I' m reading all these posts and am somewhat confused. I' ve never heard of a trespass fee or even leasing your land to hunt. Obviously we have much different rules up here. It is actually illegal to charge someone to hunt on your land in Alberta, we either have to ask permission for private land, own it outright or go on public (crown land). Could someone please explain how you lease and what a tresspass fee is? JDinAB

JD,
A lease for hunting is ,the landowner is paid to let a individual or group to have sole right to hunt his property and the animals there within the boundries.

or
A landowner will charge a lease fee for the animal the wish to hunt,ie.. He charge you $500.00 a gun to hunt elk or what ever.

A tresspass charge is when the landowner of Leasie will charge some one to cross their land or allow hunting.Basicaly charge you to hunt,some will only give permision to cross not to hunt.

This what I was talking about.BBJ

and USA paid a gut $1200 for 5 days of hunting...WOW! I' d have to be loaded to hunt down there[]. Sorry to hear that fellas, I usually just bring the guy a bottle of whiskey and he' s more than happy to let me go hunting JDinAB

And in Texas, about 95% of hunting ground is private property. As stated above, the State of Texas (the people of Texas) actually own the wildlife, not the landowner. All a landowner can charge for is the right to enter his property for the purpose of hunting, not for the game itself.

I do know of some ranches that charge a " trophy" fee if you kill something above and beyond the fee you pay to hunt. I have never thought that was legal or ethical. That is truly like " selling" the wildlife, whick I think is wrong.

What a topic. For those of us in the " east" the cost of land is super high and state land is loaded with orange clothes, and getting permission to hunt private land is getting more and more difficult - in fact the land on which I currently deer hunt is locked into a nature conservancy after the farmer passes on - which in this particular case means no more hunting - the land will go fallow, not be farmed and will be maintained for bugs and bunnys. So for some of us who are serious hunters and want to get away from the competition and the experience excitement of hunting for species that are not native to our home state, we come west or south or north. Belive me I would rather not have to pay a tresspass fee and I may grumble about doing it but the couple times when I have - I have enjoyed the time there - it is just plain big county there and that in itself (just sitting and watching what some of you are lucky enough to see daily) is worth the price of admission for we who dwell close to sea level. Not everyone is motivated the same way - like I indicated previoulsy, i was able to do a days work for the rancher in exchange for a week of hunting. There have also been times when hunting BLM land that i wish I had paid someone because of having to deal with some of the moves that are made by less than ethical or ignorant hunters in the same vicinity. It is his deeded land to do with what he pleases and I support that alone.