It can sometimes take 2 or 3 seasons before you realize the kind of man you're dealing with. Sneaky devils.

Or zero seasons in this case. Anyone come at you with some kind of BS rule like that, run, as Trophy did.

Yeah, then that deer just disappears all of a sudden!

Lots of good discussion on this thread. Thanks, DQ, for taking action to wake up the guys instead of complaining about the forum being slow. 👍

Stompy always solid info. He’s been there and done that. Land is a great investment and he’s done great with his place. Personally, I like to hunt a real big place so, for guys like me, leasing is more practical.

I agree with Bobos logic. Guys will pay all they can afford for the type place they want(and can find). Until it gets too expensive for them and then they will look for a cheaper place even if it’s not as good a place. Some people may quit hunting over price but most will make it work somehow, even if they have to lower their standards.
I’m not in the 20 to 30k lease price range but I pay more than average. If I ever get tired of paying what I pay, I would lower my standards if I had to. At this later stage in my life that wouldn’t be too hard to do.
I think this is why so many take up bow hunting(not all.) They can’t afford a high quality lease so they take a lessor quality lease but change weapons to make that the challenge instead of the challenge of finding a bigger Trophy .

Its a big part of it.

Even if you have the financial means, a good lease isn't a guaranteed thing. It can take a few years to find the right one.

Chasing trophy deer in south texas lost its appeal for me. Way too many rules and protocol goes into it. So it lost a lot of its luster for me after I finally got a couple of decent bucks in 2010 and 2011.

I got into bow hunting about the same time and it turns every hunt into an adrenaline packed adventure. I'm happy shooting junky cull bucks and does with my bow, its all a blast.


I know hunt in an area where the top end realistically is going to be in the 140's with the average mature buck alot lower than that.....bow hunting keeps things fun even though I"m not expecting a wall hanger every year. I've now moved into shooting a recurve bow which adds even more challenges. 3 years into it and I still have not taken a buck yet, but I've got a string of good misses to talk about!

I like to hunt big places too, hunted 12,000, 6,000, and 80,000 acre ranches in Mexico. Hunted 10,000 and 5,000 acre ranches in south texas. But I'm pretty happy as this age to kick around on my 1100 acres.

Yeah Man, you know me Free, I like to keep the brain/s stimulated in a positive thinking way.....

Ta help out with the average.

Biggest lease i was on twas 1,100 acres with roughly around 10-12 hunters.
@ $200.00 a gun buck only with think one weekend for a doe.
Most payed twas $250.00 a gun.
As prices soared, hunted WMA's price $40.00-$48.00.

Thar several on here that get all pev'ed of me posts/threads, will say i'm complaining,
Whin all i'm doing tis giving a view of low-income workers. & some get offended.

Cool thread.

Depending on where you live in Texas because its so dang big, you can literally rent a small apartment for the season close to public land in a neighboring state and have a much better experience.

What folk do never make sense to me. I know one guy that lives east of Orange Texas and drives almost 8 hrs to a spot between Leakey and Junction to try and manage an extremely rugged hunting spot yet cheaper prime hunting is closer to him in Louisiana and Mississippi?

Well this year my wife and I are going to drive 8 hours one way to a new lease south of Childress. Planning on hunting
the week of Thanksgiving and the week after Christmas. We will see how it goes. About 10 days of total hunting.

I've sold ranches to several guys from Louisiana.....They just like hunting the western hill country and south texas. Sure, they can get good hunting but when you ask them, its just not the same.


We leased our ranch for several years to guys from Southern Florida and North Carolina. They just love Texas hunting.


To hear there stories, there is a severe lack of size to their deer. Florida has good numbers but your shooting mature bucks in the low 100" range. North Carolina has some decent ones but numbers are low.

I've hunted with guys from all over the country and never had one who just didn't love Texas whitetail hunting. Goes both ways though, the place I hunted in Ohio I absolutely loved and they get alot of hunters from Texas. Just seeing different terrain is a big part of it for alot of guys, me included

Also million acres of public……

I know two different guys on leases in northern Louisiana. If the kill a 110" buck it's considered a trophy to them. I also have a group that pig hunts with me from Missouri. They hunt public land and haven't killed a buck in two years. They told me it's more of a glorified camping trip.

I know there are some great places to hunt outside of Texas, I just don't know any folks on them.

All Louisiana guys I know hunt in STX and KS at minimum. They are kind of big deals and a blast to hunt with

I have a hunter from Kentucky, he and his wife will be in camp 3, maybe 4 times this year. They are very accomplished hunters, have huntable land in KY and have taken game all over the US and Africa. When he heard about the chance to hunt Texas panhandle whitetails and saw a few pic's, he wired me the $. I know of a group of hunters in our area from Colorado. I have a customer in Florida. I met him when his Citation was AOG and he had to get to Texas to hunt. I've said it before, the first step to being a good hunter is hunting for, finding and protecting a place to hunt. These folks have the $ to do whatever they want, but still see the incredible value in being part of a lease that's 5-6K. To them, and me as well, there's no substitute for the total hunting experience you get from being on a lease and going all in with doing everything you can to affect your chances to kill something great. The only thing better would be owning, but buying the size of place we lease would take a mega millions big time jackpot.

When I want a challenge, I hunt squirrel in New Mexico during elk season. The squirrel are challenging and the elk hunters are amusing when they get pissed off because they feel elk hunting is more important than squirrels or hiking. 🤣😂🤣

I just run hounds for bears in Oct.

That’s why I drove to Oklahoma for 99% of the deer hunting I did when living in Texas. Lots of public land and cheaper than a lease.

What I've seen through the years is leases have gone up but if ranch is owned by older people hunters are still charged fairly. Once the older landowner's pass the sky is the limit. In fact most heirs just sell and take the millions! I'm 70 and started buying land in my twenties. Paid from 400.00 to 2000.00 per acre. That same land is selling for 15-25k per acre without minerals!!