I've been part of three leases so far. All have worked out well. IMO it is better to have a large lease and fewer people part of it.
One of the better ones, we combined three leases as we all enjoyed different kinds of hunting. I enjoyed small game and Bird hunting, another guy liked Ducks, a third was a Deer hunter. We all swapped on occasion. I was part of that lease for ten years, only had one issue, I shot a Deer the Duck guy thought was his, he got upset. It was a Buck that only came onto the lease form a neighboring lease during the rut. No matter how well you get along, there are bound to be some issues. The biggest we had were guests, some seemed incapable of following simple instructions.
On another lease the only real issue we had was poachers. Or when we'd make an improvement the land owner would try to raise the price and make us pay for it. We put up a few wooden shooting towers, he tried to charge us for them.
The one I have now there are two of us, we've been buddies for decades. He Hunts Deer and I hunt small game and hogs, mostly.
Hunter numbers are down around here, it is a buyers market, more farmers looking to lease than takers. Prices were going up for awhile, the farmers mostly priced themselves out of the market and now the prices are low.
Something I learned quick, have a lawyer write the lease contract. They usually run for 7 or 10 years here. You don't want to get stuck with some property owner who tries to change the rules continuously. Most are happy to have someone around on a regular basis to keep the predator numbers down to a tolerable level.
I'm usually pretty popular with the land owners, I weld, have a nice set of tools and did refrigeration for most of my working years.
Last edited by MudderChuck; 12-20-2016 at 05:52 AM.