State Choices
Hunt Method
Deer Hunter Interests
| WorkSelecting a private land trophy whitetail deer lease does not have much mystery about it. It is just work to look at a lot of potential land to find that right spot.
Our deer lease approach is year round.
A perspective on the amount of work it requires is that our land leasing effort is conducted over a 12 month period each year. Land availability is such that we need to respond when the opportunity occurs or as is much of the case we make our own opportunity.
This picture series on this page is nothing more than a single snapshot into some of the decision process for securing a single lease. In this case the picture series is of some of the actions we take during the current hunting season preparing for the next as land leasing is a year round process of keeping an eye on the land and the landowner's actions. The perspective is we pay good money for the habitat, location and surrounding conditions we want and we want that habitat when we want to hunt it. The end result is a deer productive lease rather than just lease land.
During season (lease) land runs are a bit more leisurely allowing us to review, rank and possibly add to the list of potential leases for the season to come. These land runs are also a time to check up on current leases as well during the season when the habitat is all the more critical.
We take into consideration all sign.
UncertaintyTaken for granted we lease for the right type of habitat within the right region of Kansas, Missouri and Iowa for the production we are after, frequently means making lease decisions with less than complete certainty. Using all available observations combined allows for pass or possible lease offering. A lease offering never implies the landowner will accept our offer or that we will pay too much for any lease.
While not a trophy deer it is a sign of potential to come.
Often we will pass on better habitat in a lower production region and pay more for less quality habitat within a better region for the land profile we seek. The pictures above and below may be all that we have to base a decision on beyond regional history for selecting private land for hunting access contracting.
One of a flock. As this farm is in row crop and was surrounded by pasture we may assume the flock was roosted on or near the potential lease as it is far more common for turkeys to feed (flydown) in a crop field than a pasture. One of the many nuances that go into a hunting lease decision.
Finding this was luck and a supposed surprise to the landowner.
Hunting PressureNo lease or potential lease is perfect. The bottle above was found on the land under review when no one was supposed to be having hunted it - or so the landowner thought or wanted us to believe so.
The tree stand is on the neighbor's 3/4 mile property line facing at an angle onto what we were reviewing for lease.
The fence seen in the foreground is the property boundary. This stand was one of several that lined the property boundary. Even with the best habitat on the potential lease if the surrounding farms have a lot of hunting pressure than the value of that lease declines.
Taken all together each land run ranks any deer lease by region, by potential (cover and food habitat, surrounding area), added to the list by habitat quality, membership hunting discipline profile and budget. We do not accept all the land we look at and neither do the landowners accept all the lease contracts we offer. In the end we typically have better overall land at the end of that year's land contracting cycle than we started with and start over again due to such conditions as shown below.
What we do not like to see but have to accept as the nature of leasing within agricultural regions and that is farm land improvement. Such activity does lessen the value of that lease ranking within our inventory of land.
RealityThis bulldozer picture is on a current deer lease and adds to the equation of lease renewal decisions. Other lease impacts to contend with include landowners die, conservation program contract length, farming practices and the reputation of the landowner.
There is not one boiler plate deer lease decision criteria list to follow, just that based on experience of years of self guided deer hunting within that area.
Other hunting lease options
Our deer hunting options |
