purchasing private land for hunting
 

Hello all. I would like to purchase land to be used exclusively for recreational hunting.

-My budget is 500K.

-I wish to hunt everything and would like the land to contain as much game as possible in terms of species variety. Priority is elk, but would love turkey's, goats, lions, moose etc.

-Within a 2 hour drive of my new home, The People's Republic of Boulder


Obviously this is my starting point of research, i'm in the 101 stages here. Are my goals realistic?

http://www.jameslandco.com/item.cgi?...tem=0000000207

Is anyone familiar with the above area outside Estes Park?

Thanks!

If your main goal here is hunting elk, then I would have to say that your goal is not that realistic. The land link is not even in the running. 155 acres is a drop in the bucket for the amount of land you would need to keep and hunt elk on. Don't mean to rain on your parade, but I have looked for hunting land quite a bit. A few years ago, some friends sold a ranch and were looking for an elk hunting ranch and I helped them look. At that time, it appeared to me that about $4 million was a minimum for having a decent "elk almost every year" type ranch. Even with the plummeting of land pricing, I would say that $2-3 mil would still be about the minimum. But hey, you may have different goals. The property you listed would be a good place to build an cabin and have access to public land hunting, but is not nearly big enough to hunt on the ranch itself. But you can build a cabin on a lot less expensive property and then hunt public.

I know that owning your own land is a very attractive idea (I would love to myself). But here is another way to look at it: If you put that same money in an investment earning 5% (bond market right now would do at least this well), you would generate $25,000 per year to hunt with! That would buy you and some friends some pretty nice hunts on some good ranches (guided or trespass DIY hunts)

Or you could invest your money in land and a cabin and hunt mainly public land for raghorns like the rest of us.

You also need to think about what unit any land you buy is in. Is it a draw only area? How many years does it take to draw the type of tag you like? I had 5 acres for a cabin in one area of Colorado and it changed to draw only for elk, and was going to take me (as a nonres) 3-4 years between hunting elk. I sold that land and bought to another area. Pretty sure the land around Estes is draw only, but am not sure.

Your one shot at buying what you want would be if you could find a tract that blocked access to some public land that was hard to get to except through your land. Those are rare though.

Good luck. I hope you find what you are looking for!

Well that land could also be an investment and double it's value in 5 years. Just throwing out random numbers.

"Well that land could also be an investment and double it's value in 5 years. Just throwing out random numbers."

True, but that hasn't been the case over the last 5. Currently you would get less for land you bought 5 years ago in CO. But, it has to come back up some day! And for me personally, if I bought a "ranch" to hunt elk, etc on, it would not be to sell in the future, it would be to hand down to my kids.

Of course, he may not have the $500K to invest, he may just be able to afford payments on that much. But if he does, his options are buy a piece of land and hunt public along with the rest of us or pay for a hunt with the chance of getting a really nice elk every year.

I'd find more acreage than that for $500K and it would border a piece of federal ground that has difficult access unless you own property around it. That property in the link really isn't enough for any real big game hunting, especially the way elk move many miles in their normal travels. I think Tx58 hit the nail on the head with his various comments in his post!

FYI: I have bought/sold several cabin sites through the years and come out OK, but I finally ended up buying 3 acres 1 mile from a 500 acre lake and 2 miles from national forest. This is where I will be building my cabin. Paid $35,000 for the land and will build the cabin myself, so I will be around $80-100,000 all in.

oh wow, about $12,000/acre?

Price per acre is not the issue. Having a cabin in a good area is the issue. In my mind, the 150 acres he links above buys him nothing more than I have: a place to put a cabin in an area close to hunting and fishing. So you can spend $350,000 for a cabin site or $35,000

And for that I got 3 acres of aspens at 9000 ft with an all weather road and electricity to the front of the lot. No phone lines, but the area gets decent cell service. All that one mile from a great public fishing lake and two miles from national forest that goes on for over 20 miles with great hunting. You might be able to duplicate that or beat it with the fall of land prices, but I am satisfied I got a good deal.

Here is a link to look at:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...l_PhotoGallery

If you think outside the box and extend your range, you might come up with something. This looks like it would be a good hunting property other than elk, and might be a late season elk property if the snow hits.

So how about it Landinco? Are you just one and out?