I'm sad to report that my Texas buddy says his crew has lost their Hill Country lease. He tells me that he has been hunting in that area for over forty years, but apparantly no more. It was nice while it lasted. It seems that the landowner, whom they were on really good terms with, passed away, and the heirs have gone for the money. The lease more than doubled in price. So, over Memorial weekend, they are fetching all their stuff, feeders, stands, bar-b-que grill, trailers, and things out of the cabin - kitchen, etc. It's going to be a lot of work getting all that stuff out of there. It took years to put all that together, and I have doubts that they can dismantle it in one long weekend.

Obviously, there are other opportunities, so I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Apparantly they are looking in East Texas for something closer to home. They found one place over 500 acres, which has potential, but it's mostly cypress swamp, and completely undeveloped - no cabin, no roads, no food plots, etc. Start all over again. It could work out well, hopefully. Of course, I can always go hunting in Georgia, which is way overdue anyway, and there's hunting here, but it's real special hunting in Texas with a camp of good guys and on a large acreage lease, with lots of critters. All good things pass.

KB

Been there, done that--and it's no fun. But, I still have the memories!

So sorry to hear that.......

Just out of curiosity, has the cost of the lease gone up at all over the past several years? Is this "doubling" really a huge deal if the rent hadn't changed for many years?

quote:

Originally posted by Oxon:
Just out of curiosity, has the cost of the lease gone up at all over the past several years? Is this "doubling" really a huge deal if the rent hadn't changed for many years?

Exactly what I was thinking. Without knowing any details, I'm not going to give an opinion, but the group might do some serious checking around for other lease prices for similar type hunting lands and see if they really want to leave. They might find a less expensive lease per acre but it might not be nearly as productive. I dunno, but if I were them, I'd do some serious thinking before throwing the baby out with the bath water, so to speak.

It ain't up to me, and speculating or second guessing does no good either. The fact is that the new price exceeds what they will pay, and apparantly the decision has been made - on both sides. Doesn't matter whether the price has gone up over the years or not. What matters is now. It apparantly doesn't matter whether the price is competitive or not either. Each of the participants of the lease has other alternate places to hunt, just not as a group, and not on large acerage.

Other factors, as I hear, are the driving time and distance the lease is from home, that the land owners run a herd of several hundred white goats (could be sheep mixed in, but I saw goats up close - at distance can't tell difference) and too many scragley cows on the property, who keep it beat down badly, and tear up feeders, etc. The goats are supposed to be kept in a section that is not part of the hunting lease, along with the large white dogs that guard them, but they stay in the lease area about as much as the rest of the property. Also the place is becomming overrun with hogs, although they shoot as many as they can. Apparantly the hogs migrate from adjacent properties. That's part of the reason I got invited - because I said I would like to shoot some hogs, and they said ok, shoot all ya want, so I did, as time would permit.

To me the place was somewhat depressing anyway. The hog hunting was good, of course, but it was easy to see that the property was poorly managed. The potential was obviously there, and the natural feed was aparantly good because all the hogs had a good fat layer, and the deer weren't poor either, even in January, and even though they had to compete with many - many domestic animals for food. There were lots of acorns under those oak trees growing beside the creeks. Everywhere I went was the smell of something dead and rotten - either hogs, goats or even a dead cow. It must really smell ripe in hot weather. Dealing with the owner, it was impossible for the hunters to manage the habitat for maximizing the food and productivity for hunting. All they could do is take what they could get and not make a fuss about the numbers of cows and goats, etc., without jeprodizing the lease rights. Managed exclusively as hunting property, the potential is hard to imagine, but apparantly that ain't gonna happen.

Another thing that was rude and inconsiderate, was that the owner's grandchildern would drive around at night with spotlights, partying, drinking, and whooping it up, shooting stuff, when the hunters leasing the place weren't there. That probably accounts for the dead cow, and most of the dead pigs rotting all over the place. Those kids even had the gall to spotlight at least once when I was there, and the guys wouldn't say anything hoping to not piss anyone off, since the old lady was obviously not in charge anymore, and incapable of dealing with it. Those kids were the ones who were going to have to negotiate with soon enough, when they inherited the property.

So, it's a lot more complicated than mere price.

KB