Lease rules

Question for the folks that have written lease rules concerning required off-season work days/weekends and mandatory year round feeding...how are the rules enforced and what are the penalties for noncompliance?

We are supposed to have year round feeding, but that's often not possible. We have tried the mandatory work weekends, but often times people can't make it due to other issues. So we stopped doing them. It's difficult to have off season work days and coordinate a time where everyone can be there.

The only main rules enforcement are for the big rules. We kicked a guy off because of numerous previous issues. But the last straw and main one being setting up a new feeder location with 398 yards of an existing feeder of another hunter and shooting inline towards it. He was told to send an email to the group before he put it up and confirm the new spot was ok, and he never did. Then when confronted about it, he declined to move it and showed no wrong doing. He pissed off multiple people with that move, including myself, and he was not invited back this year. Our lease has a group policy of voting you off the island and not inviting you back. That was the case with this.

In my opinion & experience when a lease gets to a point it has to have penalties & enforcement for things that should've been agreed upon by all members before joining the lease, it turns into a never ending mess.
Anyone not following through with what was discussed and agreed to when they joined, are given the boot.

Even though it is frowned upon around here, this is why a good lease boss / manager is important, he does the year-round feeding & off season work, he settles arguments & the butt hurt between members, he deals with the LO, cattleman or farmer and simple camp or base maintenance.
For this he gets his spot at least a very reduced cost or free, if anyone doesn't like it they are free to take over his job and he will pay full price or leave.


If you're trying to implement new rules on an existing lease, those that agree & follow through stay, those that don't leave.
Majority rules, even if the majority want no part of the new rules, you leave.

The only legal standing you have to enforce rules are the rules in the signed contract. Majorly rules will lose in court.

Marc, I don't think your post was aimed at what I wrote, but dang, if hunting lease rules get to a point that legality & court is even mentioned much less actually involved,,, as a LO I'm pulling the plug on the whole deal.
Everyone is gone, even if that means refunding their lease payment, pro rated of course.

IMO it has to be that way now to protect both parties.....too much time and money at stake.

Our society today has become mob rule and intolerance when people don’t get their way.

I experienced this myself when group dynamics change over time and majority wants it their way or the highway.....

Yea, just trying to get a feeling for next year. Everyone gets a coy of the rules before new lease year begins, mostly common sense and nothing remotely outrageous. I have the year round feeding in the rules but nothing about work days. Really don't want to add more to it but...

It’s always funny how members lives are so busy and important they can never make it down January to October to work/make improvements but come November they can be down weekend after weekend after weekend to hunt. And by funny I mean make you want to choke people.

Only way to make them come is make them sign a contract stating if they don’t make a certain number of work weekends they either owe the lease account money or they can’t hunt opening weekend or both!

You must be reading my mind!

We never can get everyone together for a work weekend. About the only group thing we do is take care of camp. Other than that, everyone is responsible for their own areas.

We have one required work weekend date included in our lease agreement. Anyone that doesn't show up owes the lease kitty $200. Payable immediately. This is the weekend we trim lease roads, fix feeders / feeder pens, paint blinds, etc. We use the kitty money for whatever is needed for the lease.

It is hard to find a lease of like minded people that do not mind working. I wear myself out trying to do my part, these guys are working fools.
The problem comes when there is someone that doesn't do squat. That person is not invited back.
The fact that you are on our lease is no guarantee that you will be on our lease next year.

Truthfully this topic has been discussed over many years over and over. It always boils down to what is the paying hunter looking for??

Do you want a no rules/bring as many guest as I want/shoot whatever I want lease? If so then there are plenty of those out there.

OR......... do you want a well run, managed type lease where the goal is to improve the herd and try to grow bigger deer? Neither one is right or wrong - no different from do you like Ford or Chevy?

We are fortunate in that our ranch owners do all the work - feeding, shredding, stands, etc. - so our members are not required to do anything except show up - cost a little more money for each of them but they love it. Nobody has their own "area" - stands are first come first serve -

Each and every member signs our written rules every year - our rules clearly lay out what you can and cannot do. They also state that the ranch owners and lease boss can remove them for not following these rules with no refund of money.

When the type of money that is being paid now days for leases there has to be guidelines IMO - otherwise it becomes a free for all and chaos - been there and done that - no thanks

If you do not agree with the ranch/lease rules/guidelines then do not sign on - go find a different place to hunt. Pretty simple IMO

I don't understand. What is so important that you have to have "work days". Mowing around camp? Everyone should take care of their own shtuff. I wouldn't want to be told I have to be down in 100 degree heat just to help do what, exactly? I take care of my own shtuff , no need for "work days".

It's a hunting camp. It's supposed to be fun. Now if you're required to keep your feeder full and protein too, I get that. What exactly does this 'work' consist of?

