Considering a lease
Kansas
Contributors to this thread:
I've exclusively hunted public land for 4 years since I first picked up bow hunting. This year, after having a camera and set of climbing sticks vanish, I'm really thinking about something better. I know stuff gets jacked on private land too. If you leave it in the woods that's always a risk. It's not just that though. My prime spots have been invaded by others. Ladder stands have popped up within 50 yds of my top 3 go to spots. Several times this year I drive my hour with a spot in mind only to see a vehicle already there. Same thing for option two. The cost of free I suppose.
So I have no experience leasing hunting ground. I'm not set on it. Just need more info from some locals who have tried leasing. I have someone who would go halvsies with me. Curious to get some thoughts from those with experience leasing. Good and bad. My ideal land would be within 45 mins of NE Wichita. Good deer potential, maybe some opportunities for turkey, and quail too. Accessible year round for scouting, and prepping for season. I know...get in line and be ready to pay big $$.
I see the internet has lots of middleman companies who manage the process. Are these a good service? I've seen listings on Craigslist too, and occasionally on regional forums.
Thanks for the help. And good luck getting something on the meat pole.
Think $2000 per year for a budget and then another $2000 managing the property. It sounds more like you want a place to manage the deer, which is just about as fun. Maybe look into one of those hunt clubs that leases multiple farms.
The locals hunt your lease when you are gone. Its a fact regardless of your cameras and signs. I used to lease a lot of land and found out the hard way. I own my land now and I still had people driving through it so I fenced in all the gates adjoining me to my neighbors. Funny, after all this, I've still killed a B&C mule deer on public and my biggest whitetail that was just a few inches shy of B&C. I killed the whitetail a short distance from a heavily hunted public area with a large number of hunters camped nearby. They had stands everywhere. In Kansas during the rut, I've found the only advantage to private land is you may see more mature deer. Every 40 acres within 80 miles of Wichita seems to get hunted just as hard as public with everybody checking their cameras and sitting on corn piles.
Thornton you're killing my optimism. But its good to hear it and what I'm after. Such a shame people feel it's OK to trespass and take what's not there's. Sigh..
Sorry for my negativity. Everyone is looking for that prime piece of land where you can be friends with the landowner that resides on the place. I grew up hunting public and realized from an early age that you have to be aggressive and view other hunters as a tool. I shot one of my biggest turkeys on public behind the parking lot because two other hunters pushed him to me. I saw them leaving and beat them around the field via a river bottom and the turkeys were running ahead of them. Don't overlook small areas near towns. I ran into a guy that owns 20 acres near KC and he showed me bowkills of some really big bucks he'd taken over the years. I have seen some huge bucks very near Wichita south of town on small farms.
Some of this is bound to happen when the places people have hunted for generations are now off limits because of the almighty dollar.