Anybody else got any stories about leases gone bad. I got royally screwed, and really haven't figured out what I'm going to do yet. This comes after I've bushhogged and gotten everything ready. Sick right now.

how were you screwed? did they take money and then stiff you? promise you the lease and then cut you out at the last minute after work had been done?

I can't afford a lease on hunting land, and where I live there is plenty of public. but I've heard horror stories before of stuff like this happening. it sucks

I have too many stories to tell about that. People are so mean to people. One thing I did learn above all else is that every lease has a good ole boys club. If you are not part of it then you get the worst of everything.

I will never pay over $500 for a lease spot again. Anything more and you are simply helping the good ole boys club pay their bills. They don't care about you but they will smile & shake your hand while they're taking your money.

"Handshake" deals work okay some times, others insist on getting everything on paper and still get hosed?

One of my former BILs once was part of a lease that included hunting rights to several hundred acres and use of a small cabin, for a nominal annual fee. Things went well for several years, then they got permission to renovate and enlarge the cabin, had two good years out of it.

The property changed hands and the new owner threw 'em off, wanted the cabin for a relative to live in. Their lease agreement didn't include anything about the land changing hands.

Most folks in PA that want a hunting camp with enough room to hunt, either buy one on an acre or two near public land, or bite the bullet and buy enough land of their own to hunt on?

Hunting leases are popular here in the northern tier counties, but they're generally just for use of the land?

Mostly guys going together and leasing mountain ground that's part of someone's farm land. Some available on property owned by forest products companies. At one time there were thousands of acres open to public hunting, on land owned by Hammermill, then Weyerhauser. Much of that is now parceled-out for hunting leases.

I have had my belly full of making the facilities nice only to have the same happen to me later. I figure I pay my money for the right to hunt on the property & that is all. I don't want to clean up camp's, I am not helping to spread dirt for better roads, I am not building blinds or feeder pens.

All you do is improve the property and you get nothing in return.

Same here. I few years back in Alabama a friend and I leased out about 250 acres next to Paper company land. The "Absentee Owner" gave us a pretty good deal but there was a lot of work to be done ...we cleaned up and replanted 3 food plots...bushogged up access roads to the property , put on locks on the gates to keep the Paper Company leasees off the property. We hunted it lightly the first season and then after the season we could not get a hold of the owner...When he did get back to us a month before the beginning of the season we were informed that he had leased it to one of the gun clubs that were leasing property from the Paper company. Let me tell you it would have been worth my while to drive 540 miles to kick that buttwipes ass.

While I don't buy a lease for hunting, I do have a similar situations happen to me. You help someone out on their property, hope for an invite to hunt, and nothing happens.

My advise would be to sign a multi year lease so your efforts don't go for naught.

I had a great lease on about 1600 acres. We had hunted free for 3 or 4 years landowners choice). We did everything for this guy from staying on the place while he was away to help his elderly wife, hauled tractors to the shop (hours away), took care of all ranch leg work that came up, installed propane to house, brush hogged, planted, tilled land insulated log home, you get the point.

He decided he needed money for hunting so we said no problem. Agreement was to pay money by 10-01-11 (it was march). Next time I was there in April, I went to collect some cameras and all my stuff was gone. I went to the ranch house to see what was up. He said he called the other day to ask for the money. When no one answered he leased to some other guys. All my stuff was in the barn. No call no nothing, I h=talked to the guy once a week at least. The deal was five figures. The land was bordered on 3 sides by a refuge and the hunting was great. We havent spoken a word since. I wouldnt hunt there again for nothing. That was wrong in every way.

Joseph

I lost another lease this year. I called in July to make sure everything was good and the guy told me he thought he told me last year that I could not lease it any more. It was owned by three brothers and the one brother I was paying was not sharing with the other brothers.

I am so tired of begging for a place to deer hunt that I think I am going to buy a little place. I can't afford much but at least it will be a place that me and my boys will always be able to go and I won't have to ask/beg another [bleep] person the rest of my life to deer hunt.

Dink

Once money and/or work become involved, it's a business transaction, and should always be treated as such.

And, it's all about the money.

