The answer to the question of whether it’s better to lease deer land or to buy hunting land won’t be the same for everyone. You’ll have to consider budget, personal preferences, and perhaps your own level of OCD, in order to make the best decision for you.
If money is no object, buying a giant tract of land seems like a no-brainer, but we don’t live in a world where money is no object. Instead, you can run through the list below and get a good idea of which choice suits you best.
Why Listen To Me?
Over the last 30+ years I’ve been a part of a lot of different hunting property scenarios. I’ve hunted on everything from a neighbor’s land on handshake permission, to being a member of multiple large deer camps spanning thousands of acres, and everything in between.
Not until I finally purchased a small block of timber of my own, did I finally gain peace with my own deer hunting journey. That’s not to say I have a great selection of large mature bucks to hunt, because I don’t, but that’s OK by me. Having my own piece of hunting paradise, that I can do with what I wish, offsets any lack of trophy deer.
Everyone is different though, so buying land may not be the best decision for you, at least not right now. Below are the factors that I think everyone should consider when trying to decide between purchasing vs leasing a deer property.
6 Reasons Leasing Deer Land Is Better Than Buying
- Leased Land Is Cheaper
- Access To Larger Tracts When Leasing
- Leasing Leads To More Camaraderie
- Leasing Helps You Find Bigger Bucks
- A Lease Familiarizes You With The Neighborhood Before Buying
- Hunting Leases Allow For More Mobility
1. Leasing Deer Hunting Land Is Cheaper
The most obvious advantage to leasing over buying deer hunting land is the much cheaper cost of acquiring hunting rights.
You can lease a quality hunting property for quite a few years for the cost of purchasing even the smallest hunt-able parcel. Because of this cost difference, you can always lease far more land than you could ever hope to buy. This gap in price is hugely significant considering how much land per acre one needs for each deer hunter.
Leasing vs Buying Example
A good sized piece of land for 1 to 2 deer hunters would be around 100 acres. You could pay upwards of $20 per acre for leased deer land in many good areas. Therefore, a 100 acre parcel in a decent area might cost you $2000 total per year for an annual lease. If you split that 2 ways, that’s only $1000 per year to hunt on quality private land.
To buy that same 100 acres, you’d be looking at paying at least $150,000 and possibly much more. Let’s say you took out a 20 year loan for 80% of that $150,000 at a 6% rate. That comes out to be more than $10,000 per year, after paying a $30,000 downpayment. Again, that’s assuming you could buy that 100 acres at $1500 per acre, which is doubtful. So, you can see the price difference between buying vs leasing is massive.
As you can see from the example above, you could lease land for decades for the price of buying a decent sized piece of hunting land. These numbers are for the southeast U.S., but I suspect the ratio of leasing vs buying is similar in many other parts of the country.
Assuming the price difference doesn’t scare you off, let’s see what other factors you should consider when deciding to purchase deer land vs paying for an annual deer lease.
Don’t forget taxes!
On top of a potentially huge purchase price, as an owner, you’d also have to pay hundreds or more each year in property taxes. The amount will, of course, vary by state.
2. Larger Tracts Are Available When Leasing
- Larger tracts are safer for gun hunting
- They allow multiple hunters to hunt different deer
- You are less likely to over pressure the deer
While you can technically cram a few hunters on as little as 20 acres, that is far from ideal, especially for gun hunting. My personal preference is to have at least 40 partially wooded acres per deer hunter.
To purchase 40 or more acres will be very expensive no matter where you are. However, to lease 40-100 acres is actually very affordable in most areas. Leasing allows you to really stretch out the acres per hunter to a comfortable level. You want plenty of acres for each hunter for several reasons. With more land, the distances will be safer for gun hunting, there is a chance you are hunting different deer and you are less likely to over-pressure the deer in the area.
3. Leasing Land May Provide Better Camaraderie
Whether you buy or lease, you can typically invite whomever you wish to hunt with you. However, when you actually share the cost of a lease with someone it creates a more fair scenario. This feeling of fairness tends to create a greater feeling that you have true “hunting buddies” since everyone has equal skin in the game. That’s my opinion anyway.
You can certainly have some level of camaraderie when one of the hunters owns all of the property, but it just feels “different”. For me, it feels more like a family and friends sort of thing when hunting owned property vs a “hunting buddies” atmosphere on leased land. This is not to say that each can’t be great, because it most certainly can. It just has a different feel to it, but your mileage may vary.
