I bring this up because I have mixed feelings about leasing ground. I see it from all angles so I'm going to bring out the good and the bad. I personally do not lease any ground. I am fortunate enough to be surrounded byState property that is so far from the nearest public access that it would take an hour hike just to get close to my area. So basically I have about 300-400 acres to myself, even though 90 percent of it is state. I have considered leasing before, however it is very expensive, since in my area if you are going to lease you must lease a very large chunk of property.
THE GOOD: Leasing property isan excellentway to assure hunting success. You can manage the property how you see fit to ensure trophy animals.Who wouldn't want 1000+ acres to themselves.
THE BAD: ThisI have witnessed first hand. It seems as though the leasing of property in my area has had a negative affect on the whitetail population andoverall health of the heard. My area first gothit with major leasing about ten yearsago. When it first started you sawnice deer consistently beingtagged in. You could almost guess what certain regions of counties these animals came from just by looking at thesize of the animals. So naturally, you have everyone else wanting to do the same. As aresult of the popularity of leasing the individuals hunting their leased property began focusing on BIG bucks instead of overall herd management.People would hunt just for rack.
Thiswas the start of the demise of the local deer herd. Soon you have populations exploding due to does not being killed off. This overpopulation lead to increased crop damage, which iswhy the farmers leased property for hunting purposes to begin with.Not only did you get overpopulation, but major in-breedingas well. The in-breeding started leading to smaller deer and weakeranimals due to more recessive genes being passed down the generations.All of a sudden you have more1.5 and 2.5year old bucks breeding their mothers. Which is ok as long as it doesn't happen a lot over an extendedperiod oftime. Theweights of the deer decreasing is also a result of lack of food.
Soover the course of the past 2-3 yearswe really started seeing smaller weights of animals. Racks are still big, but thats just because peoplewere pumping nutrient rich food sources into the animals that isgeared to build rack. The population was still getting out of control.This is were it gets really bad. Rumors have it that farmers started taking matters into their own hands this past summer. Rumors and I will repeat rumors say that farmers are getting depridation tags,and gut shooting deer so they run off of their property and die elsewhere. One guy I know, has a lease. He isextremely gifted. Itsjust expected for this guy to kill a 130+ class deer during archery season. For the first 23 days he did not see a single deer. WHY?I assume its because the depridation tags went overboard. Peoplewere going spotlighting and not seeing eyes glowing, but dead deer scattered here and there throughout fields.
MY OPINION: Leasing property is ok...as long as it is done correctly. Anyone who leases should take the responsibility to manage the deer herd intheir area. Not just take the trophies but take does as well.A lot of farmers have the mind-frame "kill em all". So if you wish to leasea farmers property you mustuphold their wishes. Do your part and take the responsibility to manage the deer, because if not then you are only hurting yourself. Whenyou take one smallgroup being irresponsible about managementand multiply it then everyone suffers.
I guesswhat I'm trying to say is that if you are willing to spend the bookoo bucks tolease you might as well fill all thetags you can. Ifyou don't, well then you will witness first hand what happens.
If you agree or disagree, then please, please explain. All ears, because this doesn't just benefit me. It benefits everyone,including the deer.

1. I agree that without overall herd management a group of hunters or a hunter can hurt the herd and can eventually piss off the landowners if only bucks are taken. That can affect both leasees and hunters that hunt by permisson. Thats being irresponsible.

2. Leasing displaces hunters, but I will say if a landowner is determined to only lease his land and will not allow hunting if it is not leased, then its better off for someone to lease it. At least someone is getting to hunt.

3. Leasing land also is an invite for outfitters to come into an area. An outfitter usually can afford to pay higher fees, so in effect it won't matter if a hunter wants to lease or not......he may become screwed.

In my opinion if a hunter leases land to hunt due to the fact its the only way he can hunt........then he should go for it. I am also of the opinion if a hunter leases land strictly to kill big bucks, he is hunting for the wrong reasons. We all like to shoot big bucks, but taking a few does puts meat in the freezer. If the deer population warrants it then that same hunter that won't take does for the meat can give it away to someone who can use it.

I aggree with several points that cougar and greatwhite both make. However, I also disaggree with several points as well.

1. Leasing is a great to ensure success - Not the case at all. The only thing that leasing ensures is that the guy has a place to hunt. Leasing is HUGE in most areas in Illinois and I have seen tracts of land that I would not hunt for free get leased, mostly to out-of-state hunters who don't have the time to research the property and just assume that since it is in Illinois, it will have tanks on it. If you lease a big enough tract of property, you can decide to not take a buck and have decent expectationst that he will make to next year, but this is far from being 100% true. I lease 1500 acres near cougar and all of my ground has heavy hunting pressure on the neighboring properties. It would be one thing if the 1500 acres were a perfect square, but it is not. It is broken up by other land owners and I let a buck walk, I doing so knowing he could be killed 10 minutes after I see him.