Yep. I'm still so mad I'm not sleeping at night....Here's the deal. I lease 150 acres from an old couple here in town. Never had a problem, great folks. I take care of the place, bushhog, repair fences, ect. I noticed the land next to it was not being hunted, so I found the owner and called. He directed me to his attorney, said a guy was trying to lease it but had not come thru with the money. This was last Dec 20th. I went that afternoon to the attorney, we called the owner, and he said he would lease it to me. He also said since it was so late in the season he would get with me this spring (this past spring) and work up a 3 year deal, and cut me a little break on the money. Sounded great. I sent the check, signed the contract and hunted it lightly. This spring I planted some summer food (by the way it's 385 acres) and cut all the roads and cleaned up the mess left by the last hunters. I called the owner on June 6th, and he said the land was mine as long as I wanted it, just send the same amount of money. I sent the check. I continued to clean and do tractor work, and get it prepped for food plots. Last week my check was returned in the mail with a note that said "you did not pay in time, thanks for your interest". I could not believe it. I pulled the contract and it states upon payment (Dec 20th) lessee has the right to hunt 12 months. It goes on to say the agreement expires July 1. At any rate I called the guy again and he cursed me out and hung up the phone. He's 86 years old and I thought maybe he might be having some trouble with his memory, so I got the attorney to call him, he won't talk to him either. Low and behold yesterday a very high ranking state official shows up saying he has the land leased. It is all beginning to make sense now. I guess I'm going to let another attorney look at the lease and see what my options are. Probably nothing. It's a crying shame you can't take a man at his word.

Exact thing happened to me last year. We got the lease, spent a weekend bush hogging and putting up stands, bought an insurance policy then the broker decided he did not want to lease it to us afterall.

We got our money back (except for the insurance premium) but i know what you are feeling right now.

After years of dissatisfaction with various hunt clubs i am exploring buying my own place. I am very fortunate to even be able to think about it - figure this is probably as good a time as any to buy land

I know some of you might be tight but find a way to buy some land and never look back.


Sell that new truck and buy a used one, stop eating out,...whatever it takes. I've never known a fella who regretted buying their own land for hunting.

rrroae you are so right ... All i ask of the few i let hunt on my land is a token helping splitting firewood. i always have some that needs splitting and you would be suprised at how "something is always up" and guess what.. "something is up" on my end come deer season too...

John

Yep. I'm trying to buy a small place now. The Federal Land Bank has some good deals on financing and land is less expensive than it was a few years ago. I basically paid 1100 bucks to hunt 5 weeks. If I said the name of the guy who swindled me out of it, you Alabama folks would know it well. I've dealt with him in the past on another issue and my opinion of him then wasn't good. At any rate, I was able to get in another lease, probably even a better place, but this still gnaws at me.

I have looked at Lease options and Hunt clubs...actually down south which is a long way from NH! This kind of ass-raping scares me! Good Ole Boy network, less than honest land owners...hell, I am from NH, how much of the odd man out would I be down south with a Boston accent? WTF!

Jmj any idea what interest rate the Federal land bank is getting? The best I can find is 6% fixed for five years.

Dink

Had a bad experience in 2004. Got invited to join a club that hunted the Patmos plantation in Ms. JM might know where that is! Anyway, hunted there 4-5 years with no problems. Then the club pres. quit hunting and another fellow took over. He invited in a new member or two and one of them was able to pull some strings and get some work for the club pres. I think I pizzed off the new member by killing a good deer in an area we both were hunting ( stands about 1/4 mile apart). Anyway the next year when I tried to contact the pres. to pay my dues, he wouldnt answer the phone. Finally about 2 months later I got him on the phone and he told me that I had broke a bunch of rules and they didnt want me in the club. Come to find out, that new member had been trash talking and wanted a couple more of his friends in the club, and it worked. I met the scum pres. at a store in town a few months later and in front of everyone there I told what had happened. Told him in no certain terms what kind of a person he was (yes I cussed him) and invited him outside. He attempted to lie his way out of the situation and I told him I was gonna whip his azz right there in the store, if he didnt leave. He showed his true character, tucked his tail between his legs, and left. I apologized to everyone there for showing my azz, but several said he was a crook and he deserved what he got. I'm tempted to print his name, but I wont. I moved from that part of the country 3 years ago, and it's all behind me now. But, it's still a sore spot!

The first man who "leased" hunting rights to property he did not own, set in motion the general greed that perpetually screws more and more men who believe in a handshake. We did it to ourselves.

i fixed my lease issues. i bought a farm. screw these azz raping muther [bleep].

