Opening weekend showed to be an interesting one but not due to the deer. Six of us joined the lease the year, I know the person who found it, we will call him John. At the beginning of the year we discussed having a community lease where we could hunt all of the stands on the lease, if the owner of the stand/feeder wanted to hunt their stand they would have first dibs. One of our leasers bought a trailer and a storage container for the lease and John has said that we are unable to hunt his stand until the owner of the trailer/storage container hunts it. To be clear, John has hunted the stand in question and when asked about it he said we don't know his intentions when he sat the stand but he took his bow with him so I assume that he is hunting. I brought up that if were going to start making rules we need to put this down on paper, put it to a vote by all leasers and then if the rules are broken, you are liable to be kicked off the lease. I was then told that this is not a democracy. I am not into drama but I wanted to have an adult conversation which seemed to be impossible, John said I can go find another lease if I don't like it.

Am out of line for pushing the issue? Is this something normal?

Live with it for the season. I left a lease one year due to the self appointed idiot that ‘ran’ it.

Shoot your deer this year and move on. You go to the lease to relax, enjoy good friends and maybe shoot a nice deer. Life's too short for chit like this.
What if some night at the lease and a few drinks are had by all it could get ugly with people speaking their minds.

That's the problem getting on a lease without rules & reg. in writing before you pay your money.

good luck but I would move on.

Solid take here and I fully agree.

I was on a lease for two years with a lease manager who did some things I did not agree with - and I always felt I was being treated as a guest following dictates, as opposed to a full-paying partner. I stayed for as long as I did because it was the only place I had at the time and the price was right, but I did find a solution.

Instead of hunting when the other members were there (weekenders), I took vacation and went out during the week. Not everyone has this flexibility, I know, but I would go out on Sunday afternoon and hunt when and where I wanted until Friday afternoon, and then leave before anyone else showed. It eliminated the camaraderie of a lease, but I prefer solitude anyway, so it was fine for me. I was careful not to do anything that would infringe on others and treated things as I would want them treated, so really never caused anymore drama.

The final straw was when I received a call that the group was moving to a new property and I was just expected to follow - sight unseen. I said no, and worked out another deal on a place in Oklahoma instead.

There really isn't a ' normal ' deer lease structure.
Supposed to be relaxing, fun no hassle no drama kind of place, of course when you get a group of folks together that don't know each other well basic common sense rules are usually necessary.

First red flag is a lease that has 6 openings, especially within 2 ~ 3 hours of the metromess.
Second red flag is a lease being offered without a written lease contract & clearly stated rules to read before signing up & handing over money.

The type of (my way or the highway no questions asked) 'lease boss' that won't discuss things with lease members in an adult manner usually have motives and things to hide.

My advice is make the best of it and hunt this year, start looking for a new place to hunt now.
Best bet is to deal directly with the LO if at all possible.

You said you know "John" the person who found the lease ------------- apparently you dont know him very well. He is in charge and does whatever he wants ---------- NOW you know him better !!! Next year dont get on "his" lease.

Ive known "John" for 8-9 years, he's my best friend's father in-law. It's known for him to have a temper but I have never been on the receiving end of it. This is a first lease for all of us but one of the members (we took over the entire lease from the LO as he kicked the previous guys off for being idiots). I have spent quite a lot of time helping out my best friend putting in sweat equity and learning on their lease over the years. It's unfortunate as the lease is producing great deer and is a target rich environment when you add in the hogs, dove, quail, ducks. I have spoken with the son in law (my best bud) depending how this shakes out we might try to find a new spot in the next year or 2.

I love to hunt, but I woulda packed my crap immediately after his "edict". 'Wouldn't give him the power over me for the rest of the season. Killing a dang deer isn't worth that. Small-minded people that probably never had to manage employees in real life. I do not tolerate sphincters.

Put a lock on your blind now and hunt only it. Shoot every legal deer you can and start looking for next year. This won't get any better.

If its an ok lease then get over it and keep your nose out of it its not your stand. If you cant get over it move on.

This ^^^ and never ever go over the head of who runs the lease and approach the land owner!
The landowner doesn't want to deal with drama unless there is illegal activity going on, and then you would also contact the GW.
Easiest way to get kicked off a lease!

This. Getting bent about not being able to hunt someone else’s stand is not going to fly on almost all good leases.

agreed

If it's target rich as you described, who cares. Those deer are moving around to all the spots and feeders. Life is too short to hunt a particular blind/feeder...

You asked, he told you, deal with it. If you aren't in control, then no sense being PO'd about something you have no control over. Especially with so much time in front of you. Learn and move on if necessary. You might end up having a good time in spite of yourself. Who knows? Give it a chance.

So everyone has their own spots, but it's also a community situation? That sounds like a mess

IMO either community or individual spots can work, but not both.

Heck for us we have all community blinds and its me my dad and brother. We struggle enough to decide who sits where, but its probably more because nobody wants to be a hog we all want each other to do well and we all know that some of the blinds are better than others.

If a lease has so many rules that they must be written down, it has too many rules.

We all purchased or supplied a blind and feeder but the idea was to have shared stands.

That doesn’t sound like what’s happening.

You are entitled to that opinion and many share that idea, but for what its worth there are a lot of excellent leases that have written rules.

Thats the way ours works and it works great. I would never want to be on a large lease but then have to just stay in one area. It can create some issues but all leases have potential issues. Likeminded lease members is the key but that can be hard to achieve and based on all the complaining I hear(not just this thread by any means) it is not the norm.