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Would you pay for the ability to hunt on private property? Would you be willing to pay say per weekend or x amount of days. Im talking to a land owner and was asked this question. I would like to hunt on his land. It would be a limited amount of hunters per day allowed; so pressure would be low. How much is fair? No guide service just a layout of the land and go hunting. Im looking at bear and deer in the northwest.
Kind of a wide open question, the answer to which would depend on your reasons for the hunt. I'm a meat hunter so my answer would be no. However I know people that pay big bucks ($10,000 and up) for the right to hunt private land for trophy sized animals.
Very little public land in Texas. It's pay to play here. I can only relate to South Texas, Webb County to be exact. That county is known to have the biggest and best deer in the State. But it takes a LOT of land to find these deer. Ranches of just a couple thousand acres is considered a patch and not likely to get you a deer at all. You have to go to the big ranches. You're looking at 10,000 acres plus to get into a kind of game program. Cost per year is around 10-12 bucks an acre. That gets you two buck deer. If the rancher likes you, you might get a few doe tags. Coyotes and hogs- shoot all ya want. That generally covers from opening day gun season to close. That most of November thru the middle of January. Most often, that covers deer, hogs, javalina, and coyotes. Anything else is off limits. Most ranchers will usually want to know the hunters face to face and they normally have their own game wardens that will check up on any shots fired on their ranch. Show up with a pistol cartridge rifle and you get to leave. Wound a deer, can't find it, most often you'll be paying a hunter with dogs to get it. This is for Webb County. The Texas hill country is cheap by comparison but the deer MIGHT weigh as much as 80lbs. We call them suitcase deer. Shoot 'em, gut 'em, tie the legs together and walk off with it like a suitcase. They're tiny. Not sure about cost for West Texas or East Texas as the hunting is totally different. In Webb County you may only see 10 deer in a weekend. Hill country you might see 50 in one evening. Because of the sheer number of deer in the hill country, the ranchers only care about you kill. The huge ranch houses and exotic blinds are generally to South Texas.
Because Texas has so little public land available, it's become a rich mans game. Some of the hunting shacks are better than most folks live in. Some cost over 1 million dollars to build. Some include a house keeper and cooks. Some even have guides that will find you the deer you want, you shoot it, he takes it from there. Some even have airports. Some have hunting blinds that have kitchens and sleeping quarters on elevated platforms complete with A/C and heat. Some have nothing but the land. Depends on how much you wanna spend.
Hunting blind in South Texas:
Typical hunting buggy:
No, I wouldn't pay to hunt on private land, because there is all kinds of public lands around the areas I hunt. If I wanted exclusive rights to hunt on private land, and no other hunters, then yes, I would pay. That is only fair, and the land owner should be able to charge for the use of his land. He has taxes to pay for his land, any way he can make money from that land is fair.
In Texas you would have to pay anywhere between $1200-5000 per gun for the season. Usually, btwn 4-12 hunters will go in together on a lease of 1000 acres or more. Large ranches mean more habitat and less pressure. Of course this varies in the drier parts of west texas to the wetter regions of east texas or the hill country thats full of deer, farms and canyons in the pan handle of north texas, or brush country of south texas.
You said less pressure? How many hunters? How often will they be hunting bear and deer? And what is the size of the place? Also, will you lease for the entire season or just weekend or day hunts? The answers to those questions will determine if its worth it or not.
I have hunted full season leases in texas and public lands. If you want to hunt here you have to pay, either way.
No offense but what TrapperL described we call shooting, not hunting. And no I am not originally from California and do not hunt this state. I hunt Nebraska and Arizona mostly. On the ground, spot and stalk.
No, not around here. We don't pay for leases when over 55% of the state is state owned land, or BLM. We are allowed to hunt all of that, anyhow.
There are lodges up here that do have trophy hunts, but you won't see any residents buying into that.
Buddy of my Dad's has an arrangement for a tresspass fee with a farmer/rancher around the green river south of 80 for lope season. He has been hunting there on private land for the last few years. Takes animals every year.
Buddy of my Dad's has an arrangement for a tresspass fee with a farmer/rancher around the green river south of 80 for lope season. He has been hunting there on private land for the last few years. Takes animals every year.
I havent been able to go because of work and kids
Several years ago, the Game and Fish changed our tags to 3 parts. One part gets rolled up and inserted under the hide. One part gets mailed in to Game and Fish. One part is given to the land owner. At the end of season, the land owner can hand in all of his tags that he got from hunters and he is paid for each one.
Also, Game and Fish pays for damaged property. Say the elk eat all of your apples, or the deer tear up your haystack, or the antelope tear up your fence. Game and fish will pay for those loses, as long as the landowner allows hunters. If they don't allow hunting, they can apply, but are denied.
Some land owners only allow trophy hunters on their land for the first 5 days of season. Don't know if they charge or not, but would imagine they do. After the 5th day, they allow general hunters on.
The private land where I hunt, asks people to come out and harvest deer and antelope.
But like I mentioned, there is more BLM land than there is private. The BLM is checkerboarded across the state, so it's not like we put all the BLM in one spot. Then there is National Forest to hunt and camp. You can set up a tent, or drag in a camper, anywhere you want (doesn't have to be in a camp ground, and you have to follow particular rules) and you can camp for a maximum of 16 days. Obey the laws, follow the rules, and it makes for sweet hunting just about anywhere in the state.
By the way, along I-80, between Rock Springs and Rawlins, is the Largest Dune area in the US. It is also the area of the largest Elk Herds in the lower 48.
Several years ago, the Game and Fish changed our tags to 3 parts. One part gets rolled up and inserted under the hide. One part gets mailed in to Game and Fish. One part is given to the land owner. At the end of season, the land owner can hand in all of his tags that he got from hunters and he is paid for each one.
Also, Game and Fish pays for damaged property. Say the elk eat all of your apples, or the deer tear up your haystack, or the antelope tear up your fence. Game and fish will pay for those loses, as long as the landowner allows hunters. If they don't allow hunting, they can apply, but are denied.
Some land owners only allow trophy hunters on their land for the first 5 days of season. Don't know if they charge or not, but would imagine they do. After the 5th day, they allow general hunters on.
The private land where I hunt, asks people to come out and harvest deer and antelope.
But like I mentioned, there is more BLM land than there is private. The BLM is checkerboarded across the state, so it's not like we put all the BLM in one spot. Then there is National Forest to hunt and camp. You can set up a tent, or drag in a camper, anywhere you want (doesn't have to be in a camp ground, and you have to follow particular rules) and you can camp for a maximum of 16 days. Obey the laws, follow the rules, and it makes for sweet hunting just about anywhere in the state.
By the way, along I-80, between Rock Springs and Rawlins, is the Largest Dune area in the US. It is also the area of the largest Elk Herds in the lower 48.
Someday I'll make it there to hunt. Hopefully WYO isn't taken over by nuts by then.
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