npaden

I think he meant $50 an acre to LEASE it. Not BUY it. $50 an acre sounded on the high side to me. I've heard you can lease a hunting place in Texas for $10 to $15 an acre per year. If you have the money to invest and can pay the land off in 10 to 15 years itcan actually becheaper to buy the land and pay interest than to pay the lease.

bhunter50

$50/acre to lease it for a year, not buy the ground fella, yes i believe we would all jump out of our chairs if illinois timberground was 50 bux an acre, matter of fact this thread wouldn't have existed in the first place. and yes if you figure that for simply a lease that is very $$$. 300 acres around my part of the state runs anywhere from 4-12,000/year, its just whats happening, sucks, but like you all said what can you do? public ground in my part of IL is simply non-existent, unless of course you wish to be having conversations with someone else while hunting, around here you can't escape into a park or public hunting property without joe, bill and george in your lap! thankfully i have got a few places to hunt, not great spots, but can't complain, just worried about the future of hunting, thats all.

MdDave

in 20 years in you dont own your ownground or make 200,000 k a year you will not hunt!!!!!!!!!!!!

TROPHYHUNTER25

were you leasing the property? if not i can't blame the land owner for tring to make a little money to help pay his taxes or what not. remember even if you don't pay to hunt it the landowner is always paying.

bdosas

I have a hard time feeling sorry for the locals in the area where we just bought some new hunting ground. They drive up in brand new pickup trucks with brand new four wheelers on the back and a brand new hunting rifle across their back window. They come and bitch at us about buying up their hunting ground. Maybe you should have put some of the money you spent on buying other stuff to buying land.

LebeauHunter

Where I hunt, a lot of woods are owned by timber companies. They have been raising lease rates pretty good in the last 10 years, but they know people will pay. Most get in a club to split up the lease costs and so they can control a bigger chunk of land. Maybe there will be a backlash one day, but for now its pretty much complain and pay.

In some cases, private ownership by hunters increases the hunting acreage and opportunities b/c that land was previously owned by people who did nothing to increase the deer herd, and did not let anyone hunt either due to worries about suits, hunter fatigue, etc.

There is reason to worry about pricing the sport out of people's reach, but I don't think regulation is the answer. Some areas of Europe people can walk all over your "private" property, eat a picnic on it, etc., just b/c it has been designated as for the public good. There is no good end to that kind of regulation of land use. This is America, where protection of private property rights ought to be sacred.

What people can do is offer to open up their private land to more people, support opening up more public land to hunting, form hunting clubs, and relax their hunting club policies for guests.

smokepolehall

Welcome to the world of modern deer hunting and folks who have lots of extra money they can spend. I am from the south, we have been joining hunting clubs since the 60's. Not many book Bucks or even big Bucks as compared to Ill. I remember $50 a year and 30 members and 3000 acres of river bottom land and swamps to hunt. Deer, heck back then if you saw a Doe, ya got yer 50 bucks worth of club! Now that same land costs $1,000 a year to join, and ain't never had a book Buck killed on it. Such is life, but deer hunting is more than tagging a big Buck. I lost the 65 acres i got to deer hunt on last year in middle of Bow season. Public land is 40 miles one way and no camping allowed and Bucks must be 9 pts. or bigger to be legal. A 180 8 pt. isn't a legal Buck, don't matter if he was world record 8! I didn't get one deer, i saw a few Doe's and couple of Bucks 8 pts. and smaller. I can't afford the big club fees anymore, so like others i don't get to deer hunt much. Reckon its time to move out west with lots of National forest land to hunt on.

Paul L Mohr

I am probably going to give up deer hunting in the near future, probably next year the way things are going. I couldn't even hunt this past season. I simply can't afford to pay someone to hunt. The tags and other crap are a strain on me, let alone having to lease the land.

And hunting public land really isn't an option for me because of the logistics. I am pretty small so dragging a deer is tough, and loading one into a truck is pretty much impossible without help. Not to mention I don't even own a truck. So when I kill a deer I usually dress it and then call for support if I'm not hunting with someone. Or I go get someone before I track it. I don't believe this is something I could get away with on public land without someone stealing my deer or other equipment. And I am talking bow season. There is no way I am going on public land during gun season. I value my life more than that.

I guess I'll just have to take up target archery and bunny/pheasant hunting. And finding land to turkey hunt on is even harder. And you have to draw a tag for public land and it's pretty hard. I haven't gotten one in five years.

Maybe I will sell my slug gun and ML and get a nice trap gun or something.

Paul

Champlain Islander

Unfortunately leasing and the high prices that follow will come to any area with trophy deer and farm land.

furgitter

Mabe buying swamp land is a GOOD idea.DUH!!