I will try to find out. My understanding from a friend is around 4% Don't quote me on that......

Leasing can really stink. Best to bite the bullet and buy your own

Buying in theory is fine. But you have taxes, upkeep and payments. The smallest parcel that should be hunted by ONE person IMHO would be 100 plus acres. ITs the small tracts that almost killed out deer here at home. 15 acres and all the family hunts it and kills any buck that crosses it.

I'd love to own hunting land and I do at home, but I'd love to own some in the hill country, a minimum of 250ish acres or deep south, min of 500 and 1500 preferred.

No one can afford that amount of land any more unfortunately. Maintaining 100 acres, fence, prop taxes, etc... takes WAY more out of my personal stash than I ever figure it would....

Yeah This place is 385 acres. At 3000 per acre that's 1,155,000.00 That's so far out of my price range it isn't funny. Let me ask another opinion. The lease reads: "upon payment, hunter has the right to hunt the land for 12 months." Further down it says: "this agreement ends July 1 2011" I paid the guy on Dec 20th 2010. I'm trying to figure if I have the right to hunt until Dec 19th 2011. I hate to drag in an attorney, but then again I hate being railroaded. Opinions??

I doubt it would be worth it unless you have a bud who is a lawyer.

Yeah, I'm going to send the guy a letter saying I'll be off the property December 19th and see how he responds. I'm also going to tell him a man ain't worth killing if his word is no good.
It's probably over, but I can't stand not giving this old bird a piece of my mind. The fact that he told me on the phone the land was mine as long as I wanted it, then the next thing I know some career politician is at the gate just burns me up....

Sorry you had to find out the hard way but to way too many folks money means more than their honor.

I was looking at land, and the bank didn't lend for "land only". Those that did wanted 25% or more down payment. I have excellent credit and it made no sense to me. I don't know if it's different where you live.

Yep. We bought 80 acres 4-5 hours from home 8-9 years ago and never looked back. Still have a buddy's place to hunt here as well as family's farm(wife's side), but never had I had as much pleasure as hunting on my own property. If by any means you can make it work, make it work.

Ground around here is just starting to get leased up. I am very blessed to have what I have available, but it does suck for trying to get new hunters in the field.

My neighbor asked me (in person) if he and his grandson could go over to my place and "get himself his first turkey".

Since my neighbor is a one of the good guys and keeps any eye on my place when we're not there, I couldn't refuse. I did ask him to tell me when they planned their hunt so I wouldn't be around to spook anything.

No luck this past spring...maybe next year.

Some of the larger banks will not loan on land anymore. You have to go to a "local" bank or the Federal land bank. I was going to put down 50% on a piece of land and my bank still would not do the loan (and yes I have a excellent credit score). Pretty sad I have banked at the same place since I was 15 years old and I can't borrow money there.

I think most banks will require at least 20% down. Thats only 20k on a 100k piece of property. I don't think thats out of line.

Dink

I purchased a home on 12 acres 11 years ago and it has a natural deer crossing in my lower pasture.I try to kill one mature buck and one cull or spike buck each year. I do not kill any does as our deer density is down since TEXAS started allowing hunters to kill does quite a few years ago.I've always got deer and probably always will the way I lightly hunt it.I allow my brother to harvest 1 deer and I take one and then that's it. I was lucky I guess since I do have a natural crossing on my place but when we were looking at houses for sale w/acreage one of the first questions I would ask if they had deer.

There is something to be said about having a deer lease and the sitting around the fire, comraderie, and life long friends you make. I miss that alot! I just finished a 13-14 year stretch in s. Texas and if you think there's politics on small leases you need to try juggling the pressure of a 3500 acre place w/ 7 men on it all trying to kill a trophy buck. I'm glad now I'm home and don't have the worries that come with a large lease 350miles from home. I can kill a deer or two on my little place for the rest of my life.

I guess what I'm trying to say is there are some small sleeper places out there. I'd rather have 25 acres in the right spot than 100 acres w/ bad neighbors or bare of cover and natural habitat. Look for those places at the end of a private road, Government foreclosed lands from veterans, small homesteads w/ an old house that could be rented out to help pay for the land or a partner that would enter into a binding contract w/you that could share the expense and work with you.

