IMO Nothing beats having your own land, it makes life easier and is a REAL investment , and your not just throwing money away as you do in a lease
BUT, IMO< and no clue where your at, I wouldn;t buy as small tract of land for a 150K when in most places larger amounts can be had, that allow you more options to work on!
leasing just gets you acess to things with ouyt you having to do much work, the better the land and lower the amount of lease members , can many times, just mean BIGGER BUCKS< or just paying mroe?
there are so many factor to consider when looking at this stuff, its hard or impossible for anyone to tell you what to do, with so many un known's
NOW, NO bash here but have to ask, if you consider yourself a trophy hunter and say the last 20-30 o so bucks have been in the 110-120 range
that isn;t really trophy hunting by MOST trophy hunters standards, there NOT that hard to grow that size, they are in most places a 3 yr old buck with decent access to food!
so if your happy with that size, you can make that happen on almost any land you have if you provide reason for deer to LIVE and stay mostly on your land( a lot depends on location too, but a 120 class buck isn;t hard to get on land if you provide what it takes for them to live there YEAR round!, good management of plantings of quality habitat and foods, will grow 120's IF they get a chance to LIVE to 3+ yrs old!
and in some places 120's can happen pretty fast!
You also mention that in the lease your in, you have concerns about another hunter shooting a buck your after
well, if you buy a SMALL acre piece of land that same issue will be happening, if not more so, , all the more so the land your looking at,, as you already stated it looses deer as seasons change and your ONLY getting PASSING BY DEER, after maybe say crops get harvested or what ever!
SO< your NOT gaining any better odds on killing a targeted buck, on this small piece of land, BUT again, buying land, your at least getting something for your money that will most likely increase in vale, as to wasting money on a lease!
personally for me, I am NOT a fan of leasing, I have better things to spend my money on and have always been able to find good hunting on lands I don't have to pay to hunt(well I do give land owners gifts, so I guess I do pay some what, but its NOT near what a lease would cost, and none ever ask me for anything either, they just appreciate it when I do, which gets me access again and again and made me some great friends over the yrs, and that also lead to me gaining access to a LOT more lands to hunt)
People get caught up real easy in having to have PRIME lands to hunt, or get caught up in numbers of stand options and blah blah blah,
to be a good hunter can be done by just working harder, developing better skills and gaining access to lands the old fashion way, by ASKING< being helpful, earning access.
YES some don;t have the time to do so, and just rather PAY.
and so be it
but
my opinion, is save up, buy your own land, and hunt lands that don't require paying to access
as if your after trophy's and willing to PAY, maybe just go to an outfitter or a high fence and shoot things(yes I get costs can add up, but if a true trophy hunter, your not killing BIG deer on what your doing now so? as they say, some times have to PAY to PLAY LOL)