4. Leasing Land Gives You More Chances Of Finding Big Bucks
Usually this isn’t always the case, but I think you have a better shot at finding and taking big bucks if you start by leasing properties in various areas. Perhaps you will eventually want to buy land for deer, but the best way to know if an area is good is to put out some cameras and hunt different areas. Even good deer counties can have crappy hunting locations within the county.
There are some great deer areas out there that don’t get a lot of exposure on the web. The only way to find these hidden gems is to join deer camps or lease parcels and either put some cameras out or hunt those areas. If you just rely on the hottest areas that get mentioned ad nauseam you’ll likely have to pay a premium to beat out all the competition that the popularity of those areas draw. There are usually solid big buck areas that fly under the radar.
5. Leasing Land Familiarizes You With The Neighborhood
Buying land in an area and then finding out the neighbors are terrible can be a huge mistake. Leasing first allows you to see if there are problems in the area before committing to a larger investment. Some hidden problems with deer hunting properties can be trespassing, theft, road noise, dumping, among others.
6. Hunting Leases Allow For Greater Mobility
Buying land kind of locks you into a certain area for an extended time, whereas leasing allows more freedom to jump around from place to place. Now that I’m paying a land note, I’m far less inclined to spend even more cash on an extra hunting leases.
A lease allows you to quickly abandon ship in case you encounter undesirable issues that can’t be easily overcome. For example, extreme hunting pressure from surrounding neighbors could be an ongoing irritation that can be easily escaped when leasing. When you own a property, such a move is not so simple. Other examples of issues that you could encounter are dogs running free, night hunters, firing ranges, rampant trespassing, and many others.
7 Reasons You Should Buy Deer Hunting Property
- Owning Land Allows More Control
- You Determine When Timber Is Cut
- Leases May Get Dropped Or Sold Unexpectedly
- Land Doubles As An Investment
- You Reap All Benefits Of Any Improvements
- Utility Access
- Lease Rates Continually Go Up
1. Owning Land Allows For More Control Than Leasing
Owning land obviously gives you much more control than leasing. You get to determine everything. You can create wildlife openings, build roads and trails, hinge cut trees, erect permanent deer stands, plant fruit tree orchards and all sorts of other improvements. Guess what. All that increases the value of your property as well.
You can lay out the property any way you like, because it’s yours. Owning allows you the opportunity to make long term improvements, or even keep things as they are in order to benefit hunting down the road. We’ll touch on some of this further below.
2. You Get To Determine When Property Disturbances Occur
There are many ways a leasing hunter could be disturbed during the season. Anything from the landowner chainsawing, atv riding or even full-on timber harvesting can happen on a lease during deer season.
Depending on how your hunting lease is structured, timber could even be clearcut off the property at any time, even DURING HUNTING SEASON. Unless the landowner specifies that this not happen during a certain time, loggers can indeed start cutting while you’re hunting.
Believe it or not a lease could also get planted while you’re hunting. While I’m sure this can be avoided with language in the lease, the fact is that if you don’t own the land, you could encounter this.
The best way to ensure a peaceful setting during deer season is to own the land yourself.
An Example Of Property Disturbances On Leases
I’ve been hunting on a leased deer camp before and as the sun came up I turned around to find a swarm of humans walking across the cutover behind me. They were manually planting pine seedlings WHILE I WAS IN THE DEER STAND! Similar scenarios can happen if you lease farm land, or really any type of property that could have agricultural activity during the season.
3. Hunting Leases Can Be Dropped Or Sold Right Out From Under You
It’s quite possible for a parcel of land to be sold while you have the hunting rights leased. Also, if you’re a member of a hunting camp, those leases could also be dropped or non-renewed for a variety of reasons without much notice. These situations can leave you scrambling to find other hunting grounds. Unless you structure your lease properly, this is certainly a looming negative to leasing hunting land.
Unexpected Lease Issues That Happened To Me
I’ve actually been a member of a deer lease before that was dropped during the offseason without any notice to me and a few other members.
I’ve also been a member of a deer camp that was predominantly run and controlled by a set of family members not kin to me. One of those family members that invited me into the club was on the wrong side of a family falling out and thus he decided to leave the camp. In turn, I was not invited back, because I was not “in the clique” that controlled the club. These two experiences soured me a bit on leasing land for deer hunting. I have no such drama with my own land.
4. Buying Land For Deer Hunting Doubles As An Investment
There are various ways to profit from your deer property, the most common being through periodic timber harvests. Outside of making near term cash returns on your deer property, you’ll also gain value through appreciation. If you buy right, land almost always goes up in value over time thus protecting your net worth from the eroding power of inflation.
