Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Deer Lease Tx Hill Country -

rodnreel

i understand your frustration but remember

deer hunting is all about MONEY

ranch owners will continue to build high fences as I see no end in sight

there are plenty of people with more money than sense who want to put a 200" + whitetail on the wall

check out this video (not sure if it was posted yet) ... F Fwd to the 7 min mark...

a steroid fed MONSTER - 492" WT that was only 3 yrs old ... sadly he died due to an infection in his antler mass


492" WT video ..... absolutely sickening


.

I would rather shoot a average 8 pointer than a Boone & Crockett out of a Zoo....

And you Sir are right - its all about the money !!

I pay $1300 per year in South East Texas. Forty hunters average 6-8 trophy bucks a year off the property. I wouldn't feel to left out.

How many acres Lt.??

Sounds like one of them hunting clubs..we have actually thought of going that route..but man I sure hope not-nothing wrong with it ,just like the hill country area.The days of 500.00 per gun are gone..I think we are going to bite the bullet at 1100 -1200 per gun..sad -but you do what ya gotta do.

Just shy of 10K.

well hell - that aint bad at all Lt.

At the rate we are going we may end up on one of them East Tex gun club leases..its hard to find a lease for 3 guns anywhere in the Hill Country area or anywhere for that matter .

I know, but remember, East of 'bout Columbus there just ain't no more deer...'cept for a few big uns!

Is the one your on a Club type lease..I found one in East Tex called Little Wolf - 650 a gun..electric, water etc- close to 7000 acres with 60 guns on it ...bet it sounds like Viet Nam on opening weekend.

Cajun Blake - I'm so sick of crap like that in that video ! I dont mind the TPWD having some catch pens for research..but that there crap in that video is BULLSHEET !

That rule is one I agree with though... its because NO one wanted to manage our deer here, they just popped as many as they could that had bone..... Nothing to prevent that. That 13 inch rule has been the BEST thing that ever happened to our area. And though I have not been back to public in E Tx, I bet its the best thing going there too.

Locally I went from seeing a deer now and then, to over 5 years into the program I can go see anywhere from 1-7 bucks on average about every time I go to the back pasture. We only have 98 acres....

Jeff

Here's what I like about hill country leases.
No pine trees, low humtidity, lots of different kinds of game.
All were taken, fair chase, on low fenced ranches and no trophy fees were paid above my annual lease rate.
Best
GWB












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Ours is good 'cause we have good genetics and have managed it for eleven years. Some are just terrible. I guess it would be considered a "club" although it is actually an association, for legal purposes. Just like everything else...it's WHO you know.

I hear ya Lt...most just list them as "clubs" .I wish I had a lease for 11 years.. 5 is as long as we hvae ever had before some goober comes along and price's us off another one..this last one we had in Coleman - the guy came alon and offered out landowner 300.00 more per gun- he took it - I told the landowner he should have asked us first if we were willing to go up 300.00 per gun more -- he didnt - he just made arrangements with the new group form Dallas - called us and told us to come get our stuff...SOOORY !! I'm getting to old to be movings Blinds around every 4-5 years ..

Thats a nice black Buck Gw ! You musta been around the Junction area ???

I guess while I'm at it and we are on the subject of deer leases I should include some whitetail deer! Typical hill country stuff.
GWB













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Its all good Rost -
It has its + and - but like all things - some of us hunt just to hunt and not looking for trpohies evry single day we are in the blind - not saying you are - just saying that to much emphasis is being put on Racks vs meat..I dont have to kill a 19 inch spread 10 pointer every year..the hardest thing to do is to get all the landowners on the same sheet of music - and the landowners are just not going to do that-

Almost everything in East Texas is leased from timber companies, so is pretty much priced the same, whether it is good, or bad, territory. They are in the tree farming business, not the deer hunting business. All they care about is that you pay the the rent on time and don't screw up their trees. It doesn't hurt to bust a few timber thieves for them every once in a while. The rest is entirely up to you (us).

Your WAY WAY out of my league - running around with a Leica scope ...LOLL- I'm just a retired state employee - Leupolds are high end scopes for me - But I aint hatin on ya..

Well,
I drive an old truck, horse trade and buy everything used. That way it don't cost too much. Other than smoking, drinking, chasing women, cheating at cards, gambling and swearing, my only other vice is collecting rifles.
GWB

well then ,we are in the same group then- but rest assured I have no Leica's..I can spot one of them miles away..LOLL

Not all land leased in East Texas belongs to timber companies. But to be honest unless you live here and possibly from here you'll never lease it at any price.

The 2 million or so acres you can hunt for the $48 fee that includes the 4 national forest and the remainder in timber company owned land is just about as good as most leases in the region.

There are big deer in East Texas but you won't walk out and set on a sendaro and pick which 125"+ deer to shoot like you can do in South Texas.

Just in the little area that I have land in within about 5 minutes in any direction over 10 deer that scored out gross over 150" were taken last year.

What sets the lease price in East Texas for the most part isn't supply and demand but rather property tax. Leases from most major timber companies are set at the property tax rate to cover that.

There are still places you can knock on a door here and kill a monster buck, but you better know someone - better have a story about how your family is from here and how they got along with whoever is granting permissoin on that property. Seen it happen to many times. I can knock on the door of any property owner in the south half of the county here and talk about my grandfather and greatgrandfather and get access in a second. Go to the north end of the county and I might get shot just knocking on the door. Just the way it is...people here have a long memory.

It can be done on leases tho. I went to school with a guy who skipped class on a Wed. morning and killed a non typical booner off a $300 lease in Newton county.

I've never had any problem killing a deer over 125" each year in East Texas for the last 15 years. But it's not like hunting in other parts of the state. You have to know where you are going, know the deer...and be prepared to sit in a spot where you might can only see 25 yards - at most.

My favorite technique is to find a thicket or edge of a cutover that is a few years old that I know deer are holding up in adjacent to another area they are moving thru.

Get inside and get on the ground and take a pair of lopping shears and make a tunnel about 20 yards long about chest high before season starts. When the season starts sit on one end and be prepared to shoot in about 0.5 seconds when deer cut across it moving thru. It has been highly effective but people aren't really interested in hunting that way. They want to go into a fresh cutover and set along the edge where they can see 800 yards in every direction.