Reading here is interesting on what folks want for a lease.

Seems a lot of folks sure want a whole lot and have high expectations when leasing.

They want year round access, want all kinds of animals and want to fish as well.

My neighbors around me leased for years and all have stopped. Seems their lessors did not know have to behave and follow the rules of the landowner or Texas. One neighbor's hunter killed a deer on our side of the fence and he was caught dragging it back under the fence. Called the neighbor and he went to their camp and the hunter was gone. He called hunter's house and told the hunter's wife the problem and that he was not to return.

I finally found someone to lease and for the most part it has been a good experience. There has been a few challenges and they were solved with talking with the father. One of the sons told me that he was going to night hunt one night with a friend from out of state for hogs. Rule was no guests, he was going to violate that rule and would have had he not talked to much. They are taking good care of the place

Seems everyone thinks they can show up at a place and eradicate hogs by hunting. I am there full time and I cannot.

I have folks show up at the house and ask if I am interested in leasing. They are in full cam clothes, that is a turn off.

Leasing does bring some value beside dollars. With folks coming and going they are on the look out for folks who do not belong there, cows that might be down and trees on fences.

I guess in leasing, I look at it as, can I lease a room in your house or lease your wife. I want my place taken care of as well.

After what I have seen from some other hunters on leases I have been on I would NEVER lease my land out. Most hunters /lease members are great people, but life is too short to deal with idiots who lease a place & think they can do whatever, because they paid to hunt. We got tired of all of the drama & putting up with complete idiots we bought our own place.

I think the key is finding the right people. I've been on a number of deer leases with amazing people. I know of at least 5 people that I'd trust to lease my land to. I know many more that I wouldn't.

totally understand the LO view points noted above ... I was raised to take care of a place like it was my own and leave it better than I found it. I grew up with my dad having access to numerous places to hunt, dove, turkey, deer, quail, etc. and most were either free or very small fee because he knew the LO and the LO knew he (we) would take care of the place and be on the look out for the LO best interest.

I still vividly remember trying to pull a calf that was stuck & still born (or at least dead by the time we found the cow), the cow was down and was not looking good, dad sent me to the fence to find a piece of wire and he worked the wire inside the cow and around the dead calf to cut it in half to get part of it out, then him reaching in to turn the rest around where he could pull it out. It was a nasty mess to a 5-6 y/o kid (me) but we got it done and the cow finally got up. we even pushed her up to the barn and into a pen to isolate her. We went and found the ranch foreman and told him about it so he could keep an eye on her. There were numerous other times we untangled goats from fences, mended fences, etc. As stated, we were looking out for the best interest of the LO without any expectation of getting compensated for our efforts or time ... it was the right thing to do, so we did it.

and I totally agree, if I owned a ranch, I would be very hard pressed to lease it out to someone that I didn't know pretty well and trust to do the right thing.

Have you really seen more BAD hunters than good ones? Not so in my case.

Pretty close to 50/50, and it depends on what your definition of a 'bad hunter' is.

I've been a lessee of a few different types of leases and a land owner, but the place I owned was too small to even consider leasing. I'm looking for another place now and I gotta say, there's a whole lot of land owners, that, when it comes to selling, have a lot of pie-in-the-sky expectations too. I think it's just human nature and the differences in folks' perspectives, not just "hunters". Especially landowners that are selling off just part of a place. They basically just want the cash, but still want the water, or the minerals, or the access through or something. 'Bunch of CRAZY ideas out there.

Although, I've never pulled a calf, I was raised to think the same way as PMK above. If you're a hunting lessee, I suggest you be almost obsessive about sticking to the rules, both the landowner's rules and the strictest interpretation of the game laws. That's the only chance you have of keeping a very long-term lease. That's one of the reasons I just got off a deer lease. It was only a matter of time before one of my fellow lease mates and/or his family members screwed up royally and pissed off the likeable, but very cantankerous LO. He can throw a full-blown square-head hissy fit, let me tell you.

And in looking at a few places recently that had a hunter's cabin - may I also suggest to you lease hunters - clean up your crap at the end of the season, or better yet, each time you head home. Don't leave it looking like a frat house on Monday morning. Everyone likes to have a good time, but put away the liquor, tidy up the place, etc. It's still the landowner's cabin/house and I would go ballistic if some of the places I've seen were mine.

