The real-estate mantra is location,
location, location. This will also be your mantra for the selection process
of your lease.
So many things come into play when
selecting a lease but location ranks number one in my mind. Let’s look at
the many variables involving location.
First, you must get to the lease.
While a lease twelve hours away may have huge bucks, if your schedule only
allows a trip or two per year do you want to spend an entire day just
driving TO the lease? Conversely, a lease thirty minutes from home may be
very handy, but if it produces no deer, what’s the point? With more and
more people living in major cities, a good lease thirty minutes away is
becoming a thing of the past. In fact, it may be necessary to drive thirty
minutes just to get out of the city! Choose an area that will allow you to
maximize your hunting schedule ( and only you and yours know how much time
you can devote to hunting!).
In addition, unless you get an
existing lease from another hunter, or lease a ranch that provides blinds
and feeders, you will have to erect your own blinds,
install and fill your own feeders, and check your own area.
That means you will be going to your
lease more than just once or twice a year for maintenance alone. Don’t
forget the time you will need to spend scouting your lease as well!
Another consideration aside from the
number of trips you can make is the duration of your hunt. Again, if you can
only spend three days at your lease, it doesn’t make sense to spend
another day driving each way. Rather, try to find a lease three to four
hours away at most. Now you can rise early, hit the road , and be at your
lease in time to hunt the afternoon, the next morning AND afternoon and
finally the last morning. Pack up, hit the road and be home in time for
supper. Now I’ve just spent the same three days out, but I managed TWO
full days of hunting!
You must also consider how many
people will be on your lease. More people mean more acres to pay for. In
addition, you may find a lease that is too small for a group, but perfect
for one man. An example of this is a friend of mine who for about six years
had a five acre lease. I know, that doesn’t sound like much but the five
acres adjoined a three-hundred acre lot! A couple of feeders and a stand was
all he needed to bag a nice little six-point and a bobcat, in the same day!
Best of all, because the landowner (and everybody else) thought the parcel
was too small to hunt, he let my friend hunt free!!
Another reason location is so
important involves cost. Some places are well known for huge trophy bucks,
and leases there are at a premium. If you want a lease of this type be ready
to raid the kids’ college fund or maybe win the lottery first!
Most of us can’t afford this type
of operation so we will move on to other options.
We will try to set up a review of
one of these operations to show you what you might expect if you can obtain
such a lease, but we are not going to spend a lot of time on it now.
Leave the super-trophy areas and
cost is still linked to location. An area not known for deer will of course
be much cheaper. If that area has ANY deer at all, it may be worth a close
look. If you can determine that an area has bucks, does and food, you may
have a viable lease, even in areas of poor deer production. Your decision
will have to be based on management. If you can manage the herd, control
predators (both animal and human!) and provide the proper nutrients, you can
have trophy and near trophy deer. The initial savings you realized by
leasing in a lesser known area will, however, be eaten up by the cost of
management.
So location is extremely important,
but what about cost? Of course we all have to consider cost so let’s sit
down and figure an honest number to take to the family council ( that’s
how we do things at my house-all hunting and fishing $$ must be approved by
the council ). You must remember that your financial commitment does not end
with the check to the landowner. Blinds, feeders, feed, gas, tires (leases
are notoriously hard on tires),lodging,food-all of these start to add up! I
suggest that some of these costs will remain about the same no matter where
your lease, and that’s where we should start.
You will need a blind. Between
commercial blinds and the homemade blinds the size, shape, and features of
blinds are limitless. You must determine how many blinds you need. One may
be enough ,or you may need three. We will do some blind reviews very soon
and that may help you choose a model for you. Once you decide which one and
how many, put that down in your notebook.
Most people use feeders on a lease.
Some hunt over the feeders, others don’t. If you use feeders you must
choose a model and quantity. Again, we will be doing feeder reviews soon to
help you choose. Depending on feeder size and quantity, you will need some
feed. Corn, protein mixes, blocks and more are all available. To figure feed
cost multiply feeder capacity times number of feeders times number of
fillings (unless you buy a huge feeder you will fill it more than once!).
Divide that number by fifty, the size of one bag of feed, and multiply that
by the cost of one bag of corn. Example:
Two one hundred pound feeders filled twice during the season is four
hundred pounds of feed. Divided by fifty, that’s eight- fifty pound bags
at four dollars each, or thirty-two
dollars in feed. These are low numbers, just an example! Your yearly number
may be quite a bit higher. In addition you need to add in any protein
supplements should you desire. I highly suggest it and we will have a
section on management and supplements soon!
Leases are usually priced by the
acre. A two hundred acre lease at five dollars an acre is one thousand
dollars per year. More acres,
more dollars, it is that simple. At this point you need to get a good state
map,a pen,a pencil,a notebook, a couple of colored felt tip pens and your
phone.
Starting at the top, determine your
optimum travel time. How long do you want to be on the road each way? Take a
colored pen and draw a corresponding circle around your town. Your lease is
in there somewhere. Call a dozen feed stores and farm supply outlets within
your circle. You are asking the price per acre for leases nearby. Be sure to
spread out your calls within your circle to cover as much of the area as
possible. Note the areas and prices in your notebook. Now you have a little
work to do. You must scout the areas for available leases and then you need
to look at the leases themselves. You may shortcut the process a little by
ordering topographic maps of the areas you are considering, if you know how
to read topo maps. I suggest you physically look at as many options as
possible. There is no subsitute for actually walking a spot yourself. By the
way, never, I repeat, never sign a contract without first looking at an
area. If the landowner or agent tells you that deer
are stacked like cordwood,send a deposit and arrange a visit to look.
If that is not acceptable to the owner/agent—pass!
By looking at land within your
circle you will get a feel for the different types of land available. Now
you have an idea where you want to be and the prices to go with that. Go
back to your notebook and see which leases are in the area you like and what
the prices are. Now simple math tells you what you can afford.
Add your lease cost to your feed
cost and hardware cost and you have about seventy-five to eighty percent of
your annual cost. Yes, I said annual. Each year you will have the
opportunity to do ALL of this again.
You can also estimate your gas
expenses and lodging at this point. Gas is easy to figure, lodging is
another matter. Can you camp on the lease? Can you bring that pop-up camper?
Is there electricity? Do you WANT electricity? Some people like to stay in a
hotel/motel with all of the conveniences of
home, others want but a blanket under the stars. To each his own,
just add in the cost now. I wouldn’t want to overlook a very good way to
get a lease, and it just happens this is how I got mine. Many times someone
will drop off a lease and a spot comes available. If the lease has a good
history, and you know and get along with the others on the lease by all
means jump on it. Sometimes all you have to do is move in, so to speak. The
party leaving may be convinced to leave blinds and feeders in place rather
than face the considerable effort to move them, especially if you throw a
little money his way!
At this point you should have a
pretty good idea what this project will cost, about where you want to be,
what is available, and that you have a lot of work ahead of you.
I will add one final thought.
Although I have outlined a plan of attack here, this is your lease, you do
it your way!
Next month we look at the lease with
an eye towards establishing feeding areas and shooting areas, building
feeder pens and feeder roads as well! ‘Til then good hunting!