My friends and I (total of 6) have had less-than-the-best of luck finding an affordable turn-key lease. We'd be happy with a lease on our own or with another group of God-fearing conservative land managers in the areas of Terrell, Crockett, Irion, Reagan or Upton counties. We prefer blinds, feeders, corn, etc. all to be provided - or we could arrange other monetary settlements. We all live and work in Amarillo. Three of the six of us have hunted together - pheasant, quail, deer, dove, etc. for over 20+ years. We're not afraid to put in some sweat-equity to better the property and hunting assets. We're all on the hunt, so to speak, for a place with year-round access where we could bring family, grandkids, and buddy hunters. We'd like a place with beds, kitchen, skinning facilities, the works. I know I have painted a tall order, but we all know there are places like this out there. We've come off a place in Terrell County where we have hunted since c.2014 and now the landowner wants to sell. We're open to MLD properties and the like. I appreciate your help - in advance.

But, dang, that is a tall order. But at least you have manners. 'Sounds like you boys are doing well in Amarillo and have the means to pay for such a lease. Best of luck to you all and good hunting.

Another and best of luck to you!

Define “affordable”.

To KRMitchell - if you have knowledge of a facility for lease, i'll engage. I admit that everyone has their own idea of affordable and it is all relative. We were paying c.2,800 per seat in Terrell County for year-round access. The property was NOT under MLD and Terrell County is a 2-buck County. We had a roof over our head, plenty of bunks, indoor facilities, outdoor fire pit, skinning shed, a large cooler that worked better on some days and not so good on the others. There were roughly 13 different blinds/feeders and the manager was expected to keep the feeders full year-round. Last I looked Terrell County had published a population of 328 - not many folks. I've seen more deer than that on this place over the past 7 or so years. This place was roughly 3,000 acres and had lots of deer almost every year until 2018 where all the deer were small. The landowner wanted to leave the property idle for one season. ONce that 2019 season was over, we recently heard through the manager that the landowner was putting the place up for sale and that we'd have to move elsewhere. There were somewhere between 10-to-15 guns on the place every year. This place is what I would consider affordable - by no means anything fancy or uptown - just live-able with lots of opportunity. This place's best asset was the isolation and solitude which I think makes a hunt all that more enjoyable. We all need an opportunity to unplug from it all.

I cant point you to a place so maybe I should just stay quite. But since you are new to the forum ill point out that this forum is all about guys putting in their 2 cents rather asked or not. My first advice is always the same for anyone looking for a lease and that's to go to leasehunter.com.
What you are looking for is a pretty tall order, as you know, and especially if you are limiting the area. From my point of view if you are ok with having 10-15 guns on 3000 acre then you may find it at 2800 each. Everyone looks for something different in a lease but if you want to hunt older age class bucks over the long haul then I would suggest cutting the number hunters in half at least. That doubles your price to over 5000. A lot are willing to pay that and more but the vast majority of average hunters are not.
I guess my summary would be that if you are ok with a acre to hunter ratio of 200 to 300 ac per man then your 2800 price is out there. Narrowing it down to those counties and with the amenities you want it would be "possible". In the real world I think the chances of finding it would be real slim. I don't mean to be a downer but trying to point out you may have a hard row to hoe. I don't claim to know it all by any means and others please correct me if im wrong. In any case I welcome you to the forum and best of luck finding a place.

Since they and everyone is selling these days, good luck finding a place!! New LO will just sit on it hardly hunting. Won't be much left to lease soon. JMO from from my friends who have bought places.

10 to 15 hunters on 3000 acres in that part of Texas. WOW

Do a google search for "The Flying Dutchmen"

This place in Terrell seems to have openings every year

first off,

but I agree with don k ... especially if you are looking for mature bucks for those number of hunters, even every other year. Our place in Crockett county might support 1, maybe 2 on a good year, mature bucks per 600 acres and that is after strict management for the past 8 years.

Now I could see 6 paid hunters on 3000 acres in our area might have a chance at a trophy every other year and the guests/family only taking culls/does but not to exceed the state tag limit for the 6 paid hunters ... maybe that's what you meant.

We normally only take 0-3 deer per hunter trying to grow the appropriate ratio and letting them mature to full potential over the last 8 years and are starting to really see the fruits of our labor and patience. That is based over strict game counts throughout the year to determine what needs to be removed or left alone.