2. Leasing ground opens the door to outfitters - in my experience is just the other way around. When outfitters roll in, they start sucking up every bit of available ground around them. This leaves a bunch of hunters (who were hunting my permission only) without a place to hunt. In return, they are almost forced to open their wallet and try to compete with the outfitters for ground. I know in Pike and Calhoun Counties where I did most of my hunting that outfitter will often lease properties that boarder their "core" areas just so noone can hunt it and provider them with a buffer zone. I lost a piece to an outfitter a few years back and the only reason why was because the property I was hunting had crop ground while the outfitters "core" area did not. He did not want me shooting "his" deer when they came to feed and he knows that he cannot make a big enought food plot to compete with a 200 acre corn field.

3. Heard management should be a part of any hunters game plan. I have never understood the guy that goes out and refuses to shoot a doe. He has to know that by not taking does, he is hurting the land in the long run. I know plenty of outfitters who spend a bunch of time in late Decemenber and Janurary killing does, just in an attempt to get the buck-to-doe ratio to a point where it helps them in hunting bucks.

IMHO leasing is what it is. Some are lucky enough to have gained permission to hunt (orown)quality ground. There are places where gaining access for free or by trading work is still possible. However, some of us are not so lucky. Deer hunting consumes all of my free time, the amount of time I have to hunt is more limited than I would like it to be. Thefore, I have opted to join a hunt club that leases private ground as well as lease private ground on my own. I want to know that when I get to go, I have a quality place to head to. I know that leasing is not for everyone, but it is spreading. I do believe that the midwest will soon be like Texas and other areas in the South. If you don't own, lease, or belong to a hunt club you will be restricted to public ground only.

In my opinion... It really screws the small guy! Why should someone be able to hunt a piece of property because of there wallet? I know that my stewardship for land and animals is way beyond some rich guy that hunts a couple days a year on a "guarenteed" quality hunting area.. It's crap.

When I got stationed in West Michigan I was so excited. I have never had the opportunity to hunt whitetails, but I knew that I would have a better chance of killing a mature buck on private property. I stopped at 40 plus farms in my immediate area looking for a piece of property to bow hunt on. All by one person said no way. And she even called back and cancelled. A few guys said they would let me hunt If I paid them $1000 a year. That's bull crap. I never bothered the property owners with small tracts of land. I talked with people who had 100 or more acres. I met with a local farmer and his family, they have a 4000 acre farm. The guy I met was willing to give me a shot, I went over for a great dinner and met all of them. There are only THREE (3) people who hunt this property, and they all gun hunt.I want to bow hunt exclusively. It was a young man about my age, his dad and grandpa. Grandpa shut me down because he didn't want me to kill his big bucks. I assured him I would only harvest 1 buck per year and as many does as he would like me to take. 4000 acres, with 3 hunters, I was floored. I told him that there are bucks on his property that he would never even see. He didn't care. So i thanked them for dinner and left. I was so down that I called my grandfather back in Idaho.. I said to him, Grandpa, don't let anyone from Michigan hunt on our land. Infact why not make them pay! He just laughed and said. " come on, who does that"

To me Leasing is hurting our sport. Instead of wanting to let everyone share the outdoors, the landowners are more concerned with making a buck. it is a shame..

I would much rather hunt on land that was called "MY PROPERTY" and I could manage it the way that I want to.

After reading Muliefever's story, I realized that things are different in different places. My buddy and I practically devoted last summer to the up and coming bow season. You would not believe all the farms we went to try and gain permission. And it worked, we got 18 new properties to hunt. Of course we got turned down a ton. But we developed a pretty good strategy in asking and next summer will be even better. So for us, we have no reason to lease...

However for leasing land, it isnt that common up here in N.E Ohio. But if someone has the money to spend on gaining prime land, well what is there to do?? not much. I guess it just hasnt hit me yet in my area.

I guess there is a different mentality around here, the landowners just wanted the deer dead. Countless landowners said "Kill them all." We are very fortunate to be in this position and I know its hard for some of you guys.

Scott, I envy you very much! Maybe I will try to get stationed in Ohio next time!! I even figured throwing the military card in there would help. NOPE..

How do you know they were in breeding, 1.5's bucks breeding there mothers is very unlikely considering the first thing the mother does is run them off. And as far as there being too many does it is likely then that there was a bunch of big old angry matriarchs that like to run off the 1.5 and 2.5 yr old bucks. And also when there is inbreedding you would think the racks would be pretty inferior like basket racks and such, not big like your saying.

I guess in a way I am neither for nor agains leasing. However, I can see why a landowner would not want someone on their property due to the liability. Someone falls from a stand and gets injured or worse, dies, the landowner could face a lawsuit. In addition, they have the expense of having that land (taxes) and yet no way to recover any of that cost.

Personally I have no problem paying a reasonable fee to ensure that I have a place where I can hunt and enjoy it without any interuptions. Plus I can hang my stands and for the most part, leave them without concern of them being stolen (knock on wood). The big advantage is knowing who is where on the property

I'm confused after reading this. Try re-reading the post and you may answer your own questions. As far as the 1.5's breeding their mothers...how do you know they aren't? When nature calls what do you expect to happen.