Do you lease?

[DEERSLAYER]

mossoaks post "Finding a new lease?" got me to wondering how many of you lease?

I myself have never leased and I'm not looking too.

[Wrinkleneck]

I have never leased land for hunting. I really believe with the bigger chunks of land being devided up into smaller chunks for people to be able to buy really puts the hurt on finding private land to hunt. Ya there is alot of public land out there, but you have to figure that as there gets to be less and less private land to find access to hunt more and more people will either have to make the public land more crowded or you will have to lease land in order to have a place to hunt. I myself cannot justify buying more land just for hunting, so I can see in the future (saying I keep hunting for years to come) I either have to drive some distance to hunt heavy pressure crowded public or lease land closer to home and have a chance at least to try and manage it to some degree. just my .02

[Black Squirrel]

I and 3 others lease 160 acres, with about 120 acres of woods, in western WI. I do most of my rut hunting there. It's alittle small for 4 guys, and they have different ideas on how it should be hunted. They like ladder stands, with lots of big shooting lanes and bait. Not ideal for beast style hunting. I use my tree saddle to get away, but it's hard to totally get away from them. That's why my biggest buck to date came off my father in laws land, in Eastern WI. I also think it's just a matter of time before we lose it.

[Southern Man]

I lease a 60 acre farm, with about 10 acres cropped and the rest woods/ thick overgrown stuff. It's small but in a very good area surrounded by cropland, farm country. I have several other small properties I can hunt but nothing as good as the lease. Public ground here is at the extremes. The state land is geared toward waterfowl hunting. It's all swamp mostly along the mississippi river and the major creek drainages. Good deer in these areas if you don't mind the cottonmouths. I presonally don't On the other end you have Land Between the Lakes, all ridge country covered with oak and hickory and very little agriculture. Low deer densities but some good ones in there.

I hunt all three, lease, public swamp, and LBL. But my favorite is the lease.

[Schultzy]

I've never leased any land but would be open to It If the right opportunity comes along. Actually I had a chance to lease some land In Illinois but passed on It being I didn't think I'd click to well with the 2 other guys that also lease It. This Is/was some great land too.

[Brandon]

Nope, im poor.

[muddy]

If giving the landowners a $50 gift certificate to a new restaurant counts, then technically I'm leasing! My shotgun buck cost me a $30 Stir Crazy corn popper so I did there as well!

[JRM6868]

A buddy of mine has some property that borders some Mead paper land( called F&W Forestry I believe). We lease the 220 acres that borders his which gives us 520 acres to hunt. One possibility is to look at the paper mill's land. They usually lease it to pay their property taxes. Ohio has alot of their land that they lease from 100 acres to a couple thousand acres.Another alternative to buying land. Attaching land owners get the right of first refusal and after that it's open to anybody to lease. Everyyear after you have the right of first refusal before it's open again. A downside is that they can come in and timber anytime they want so a big woods could become a clearcut a year or two after you lease. They clearcut ours about 10 years ago. They only clearcut what couldn't be seen from the road so there is still about 80 acres of huntable woods surrounding the clearcut.

[wappkid]

No, Never have never will. I don't believe in paying for deer lease. I think it's the same as paying an outfitter. I would pay for an outfitted hunt before I would lease. It doesn't have anything to do with money. It actually makes me sick these people who throw money at these farmers for a lease. Makes everybody with a farm think they are sitting on a goldmine. Last weekend I just got permission to hunt a 240 acre farm less than 12 miles form my house. That makes 4 farms I have permission to hunt.With a total of 1200 acres of private land I have permission to hunt. And all I did was ask. Might try it sometime. Could save yourself some money.

[PLB]

mossoaks post "Finding a new lease?" got me to wondering how many of you lease?

I myself have never leased and I'm not looking too.

X2!!

