I relocated from Michigan to Texas in June of last year.  In Michigan, I always had plenty of land to hunt.  Now I live on a 50' wide lot in city limits.

I'm not sure who is going more stir crazy, my two dogs, or me.

How does this whole leasing option work, and what is a REASONABLE price?  What I would like to find is a place with acreage who needs help maintaining it, and in return, while working, I could let my dogs stretch their legs and hunt it in the fall.  Before everybody starts blowing me up for a low post count, or not wanting to pay for hunting, I understand that most people don't want some random dude showing up and shooting at everything that moves.  I wouldn't mind chipping in (With $ and/or work) but I can't afford to drop $2,500 a year to go play.

Any input?

Welcome to Texas. The $2500 deal is about the norm. Some are MUCH higher. Check with the Texas Parks and Wildlife. I believe they have some "draw" hunts for deer/turkey. As for running your dog most folks don`t care for that because they have cattle/sheep/goats etc. If you were to look north or west you`ll find lower quality hunting and lower prices. Another option is "day hunts" which should be numerous within 10 minutes to 3 hours of you.

welcome to Tx but unfortunately you have to pay to play here, that sucks but its a fact of life. If you wanna go bass hit me up I got a private lake chocked full of them 10 min from downtown.

sorry to say that unless you happen to know someone on a lease that wants to bring you in with them, finding an inexpensive lease in Texas is not easy. The days of cheap hunting leases are long gone unfortunately.

Also like the other poster said, setting your dogs loose on the land is not usually a well received thing... if they happen to get out and wander across a fence line they are likely to get shot. Most hunters and land owners do not allow dogs to roam the country side as they run off the game animals.

as for what is a "reasonable price" will really depend on several factors in relation to the cost, such as : distance from your house, quality of game animals on the land, size of the land being leased, land features (water in creeks or ponds), year round access vs just during deer season, is a cleaning station provided or do you have to hang them from a tree to clean the animal, is there a cabin with water/electricity or do you have to drag a travel trailer and the number of hunters on the lease. Those are just some of the factors that you have to weigh in relation to the cost of the lease to determine if it is reasonable to you.  

good luck to you in your effort to find a place though!

to clarify a few things:  One of my dogs is a springer who has been around cattle, sheep, and chickens.  He has been trained not to harass any livestock.  The second is a 7 month old puppy who will be trained the same way.  Neither of them will ever get more than 100 yards away from me.  At this point, I honestly care less about the quality of hunting, and more about getting some ground to go play on.  IE cleaning up fence rows, mowing down scrub, etc.  I just want to get out of city life on the weekends.

You'll have to pay to play.
Our neighbors are all $2500 a gun.
We charge $1700 because most of our hunters have been here for years.

ETA. We don't allow them to bring dogs.

Does not matter how good your dogs are. If not bringing them with you is a deal killer then you will probably not be doing much hunting. If you just want to run your dogs a little bit, I suggest looking for "leash free" parks. Austin has a couple.