Hey Fella's, Thought I'd drop a line to give you a clue to what the future of hunting is turning into.

This past weekend I went over to the property that I hunt deer on for both bow and gun. I've been hunting this nice piece of 90 acres for about 4 years now. After hanging my portable stand to where I like to sit for bowhunting, I stopped into the landowners house to chat a bit. I also dropped off 2 cases of his favorite beer (Molson Triple X). If anyone knows about the Molson XXX, you know its about $15 a 12-pack. I didn't mind, since he allows me to hunt on his property. I also might add that every Christmas I give him a Christmas card with a $100 gift card to Gander Mountain. Just doing my part to keep the landowner happy. Well much to my amaze, he went into the house and came out with a piece of paper that he handed to me. On it he stated that starting next hunting season (2008) he will require that anyone hunting on his property will pay for a lease to hunt. He wants $500 for bow season, 450 for gun or $800 for the combo of bowhunting and gun. I'd about shit my pants when I read this. It went on to say that no fishing, waterfowl, or pheasant hunting on his property at all. This landowner also is very stern on bucks only on his property, he doesn't want any does taken at all (it's his long standing rule). Now, it's nice to hunt his property because I have pretty much the 90 acres myself accept gun season. The landowner hunts during that time. Every year I've taken a buck off his property. Nothing throphy size, but I do see bucks on a regular basis. I also might add that his 90 acres is 60 acres of hay and 30 wooded. He rents out the hay lots to a local land Farmer.

What do you guys think, is this landowner off his rocker or is that the going rate for hunting leases?? I've never pissed him off, and always been respectful to his property. He claims that his taxes keep going up and that he has to off-set it by charging people to hunt his property. Apparently some hunters came by and offered to lease his property from him. Is this going to be the norm for landowners to start doing?? Is $800 worth 2 deer a year that I could legally shoot?? I've only have taken 1 deer a year, but could easly take my legal limit of 5 but I don't. I'm curious to what you hunter have to say about this topic.

I'd find a good piece of public land and tell him thanks for the memories. Or find another farmer that wants to control crop damage. I feel sorry for the saps that will pay that much.

I would say, thanks for letting me hunt here previoulsy, good luck to you in the future...

it is spreading like a disease, out in North Dakota we hunt waterfowl and upland game and every year it gets worse and worse for needing permission which leads to leasing etc.. never use to even hardly see a no tresspas sign out there and now they are all over..

Here in MN one of our biggest land owners is just about all lease now.. they were public for a hundred years,, hell a lot of the land was given to them on the condition they keep it public,, but they forget.

Here in New York I joined a club with 12 other members we lease 750 acres in three diferent locations and our dues are 300 a year so 800.00 seems a little steep

Thats the reason I have quit hunting and started back into snowmobiling. The farmers that I used to hunt would complain about crop damage, then wanted lease money to hunt. Piss on that, Ill take my lease, tag, gun, and shell money and go buy some descent steaks from the locker and have the last 3 years. $800 would buy alot of quailty meat.

[quote name='snowman-F7' date='Oct 1 2007, 09:28 AM' post='3083434']
Hey Fella's, Thought I'd drop a line to give you a clue to what the future of hunting is turning into.

This landowner also is very stern on bucks only on his property, he doesn't want any does taken at all (it's his long standing rule). Now, it's nice to hunt his property because I have pretty much the 90 acres myself accept gun season. The landowner hunts during that time. Every year I've taken a buck off his property. Nothing throphy size, but I do see bucks on a regular basis.

He needs to harvest some of those Doe to improve the buck to doe ratio if he wants quality deer and bigger bucks. I've seen it for myself in the areas I hunt. Harvesting Doe and passing on the little bucks improves the bucks signifcantly.

$800 is very steep. I think it's time to move on to somewhere else!

Move on, find some more land or buy a small parcel for yourself.

$800 is nothing, how about 20k for a polar bear sport hunt and even then you are not guaranteed a kill.

