Lone Star Hunting Forum

I am just tossing this out here to get some feed back, posotive or negative.

Keep in mind during this ramble, I am just talking about a deer lease that would be thru both archery and gun seasons.

I have been in on deer leases before, and enjoyed all of the work involved in getting blinds built and feders set-up and running, but I was also fortunate enough to have less than 100 miles one way to drive from home to the lease.

In fact on the ones I was actually a paying member, it was 50 miles or less, home to lease.

The one I hunted for free on Montague county for 13 seasons was 88 miles from my house, still close enough to make getting to it and back home in one day bearable.

What I am looking at or thinkong about however is the folks driving 100+ miles to a lease.

While I know one of the main attractions of a lease to many folks is the work involved, I also know that many folks, because of the distance they have to travel, the limited amount of time they have to make the trip in, and all of the work that they have to do while there, it leaves very little actual hunting time.

Here is an example of what I see many folks gping thru:

Leave Friday afterwork, load up gear, drive 2 or 3 hours, hunt a couple of hours Sat. morning, after having had maybe an hour or twos sleep after getting to camp, go back to camp for brunch, then go check the feeders, if you did not do that in the dark after getting to camp on Friday night/early Sat. morning.

Fill feeder or replace batteries, possibly have to drive to the closest Wally World or Feed Store or Hardware store because you need more feed or something around camp or on one of the blinds or feeders broke.

Try to get all that done and be out of the pasture for a couple of hours and then go get in the stand for the evening hunt.

If you kill something then you have to take care of that and then sometime you will have to eat supper, then try to get a little sleep so you can get up Sunday morning, go out for a couple of hours, then get out of your stands, go around and check everything, then go to camp, load everything back up for the trip home, so you will be able to go to work Monday morning, not forgetting the traffic jam on I-20 coming in on the west side of Weatherford on Sunday afternoons during Deer season.

To me that does not look like it would be real fun, real long.

In fact it would become a PITA.

Now let's say you and your hunting companion(s), are paying a base price of $1500.00 a gun for this dream lease, plus you are supplying your own stands/feeders, plus the corn and protein and game cams, etc. etc..

So by the time season comes to a close, and you look back on your total expenditures versus actual hunting time and success ratio, you $1500.00 a gun lease has cost you probably around $3000.00 + or -.

Now I ain't trying to take Billy Mays' place or Ron Popeill here, but what if, for say $2500.00 per gun, you could get on a lease that already has fiberglass stands in place, protein and corn feeders up and running, game cams already active, and a cabin with electricty, so that all you would have to do is pick up the groceries you would need for the weekend, whatever clothes you would need, and your bow/gun, and head out.

Once you got there you could unload whatever needed to be unloaded, go in the cabin and go to bed.

Feeders would be being maintained, blinds would be being maintained, same with the cabin.

In fact, you would be able to leave some stuff at the cabin, nothing real valuable, guns/binoculars/bows and such, but clothes, extra boots, rain gear, whatever.

The places have been managed for quality deer for several years, both antler size but animal body quality.

What are your opinions on that type set-up?

For $2500.00 and not be able to do all the work I would rather put that money down on a high fence whitetail hunt. JMO CH

Keep one thing in mind when looking at this, this is all low fence property and anything big enough to register with B&C or P&Y, can be.

You can't do that on a high fence place and $2500.00 on a well run high fence place is only going to get you a 130 to 140 class buck.

Also, I am talking about a place for bow and gun season.

For $2500.00 on a high fence you might get 3 days.

Txpapa wrote:For $2500.00 and not be able to do all the work I would rather put that money down on a high fence whitetail hunt. JMO CH

That is where I thought you were going with this at first.

I have a friend on a lease and they provide the stands and feeders with feed , protien and corn for $3000, so some people are already doing this. In fact they even have set ups for bow blinds and e-mial him pics from the game cams.

I pay the 6 dollars and just road hunt the new toll road east of Austin.

Hypothetically speaking CH I would rather put my money down on a nice three day high fence whitetail hunt.
If I can't do all the stuff that you can do on a lease fill feeders work on timers and have my grandson, hunting buddy or just a friend to drive around with.

I would rather do it in three days not three months. JMO

Sethfish wrote:I pay the 6 dollars and just road hunt the new toll road east of Austin.

check it out I quoted myself does that mean I am now speaking in the third person. Here is a question. Since they have the toll roads fenced off, if lets say someone harvested an animal in said location would it qualify for ranking so when I got out I could show all my friends my deer at the TPWD trailer at the outdoor shows.

I think we will see a drop in lease prices or at least a stagnation in them for the next for years, with the exception being the truly high quality properly managed areas which will still bring in the big money from all over the globe.

To each his own.

Mind you, I work for both a High Fence operation on occasion and on some low fence properties.

Many folks would not take part in what I am describing because of some of the reasons you mentioned, while at the same time, not be willing to do the high fence hunt for some of the reasons you listed.

I wouldn't pay it, I like to do the hard work, or at least sit on a stump and drink a beer and watch Jo Lynne do the work.