[DropTyne]

I lease about 450 acres in east central WI for $200/year. It's good land in an area that has growing QDM practices amongst neighbors. For that price it is a steal. I also hunt another 250 acres in two different chunks, a large portion of it is in Central Wisconsin, and the other protion is in SE Wisconsin. These two properties I hunt for a bottle of Whiskey and a gift card. I am in the same boat as Black Squirrel in regards to my lease in East Cental WI, there are 5 other guys that hunt that with me and their hunting practices are sub-par, it actually makes it almost more favorable to hunt some public that has light pressure nearby (I've done this before). So I guess when you tally it all up I pay the 200$ for East Central, 15$ Whisky (Kesslers) Central location, and 30$ for a gift card for South East Location. That's 245$ for 700 acres or .70$ per acre. I also hunt about 30% of my sits on public land. I would like to add that the only reason I pay for the lease in the East Central part of the state is because a few years ago someone offered the farmer a lease agreement and he came back to our hunting party and said we would have to ante up if we wanted to keep hunting.............. so we did at a nominal fee.

All of the land I hunt started with no cost, but with rising interest in leasing I had to start to put some cash or gift cards/booze in the pockets of my landowners to increase relations and lock it in. Smart if you ask me not too costly either.

Would I pay 40$ per acre to hunt land in the West Central part of the state? No! I can't afford that, and I don't think I would pay that even if I could afford it. Some of the land lease numbers that come out of that area or the Tigerton region of Shawano county are outlandish, and I personally feel that with growing awareness to management you will continue to see new areas start to move up the radar in regards to the quality of bucks they are producing.

IMO comparing leasing land to an outfitted hunt is assinine. Basically it's a slap in the face to the 100+ hours I had invested in taking my buck this year. Just because you have access to private land in some way shape or form does not mean you are gauranteed success. Just ask the other hunters in my East Central hunting party (They have no bone to show) how difficult it is. The only difference between them and me is the fact that I do my homework and they do not.

Furthermore I have found that sometimes the private land is getting more pressure than the public land. I have personally driven away from the piece of private I hunt in order to hunt Navarino (public nearby) and found next to no-one hunting it, whereas on the other hand my private and surrounding private hunks of land are getting lots of pressure from locals and the guys in my hunting camp.

No-one sets my stands, no-one watches my buck, no-one dictates where and when I hunt but me.........

[Dewey]

I have never leased and don't plan to in the future.

The way I look at it there are over 6 million acres of public land in Wisconsin so I feel no need to pay any money to hunt. If you put in the hard work and scout the public land enough you will be surprised by the quality of deer on public land. I have found that every area holds at least one good buck if you put the time in to find them and if you research enough you can find unpressured areas that others do not hunt.

[PLB]

I have never leased and don't plan to in the future.

The way I look at it there are over 6 million acres of public land in Wisconsin so I feel no need to pay any money to hunt. If you put in the hard work and scout the public land enough you will be surprised by the quality of deer on public land. I have found that every area holds at least one good buck if you put the time in to find them and if you research enough you can find unpressured areas that others do not hunt.

X2!!!

[Black Squirrel]

I think it's the same as paying an outfitter. I would pay for an outfitted hunt before I would lease.

I have to disagree with that statement. In my opinion it's much closer to owning your hunting land than paying an outfitter. If you lease, you are basically purchasing the hunting rights to that piece of property, thats it. What you put into your land is what you get out of it. Just the same as if you owned it. If you don't scout it ,nobody will scout it for you, if you don't hang stands, nobody is going to hang your stands etc.. So to me it is quite the opposite of paying an outfitter to do all the work for you, and then just go out and shoot something. That's how I see it anyway.

[Dewey]

I think it's the same as paying an outfitter. I would pay for an outfitted hunt before I would lease.

I have to disagree with that statement. In my opinion it's much closer to owning your hunting land than paying an outfitter. If you lease, you are basically purchasing the hunting rights to that piece of property, thats it. What you put into your land is what you get out of it. Just the same as if you owned it. If you don't scout it ,nobody will scout it for you, if you don't hang stands, nobody is going to hang your stands etc.. So to me it is quite the opposite of paying an outfitter to do all the work for you, and then just go out and shoot something. That's how I see it anyway.

Very good point!