I have been looking for a new lease for several seasons now. I have spent endless hours scrolling Craigslist and FB marketplace and have seen the websites that you have to pay to contact the landowners and have tried avoiding that option.

In your experiences, what is the best way to find a lease?

Don't avoid paying. Only $29 or so for six months for leasehunter.com. It’s the best one but it’s still a real long shot.

THIS - check it several times a day and if something shows up that looks good contact immediately - leases typically will not show up during middle of the season - around January you should start seeing some open up

How much money have you offered?

When people say they have been lookin for a lease for years, honestly you’re not tryin very hard (financially).

Offer enough money & leases can be found. It’s a pretty simple market.

Better know someone or be well connected is my experience.
Keep beating the bushes.
Maybe go to some local coffee shops or stores that the older crowd hangs at for breakfast. Might meet some connections at a place like this.
Taxidermy shops are a good place to inquire.

What once was price of Gov. Food Stamps has become a Richmans Sport.
pappy

Go to the local feed stores and put boots on the ground. You might get lucky with FB and Craigslist but that’s a long shot bet, those places are a crap shoot at best. If your hunting with several guys pool your money and offer a reward for anyone locating you a lease. It’s not a cheap situation but if you offer a $1,000 reward you’ll have people going out of their way to help you find a lease. Everyone knows somebody wanting a place to hunt but if your offering a reward you’ll be the one they remember and reach out to. In today’s world money talks and if you find a great place to hunt and you hunt it for several years the money it took to find it spread over the course of several years is a pretty cheap way to find one. Without some type of compensation your just another guy, with cash involved your a payday the average Joe would like to have.

There is a lot of truth in this. There are lots of leases out there but many people are looking for a sweet heart deal. Not at all saying this is the case with OP but it is a pretty common issue. I know a guy who has been looking for a lease for five years because he says it isn't worth over $500/yr. Yeah good luck with that.

Put an adv. in newspapers in the areas. you are interested in.

Let me add to the great advice already listed... Have your money ready and act quickly when you get the opportunity to lease the land or join a lease... Lease spots fill quickly!

Talk up your friends that hunt and if none of your friends do, make new friends whom do and talk it up with them.

Church.

huntinglocator.com is a scam, btw.

That’s comical. I wouldn’t let that guy on my place.

One resource I found usefull when we were looking 10 years ago was chamber of commerce websites...not sure if those are still an option or if anyone bothers to list there but that's is how we found our lease. We were doing the same things you've mentioned calling 40-50 numbers a week and everthing was either an old listing or the owner had just leased it the day before. When our current land owner called we drove down the next day, toured the property, and handed him the full lease payment in cash.

Finding a lease nowadays is a lot harder than it was 30-40 years ago, relatively speaking. The advent of cellphones, social media and online listing ability, not to mention the general commercialization of hunting with TV shows, product placement and magazines, both print and online have really driven up demand of hunters and down the supply, overall. Finding a lease, and especially a decent one is harder than ever. If I were looking, I would hit up every rural feedstore, deer processor, grain mill, donut shop, hardware store, sports store, gunshop, restaurant where hunters and landowners frequent, motels where hunters stay, chamber of commerce, put an ad listing in classifieds, speak with local realtors as they often know landowners and their land use intentions, livestock shows, etc. I'd additionally print up old school flyers stating your desire to hunt and willingness to pay top end market rate or the like. Lastly, if all else fails, consider setting up on a street corner on a Sat. holding a sign, "Looking for Hunting Lease" and see what happens. Folks have been known to get jobs that way when all else fails. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you're not willing to do these kinds of things then you're really not looking to lease hunt that badly in my estimation.