Remember, you'll have to do alot of homework and hunting for these kind of places but they're out there. Don't put it off till tomorrow or you will regret it. powdr

I guess i could say I'm Lucky . I own around 90 acres in VA have two homes on it and can sit at the kitchen table and watch deer feed in the field. I also have National Forest within 50 miles of my TN home and a number of acres where i grew up in VA to deer hunt only fifty miles away. I have more place to hunt than i need. I will never pay for a lease for as long as i have left in this world to hunt. I feel for people who have to practically beg for a place to hunt.

If it was the Lessor that provided the lease with the double speak included, I would think that the Lessee would be given the benifit of the doubt regarding the two possible lease termination dates. If it was readily apparent that you were paying for 12 months of hunting priviliges at the end of the 2010 hunting season, it would seem to me that it would be tough to explain why the agreement was valid only through the summer. It would be unreasonable and unlikely that a Lessee would willingly enter a 6 month lease when their intended use period is 9-10 months away. I would be contacting an attorney and pay him to take a look at the agreement.

he has a case and this lease should be seen in court.

You and I have talked about this before and we still agree. Land prices are down some now as well. A guy who is willing to work at looking can find some decent buys.

There is just so much satisfaction in working and hunting on property that you have bought with your own hard earned money.

Long term interest rates are as low now as they will ever be,if our country continues to print vast amounts of paper money,inflation will come and it will not be pretty. People who have bought real property(land) at fixed long term current interest rates will have the best hedge against inflation in a long term investment they can actually use and enjoy.

Buy land boys.

I agree he has a case and I would take a copy of the lease to the Magistrate Court in the county of the lease and see what the Magistrate Judge says about lease bet you would win.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any decline in land prices across northern MO (work for a bank that does a lot of lending in the region).

I don't care if land prices are down, which isn't what i have seen around here. The point is, most people with a family just can't afford to buy land and pay taxes just for the sole purpose to hunt on . This is just a fact of life with the economy the way it is and unemployment the highest it has been in years.

I will say that probably 90% of the private land owned by family is growing pine timber. Recreation is a side benifit. Not too many folks these days can go pay big dollars for "dead land" that is great for recreation but provides no income stream to offset the expenses.

I figure land at 1000 dollars an acre is a better bargain than 2000 dollar an ounce gold,and I wouldn't buy land just to hunt on,mine is mostly timber land which will hopefully give me a decent yield on investment after inflation.

Most people who buy a house in a subdivision could have bought an older, smaller home with some acreage for less money. I started buying land in my teens,so far it has worked pretty well for me and my family.

I guess only the future will tell if my investment in land versus other things in life was wise. But at least I don't have to beg for a place to hunt or complain about a landowner who decides he doesn't want to lease to me any more.

Glad Colorado and Wyoming have lots of public land. I don't worry about trophy racks and mostly hunt the ladies. Don't have to put up with cranky or unreliable landowners, or lay out a lot of cash for the privilege to hunt a piece of land - just have to deal with pressure from other hunters.

Thats the way I feel here.. gobs of public land. I find that bow season has little pressure and in the gun season if I put 2 miles between me and a road footprints other than mine are rarely seen.

I spend my hunting dollars on out of state hunts (and new rifles)

We have definitely seen a decline in acreage prices here in the carolinas. The asking prices are still high but a lot of sellers want to negotiate a deal. A lot of institutions are selling acreage and there are very very few buyers

I recently walked away from one deal where the seller came down 20% - but he didnt have to sell so we could not agree on price and even 20pct below his ask was still too much for me

I have a hand shake to buy a different piece of property for nearly 30pct below asking price. I first looked at it in april and told the agent to let me know if the seller became motivated. Well the agent called a couple of times and said 'bring an offer'. I played it slow, the seller lowered his ask a few weeks later, and i have negotiated a big discount to that so it can be done. I am getting it at a rock bottom price using money that was earning basically zero a the bank and most peope probably would have put in the stock market (which i foratunately swore off in 06/07 before the downturn

No doubt times are tough and most people are noti position to think about buying land. I am extremely fortunate

I know 4 guys who leased the hunting rights on a farm, only to discover that the farm was landlocked and their lease didn't include trespassing rights over the ground that surrounded their lease. They didn't have a written lease, just a verbal agreement with the land-owner. They got most of their $$ back, but it took several months and the engagement of an attorney.

