Price per acre vs huntable acres

[Stan Upchurch]

Many years ago I hunted friends land and woked on the property to help maintain it. As I got older I found some moderate land lease properties and still tried to help out. But any more It is very difficult to find leases I can afford. I live on SS and my teachers retirement. It makes it really expensive ot lease land to hunt. Many guys lease land for deer and then when bird hunters look for a place they are priced out of the land or its already leased.Now its even harder. The land I lease must be land that will allow bird hunting and maybe a deer, but I need land thats easy to get to becuse now I'm in a wheelchair and I didn't want to give up hunting. The cost of maintaing my disability and living of my retirement makes it hard to have those extra dollars for leases. Most of the people I know or knew are already booked or they expect too much money for a lease. The WMA's in Ok. help but many of us who used a bow are not able to do so any more. We must use a rifle. It's tough for all hunters but especially those of us who by no fault of their own have been unable to keep up with the rising prices.So... are you guys saying that us old guys shjould just quit hunting?

[ByrdC130]

Let's face it, if you don't have deep pockets, a family farm (I do and can't hunt on it anymore because of leasing), or own your own hunting land, you just have to be a bit more savvy. Public land and archery hunting is not a problem at all if you do a bit of research. Gun hunting either, you just have to lear to use the "normal" public land hunter to your advantage.

[AllOut]

Stan.... Heck no you don't quit hunting, if hunting is what you want then stick with it. Usually when we lease we get all the hunting rights, deer, ducks, varmints, birds etc. But I don't bird hunt so I wouldn't have a problem going in with a guy who wants to pheasant hunt. I almost did that a few years ago with a guy who only wanted to duck hunt.

I'm sure its tough on a strict budget with little to no way to make extra money. But there are plenty on good leases out there to be had for cheep. Those two bucks I posted pics of earlier in the thread were killed on a lease we pay $600 for. Those are not the only good deer we've killed it either. This is another...

Me and two other guys split that lease, so I only pay $200 for that spot.
That's not the only place we lease but it's one we make sure we keep!
I actually just acquired another couple hundred acres of river bottom land today for bowhunting. All the guy and his wife want is some deer meat if we kill any.