Need some help pricing a quail lease.

Please post if you do not mind sharing price per acre and number of birds you commonly see when hunting. Also area i know that can make a difference as well.

I've heard as much as $20 acre in south Texas. It would have to be 100 percent huntable.

No one else care to share ?

Full season or after deer season?

How many acres?

Where is it? How many acres? How many hunters will you allow? Guest or no guest? House or no house? How many will house sleep if there is one? Are vehicles / ATV's allowed off road? How thick / brushy is the place? All season or after deer season?

Jorge, nobody is beating you up here, Bill and CC are experienced quail guys who can get you in the neighborhood of a fair price. These questions are what they need to help. I'm on a huge lease and it costs a large (to me) sum but I have it for the full season, and I'm not suspicious that our manager just started driving a brand new Cadillac Escalade (Joke)

I should of put some more info.its 275ac possibly an additional 150 ac. Its by mcallen, tx. I feel like a group of 4-6 guys maybe more if the entire group are friends, im not sure about friends/family havent decided. I feel with the friends and family it makes it harder to practice sustainable hunting practices, just my personal experiences. There is a house would sleep 4-6 but needs some work, but that can be addressed quite easily and in the works. The terrain is 2ft to 3ft coastal type grass 80% with some wild sunflower and 20% light scrub brush. Interior Roads make it that going off road is not needed, but if running a quail rig id not be opposed to it with that being said not tearing up the place. All season, no deer hunters, but some javalina, and occasional bobcat and coyote which id want taken. We are also raising quail to release to keep a healthy and sustainable population. Ive counted about 12-15 coveys of 8-17 so far on the 275ac walking around. If the additional 150ac was added i walked and busted about an additional 6-8 coveys of 10+. Thanks for asking more info guys.

sounds like 3k for the 275 and 3500 if the additional 150 to me. maybe 3500K and 4K.

Thanks for your input panhandler

In my opinion, only way it would work out, is if you had a single foot hunter or maybe a couple of buddies that wanted the place. And I don't see anywhere close to $3,500. If you let 3 - 4 separate groups hunt 275 acres 3 - 4 times, there won't be anything left aND they will be all over each other. And why would one guy pay 3500 for 275 acres when he could get on a 20,000 acre quail lease and never hunt the same place twice all season. If I lived close, and liked the look of the place, I think it might be worth $2,000 max really about $1,500. Again, just my opinion.

It sounds like it would be a great place for a group of bird doggers to work their dogs. I have a place free but I would pay up to $2,000 to have that many coveys close if I didn't already have a place.

sounds like a dope drop-off spot...

Yeah it being limited by acreage doesnt command price. Ive spoken to a wildlife bio buddy, hes going back to school for this, and he said if we go full steam ahead with raising and releasing birds then it could be a great place for 1 group of 4-8 ppl in total, but that raises the cost and i know most like hunting very large tracts for quail. What makes it attractive is it is 15-20min away from downtown mcallen.

I can't see even 1 hunter buying a seasonal lease for 275 acres. I think your best bet is to use it as a day lease a few,times .

I havent ever had a quail lease only dove and duck. What makes 275-425 ac not worth it in yalls opinion. I know quail guys like large areas to hunt, but why. I have had labs not any upland dogs, and if i had my lab running around 100's of acres that would be a workout and half. Is that part of the whole quail bit covering 1000's of acres in search of birds? Do yall run quail rigs exclusively running 1000's of acres?

I based my price off of this:

If a group of 4 buddies go day hunt here in the panhandle they generally pay $100-200 per day. If that same group of buddies did that 10 times over a season they would spend 4-8 thousand as a group. Seeing how land in south Texas is a lot more sought after due to population I would say that this lease would be worth at least 3K because even if your group only hunted it 5 or so times you still hunted it for only about $100/gun each time you went and it was your own place.

I would run my dogs on a 10 acre patch if I thought they would find birds on it. I also run them on 90K acre ranch every saturday too. I don't care as long as they are happy

See, what panhandler says is the same thing i was thinking. I dont think its a high dollar deal, but has a marketable value.

Releasing birds is a waste of money. Unless you hunt the day they are released they will be gone. Pen raised birds fly half the speed of wild birds and don't have the street smarts. Coyotes and cats can catch them in the air.

I figure 1,000 acres per gun. What you describe might work for one walking hunter with one or two dogs this year.

If you let a retired guy like me on a lease like this 10 minutes from my house I'd be up there 2-3 mornings per week, with a couple of my 5 dogs. I'd have most of the coveys marked after @ five hunts. I hope your 4 guys aren't serious quail hunters.

Im not an avid quail guy so this is as much a learning session. Quail coveys are that patternable? I know they tend to stay in an area but patternable is something i wasnt aware of.

Would yall agree that the day thing would be a much better fit for what has been described.

Running dogs on quail is different than dove or duck hunting. That type of hunting you want to be in the X spot. Quail hunting, you want the dogs to stretch out and cover miles.
Yes quail are patternable. I run my dogs on a few hundred acres, and I could phone the quail and tell them I'm coming.
If you have dove, you could get more money if you leased it for both.
Or consider seeing if one of the pointer clubs would be interested in a year round lease.
People with young dogs are always looking for a place to run them.

I'm sure you could lease it to a group if it were 30 miles out of Houston, but McAllen is a different story.

Quail or very territorial. They tend to use the areas to roost and the same places to loaf. On a small lease with good dogs you can quickly identify coveys and find them over and over again. They will reform coveys and move a bit, but I know of coveys I have found in the the same approximate space over a period of 3 years. We have hunted the same lease for a dozen years and have to be careful in down years not to hit the easily found coveys too hard.

Thanks yall, this is really informative. Its making sense of things ive heard or seen about quail leases.

With big running dogs I am estimating it would only take a couple of hours to hunt 275 acres. Depending on how many birds are being moved.

I certainly wouldn't want to hunt the same area over and over every couple of hours all season long. That's why I say it should be a day lease

Any other insight or feedback is greatly appreciated.

I don't know that I would be interested in a 275 acre day lease. If I'm paying for a day hunt I would hunt all day and cover tons of ground. On a place like this I would lease it, take my young dogs and kids out there about 5-8 times and let them work and kill a few birds. It's obviously not a serious quail hunters quail lease but for a little place to get away to on a Friday afternoon, it sounds great.

And people down there have plenty of money for something like that.

Ill ill tell ya what, im learning alot about quail guys. Ive only been around the types to go to a day place and acreage wasnt a big deal getting their limit was priority. Yall are a whole different breed, just like duck guys. Its great insight, because several people are hoping that i move on this, but talking to guys that are serious about quail are pointing out some important aspects i would have never considered. thank you, i think a family place we can walk, we dont have upland dogs only retrievers for duck and dove, will be the best option. If guys wanna come to work dogs and have a quick afternoon getaway nothing serious would $200 be high or avg price?