While land purchases are not considered as good of an investment as other assets such as stocks, there is something to be said for being able to actually use your investment as it grows. And, if you’re a deer hunter, this usage value makes up for any lost gains in the market. That’s my opinion anyway.
Deer Land As An Investment
Deer land can make you money in a variety of ways. Timber harvests, pine straw sales and CRP are but a few such examples. Leasing tillable land to farmers is another option for some parcels.
Many property improvements done for hunting purposes, such as putting in roads or ponds, also increase the value of your land.
If you ever get bored of hunting your own parcel of land you can also lease it out to hunters and use that money to go lease somewhere else for yourself. It’s not like land usually ever goes down in value, so you aren’t really out anything. You have a real asset that will continually increase in value ahead of inflation.
5. Hard Work Pays Off More On Owned Land
When you actually own the property, any work and expense you put into the land pays off for you long term. Efforts begin to have a cumulative effect over time.
With a deer lease you can never be assured that your hard work will pay off for you or for the next guy who picks up the lease. This lost effort always bothered me when I was hunting leased parcels.
When you own land, the possibilities are endless. You can dig a pond, create new wildlife openings, put down lime, erect permanent hunting blinds, and many other improvements that could last for generations. Such improvements increase the value of your land and will pay off should you or your children ever decide to sell the property.
6. Utility Access Is More Likely With Owned Land
While it is true that some deer leases have power and water to them, that isn’t often the case. Sure, true “deer camps” usually do have these amenities, but that isn’t typically so on smaller leased parcels.
You’re not likely to get permission to add utilities on leased land. Even if you do get permission, would you really want to invest your own money to turn someone else’s raw land into improved property? Guess what happens if you do that. The land is now worth more, so they can get more money for it.
If your dream is to drag a camper to your hunting lease and hook it up for deer season, you may find you’ll be using a generator and hauling your own water.
7. Deer Lease Rates Continually Go Up
From my experience lease prices go up over time. Especially for large tracts, it can feel like you are constantly paying more to beat out competitors trying to pick up your lease. Often times people find that they are having to invite more and more members into their lease over time in order to afford the ever increasing rates. More hunters increases the hunting pressure more and more until the lease is no longer what it used to be.
4 Disadvantages Of Owning Deer Property
- Property Taxes
- Maintenance
- Trespassing
- Liability Concerns
We touched on most of this above, but there are some disadvantages to owning land, besides the initial cost of purchasing the land. Property taxes, liability issues, trespassing, ongoing maintenance and other random issues with the neighborhood are all “problems” that you may encounter when owning your own property. I’ll just touch on a few of them briefly below.
1. Pay Your Property Taxes!
The reality is you never truly own real property in the U.S. If you don’t believe me, go a few years without paying your taxes and see what happens. That’s the number one thing you need to remember. Pay your taxes!
2. Ongoing Land Maintenance
Maintenance is typically not a great concern on raw deer land, but it is something that may come up on occasion. For example, I have a culvert that is starting to wash out on my property. Soon, I’ll have to deal with that or my main access onto the property will become impassable.
3. Dealing With Trespassing
When you own property, any trespassing issues are yours to deal with. It goes without saying that a deer hunter does not want trespassers coming on their property. These outsiders create potentially dangerous situations when hunting is involved, as you don’t know where folks are.
Some landowners experience littering, dumping and thieving issues from trespassers. Generally the longer you go between visits, the more likely you will experience unwanted visitors. I once went nearly 6 months between visits to my property. When I next got the chance to visit, I had a couple small items stolen and a dummy deer camera vandalized. Fortunately I have only ever had that problem that one time. Just know that, as a landowner, any trespassing problems will be yours to deal with.
4. There Are Liability Issues With Owning Land
Liability concerns will vary by state and the type of property in question, so I won’t delve too deep. I do know liability concerns with trespassers are not much of an issue in my state. The courts are typically on the side of the landowner. However, if you invite people onto your property to do various work for you, you have to be sure you are covered in case there is some accident. This might be covered by the worker’s own insurance, but it might very well require that you have some type of general liability policy to fully protect yourself.
Conclusion
Most of the time leasing, at least for a couple years, is better than jumping right in and buying land. Neither way you go is really better than the other. It really comes down to your finances and personal preferences. With that said, it is very hard to describe the feeling of actually owning your own piece of deer hunting property. For many of us, that is a dream. I’m lucky enough to have made that dream come true.
If you find that you are interested in purchasing hunting land, I find that the Mossy Oak Properties website is a good resource to get a handle on the going sale prices in various areas.
Hopefully the points above can get you a little closer to deciding which decision is best for you and your family.
Good Luck!
Augustus Clay
