. LO avoided them like the plague when they moved their stuff off. Then they found out LO leased to 6 guns at 4K ea........just another lost lease fiasco
Ouch....that one had to hurt

That had to suck!

Yep that blows dogs for quarters.

The key is to finding a landowner that isn't leasing for money, but instead leasing for the group to do the right thing with his land and wildlife. These type of owners aren't around every corner.

Sorry about your lost lease OP. Been there.

Unfortunately it's my opinion this trend will only continue. In this day and age, the generation that can afford to purchase, or inherits, a large enough piece of land to lease probably doesn't need the trivial amount of income (in the larger sense) that lease fees generate. I see more and more people preferring to just use land for "family purposes" and not deal with outside lease hunters.

Yep, that's the other part about my saga that stings. We had a great relationship with the LO because, while they enjoyed the money, they more so enjoyed being part of the hunting experience and sharing the ranch with people who enjoyed it. Over the years, they did youth hunts and veteran hunts and lady's hunts on the property too and we got to enjoy helping run those and being part of sharing the hunting experience. And, he took my boy under his wing and taught him how to work cattle, fix fences, and trap coons among other things. It was a unique relationship and a big part of my son growing up. Now, the LO's son doesn't seem to want any part of that. Oh well, I know those good people are out there. This week I've mentally come to a better place with the situation, and I've already had some contacts for a new hunting spot. One door closes...another one opens...

I would have to agree......I have been on the best place ever for the last 13 years because I was bought out by some offering a lot more money.

I suggest you look at large ranches that lease for wildlife stewardship and security reasons, not money being the be all end all. That’s the Pitchfork’s priority for leasing.

Same exact thing happened to me this year, wink wink.

Maybe one should not tell LO anything except here is the money.

After it happened to me a couple times, I finally bit the bullet and bought a ranch. Best decision I ever made.
I understand that there are circumstances where that solution is not possible, so be it.
My suggestion, try harder!

Buying a ranch isn't an end all either.
You don't have control of what happens on the other side of your fence, and good neighbors grow old, just like landowners who lease, and their kids grow up and have wives that have their own ideas as well.
Even a few hundred acres won't be enough if you have lousy neighbors.
Oh, but you can high fence your place for thousands of dollars, and then have your neighbor push up a dirt berm and open his own rifle range.
Bought my own hunting land many years ago that I thought was the best thing that I ever did.
It lasted for about 15 years and then the neighbor decided to subdivide his property and sell small lots, and allow mobile homes, and also opened a dump on one end of my property near the fence....Not really, it was a creek that became a catch all until someone lit it on fire and they stopped using it.
Also the stray packs of abandoned dogs, the occasional dirt bike, and target practicing that the guy never ran out of .22 cal. from morning until sundown it seemed.
And some will say, the deer get used to it, and maybe they did, but I never could get used to it and began to miss the peace and quiet on my couch at home.
Yep, owning land can be the best thing you can do, but it's not a cure all to leasing as I mentioned.

Agree Jimbo. I bought my 133 acre place about 35 years ago for $350 per acre. It was, and still is, what is considered junk land. All trees and rocks. Just what I wanted. My issues over the years involve neighbors dogs, poachers, etc. I solved the dog problem by telling neighbors that I was going to start trapping to clean out coyotes. They almost crapped their pants and I did catch one dog that had to be put down. That ended the problem. However, they stated shooting and target practice on weekends during deer season. I tried talking to them but they told me that it was their property and they would shoot anytime they pleased. I started shooting at 4 AM in the morning so they got the message.

Since I don't live there, I have fought a lot of poacher problems. I still am but that happens everywhere to non resident land owners.

Hate you're having to deal with this, triplesnake. Unfortunately it seems to be becoming more and more common. After losing a place I leased and managed for several years I can relate, especially when you pour so much of your heart into it. I changed my focus several years ago to hunting small "permission" farms and public land. I basically priced myself out of the lease game (at least in Texas) when it became clear that I was raising kids who also wanted to hunt. There are still issues to deal with in this system, but fortunately I have my interests spread out when issues do present themselves (and they often do).

Hope you find something that works well for you before next season.