Depends on the setup. We laid water lines on two of our leases - one was about half mile long. Mowing, community cook shack and bathroom w/hot water, sink, shower, stand setup, food plots, etc., etc., etc.

I get that some places are little footprint/low maintenance but not all are like that.

We never had any written “rules” or issues because we all knew each other. If you need rules then the consequence of not doing your part and/or following the “rules” should be getting kicked off the lease. Either lease “boss” decides or majority votes I would presume.

Man, deer leases have changed. I blame social media.

I've only met one lease "boss" in my life that had the demeanor to put up with this kind of BS, and to this day I have no idea how he did it. I had the good pleasure of being a close friend of his. May he (and his sweet wife) RIP. The place was south of Ozona, right in the currently anthrax ravaged area. The fires went across it right before he died.

Only one of the leases I manage is private property- the others are timber company leases and most of our rules are geared towards not doing anything that would cause the timber company to have cause to kick us off. Only one of the lease has an actual camp area that I expect all the lease member to keep up. I live just seven miles from the lease so I don't stay at the lease but I will bush hog around the camp area to keep that beat down. I will mow along the roads but I expect the members to get with me if they want any mowing done in their areas, otherwise I stay out of every member's hunting area. I don't require year round feeding (not sure the reasoning behind this) but I feed year round just because it seems the east Texas deer seem to forget where they are if they are empty for very long. The way I look at it, if other members let their feeders go empty then maybe the deer will show up more at mine since I have mine going. I don't require work days because getting everyone's schedules to work together doesn't always work. If someone wants to let their hunting area go to hell as long as it doesn't affect the other member's then that is up to them. I guess I am lucky to have the guys I have- they all stay in touch thru email saying when they will be going to the lease and sometimes others will join them to work on some things together. Being on a deer lease is a personal investment in money and time- you get out of it what you put into it.

There are exceptional people in east Texas. You just have to hunt for them. Thank your lucky stars.

I think the main thing is to read and understand the lease, before you sign it. Every lease has a different dynamic of hunters. Some go often, and some may not go at all. Some will pay, just to keep their spot. This keeps the cost per gun down for the other members. Some hunters have jobs where they are seldom off on weekends. This benefits others, because it takes pressure off Fri/Sat/Sun, but makes it very difficult to participate in weekend projects. I manage a lease. The members have an assigned area of the ranch, and they can hunt it as they please. Some put in a great deal of effort, some don't. However, the ones that do, benefit from it.

We manage our own stands and feeders. We pick up after ourselves, and take care of our own campers and surrounding areas. If there is something that more than one member wants, those that want it work together and make it happen. We're generous and help each other. I wouldn't want to be on a place that needed to enforce a required work day.

What "work" is there on a deer lease?

Deer Lease "WORK":

Mow ranch roads
Trim trees along said roads
Cut and stack fire wood
Clean out fire pit
Mow camp area
Spray weeds in gravel around main camp
Put our rat poison
Fill corn feeders 5-6 times annually
Fill protein feeders 5 times annually
Fill turkey feeders
Fill quail feeders
Mow around feeders
Put out trail cameras
Retrieve memory cards
Weedeat around feed pens (So we don't get 5,000 pics of grass in the wind)
Fix fences around feeders
Clean out stands (Mainly the guys who don't think there's any work at the lease leaving food wrappers, coke cans, spit cans in stands)
Fix/repair stands
Hang bow stands
Add limbs to ground blinds each year (new camo)
Land owner favors (fix fence, fix water gaps, fix roads, trim other trees)
Projects: building a skinning shed, building a cover for water well, building an awning for sitting/parking atv's
Moving feeders/stands

Most all these things get done on an annual basis with the exception of moving blinds and feeders. On 95% of leases 5% of the members do all these things. I'm sure there are many many more things that could be added to this list.

I always like the hunters who like big camp fires, but never pick up firewood. The ones who tell you they are going to come down and help and then don't show up. Luckily, we haven't encountered many of these guys. Plain & simple, if someone doesn't carry their weight, quit worrying about how to enforce the rules and get rid of 'em.

I don't really want to get into selection process for who you hunt with, but that could go a long way to not having to ask the question at hand. From one who is down there bunches, so much of the fun in hunting is who you hunt with. A whole lot more is who you don't hunt with.

I do all of these anyway. Don't need a mandatory work day to do it either.

The rules always seem to start off as a good idea but I hae yet to be on a lease that follows its own rules.

I've never been on a lease with a list of written rules, but I could see why some people would want that, particularly on the more expensive ones.

We've certainly had need for it given some of the people I've been on leases with, but I don't think written rules would have changed their behavior. Funny enough, on my first ever lease the people 'in charge' tried to lay down a long list of rules and consequences, but by the end of the season, they were the ones who had broken many of them (and as you can guess, with no consequences); thankfully they couldn't afford to come back the next season, so my brother-in-law and I took over after talking to the land owner.

