I agree with the approach where you come clean and offer him what you can afford. If he doesn't bite orif he starts asking around and he gets some figure like $1500 for the year, your next option is to first check out the property. If it really is a nice piece and you can lock it up, then it's time to start finding a few other guys to go in with you on it. Finding public land only guys who could get into a nice piece for not to much and without the effort of finding the land shouldn't be hard.