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Yearly Lease vs Yearly Hunting trip - Whats your opinion

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View Poll Results: If meat was not your object, what woud you do?
Leases
8
38.10%
Random Hunt trips - Outfitter
3
14.29%
Small Lease (cheap) and Yearly Big Hunt trip
5
23.81%
Other
5
23.81%
Voters: 21. You may not vote on this poll

Yearly Lease vs Yearly Hunting trip - Whats your opinion

Old 11-28-2012, 05:14 AM
  #1  
Fork Horn
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Join Date: Sep 2004
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Default Yearly Lease vs Yearly Hunting trip - Whats your opinion

So I was in the tree stand the other day thinking to myself. I am spending $2500 a year on hunting leases (roughly 1000 acres of farm land of which around 300 acres is woods and acutally huntable).

In the past 4 years I have been hunting them I typically take 1-2 decent deer a year but nothing with the “Wall Hanger” status. I would say between 7-8 guys hunting we only take 5-6 bucks total a year, usually in the 100-130 class.

Between the leases, truck gas back and forth, corn for feeders, deer cain and mineral blocks, trail cams, stands, etc….I’m sure I’m spending well over $3k a year.

My question is this: If you were not after the meat but were actually after trophy animals would it make more since to plan a week long trip each year with an outfitter vs. spending all this money on leases?

Don’t get me wrong I enjoy hunting but it has gotten so competitive on these leases you feel like you HAVE to hunt hard or you will be left out. Another point is the other hunters are not close friends or family, they are just random guys paying to hunt the farms.

I’m thinking Black Bear and fishing, Florida Gator and Hog hunt, Canadian whitetail, South Texas whitetail, etc…just mix it up and do a real nice hunt every other year and a cheaper hunt on the alternate years.

I am afraid that if I do this I will find myself without a place to hunt in the fall (during rut) and will be beside myself.

What’s your thoughts? Just looking for some different perspectives.
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Old 11-28-2012, 05:31 AM
  #2  
Fork Horn
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Promise land ,KY
Posts: 189
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I would hands down rather do a lease. This year is my first time doing a lease and I love it. Yes it is extremely expensive but I enjoy the work that goes into hunting the deer just as much as actually hunting. I can't see myself enjoying hunting on a completely unknown piece of property in a stand that someone else hung. Maybe thats just me but I would rather take a deer that I know I put the work into to get.
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Old 11-28-2012, 09:52 AM
  #3  
Nontypical Buck
 
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Location: VA, USA
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I would have to say leases. I enjoy hunting too much to not be able to go on a "whim". It's nice to leave work early and go hop on a stand for a few hours in the evening. I would love to go on some of the big hunting trips but I enjoy hunting close to home.
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Old 11-28-2012, 03:13 PM
  #4  
Nontypical Buck
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Pine Hill Alabama USA
Posts: 1,280
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I vote lease. First of all hunting isn't just about killing to me. It's about time spent outdoors. You will get far more of that from a lease than an outfitter trip.

And second I just like doing things for myself. I don't care to go somewhere and have a guide lead me out to a stand and point to it and say "sit there". And of course tell me what to shoot as well. To me that's kind of like when your dad used to take you fishing as a little kid. He'd bait your hook; cast the reel; set the hook on a fish; then hand the pole to you so you could reel it in. Fun when I was 5 years old I guess but not as a grown man. I like to do my own scouting; hang my own stands. I like to choose when and where I hunt. And while I do try to shoot mature bucks I also like not having to worry that I will be fined 1000 bucks for shooting a buck that turns out to be 2 inches under some outfitters minimum.
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Old 11-29-2012, 01:25 AM
  #5  
Fork Horn
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: SE Kentucky
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OK, here is my recommendation...as long as you are young enough, stick with the lease...you will get a lot more time in the woods, easy access and, consequently, more enjoyment...once you get older (like me) and cannot physically take care of a lease then think about guided hunts...once you start on the guided hunts there are lots and lots of options...I went on one in Oklahoma last year where I harvested a 150 class buck for 3K...unfortunately the outfitter sold his ranch and that option is no longer there...good luck...

Cheers/bg
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Old 11-29-2012, 04:37 AM
  #6  
Nontypical Buck
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,358
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Personally I'd take the outfitted hunts/trips. With a lease you are on one piece of land, with one "herd" of animals and one type of animal. with trips you can hunt any animal and see different land every year.

Downsides to trips: much fewer days to hunt, weather can destroy your hunt, it's a gamble if you end up with a crap outfit.
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Old 11-29-2012, 09:38 AM
  #7  
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I'm not crazy about leases, I'm on one and have been for 10 years?

Sure you can lease for a year for the same price as a 1 week outfitted hunt, I think if you do your homework you're more likely to take that trophy buck with that outfitter than your annual lease.

It all depends though I suppose on each situation, are you keeping trespassers off? I think an outfitter can do this better than the avg guy who leases and doesn't live locally but the outfitter does.

I think I just need to get in on a better lease situation. Our cousin shoots 2-3 dinky bucks a year and we're managing for "trophy bucks" and the guy has probably 15-20bucks by now, and will mount everything he shoots, how many dinky bucks does a guy need? his view though is shoot a buck or two and keep hunting and hopefully take a monster buck too, vs. letting those small bucks grow up but that may mean not shooting a buck this year, he's shooting a buck every year, because he's "the man"

personally I don't view the hunter who takes a dinky buck every year as being any better than the trophy hunter who gets skunked year after year...

I'm in on a cheap lease in a sense, so I'll get to hunt whitetails locally every year, but my goal is to try to go west or somewhere else every year for something new, elk, mulies, etc... I'd like to go after that NA10 and hunting whitetails every year and not going after other species doesn't get you the NA10.

one line I once read was, you can always hunt whitetails when you're old, you can't always hunt sheep when you're that same age... go on the tough hunts while you're young...

I just need to win that powerball and buy 1000acres
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