For those of you with hunt club memberships...here is a poll...Just curious

How many of you have experienced a lease or dues increase for 2021-2022.

  • Increase

    Votes: 65 60.7%
  • No Increase

    Votes: 42 39.3%

  • Total voters
    107

Blackston

Senior Member
A good club is tough to find ... Apparently... I joined one this year ( my first ) .... Had a terrible experience.... dues are goin up along with numbers of members through the roof ,If ya got a good one and hunting is important to you I’d do my best to keep it . I’d love to have the problem y’all have
 

antharper

“Well Rounded Outdoorsman MOD “
Staff member
What county?
Heard , it was kind of a blessing that we lost our lease in Coffee . My dad had been in it so long (40 years)he didn’t know any better lol . A lot better hunting in other areas of our state . Change is hard sometimes though
 

Gbr5pb

Senior Member
Ours only went up a few dollars but got a call from the realtor for the investment company that owns it that it’s for sale! If it sales we have 30 days to get out and get a prorated refund! Doesn’t make me want to plant the food plots or do anything!
 

rstallings1979

Senior Member
All of ours is on the market as well. Could go at any minute.
All of the land your leasing is on the market? I think what your seeing is if you are going to sell this is the year due to capital gain tax rates likely remaining as is. Next year they will be changing at least 5% I bet.
 

oops1

Buzzard Expert
All of the land your leasing is on the market? I think what your seeing is if you are going to sell this is the year due to capital gain tax rates likely remaining as is. Next year they will be changing at least 5% I bet.

Yes, our lease consists of two separate tracts that are both on the the market. The surrounding leases are on the market as well.
 

brownceluse

Senior Member
I lease from family. Mine has gone up two years in a row. But I’m still paying way below average for what I have.
 

Rackmaster

Political Forum Town Crier
2019 was the last time I was in a hunting club and it has since went up both years since I've been out!
 

earlthegoat2

Senior Member
Im not in a club this year so I didnt vote. What I have to say may not be relevant to this thread but I think it can lend some perspective and give people some options they may not have known they had.

TLDR: Buy you own land......for reasons.

I used to be a member of clubs. That is the first problem. Clubs not club. Every one I joined up with got bought out within 2 years and we all lost our hunting spot. After the third one I went a different direction. I went in on a lease with 3 others on 200 acres. It was the last year of the lease as it turned out but that didnt bother me since one of the guys had renewed there every three years for the last 8-9 years. It wasnt a club and we made our own rules which worked out great for us. One of the guys had been hunting the tract for several years and had made some nice food plots and set up some great stands. He did not want any preferential treatment for it either. Anyway, that year worked out great and we shot the deer and hogs we wanted. I thought I was in heaven.

The next Feb we heard a hunting "club" was going to be getting the next years lease. The guy who had been leasing there awhile had heard the club had basically offered triple what we had been paying. Thats life. I get it and I dont hold it against anyone.

But, now something really had to change. I wasnt thinking big enough.....or maybe I wasnt thinking small enough. I always thought I needed big tracts of land so you can have more control over your populations. I have never really been a trophy hunter so I figured why would I really need that. All I really need is for deer to come out in front of me during daylight.

I added up all the money I had spent on clubs and leases over a 10 year period and it came out to $6000 dollars. Then I added in my gun club fees over the same period of time since I could just shoot on my own land if I had it. $2500. Then I thought about the aggravation of losing a lease or a club. Then I thought about how important hunting was to me (very). Then I thought about how much I would care for doing a little land management for wildlife (Im a country boy by birth who grew up around all agriculture so yeah I like that kind of thing).

Some of you probably see where this is going. I bought my own land. I figured, why invest in something that isnt mine? Its like buying a house instead of renting one. It is investing in yourself and your future. You have control again. Your own rules and you arent losing your hunting land unless you absolutely have to or a developer roles in and offers you way more than you bought it for.

The best part is, you dont have to buy a ranch. If you dont worry about big bucks you can get away with as little as 10-15 acres. A little TLC and deer will come. Maybe a trophy but probably not. Just deer. Your deer on your land. 20 acres can be had out in the sticks in this state for as little as 30K. A bit more if it has good timber and a lot more if it is good crop land.

The thought of losing out on deer hunting is one I never want again. So I took back control. It is laughable to think I now have 30 acres that cost about as much as a reasonably equipped F150. I am NOT trying to tell people how to live their lives but I do have a few questions that could be pondered. How many of you bought a new truck when a used one at a fraction of the price was also an option? How many of you have fancy side x sides, four wheelers or golf carts that you bought because of your deer lease that is always in limbo. Maybe think about getting an older machine or going without. Those two things alone could clear a down payment on land.

I know that not everyone is in such a position but I am trying to empower you to think about it and maybe try to make it happen for yourself and your family. Crunch the numbers and look at your priorities again and see what you come up with. I think a lot of you will be surprised. You may have to drive 2 hours but to me that is worth it.

Land is worth so much more than just deer hunting too. It is truly a place of your own. It can be an investment. Either value speculation or agricultural income from crops or trees. There are endless possibilities.

BTW: It was a now unknown member here who motivated me to start looking for my own place. The thread was about hunting leases and clubs and the member posted something to the extent of: "It may not make sense to be part of a hunting lease especially if it is close to where you live. It may make more sense to buy at that point" That is the jist of it and it may not make sense to all but that is what started my land search that took two years. I deer hunted in MI during that time on family land up there. Very far away but it netted 4 deer for my freezer.
 
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