JEff

Ouch, landlocked lease? That hurts.

Bought a few acres from my mother-in-law that they'd picked up back in the 70's. I'd hunted it with the father-in-law for a few years, and she'd played in the creek there when she was a girl and so it's cool to keep in the family. Best thing I ever did, even if it is 5 hours from home with no cabin or hotel nearby. Hey, that's why they make reclining seats in trucks!

Having no trouble with other folks wandering in, no trouble with folks getting permission to also hunt from the landowner, no selling of land and losing permission, no fees being raised or worries about somebody offering more money to lease...

Buy land if you can. Just do it. I'd SERIOUSLY love to find a few more spots like mine.

More enjoyment looking out at this when ya own it.

I have heard all kinds of horror stories about hunting leases.
Guys leasing land that doesnt belong to them and then disappearing, etc. I knew some guys back in the early 90s
that leased in TX and one them got greedy and started sneeking
in with other guys during the week who were not on the lease.
Owner got wise to it and told all of them to take a hike.
To this day I dont think any of the four guys on the original
lease speak to each other.

Come to Middle Ga. Its been this way since I began hunting. I've never, not once hunted for free. Between the jack asses from Fla and Atlanta that come in here and run up lease prices the regular joe is screwed. Even with the economy in the [bleep] they still want 10-15.00 /acre and 90% of the property will be either cut over pines so thick you can't walk through it. It is ridiculous here now.

Sounds like North Carolina, but even more expensive here.

I bought 120 acres about fifteen years ago when there were good deals available. It has been great to know I have a place to hunt. But it ain't free. My taxes alone have gone from about $300 up to almost $1000.

I could easily sell it, but am keeping it (so far) for my kids and grandkids to hunt on.

11 acres and 2 bucks each year. THATS whats ruining our hunting! Thats WAY overkill. YOu are supposed to harvest 10% or less of your mature buck population... on 11 acres you don't have a permanent deer population of over 1 deer basically.. IE were you conservation minded you could maybe shoot one deer every 10 years.

And you even openly state its a natural travel path... At least you can hope surrounding parcels don't overharvest also.

I'd buy land in a heartbeat at 1000 an acre. Its been upwards of 10,000 an acre for 50 acre parcels here in the past but down to around 4000-4500 or so right now. Still stupidly high. Our place was purchased at 75 an acre in the 60s.

Even hill country rock land that went in the hundreds per acre in the 80s at times, is now 2000 or so plus from what I hear.

And deep south Texas where you'd need at least 500 acres to feel comfortable to kill ONE mature buck a year, is running close to 2000 an acre with no mineral rights....

Ain't gonna happen I just don't think unless you buy land in Mexico which is now legal from what I'm told. And with the Mexicans, who knows what gets poached while you are gone...

Buying land works well for solving the permission problem but when you don't live on the land you can expect the local dirtbags to trespass and hunt during the week knowing you will show up primarily on the weekends.

There are good leases/land owners out there. Just takes a while to find 'em.

That's jumping on him without having any serious facts. I've got under 30 acres with a creek that's a natural pathway and I shoot 1 or 2 bucks and try for 4 does every year. Does that mean that the 2 square mile section that my land is on has 40-80 bucks and 160-180 does taken? No. What it means is that I know the surrounding areas and who's hunting them. NOBODY shoots does except for me, and there may be 5 or 6 bucks taken that are 3.5 years old or better. The bucks population is very healthy, there's too many does, and life is great.

Asking for full facts would seem prudent. You may be right, or he may be the only one hunting the area.

I can see killing a couple deer every year on a small piece of land in the right spot.

We have a small 60acre piece of property that is in CRP. The surrounding 1500 acres is in CRP as well and owned by a few others. That 1500 acres is the primary bedding areas for the deer and surrounded by thousands of acres of corn, rice, and bean fields. On our small 60 acres, my dad hunts 1/2 and I hunt the other half. I had pictures of 21 different bucks and tons of does on one stand last year. Many of those bucks were culls and a handfull were the type of deer we want on the place. Some years we don't kill a deer on our place and some years we may kill 3. The neighbors do about the same, probably only a handful of nice bucks taken on the 1500 acres every year. Yet every year we have a bumper crop of deer, so I can't see any fault at all with us whacking a couple bucks each season on each portion of the property as a whole. If anything we need to shoot many more does and start really working on the culls, but that's hard to do when its archery only during the rut.

