How much do people pay for "Hunting Leases?"

[Boiled Owl]

First off, I'd never lease my property for hunting. Right now I have two long time friends who are out there with their sons.

When I bought the property, I inherited 2 hunters. They managed to get ahold of me right before deer season. I explained to them that I had a lot of work to do out there and would trade sweat equity for hunting. As it was right before the season, they assured me they would pitch in. They hunt, they score, then I hear nothing from them. Called them, "oops we lost your number". Then they talked about all they would do, yet never showed. I booted them.

Slip the shoe on the other foot: Say they come work for me and do all they said, but when it comes time to hunt, I don't let them. What kind of ***hole would I be?

Next discussion: Talking to some people remarking about a property nearby that people are giving $3000 a year per person to hunt. My thoughts? I would never let someone on my place who would be willing to pay that kind of money, you probably think I'd "owe" you too much!!

 

[nate1865]

Write up a contract and spell it out, it makes life much easier if you're not dealing with people you know and trust.

And yes, someone that pays you $3,000 per year to hunt your property is going to make very sure they're getting what they're paying for, so better spell it out.

 

[Boiled Owl]

Write up a contract and spell it out, it makes life much easier if you're not dealing with people you know and trust.

And yes, someone that pays you $3,000 per year to hunt your property is going to make very sure they're getting what they're paying for, so better spell it out.

I'm not looking to lease it out, just wondering what others are doing.

 

[nate1865]

Check out basecampleasing.com for $ reference.

Some hunt clubs I know of exchange work for hunting rights. To keep their membership they make sure you do what you signed up for, and kick members out that don't.

 

[Lonnie]

my brother and i leased a nice spot about 150 ace in Park county for $1000 a year
We had a contract that we agreed and signed with the owner

we couldn't camp on the property , we had it for the entire year to hunt whatever was in season.
we weren't allowed to build perminate stands or to "nail" into the trees as they wanted to log them down the road.

we were allowed to "police" the property with a 100% of the owers backing to keep treaspassers off

There was plenty of deer so we were very happy and the farmer was very happy.

He allowed someone to cut wood ( the tops from the logging) and we had to discuss this issues after having the guy show up and cut wood during our hunting time. He decided to stop the wood cutting until season was over and we were happy

We leased thiss place for 3 years

I wish we still had this spot as it had plenty of deer and we had to ourself and we could take our family (kids) if we wanted.


The down fall for us was we had to find a place to camp or drive the 1.5 to 1.75 hours to the hunting spot every time we wanted to hunt

we stayed at a state camp ground and still had a 20 to 30 minute drive to the hunting spot from the camp ground

add the cost of camping and food and such and things got tuff for us and at that time we had to stop leasing.


basecampleasing is a option but they really tie your hands on the number of hunters , the price of the lease (they are a middle man and add a large cost to the price) plus they only people who can hunt must be listed on the lease and they limit the amount of "hunter" on my leases , ie. 2 hunter on the certain lease (say my brother and I, my brother doesnt hunt a certain weekend, I cant take my son because only two names on the lease my brother and I. even though only 2 hunters would be hunting (hey say its to manage the heard , I say that what the IDNR already does, base camp doesnt use any scientific datd to calculte this.)
I do realize some owners only want a certain number of hunters on their place, 2 is 2 weather is me and my brother or me and my son most owners would care

I have a few small spots near by home that we now currently hunt, the deer number are a lot less than our old lease and in many areas but they are close by and I can take the kids or my brother if I choose. I can stay at home and eat at home and cut down on my cost.

I do anything the land ower ask of me and I share the deer meat with them (if they will accept it) I have trapped ground hogs , coyotes , raccoon and beaver for my land owners.
I have helped find people to haul things for one of them.
We have a good relationship and I cherrish that

 

[Yeah]

I'm party to a couple of leases but they are out of state. One of them is just south of Memphis and can show more fantastic racks in a day than any of my places in Indiana do in a year, which is what drives up prices. 1,800 acres at $14.50/acre is an upper end lease in that area. I know of some along the river near Jackson that go for quite a bit more though.

 

[mertbl]

I help the landowner of the property I hunt. Help with stands before season, pull the dock out at his lake house. I honestly don't do much but I help when asked and work allows. Oh and I'm friends with his son.

 

[42769vette]

i think going rate is about 10-12 dollars a acre. obviously if you have 1000 acre of crop ground with a 20 acre woods your not going to get 10,000 dollars out of it

 

[Field King]

Wonder if the property owner loses the Indiana hunter/fishing trespass liability exemption once they accept money for trespass rights?

 

[Lonnie]

Wonder if the property owner loses the Indiana hunter/fishing trespass liability exemption once they accept money for trespass rights?

yes so it is up to them to write something in the contract.

If you read the Indiana hunter fisherman liability exemption it sayd "unless the land owner charges a fee or something a long that line

 

[Stickfight]

Looking at some of the prices on that web site I can't believe how expensive hunting is getting to be. It will be the king's game all over again before too long.

 

[Willie]

Decent lease goes for $10 an acre..

 

[Boiled Owl]

Thanks for the replies, all good info.
So when you would lease hunting on say 100 acres, with 40 wooded, would that be negotiated somewhere between $1000 and $400? and would that lease be for as many hunters as you want to bring? Or per person?

Part of my thoughts on this thread was the whole sweat equity aspect of my agreement versus the "kings game" of who can pay the most.
Some choose to crap in the wheaties and loose. Can't understand the mentality.

 

[Stickfight]

It is inevitable now that you have people buying up land from all the old farmers and keeping it all to themselves. There was a thread on here where a guy's deer ran over the property line and they wouldn't let him go retrieve it.

No wonder the number of hunters is going down.

 

[Lonnie]

Thanks for the replies, all good info.
So when you would lease hunting on say 100 acres, with 40 wooded, would that be negotiated somewhere between $1000 and $400? and would that lease be for as many hunters as you want to bring? Or per person?

Part of my thoughts on this thread was the whole sweat equity aspect of my agreement versus the "kings game" of who can pay the most.
Some choose to crap in the wheaties and loose. Can't understand the mentality.

Im my case we had woods and open fileds mixed and paid for the entire parcel
that is how the land owner wanted it
in our case the owner didnt want to deal with it so he leased it and we decided how many hunters. we never had more than 3 hunters on the property
it was plenty of room and plenty of deer
He was a farmer and actually wanted the deer harvested and not just managed for Trophys and he told us this up from.
There was planty of Trophys non the less just from the area we were hunting

 

[tom1025]

Thanks for the replies, all good info.
So when you would lease hunting on say 100 acres, with 40 wooded, would that be negotiated somewhere between $1000 and $400? and would that lease be for as many hunters as you want to bring? Or per person?

Part of my thoughts on this thread was the whole sweat equity aspect of my agreement versus the "kings game" of who can pay the most.
Some choose to crap in the wheaties and loose. Can't understand the mentality.

If it was me I would only allow one hunter per 25 acres.

 

[Icemancometh]

I have been hunting 140 acres in Henry County, Ky for 15 years. Only cost to me is keeping the place picked up and letting the owner know if fences need repair, etc. My father pays $400/year to hunt 1200 acres in another county. He is one of 12 that hunt there. They have a very detailed contract that spells out when they can hunt and what size animals the owner expects to be harvested. I think they are allowed one doe and one buck each. They tried to get me to sign on but it was too restrictive for my tastes.