Lease Experiences
Whitetail Deer
Looking for anyone who’s had good or bad experiences leasing land for deer. A nice piece (80 acres) recently popped up near my home through a leasing agent, I walked the property and it looked pretty good but I saw a couple of treestands so I reached out to the agent and asked if it’s been leased before or if he knew if the owner hunted it. He said the stands were “likely” the owners but exclusive rights would of course be mine. I generally only hunt public land so a nice private piece is tempting but at the same time it sounds a little suspicious if the landowner is a hunter and leasing the land out, or if someone else is actively hunting it. Anyone have ideas of what to watch out for in general when leasing? Thanks guys —
Just the usual demons.........family,friends and preachers....:)
Roll the dice. If you have problems don’t renew in the second year. Talk to the guy, bet he is a nice guy. Just ask him we’re the stands came from.
He said the stands were likely the owners.......Bu bye
Ask to speak to the landowner
Where I live 80 acres is too small to plan to hunt. Unless you are surrounded by over stocked leases runnin them to you.
Get it in writing, “exclusive hunting rights.” If you get that, I’d take the chance. Maybe the owner quit hunting, is to old to hunt etc.
The problem is going through a leasing agent. That adds no less than 50% to the cost. I would drive around and ask or go to OnX, find the landowner and what they own. Type them into google search and get a phone number, call and ask. I have actually been doing just that for the last month and have gotten some real nice property just for asking. I have never had a major problem with leasing other than unless you put out cameras its hard to know whats really going on there when you are not. Shawn
TradPA,
Is the leasing agent is Captial Area Bowhunters?
Bowbender - nah I’ve heard awful things about them though…awesome responses as usual guys I appreciate it
80 acres is plenty big for the east. Beware of neighbors that think since they hunted the property all their lives they can do it now. They may object to you no matter how good a neighbor you are. Make sure the property is posted according to the law. I've been leasing my spot for 12 years and had a blowup with my neighbor opening day of gobbler season this year. He accused me of everything from trying to shoot a gobbler out of in front of him to offing Jimmy Hoffa, all while being 80 yards into my lease. I thought I was a good neighbor but his whole family objected to me posting the land.....even set up ladder stands on the property line. Back to tips.....put in trail cameras that cover your gate. Use a lock box to keep them from being carried off. Communicate with your landowner. Make yourself valuable to the property owner above and beyond your lease fee.
Good tips Bandicoooter, thanks - it’s interesting I wasn’t really even looking for a lease but someone tipped me off to this piece near me so I became interested but even in my little involvement it seems like a lease or private spots offers some problems that aren’t a thought on public land and vice versa.
Bandicooter, great points! Especially the communication with the landowners. 100%
Trad-PA, exactly true about the problems with private vs. public. The landowner I lease from split the land in half a couple years ago. Another group hunts West side and we hunt East side. Now, since we were necked down a bit, we explored more in directions we didn’t have to in the past, on our lease. To the north, I found 4 stands on our property and one directly on the fence line. I took them down and sat them across the fence. Along with a feeder. I posted the entire North edge that faced this landowner, who is a local attorney. I then contacted him and attempted to discuss the situation. I did this tactfully with two phone calls. I later found the fourth stand and I text him and told him I’d take it to the Sheriffs office. He replied back… “Tell the Sheriff to call me”. Lol After the latest text, he replied back that I was “threatening him”. lol! I replied… “I’m not threatening anyone, I’m protecting what I pay for.” He was definitely protecting the people he was letting hunt the property because he would elude that he knew who it was, but would never say a name or who it was.
Sorry, a bit long winded, but you get the gist. There’s issues with leasing too.
I own an 80 next county over, and the hunting is directly affected by my neighbor's. One neighbor doesn't allow hunting, but the other neighbor is always working which can disrupt deer coming to my crops. At half a mile long and a quarter mile wide, the deer can see me pull in the front bean field from a long ways. My best tactic so far is not to hunt it or use cameras until the time is right. Small pieces like that can quickly go dormant if you're out there all the time.
