Opinion - To Lease or to Buy Land
I am at a crossroads and need a second set of eyes...
Current situation:
I have been in a hunting club with 9-12 guys for 14+ years now. The make up of the club has changed year over year with who is in and out, so its not like it is a group of friends. At this point it is almost like hunting with random strangers. We typically have at least 2 farms (each 300-400 acres) and each farm has 10-20+ stands that can all be hunted by all, just pin in a board when you arrive to hunt. I have killed 20-30 bucks in those years but my best so far is a single 135" class (lots of 110-120's). These 2 leases are currently only 10-15 miles from my home.
The current cost of this lease is $2500 yearly per person.
Oppt to Own:
A 28 acre partial of thick swamp bottom land has become available directly behind my house that has a large (200-300+ acre) farm fields on either side of it typically with Corn or Soybean planted yearly.
The track of land always holds deer and I have some trail cam pics of a few monsters, but they typically scatter as the fall kicks in and you only get the wandering bucks during the rut. I think there is enough room on that track for 6-7 stands easily. The challenge is it is right behind my house and 4 neighbors so gun hunting may not be an option.
The price on the land is $150k or roughly $5-6k per year.
Now I am a trophy hunter and don't typically hunt for meat so I let a lot of stuff walk, I have also found in recent years that I don't gun hunt as much as I used to because I enjoy bow hunting more.
I typically hunt early Black powder for a day or two and I hunt opening week of shotgun. Other than that 80-90% of my bucks have been taken with Bow or Crossbow.
The question I keep asking myself whether I keep paying a lease to hunt good hunting lands with tons of stands (but with strangers who could at anytime shoot the buck I'm after)...or increase my spend to have a smaller tract with limited stands but be the only hunter and own the land (even though swamp land). I have went back and forth on this and I'm looking for others points of view.
1. Continue to Hunt larger tracks of land with larger herds for less total investment.
2. Buy and Own my own track of land.
3. Opt out of Lease for a few years (3-4), Buy my own land, pay it off, then decide if I need or want to rejoin the lease for additional land