A small piece of property in the right spot can be golden. I know a fella that has a mere 25 acres in a very good place and see nothing wrong with him whacking a mature buck and a cull each year. Maybe if that same 25acres was in a poor area it would be different, but it all boils down to deer density IMO.

loder

With corn prices high, land around here that is mixed, meaning hunting and farming (for some income potential) has been going at anywhere from $5000-$7000 per acre. That is what $7 per bushel corn will do.

I guess I'm the exception to the rule. My Dad and I hunted on a lease on the same ranch for twenty years. My friends and I have been hunting on an oklahoma ranch for a dozen years or so. In those years we have become really close friends with the ranchers. No price increases in the years we had the lease. In fact, when I retired, they asked if they needed to reduce the cost. They help us in every way they can. We do respect the ranch, if we see a cow stuck we get her out..if we see one down we get her up or do what is necessary. Plus, we have some really nice bucks...my buck last year was five year old ten point 20" wide. My sons was also a nice ten point, my buddies was a pretty nice 12 point...all mature deer. I was out there day before yesterday looking at bucks on another part of the ranch...one was a really nice ten point, I'd estimate gross score between 160 and 170.

Point well taken and my apologies. I don't know of many areas at all in the hill country that are not hunted or underhunted. This may well be one and that would be an ok thing then. Its just that its properties like that that totally ruined our hunting locally until they put in antler restrictions. And its almost totally ruined the hill country hunting at one point, though folks are getting way better about demanding that they kill a buck each year. I'm good killing a shooter buck every 5 years or more no big deal, shoot trash and some does to manage in the meantime.

So Powdr, without asking or knowing I jumped the gun. My apologies, dang I end up doing that more than once a year nowdays.... that scenario almost fit to a T a neighbor I can almost see from our corner, that essentially had a travel corridor and less than 10 acres and killed more than a few bucks off it each year....

I haven't hunted on leased land in 20+ years. But the last time I did the group of guys next to us had a meltdown and nearly killed one of their members. Apparently he was charging X among the members but he was only having to pay 1/2X to the landowner and he was making it out to be that all dues were going to the lease.

I've killed a half dozen bucks on 7 acres that belongs to my grandmother over the last 10 years. You just have to have the right 7 acres. It's adjacent to 11,000 acres of public hunting land that in 20 years I've seen a grand total of one other hunter. But it's easier to hunt on our side of the fence.

Yeah Doc, I remember the conversation.


Couldn't agree with you more here. If folks don't know about timber, you can usually get a forester to look at a piece for you from $35 - $50/hr. If I wasn't looking at timberland, I'd be sizing up some AG land.


Sound investment and you get to enjoy it.

Attorney time for me. Ran into some serious BS with a club Prez that thought he could do things not in the rules or specifically denied involving who knew about new property, etc, and who got to hunt it. Lost a lot of time invested and had some bad things said about me. Got an attorney and club had to do the same. Ended up offering an out of court that my attorney suggested I take. Figured it cost them around $5000 while I cleared about $400. Also caused a bit of a stir in the club. My pleasure was in costing them money and making an impression that I would not take being wronged without a fight. Actually changed my thoughts on hunting the land anymore during the process. Never want to be close to some who were supposedly friends that took the side of lying and cheating. So if you have a couple of grand to invest go for it. Only other issue will be with the court. Some are backed up with cases and really don't care for what they consider low level personal arguments.

Thanks for all the input.....I sent the guy a letter yesterday stating I would vacate the property on December 19 2011. We shall see what (if any) the response is. Here is the actual language from the lease:
The Lessee shall pay to Lessor the sum of 3.00/acre upon signing and for the right to hunt on Lessor's described real property for the next twelve (12) months.....
This was done on December 20th 2010. Further down the language reads:
The term of this hunting lease shall begin upon signing and shall terminate on July 1 2011.
I don't know if I have a case or not. I was in the attorney's office and we had the guy on speaker phone. He told me and the attorney if I would pay the 3 per acre now (Dec 20) we would talk in the summer and he would give me a 3 year deal, and cut the price a bit since I was signing so late. Silly me took the man at his word.
What really bugs me is when I called him in June he said I could have it as long as I wanted, just send a check for the same amount. I did, and did all the work, then low and behold I get my check back...... crazy.

