Capt Brad I really have no idea how much leases average, I am sure it varies quite a bit depending upon where the land is. In regards to places outside of the 4 counties I mentioned I have no problem with that at all, except I think we kind of need one person who is responsible for getting leases signed and paid for. We will also need someone who can check on the properties on a fairly regular basis. I think it would be easier to have one person as a focal point in regards to leases and coordinating who hunts where and when.

smokpole coordination is key, this is something we will need to work out, I would not mind being coordinator, I think a good way to handle it would be on a first come, first serve basis. What I mean by that is if hunter "A" calls me and says he wants to hunt property "X" stand #3 on the 4th saturday in November he gets it. If hunter B calls and wants to hunt the same place on the same date he will simply have to select another place to hunt. Another thing we have to avoid is one hunter "Owning" a stand. What I mean by that is if there is a real hot spot, it would be unfair for one hunter to have that hot spot reserved for a whole week. If he is the first one to call for a stand and wants it for the entire opening week, he would be garaunteed opening day because of the first come first serve understanding, but if someone else wanted to hunt that same stand during opening week the original person would have to split the days with them. I have a good feeling that if we have scheduling conflicts that the people involved can easily work it out between each other though.

I do not want a ton of people in this or we are going to wind up with some folks being upset and feeling like they got ripped off.

Right now we have about 13 people interested, I am sure that some of them will back out, and I am also sure that there will be others interested as the year goes by.

I am hoping that we can have our first get together some time in April or May, that will give me some time to hopefully have some lease possibilties lined up and we can talk about approximate cost per person and actually go out together and check the places out.

There are a lot of details that need to be worked out yet. I would love to have someone interested in this that has done this sort of thing before who can advise us on possible issues that could arise and how they can be resolved.

The Tazman