Deer hunting leasing

Here in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania I've been trying to lease my land.  Following please find benefits of my experience pontificated with my numerous crotchety opinions.

The going rates seem to be one hunter per ten acres and $350 per hunter.  Cost seems to reflect vigor of salesmanship.

I've listed with websites dedicated to deer hunting leasing and it's been a pain.  Phone calls come at all times of year and delisting has proven impossible.  I think there is real money in the deer hunting traffic and very difficult to recruit landowners so even when you delete your account it gets resurrected.  Doubtless there are good places to list but again in my meager experience Craigslist seems to be as good as it gets.  As questions come in you can revise your ad to deter queries that are not a match.  Do not delete your Craigslist ad until the check has cleared because otherwise your Google SER will be wrecked.  

By far the biggest downside of deer hunting leasing is the volume of inquiries that are casual and want the landowner to tap dance while pitching, negotiate tough and then just drop contact.  Even guard against allowing your schedule to be disrupted when a party says they are getting in the car right now to visit.  Never seen such cheap talk in all my days.

Leasing to local people is a pain because they will want to use your property for year round recreation.  These people will tend to undervalue your land because they see so much open spaces every day.  Being a few hours from a metropolitan area is advantageous.  Some hunting parties will have their act together with an RV they want to park onyour property but others will be hoping to mooch accommodations as part of the package.

Whereas ATVs and bonfires are a pain, you want to offer your hunters the chance to set up blinds (in trees usually) and maybe trail cams; at a minimum learn the boundaries and see the deer trails and other sign.

Here in the Pennsylvania T the hunters (and everybody else) tend to be of the coal-burning political persuasion, whereas I reckon many of the posters/readers here gravitate to the opposite extreme.  So the social potential of making new friends while nourishing the homesteading budget is low.  On the other hand you can sell your corn whiskey.

Quick due diligence with any contact information you get is advised.  One prospect of mine got into a public row over the sale of an AR-15 found just with the email address he supplied.  He also had some difficulty deciding what his name was.

It's an advantage to lease to a single party so you don't get in the middle of assigning hunting posts/blinds.  Sometimes families are hunting together.

Interest grows exponentially the closer you get to the beginning of gun season.  In one week that season begins in Pennsylvania so they're pretty frantic and actually might write a check.  

Deer hunting lease contracts are available online and it's a good idea to have one of these boilerplates at least to use as a checklist to prevent misunderstandings.

Obviously reducing your deer population will help the good growies be they veggies or young trees.  Here in Pennsylvania they are way overpopulated and we now have Chronic Wasting Disease in the wild.  This is a disease similar in mechanism to mad cow disease - you can't cook it to death and it does at least theoretically affect humans.  Deer hunters will leave the carcasses helter skelter.  Coyotes have a heyday but come January they will be extra hungry.  If overpopulated deer are left alone there is suffering that's less visible; some predator pressure is necessary.  It is worth mentioning to hunters that you frown on casually wounding deer that then get away.

Some deer by-products will be good for Fido.  My border collie really enjoys roasted lungs (!).  Hooves are premium, but I worry about any bones and the chronic wasting disease.  Brain and spinal cord are considered the most dangerous.

Multi-year leases are possible so if you do have a positive experience with a hunter or group of hunters, by all means jump at the chance to have a long term arrangement, as long as long as they also commit to bringing home corn whiskey for their friends.  (Hey, it's our local heritage.)

A final note - I've been talking with a nice guy from New Jersey forever and he and his children have discovered that I'm too far to drive.  If there are homesteaders located in Eastern Pennsylvania or New Jersey please direct message me for his contact info.

This is the time to put out an ad on Craigslist if you want to try this pot-boiler and if you succeed please tell me how.

It's a pity you could not build a deer park and just cull the deer when it's full or when you need

David

David Livingston wrote:It's a pity you could not build a deer park and just cull the deer when it's full or when you need

David

The deer ranches breeding for impressive antlers were responsible for the introduction of Chronic Wasting Disease (WWD) in deer in this area.  Not even breeding/raising in the numbers required for food production.  Like salmon farms, they show us that Nature  imposes a limit for certain populations, exceeding which will trigger a catastrophic disease.  The particular fear here is that the disease is Zoonotic.  Sociologically, the human population is prepared to ignore the menace by deer of increasing the incidence of Lyme Disease    .  

Perhaps in Norway reindeer herds, possibly in les cerfs in France, where deer propagation is practices with scrutiny and regulation this can be a domestic herd.  Some ideas face a cold reality, especially in regulation-resistant, anti-intellectual rural Pennsylvania.

John, thanks for sharing all this info.  My DH talks about doing this.  I have some reservations.

In your state do you have to work with the state licensing division?  In Texas its call Texas Parks and Wildlife. Some leases require sign in sheets, game kill records, game counts, etc.  Are you required to do this in your state?

Do you recommend carrying additional liability?

I have heard that sporting good stores are places to look for leases.

In our area, usually one person leases the area for "X" guns, then that person fills the spots and takes over maintaining the records except the landowner is still responsible for deer counts.  A smart owner delegates the deer counts to a resourceful hunter.

I think maybe we are talking at cross purposes I was not thinking of the commercial explotation ie a deer farm although they can be a good idea if you have the demand like in France and the UK .  Rather a deer park is a trick to concentrate the wild deer in one place so you dont have to waste time looking for the little darlings
Basically you have an area of a couple of acres or more fenced off with a deer proof fence apart from having a couple of deer leaps where the deer can get in but not get out.  Thus you could just have a couple of hides the folks get to shoot there deer you get money the people are happy and the rest of your land is left in peace and quiet .

David