How do you find them?

Ive been hunting my whole life, in my early years with my dad and his friends on various leases down in South Texas and my adult years with my company on our lease and also on my friends lease out in West Texas as a guest.

I am wanting to get on a year round lease of my own so that I can manage my area and set everything up how I like it.  Unfortunately, the lease my buddies are on is more of a long term lease, the few people who are on it have been on it forever so if I wanted to wait to get on there, I could be waiting for a while...


Anyone have any good leads on leases? For what its worth, i'd actually prefer an East Texas lease.  I am located in Conroe and both my company lease and my buddies lease that I hunt on is out west, so it would be nice to have something different as my own.

Any help is appreciated...

Texas hunting forum?

yes, Ive looked over a few different forums but it is hard to get a fix on what all is out there. From my experience, most of the people I know who are on leases got there by word of mouth.  

just testing different avenues.

Make friends with landowners who live far away from Texas.




All of our leased land is owned by some people that live in Maine and some other northern state.


We get a pretty good deal. We don't have to mess with other leasers that we don't know. They usually offer us free hunts on their land up north, but have never gotten the chance to go. We look after the land and keep trespassers off. Sometimes mow certain areas that don't get mowed when they mow the pipelines.


Sometimes we'll make our own 'roads' with a tack hoe from the guys knocking down trees for access roads if they let us.




We've been leasing the same land for nearly 25 years.




Land owners get paid pretty good. Our biggest lease, $400 per person for 700 acres a year (just me, my dad, my BIL, grandfather an 2 uncles). The owners also get mailbox money from oil and gas companies and sometimes the paper companies when they cut down trees.


 

Craigslist, classifieds, local papers, livestock weekly, you can try to call the local chamber of commerce and local realtors too.  You have to talk to a lot of people.

I gave up on hunting. I actually make pretty good money and could afford it but I be damned if I am going to pay 10k a year to go hunt somewhere which is what it seems to cost if you want something decent that you aren't jammed on to with a half dozen other people you don't know. I have looked at multiple places in the 2-5k range and there was always something that made it a no go. Too many people, too far, weird rules, over hunted, etc.

Truer words ever spoken Doodlebug. Its sad but it is just like you said it is. I have had people get mad when I said about the same thing.  Hunting in Texas is costly and not much fun anymore.

If your looking for a East Texas lease try Southeasttexas.com or craigslist. Also try Crown pine timber's website.

I can't tell you how many guys I know feel the same way.

Most of them grew up hunting, it is very quickly reaching country club level of cost and BS.

Deer hunting in the Hill Country would be out of reach if I did not have family there. Thankfully, East Texas duck and goose hunting is still something cheap and inexpensive that one can become proficient at. Sort of off the radar for the time being. Hope ducks stay that way. Whitetail deer hunting has become a very boutique type hunt with so many creature comforts for the "hunter" that it loses some appeal.

Dove hunting is becoming hard with locating leases. If anyone is looking for dove hunting, might look south of Dallas this year. Last year saw cotton in production. This year there are thousands of acres with sunflower and milo coming in strong.

I have been reduced to a few hunts here and there on friends family lands.  If it wasnt for that, I would barely get out and hunt anymore.  Beyond that over the last several years I have been making a big trip out to Colorado on out of state tags to hunt on BLM/National forest land.  The prices for leases have gone insane.  I have been contemplating getting back into fishing, bout the only affordable thing to do.

same situation I'm in.  If it weren't for my companies lease that I get to do one hunt a year on and my buddies who I go out with occasionally, i'd have no way of hunting unless I paid for a day hunt somewhere, which is just insanely expensive.

Ive got a lead on one more lease that a buddy I went to HS is on but it is currently full as well.  He said "wait until the money is due, then a spot might open up"..

Oh well, I guess I cant complain too much, I get to make about 3 trips a year on friends leases and I don't have to pay anything... But I really would like a spot on a lease of my own to take care of.

I know the feeling.  I am constantly chasing leases, but in the end they fall through for some reason or as others have said, they have terrible rules or random people on it that cannot be trusted.

I'll quit when I lose these small properties I hunt now unless I can get to an income level where I can afford to purchase a place to hunt.  I know these properties will sell soon and I'll be kicked off.
I'll miss it. Bowhunting is my favorite hobby by far.