We don't insist people help with mowing or other duties, but we do lead by example and would hope that common sense and decency would prevail. However, in our experience other people are almost always "busy that weekend" or if they do come down they somehow still managed to never have their area ready to hunt by the time season starts. It's also very rare we have anyone help with cleaning camp or clearing trails. We usually only invite friends, friends-of-friends, or family members to join the lease, thinking that by knowing them we won't have to put up with such behavior, but unfortunately they've almost always proven us wrong.

Not everyone works a 9-5 with every weekend off. While I'm not on a lease and there are no written rules where I hunt, there is the expectation of pulling your own weight. My hunting partners and I all work shift work but not the same schedule so it might be months before our days off jive. As long as people pull their weight...

Only reason I see it being a problem is if the lease has community blinds.

The leases I have been on you took care of your own. The landowner took care of main roads and you took care of the road to your stand as far as trimming. You trimmed your own shooting lanes maintained your own blinds and feeders etc. We shared a 2 room cabin with no running water and no electricity. Other than sweeping it out every once in a while that's all there was too it.

In todays day and age I think you are setting up for failure if you think everyone is going to get there on a picked day off the calendar. Even if you got everyone there, which I bet you wont, this is Texas it will probably snow in the morning rain till noon and burn the skin off your body with the afternoon sun on whatever day you picked to get a mountain of work done. I wouldn't be on a lease with that much community responsibility because I do not trust people I don't know.

I'll say this and then leave the discussion. We had a great group for years that hunted together. We hunted Schleicher cty. For 5 years, (tons of deer), then moved to Kent cty. Totally different, big bucks but few and far between, at least in '97. Great lease though. Lease boss says, "everyone needs to show up sept1st". No problem, dove were plentiful. Made everyone bring loppers to cut out all the pissant mesquite in a 80 acre field so we could plant wheat. We did. Then he tells us HE is going to put up a stand and noone else can hunt the field, after we worked our azzes off and all paid for the rancher to plant. That was BS, but if you wanted to stay on the lease you better comply. Of course we did. Now I own my own place. We're here to have fun. No more BS rules other than keep your area clean, gather firewood if its needed. Dont shoot a young deer. That's pretty much it. Works great and no hard feelings.

I’m lucky enough that I have 4 different places to deer hunt on for doing a little work. I Quail Hunt with a buddy that also has deer hunting on one of his quail leases. I like the way they do the work days. They set 3 work weekends a year in advance that everyone has to attend or they have to pay $200. They have a group fund separate from the lease payment that they buy things needed for the lease. Every member is required to set up two stands with feeders when they joined and pay X amount to the lease account, all stands are open to hunt unless the owner or said stand is present that day. The corn, electricity and everything else comes out of this fund. If someone buys something for the lease they text the receipt to the lease accountant and they are mailed a check that week. They have been on the same lease for 18 years and the kitty never drops below $10K. Everyone is emailed an accounting of available funds and spending every quarter. If the lease dissolves money will be split evenly and mailed to the existing members.

Their setup sounds like the best one I’ve heard of. The only problem is having one responsible man or his wife to take care of the accounting.

^^^^^^ Pretty much word for word what tlk said.

'Toured a lease once that a member on here is/was the manager. Just the printed rules on how to leave the cabin, if you're the last one out, were pages long. They included mopping. I don't mop.

I really feel bad for the original poster. Know what he is going through. How do you make men do what they are supposed to do? Doing what you are supposed to do is almost becoming a lost art.

I know this, you can't expect others to treat you in the manner you would treat them. You'll get "punked" way too often.

We don't have assigned blinds they are all in the pool so maintenance and feeder filling fall on all lease members. We try to do one weekend in late September. If people cant make it fine we leave them a list of stuff to do. I would hate to be on a lease where I was stuck with one blind all season. I like hunting different areas. We have Axis on the river and Audaods in aother areas. Plus some blinds are much better for turkeys. It would not be right to limit people to a certain area.

^^^THIS^^^

We had one "Mandatory" work weekend for firewood. We had a huge fire pit that everyone on the lease utilized, from cooking to just sitting around BS'n, we'd burn about 3 cords a season, and everyone bitched if someone was out cutting firewood during hunting season, so i made it a summer time task to prevent all of the belly aching! Other than that, all of ours we "Common Sense" rules.

On our lease, we have formal rules on what are "shootable" deer, how we handle spikes, and so forth. These get tweaked yearly based on the tag allotment and the biologist notes.

Other than that, we keep each other accountable for work weekends and what-not, and everyone is expected to chip in and help. If some start to slack off, subtle pokes move people back on path.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to having a group of people of similar mind set and approach to the lease.