This is a simple case of supply and demand ecconomics. Only two ways to change a price of something. Increase the supply (which in this case probably wont happen) or decrease the demand. The price of anything is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. The price of a lease will not exceed the cost of owning that land. Otherwise people would buylandto hunt on. Guided hunt prices will level out at a place where there are more deer available to shoot than people willing to pay to do so. The value of a deer is determined by the hunter. Todays hunterhas determined the value by the size of the antlers.
The only way I can see to change the cost of hunting is to place less value on that bone riding the top of abucks head.Good luck!!

Your only reply is always $$. Then how come in the depression, when times were the toughest in recent history, and hunting was a way to feed the family instead of a hobby, did leasing not occur? Why weren't landowners charging a .05 a rabbit killed on their land. They had payments and taxes didn't they??

Magic,

If nobody cared about that stupid chunk of bone on the top of their head, then you would have to drive miles before you would even see a single No Trespassing or No Hunting sign in my home county. God those were good old days

I don't believe that most rural folks had the money to lease land to shoot rabbits during the depression and there werent any deer in my part of Illinois at that time.

Yep, IA had no issues till the kid killed the world record buck in southern IA. Prices of land soared overnight. Land that was worth $200 an acre went for 4,000 an acre in a year to two. Like I said, GREED.

Wow, so many things to comment on, I can't get all of them.

LA Tomkat, I agree with you completely. With timber companies, it's all greed. Yeah, it's their "right", but why keep raising the price?

I guess I lease for the convenience of having a stand location to call "mine". All of my friends have thier "own" stand locations.

There aren't many farmers around here.

I called the Timber Co, and politely asked them if I could hunt on those 2000 acres in East TX. They politely said, "Sure! That'll be $5 per acre please."

If I owned my own hunting land or had "free" access to hunting land I would not lease either.

When you think about it, unless you own the land that you hunt, everyone is leasing, the only difference is the price. ($$, labor, advertising, etc.)

Too many variables to have the right answer for everyone.....I give up, but I'm gonna continue to hunt.

Heck, I don't want to live in Ohio either You know of all the people who have ever asked me to hunt either my place or my family's places, not one has ever offered to do one single thing. I especially love the line "Do you need any deer taken off here?" No thanks. We're all stocked up on stupid.

I agree completely

HCH this is 2008, not the 30's Do I want it the way it is? No, do I understand why the way it is, yes.
My replies are about cash, sure, but yours are always why am I not getting something for free I suggest you sell the pretty Harley that loses value the second you buy it and buy some land. Then you can let every Tom D!ck and Harry hunt on it, and just see how they "respect" your land when it's free. Look no further than how most treat public land.

Hunters abuse of farmers/Private ownersland has caused more non hunting signs than most think.

HCH,

Ditto for Illinois. If it wasnt for the deer hunting craze, wooded ground in Illinois would be 600 an acre instead of 2500 to 4000. I paid 1300 an acre for mine in 2003 and the price has doubled since then.

I don't lease but I would if I had too. And if I was a large land owner, I would lease. This is a free country and if a farmer wants to lease his woods there is nothing wrong with that. I am friends with a farming family who owns a lot of land and I have permission to hunt all of it and feel very fortunate. Also my dad and brothers own ground I hunt. But there is plenty of public ground for those who don't have private ground to hunt. And I think most farmers who don't lease would give permission to most anybody to hunt if it is approached correctly. Most farmers in my area welcome hunters because it tends to deter the meth cookers, cause the see traffic in the area and know people are in the woods.

Would that line work for you Huntingson, "Do you have any meth cookers you need taken off here."[8D]