I bet a polar bear would taste like shit.

This works for me--well sometimes, I give them my name and number and tell them to give me a little notice ahead of time. And I would be more than happy to spend a day or two fixing fences for them if they let me hunt for free.

Good luck

Let's see $1000.00 plus for a bow,$800.00 shotgun, $8-10 k for a Quad or Ranger,$500.00 plus for clothing. $800.00 does'nt sound that far out of line. Leases here go around $350.00 per season, and that is for a spot to hunt on the property not the run of 90 acres. Hunting land around here goes for around $3000.00 plus per acre and most won't consider hunting on anything less than 25 acres, and $800.00 would'nt even come close to paying the taxes on it. Maybe if ya offer alittle more than some beer (sweat equity) you could get a better $

500 for bow season. Thats $35 per weekend if you hunted every weekend of bow season. About 14 weekends? 450 for gun season at nine days (if thats your season length like it is in WI) thats 50 per day. If you hunt most of the bow season weekends it comes out to be 50 per weekend. Same rate as gun season. If your hunting for meat, it doesn't sound very econimical to me. There's lots of public land that goes untouched every year. Do some scouting and find you spot for free. my2cents

If your one of them guys that have to have the latest and greatest to go hunting have at it. I take 2-3 deer a year (combo-tags and 1 doe tag) Using my 7-8 year old Mathews bow and my 5-6year old Mossburg 500a shotgun or my T/C muzzle loaderand clothing that has at least 8 years of hunting and fishing on them. I bet I don't have a grand tied up in all of it. As far as the quad I don't have one I drive to where I hunt, park then walk to the woods(public land). Hunting season can be expensive if YOU want it to be, but it don't have too. West Shore this is not personally directed at you just using you quote.

No prob. Got those figures from a hunting show that told what the average guy had tied up in equipment. As for me I still hunt w/ a Mossberg that I got for my 16th b-day, upgraded with Hastings barrel and scope, 870 Reminton pump gun for Turkey, 2 yr. old Hoyt bow, and 6 yr. old T/C muzzleloader. Fact is NOTHING today is free and the days of driving up to some farmers house and knocking on the door and getting permission to hunt are LONG gone. I hunt on 56 acres that both my wife and myself worked are ass's off to buy.

Like everyone said go hunt on state land I couldn't justify spending that kind of money to hunt, on top of equipment cost. I bow hunt on a farmers property that I have hunted on for years. He bought it off my buddy 2 years ago and he continued to let me out there. He says I kept a lot of the tresspassers off his property. There are lot of places to hunt that are good and free. Remember most people who hunt wont walk into the deep of the woods or swamps were the bucks are at.

If all he was charging me was $350 for the season, then I'd have no problem. If you read into my post, you'd see that his property only offers about 20-25 acres of woods. The rest of his 90 acres is alfalfa fields, 4 acre pond, 3 acres of lawn around his house. Its a very tight confines, that really only offers enough room for 2-3 hunters. His property isn't attached to any large parcels of woods. The land owner doesn't hunt with a bow, but does for gun. He would be another hunter in the woods.

If only my neighbor would let me bowhunt on his property, I wouldn't be in the mess I'm in. Perhapes the person who posted above about buying their own property has the ticket. I'm sick of worrying whether I'll have a place to hunt every year. Sure I have stateland around me, but your in stiff competion with guys from the cities. Plus you have to remove your stand everyday after your hunt. I'm gonna have to keep working on my wife to start thinking about buying some land near us.

Nope polar bear actually tastes really good....I say it is almost like walrus meat but is a lot more tender and less gamey, Polar Bear meat is actaully better for your health then most farm animal meat especailly when it is raw!