The best thing that could happen would be for you to get your latest lease money back along with recovering the cost of your maintenance and improvements. It'll take an attorney to do that. If he's leased to someone as you describe an attorney is already involved. With the lease in dispute there may be a sheriff in your future if you set foot on the land. And you really do not want to hunt this land again. Let the lawyers talk. Cost them as much as you can, recover as much of your costs as you can, and move on. Oh, and $3/acre is so low these days I guarantee the owner was overwhelmed by the fat cat offer. FWIW JMHO

Yeah, 3/acre is very cheap. I pay 10/acre for the adjoining land. The deal with this place is it's landlocked and the only access is thru the other property I lease. What gets me most is the fact he lied to me. I would have paid more, but he never let me know anything. One other deal on the land, there's at least 100 acres that is unhuntable. It's underwater swamp and there is 50-75 acres across the swamp there is no access to. Basically you are only hunting the gas-line that runs thru the property, hence the cheap price. I bet Mr Big-wig isn't paying a dime (not cash anyway) At any rate, it is what it is. Just sucks that you can't take a man at his word.

If I got my lease money back, I'd let it go. Dealing with attorneys and courts can only leave a sour taste in your mouth.


I wouldn't do anything that jeopardized my love of hunting.

Understand I'm not trying to be a know-it-all. Just BTDT. If you want to make a list of services rendered and amount due to send him more power to you. If he, and the new lease holder, decide to pay you off it's a big win. If no response or just horse laughs then it's attorney time. If the new leasee is on up in Alabama politics you can probably find an attorney that doesn't like him. Speculation there. In my case I just couldn't walk away from it. I and my family (2 teenagers and my wife) had been wronged and desparaged. I made the investment but recovered it. Still trying to leave revenge on the primary guy involved in God's hands, difficult as it is to turn loose of.

You may be right about the lease rate to the new leasee. It could be an instance of "other considerations". But ducks love swamps and deer make muddy trails thru some of them. And unfortunately many simply do not have the personal honor required to maintain their "good word". At any rate good luck to you whatever way you go. What county you in? I grew up in the Hueytown area so am fairly familiar with the Alabama way though my issue was in South Carolina.

This is in Elmore County. Central Alabama. I got a letter today from the landowner that just defies logic. It's obvious he's just trying to run over me and grasping at straws. There's 4 different lies in the letter and it's only 3 paragraphs long. Unreal. I have a friend that's an attorney, I'm going to let her look at all my documentation and give me some advice. At this point I don't really want anything, like you say though, I'm having a hard time letting it go.

Never make life easy for cheats.. they depend on folks just walking away. Don't go nuts and get yourself into trouble or spend undue $$ on it, but make him lose some sleep.

Good luck.

This thread just encourages me to buy my own land. Too bad land in Iowa had gone from (average of) $1857/acre in 2000 to $5064/acre in 2010! maybe I should look in Northern MO.?

Dang, I just wrote about a thousand words trying to say that. The law protects those deserving of a major butt kickin but the law can also be used against them. Even if it's not as much fun.

You'd be welcomed at my campfire as long as you are a man of your word & respect your brother. That's all it takes for me.

I found just such a spot three years ago in South Texas. It is only 35 acres but it is in a natural runoff which equates to a low gulley pathway that stays dry most of the year. The deer come into that 35 acres via that gully to the natural spring fed watering hole that my blind overlooks. They stop and eat a bite or two while passing through.

Every 2-3 years this two buck county produces a 150 class B&C in my hunting spot completely free range. The price is under $500 anually.

Absolutely... It's just like renting a house or a commercial property or a car... You need to do some good research for prices, the reputation of the owner/lessor, and local laws.

If you aren't familiar with and experienced in negotiating leases, then you should hire an attorney or get expert help somewhere.

We're fortunate around here in that the big timber companies have leasing agents that have good reputations and are easy to deal with and fairly honest. Also some of the guys on my leases are in law enforcement and can "check out" people we lease from if they don't already know them or know of them.

Treat it like any other business transaction and you're a lot safer than a handshake agreement with someone that has no interest in keeping you happy.

$bob$