I would almost say yes to more bad hunters but I think a lot of it would be better referred to as uneducated hunters.

I grew up in my dad's group of friends hunting camp that had known each other for years. It started off with about 12 men that had been hunting together for close to 20 years, some as many as 30+ years. They all knew each other and there were certain expectations by all members. As some dropped off for various reasons, someone would bring in a new person to the group and they had to learn about the unwritten rules around camp, hunting, what to shoot/not shoot, etc. Over time, most of those new people came on board and were a great fit with the group. But there were others that just didn't get it, didn't take ownership of responsibilities, etc. Likewise, these were all "family" leases where the paid hunters hunted the first two weeks of season, but then could bring their wife and/or kids out to hunt also. I quickly realized that a lot of the family members/guests were not on the same page and didn't follow the rules ... leading to the paid member being chastised by the other members and changed their ways or were gone before the next season. The group kept getting smaller over time mainly due to someone dropping off and not being replaced and/or the next lease was smaller and couldn't support the larger number of hunters.

in today's world, there are a lot of "new" hunters coming into the picture, a lot of "camps" are a bunch of people that have little to no dealings outside of camp, from different locations/walks of life and have different viewpoints on how things should be run/done. I also think expectations are widely different too as leases seem more difficult to find within a short distance from home as more people live in urban areas that years ago.

I have been on numerous leases. They ranged from 60-2700 acres. Sometimes the group all knew each other, sometimes not. Overall, they have been a great group of guys. I don't doubt some of the horror stories about what has taken place on a lease. I can only say that I have not observed it myself. Most hunters are aware that if they don't follow the rules, they will be given the pink slip. That is usually is enough to prevent an issue from taking place. On a large lease, made up of hunters that don't know each other, the best rule, is to make it non- drinking. I wish the airlines would also do this. They won't, because they make so much money selling the drinks.

I don't lease out any of my properties, just not worth the hassle to me. The only hunters I have are my son and a couple of close friends. They hunt for free.

I am the same. My little slice of heaven has my son, father, and brother that all hunt. No dues, they help with upkeep and repairs though.

Our place is just for family and very close friends.

Leased to same group of guys for 24yrs...they saying this may be their last year. They getting pretty old and dealing with health issues. Won’t lease anymore....jus family and a few close friends will hunt.

I've posted on here before about some of the issues with close family friends that had been given permission over the years, after going through that if the only way to keep the place was to lease I would rather just sell it. Some of the people that we had in the group we dealt with were great people others were completely oblivious to picking up after themselves and had no sense of boundaries. Rather than get into the situation of one guy being welcome but his adult son, etc. wasn't it was just easier to say everyone had to leave. So I can see why a landowner would want to kick everyone off when there's an issue. Since all that, my new rule is that no one who didn't shoot out of my wife's or my step-mom's body is going to get permission to do anything.

On a deer lease, the relationship between the customer and the business is different than any other. (the land owner being the business, and the hunter being the paying customer) As the customer you still have to act like an invited guest, rather than a paying customer. I've seen hunters act like they own the place and make demands of the land owner. I put a guy on the lease once, he started calling the land owner on his own requesting that he brush hog our roads and clear fence lines. He also asked if he could put up more stands than were allowed. He had a very short tenure on our lease.

Been the lease boss on our lease for 12 years. I told the owner when we leased it that I would make sure I (and our members) would treat it like I owned it. We have done that. We pick up trash, close gates, ask permission from the owner if we want to do something out of the ordinary, we follow their rules, etc. As a result they have become very good friends - it is no different from any other dealings in life - treat others with respect and they will do the same.

It would be like renting out your extra bedroom for a B&B. I don't need the money that bad.

After leasing for many years, I got tired of "Grandpa Dying" and the kids taking over to double the price. So I bought a place 20 years ago and now I am the "Grandpa".
I have selectively leased my place a few times to father and son "newbie" teams. I make the price reasonable and have had good success with introducing young people to hunting in a place where they have an opportunity to see and hunt game with every trip to my ranch.
I do have them sign a Release of Liability form , to protect my investment, and vet them thoroughly before allowing them to hunt.
When I was a young man with kids growing up there was no way I could afford a lease, so I have tried to make up for I by allowing ONE team to experience the great outdoors and a great hunting experience.