Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game West Texas Lease vs guided hunt

I think you would be better off with guided hunts. The leases with huntable numbers of exotics and good whitetail are hard to find at a reasonable price. There's some big mule deer that come out from Texas every year but it wouldn't be my first choice to book a hunt

The thing about a guided hunt is you don’t have to worry about it except when you go. A lease requires a lot of time, I go at least 6 times during the off-season to fill feeders- work on stands.

It is the disturbance and the roads and just the amount of human activity. This plus everyone wanting a place to hunt and many are not opposed to potting a deer or antelope as they drive to or from work. There are also impacts to surface water and the aquifers. Heavy seismic activity alone can screw up surface water and shallow wells to the point that cows won't drink it. It remains to be seen what the long term damage is and the abandoned brine pits will linger for decades. In the desert areas it can take fifty or more years for a roadway to recover and many don;t recover at all leaving bare rock forever, there are 100+ year old wagon traces that are still plainly visible in some areas.

West Texas used to be the Chihuahua Desert version of the tall grass prairies but severe over grazing especially during WWII eliminated most of the grass and then an almost ten year long drought in the 50s pretty much relegated large areas to desert chaparral instead of grass. Some areas have recovered to an extent but others only grow creosote bush now. I wish I could have seen what is was like when elk, buffalo, grizzly and big horn sheep were abundant in parts of West Texas. The border wall if it happens will really screw up my hunting on two ranches as I think the larger deer we see are coming in across the river. I could go on but won't.

It is interesting to hear what the impacts are from someone living there.

Yeah, riding that area would have been pretty cool in the day! At least as long as you did not run afoul of any Indians.

I hunted north of Van Horn for about 30 years with the same guys every generally speaking. Some came and went, but we were known by the big buck contest as one of the oldest single hunting camps around. We killed some nice deer over the years and the last few years the Aoudad had really picked up. I got more interested in chasing the Aoudad than the muleys. We had 35K acres for the entire two week season and it was $2500/gun. We cooked our own food, etc. We were self sufficient, no guides or anything. I retired and couldn't justify that lease anymore so I let it go.

We had a couple of contracts with the landowner. Basically it was in a trust and as long as he had the grazing rights we had the lease. It was year to year for several years but we finally got a 10 year contract and a 5 year contract set up. I got out the last year of the final 5 year contract.

The landowners partner called me one day and asked my if I was interested in leasing it again, this time as the manager. It would have been a 10 year contract for 10 hunters at $2500/gun or 25K/year basically. Problem was, they wanted their 10 year total up front. I passed the information on to a friend in Houston has a rich friend. They had it for 5 years but I know they didn't kill any really good deer during that 5 years.

The aoudad were just fun to hunt. I'd been sheep hunting in the NWT once and I've been bitten by the sheep bug for a long time. We had some good rams o the property and killed several. The TPWD biologist for the area at the time told us to kill every single one of them so I did my best to do what she said.

I always had my sights set on "Casper" though. He was 35-36 " around the curl and had a way of disappearing. I guided a female guest hunter on to him once, but she missed. I'd sure like to hunt that ranch just one more time.

I'm also from Florida so I've also debated the lease vs guided hunt. For me it's a simple choice, I do guided hunts. My boys are grown and have their own schedules, plus I rarely get more than a week or two off work during hunting season so I simply don't have time to scout out or manage an out of state lease. I prefer to use a guide that is familiar with the area, animals and their patterns do his best to get me on a quality animal. Plus it gives me a chance to learn from someone who has the experience and knowledge of putting several clients on trophy animals every season.

If you're bringing your boys with you or you're more of a "do it yourselfer", the lease may be a better option. Whether they're 5 or 35, It's hard to beat quality time spent in the woods with your kids.