This is the time of year when many hunters are moving from one hunting lease to a new one. There are many reasons for changing hunting leases and most veteran hunters understand that unless they own the land they hunt on, it’s a good chance they will one day have to leave their hunting grounds and look for another.
Reasons vary; landowners pass away or sell the land they lease or possibly hunters just begin looking for greener pastures where they hope the bucks will be bigger and the turkey more plentiful.
Through the years, I’ve set up camp on many new hunting leases and during those years made mistakes that are probably pretty common. I remember the first hunting lease I was in charge of back in the early eighties. A good friend leased a section of land north of Jacksboro in Jack County. For a couple of years, I was on the lease with him and thoroughly enjoyed hunting the ranch that offered pretty good deer hunting. We didn’t take any trophy class bucks but usually filled a buck tag each season. This was before the deer herd in the area grew to what it has become today. Doe tags were not available back then so each of the 4 lease members targeted one buck and, back in the day, we weren’t too picky.
Turkey numbers were extremely high in this section of the state back then and there was some banner hunting for quail. Here I learned how to actually hunt gobblers during the spring season rather than ambush them from deer stands with a rifle during the fall.
I hunted quail a lot back then and after the close of deer season, we enjoyed some excellent bob white hunting. We constructed a little cabin near the entrance to the lease and equipped it with an old Franklin wood heater. I still remember some of those frigid days and coming into that little cabin after a cold sit in a deer stand; the heat from that old stove felt mighty good!
My buddy and his wife decided to join a hunting club that was popular back in the day; he wanted to hunt a lease with wild hogs. It’s hard to believe but there were no feral porkers in that section of the county back then. He asked me if I wished to take the lease over and introduced me to the elderly rancher who owned the place. We shook hands and agreed upon a fee for leasing the ranch on a yearly basis. The rancher’s only request was to respect his land, not clutter it up and stay away from the two guard dogs that protected the sheep and goats.
I hunted that place with my older son and a couple of good friends for another six years until the rancher who I became very fond of passed away. I soon got a letter from his lawyer son-in-law and was mailed a lease agreement that was several pages long which made me personally liable for just about anything bad that might possibly occur on the place.
As much as I wanted to keep the lease I had hunted so long, I declined and I’m sure he had no problem leasing it at a much higher price. Such it is with leasing land for hunting; leases come and they go. Since that first lease back close to fifty years ago, I’ve been on several other leases, some I managed and on others I was just a lease member.
Today, finding a good hunting lease is a challenging endeavor and although it’s possible to find a lease that doesn’t require a second mortgage on one’s home, costs of between ten and twenty dollars per acre, depending upon location and game, has become the norm. Through the years, I’ve learned a thing of two about setting up a new hunting lease. Here are a few tips that might make your transition to new hunting grounds more successful.
Have a lease agreement signed by you and the landowner. Don’t take anything for granted when setting up a new hunting lease. The agreement should state the total cost and when the lease fee is due each year. How many hunters are allowed on the lease? Will access to the lease be only during hunting season or is it a ‘year around’ lease? What about lodging; will you be hunting from an RV or is there a camphouse on the place? What about electricity and who pays for it? How about feeders and stands, will they be provided by the landowner or do you set up your own? Will you have the ability to come and go as needed to keep the feeders filled or will you need to make special arrangements to access the property? How about food plots? Will the landowner do the tractor work breaking up the plots and planting in the fall? What game animal and birds can be hunted? Is the lease for deer only or can you hunt spring turkey and hogs and waterfowl? How many bucks/does are allowed? Can you bring guests that can harvest deer from your quota? How does the landowner feel about you hunting predators during the off-season or fishing the ponds on the place? Can you keep a few fish for an evening fish fry? Do you need to notify the ranch owner each time before you visit the lease? Is the lease agreement for one year or multiple years? I suggest a multiyear agreement, especially if you will be moving stands, feeders, etc. onto the property.
All these questions might seem trivial but trust me, each one has the potential to become very important if they are not addressed up front, before you begin setting up your new hunting lease. I won’t say that leasing land is still as simple as a handshake with a landowner, trust and respect are still very much a part of leasing land. But things have changed since I first leased land for hunting back almost fifty years ago. It’s much better for everyone involved to have everything spelled out in a formal lease agreement.
Upcoming hunting seminar
Mark your calendar for a hunting program at the Terrell, Texas Airport on Saturday, August 2 at 3:30 in the afternoon. Location is the British Flight Training School Museum, 119 Silent Wings Blvd, Terrell. I will be present for a question/ answer session and will cover any questions that I might help you with. I will also have copies of a couple of books Larry Weishuhn and I co-authored. Steven Travis and Hunter Barber will give talks on night hog hunting tactics and shooting. Jeff Rice, producer of “A Sportsmans Life” TV show will be present to discuss filming your hunts. Refreshments and door prized will be offered.
Email outdoors writer Luke Clayton through his website www.catfishradio.org. Watch our weekly TV show, A Sportsmans Life, found on Carbon TV and YouTube