That does work , we have people that want to hunt deer ,geese,ducks. And if they take the time to help us cut wood they will have no problem coming back the following year. Sometimes it means alot more to a land owner , that you will take the time out of your day to help them out. Having a extra hand means more than a couple of hundreds. IMO................later

I guess it depends where you live...around here $10 an acre is average...but also depends on how big the acreage is and how many people are in your group hunting it. If he is going to tell you that you can not shoot does and you have to share that property with others, than I would walk away. But than again...maybe you will be the only one hunting it, because others may feel it is not worth it.

public land can be rough to hunt with people being every where. If are patient and look hard enough you will find land that no one else is hunting on.

hi All,

The situation developing in Saskatchewan is that we have too much land, too many deer and not enough hunters. I am going mule deer hunting in two days. One ranch that i want to hunt on, the owner says, "if you hunt on my land, and you shoot a buck, you have to get two doe tags and go shoot two does as well". This has too many damned deer. the last thing this guy is going to do is charge for access.The problem with the remaining hunting population in Saskatchewan is that they are after big bucks, pass on everything else, and the deer population is growing like crazy. its good ol economics - supply and demand. In Saskatchewan, unlike other areas, there are more deer than demand.

Quads dont belong anywhere near the woods during hunting season unless your handicaped,lazy and fat dont qualify as handicap either.

Here is my take on this situation....personally 35 wooded acres would only be enough room for 1 hunter during bow season and maybe 2 during the gun....but here in PA & NY $8-$10 per acre is about average.

Now on my take, I am a supporter of leases and lease arrangements. The problem has developed that hunters believe that just because they buy a $100 license that they are entitled to hunt private land just because they ask or have hunted it in the past years. The gift you provided at Christmas and the two cases of beer is probably far more than anyone else has ever done, and is of good character. However, it doesn't help him pay the taxes or release him of any liability (depending on your states laws)..

Lets face it, to have 90 acres to yourself (or 35) for a cost of $800 a year is cheaper than you buying 90 acres, paying the payments and the taxes. We lease 330 acres in NY for a cost of $3200 a year and it used to be open to public until it got out of control. The landowner had never been asked for permission or even approached it to lease. He even went to the extreme to place a sign where everyone parked "HUNTING LEASE AVAILABLE" and never received one phone call !!!! Needless to say we ended up hearing about it and within 3 days gave him a check and signed the papers. With the gun season starting here next week, I wonder how many of those who have hunted it in the past will show up first day to see all the new posted signs ? But you have to ask, whose fault it that ??? They actually had more of an opportunity than we did but failed to secure their own personal hunting priviledges...key word being priviledge.

I would say that for anyone that hunts a piece of private property and enjoys it, may want to approach the landowner FIRST about paying for the use of his land, otherwise someone else might and will you be out.

We have stands that if walked in, every deer in the area would spook and leave. I can drive my Ranger by deer and they don't even pay attention.( They aren't scared) I'm not saying take it out and drive all over. We only hunt mature deer and I've shot some monsters on my private land in the past. We are not FAT or LAZY. Sounds like you hunt state land and have had some bad experiences with idiots in the past. You should do some research on deer behavior before ya spout off about things that you apparently don't have a clue about.

I only hunt private land.Im a little bit confused on your comment ,So you are saying that you see deer and drive right passed them with out shooting , only to arive where they are NOT with the hope that they will show up.That is really weird.

Yep, we don't subscribe to the "brown its down mentality. As I said we only shoot mature deer and we have plenty of them. No need to shoot them off the Ranger while driving back to the stand. Hope you have a good season, good luck to you.

Good luck to you also and be safe.

If you ever get a chance to listen to Charles Alsheimer speak...he has years of research on deer movement both around the moon phase, pre rut, rut and post rut periods...and the affect of human activity and how is will supress deer movement. Based on his study, which is years of data, by the 3rd day, deer movement during daylight hours is reduced byt 75% (via trail cams)...this would include foot traffic and atv use.

Well worth it if you ever get the chance.

give me that land owners information. I'll pay him $400 to hunt his property.
we are currently leasing 100 acres of NO deer property. waste my time every season in the catskills.