PMK and all the others . . . .

First, thanks for all the "Welcomes."

To the point of 10-15 hunters on the 3000 acres, that might just be the point of why the deer were all so small last year.

There is a group from OK - the manager, his dad, his brother and two nephew/cousins - a total of 5. There is a group from Arkansas and I am not sure just how many are in that group - I only know roughly and that's about 6 (or more). Our group has historically been 6 hunters - 3 paid seats.

We've always seen a lot of deer - except the 2018 season when everything was small. No one should have hunted 2019 - at least we were told to stay away as we were informed the land owner wanted to "let the place lay idle for a year." Each year the Arkansas group shared photos, there were a lot of big nice deer - 120 to 140 - mostly 8-point in their photos.

Since we were never there at the same time - we'd try and schedule different blocks of time on purpose - we really never knew how many the Arkansas group would bring. We did know, however, that the Arkansas group wanted to add on another sleeping room and bath. I guess there were so many that the space would not hold them all.

Well, I suspect the Arkansas group is in the same fix that we are - having to find a new place.

We're looking at a place this week in Barnhart, TX - a hunting club with 3 seats available - and we'll have to buddy-up to make it work.

Thanks for keeping the discussion above the table. I'm not looking for anyone's 2-cents just because they have it to say. I'm looking for input and information - just like most of you were when you signed up.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Welcome Good luck to your group. Your above described arrangement is somewhat unique and not my cup of tea of shared groups on same property with different time periods. I hope you did not have to pay 2019 year around lease fee when manager told your group to stay away...

Always ready 2 hunt:

Fortunately, we did not have to pay for a year without any access. When a year allowed access, we paid half about March with the other have due about August. But we had year-round access. We spent three to four long weekends down there (7.5 hours from home) doing maintenance - blinds, feeders, roads, etc. The place provided a real escape from work, stress, etc. - no only for our scheduled hunting weeks. The property while in Terrell County (close to but not adjacent to Mexico) was owned by a Lubbock resident who we never knew or met. That owner leased the property to an individual in Ft. Worth who appointed a close friend in Western Oklahoma to manage and sublease. While it worked in the years it worked, it was a strange hook-up of owner/manager/user. The first four years we hunted it, the lease was managed by someone different - but still out of Ft. Worth. We hunted 2009 thru 2013 - then the manager changed to someone who reported he wanted to save the property for close friends and clients only. But we kept in contact in a distant manner. So we went one year without hunting at all; then hunted one year in Crowell, TX but left that arrangement because we were treated as misfits and 2nd-class citizens of a long-established large group that really did not want any outsiders. We then purchased a one-year season-only 4-day/3-night hunt in Oklahoma. Nice place, good folks in OK - but we still wanted a year-round access arrangement. The Terrell property stated that they simply believed we had a misunderstanding several years earlier and we were allowed to hunt again for the 2017 season along with year-round access. But the 2018 season had only a few deer sightings and everything taken was REALLY small compared to prior years. Other pictures posted through the season from the other groups (1 group of 5 hunters including the OK manager; 1 group with as many of 10 hunters all the way from Arkansas) were all MUCH bigger than anything we saw or shot. Everyone - all the groups - reported the reduced observations and sizes. We were then told by the Oklahoma manager that the owner decided to keep the next full year idle with NO access to leased seat holders. I have to admit that perhaps it was the many concerns we expressed about facilities, feeders and deer opportunities - that the Oklahoma manager may have simply made up the story to push us off again. Now for the 2020 season, we're told that the landowner is trying to sell the property - true or not, we're prevented from hunting there.
So we've had mixed luck the last few years. We thought we had a life-long home, then were pushed off; struggled with 2nd choices and less than preferred options; only to return to the best place we had found; to now being pushed off again.
We're just trying to find a home - where we can have year-round access, make improvements to the property and hunting opportunities for all with a little sweat equity, treat the property as our own, enjoy it with our small group and hopefully develop the user-owner relationship for years preparing a path to use it with family - particularly grandkids.
So we'll keep looking and working to find that place we all know is out there - we just have to have our name on our list when room is made available.

DGP-Texan

Barnhart has some great properties to hunt. It also has its share of scams, just like anywhere else. Message me directly if you’d like details.