About J. Wayne Fears

I am getting a lot of emails from readers who would like to plant and manage food plots but do not own land. Leasing hunting land is often a good option, but before going out and leasing a tract of land, consider the following.

The first step to having land to manage without owning it, is to find a good tract of land to lease. Your search should begin in spring or early summer to give you plenty of time to find the right tract before the fall hunting season. Far too many hunters wait until a week or so before the season opens to begin their search. To their disappointment, they find all the good tracts have been taken.

Immediately following hunting season can be a good time to start looking. Many good leases are cancelled then because of lack of interest, a hunting club splits up, or lessees move out of the area.

Determine the county in which you wish to locate your lease. Next, learn the habits and habitat of the deer in that area during hunting season. Habits, food choices, and so on, change with the seasons and from area to area within the state. If you cannot recognize quality deer habitat, admit it and seek assistance.

As you learn to recognize good deer habitat, sharpen up your skill of reading deer sign. In order to get a good deer lease, you will have to be able to read deer sign such as tracks, droppings, and rubs. Once you are up-to-date on evaluating deer habitat and sign in your chosen county, obtain several copies of that county’s road map.

Free help is available from several state and federal land management agencies. Ask for it when considering leasing land.

Set up a series of meetings on a weekday with the following officials: the County Agent – he or she visits all the farms and knows something of the game population and of any local landowners who may have a good tract of land for lease; the County Forester, who knows the woods; Natural Resource and Conservation Service Representative, who is familiar with game management on farms and waterways; and the local Conservation Officer. If there is a timber or pulp and paper company in the county, visit their office, as many of these companies offer excellent deer leases.

When you visit each of these contacts, go alone. They talk more openly to one sincere hunter than to a whole group asking many questions at once.

When visiting local people to search for your lease, be sure to present yourself appropriately. For several years, I managed more than 200 hunting leases and one of the quickest ways for a group to get a negative response when inquiring about lease land was to come into my office in full camouflage clothing, soaked in buck lure, and spitting tobacco juice in my trash can.

Be cautious not to overdo it from the other direction. Don’t look for the land to lease in your new Lexus, as the lease price has a way of going up for pretentious lookers. Most good hunting lands are in rural counties and the local people are much more apt to work with you if you look and act like them.

As you visit each of the above-named contacts, have them mark on a county roadmap the areas they think have the best deer population. Also, write down the names and addresses of landowners in the area.

Your next step will be to ride up and down the roads in the recommended area or areas of the county. As you get to know the area, establish some local contacts. The farmer on the side of the road, the rural mail carrier, and the crossroads storeowners are all good people to ask about the local deer situation. Lead into your deer hunting questions slowly. Ask things such as, “Are deer damaging crops?” or, “Are deer a highway hazard?” or, “Where do you see deer most often crossing the road?” Mark these areas on your road map.

	Always carry a pair of binoculars when looking at land. It is a good way to speed up the process and to check out surrounding properties without going on the property.

Once you have several “hotspots” marked on your map, drive by them. Ask yourself this question, “Is it the right type of habitat?” If so, meet the landowner and discuss the possibilities of leasing. Be friendly and don’t rush.

Once you have found a willing landowner with a sizable tract of land carrying a healthy deer population, you will want to walk the land thoroughly. Be sure of what you are getting. Consult with a wildlife biologist – he or she can give you a professional opinion on the current game status and its potential for the lease.

Next, find out whether the tract is the right size for your purposes. If the deer population is one deer per 10 acres, for example, an individual wanting a personal lease may not need more than 100 acres. However, if the population is one deer per 40 acres, a group of five hunters may need to lease several hundred acres to give each of them a chance at a mature buck.

Financial restrictions may also dictate how large your tract should be. A 1,000-acre lease at $9.00 per acre can be a sizable annual payment for a small group of hunters. Match the size of the tract to the estimated game population, number of hunters to hunt the tract, and the amount of money available for lease payments.

How well are the boundaries of the property marked? Well-marked boundaries can keep neighbors from wandering onto your lease, and just as importantly, lessees from wandering onto their neighbor’s. If the boundaries are not well marked, talk to the landowner about who will mark them. On a large tract, this is no small chore.

You have found the perfect piece of property to lease, but is it really what you think? Do your homework.

Find out if the landowner is willing to let you carry out wildlife management practices such as clearing and planting food plots. Will he or you be responsible?

On any lease tract, a biologist should draw up a wildlife management plan, and all parties involved should be in total agreement on the practices to be followed and who will be responsible for what. The clearing of land for food plots, the prescribed burning of selected land, and the taking of antlerless deer can be very sensitive subjects to a landowner, and they need to be a part of the decision-making process. Make this understanding a part of your written lease.

Do you have exclusive hunting rights on the tract, or are your rights for only one species? A lease to different parties for each game species usually leads to trouble for everyone. The deer hunter who must share the woods with a squirrel hunter usually has his early-morning hunts disturbed several times during an overlapping season.

Does the landowner retain rights for his family’s hunting? This usually doesn’t work well for lessees. Insist on total hunting rights.

You will probably want to lease your tract for a long time, so you need to know the landowner’s long-range plans. Will the wooded part of the tract be cut for wood products? Will it be cleared for pasture? Are there plans for gas and oil drilling or strip mining? Make this part of the written lease.

Access to the land is important, especially during long periods of rain or snow. Who will be responsible for the maintenance of roads? A lease you can’t get to or around on is almost useless.

At the same time, agree on who will keep the gates repaired. Gates on roads leading into good hunting leases keep others out; however, less scrupulous and jealous people often tear down these gates. In many areas, gate maintenance is a major chore.

	What is the presribed burning history on the property and what are the plans for the future?

Does the landowner agree with your hunting methods? Is it OK with him for you to use ATVs? Does he want only shotgun hunting, but you like to rifle hunt? Are you a bowhunter who likes to use a portable tree stand and he a timber grower who doesn’t want any device used that skins the tree bark?

Where will you stay when you hunt on the lease? Will the landowner allow you to camp, construct a base camp, use a campfire, or perhaps rent you a vacant house on or near the property? The list could go on and on, but the bottom line is, talk with the landowner before committing to a lease. Be sure you agree.

Be sure you think of everything when you are talking with the landowner and keep notes for use in writing the details into your lease. I have seen a wood products company lease land to hunters, turn around, and do a lot of prescribed burning during the hunting season. Fall burning ruins the browse and mast available to deer. This same company once started a burn while the lease members were in their tree stands bowhunting. It is foolish to lease 2,000 acres and then have the owner burn it during hunting season. Be sure you understand and get in writing the long-range plans from the owner.

Once the landowner has answered all of your questions, determine the cost and length of the lease. Before talking about the cost of the lease, check around and learn what the going rate is in the area. Be prepared to pay the going rate but know enough to avoid price gouging. The cost is up to you and the landowner; however, the length of the lease should be three to five years with an option to renew.

It’s nice to be able to trust others, but avoid the “I’m as good as my word” lease. A handshake won’t do any good when you’ve paid several hundred dollars for a deer lease and arrive on opening morning to find that the land has been clear-cut. Once you reach a full agreement with the landowner, get the lease and all the particulars in writing. Make your lease a legal document. It will solve many potential future issues before they become problems.Always carry a pair of binoculars when looking at land. It is a good way to speed up the process and to check out surrounding properties without going on the property.