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To lease or not to lease: That is the question many outdoorsmen face with deer hunting season approaching
BY Luke Clayton, Special to Star Local News
About this time each year, we deer hunters begin to get fired up.
For many, last minute plans are made for the upcoming season. Some are scrambling to lease a new piece of property, others are busy making ready leases they have had for years.
About 97 percent of land in Texas is privately owned.
I was invited to join the lease by a good friend back in 1981.
A few years later, my buddy decided to join a then-popular statewide hunting club. He asked me if I would like to take the lease over. I had constructed a little cabin on the place and dearly loved hunting there. It's where my oldest son and I spent many happy days in pursuit of deer, quail, turkey and hogs. I agreed to be the person in charge of the lease and he set up a meeting with a grand old rancher that had owned the property for most of his adult life.
We agreed on the lease price, when payment would be made and went over the few basic ground rules for hunting on the property.
"Don't pet or feed my sheep dogs; they are here to live with the sheep and goats and protect them from coyotes," he said. "Keep all fires confined to the camp fire pit, lock the gates behind you, keep all vehicles on the main ranch roads and keep the number of hunters to four."
That was it and the deal was sealed with a handshake.
About five years later, the elderly rancher passed away. And with his passing, the handshake agreement ended.
I soon received a very official letter from his lawyer son-in-law spelling out a whole new set of rules and regulations, including a clause that made me personally responsible for any damage to the property by fires, off-road vehicle traffic, etc. The list went on and on.
I assembled our group and told them I was bowing out of managing the lease.
I explained the new demands and asked if anyone else was willing to assume responsibility. There were no takers and we all lost access to a very special piece of real estate that we had come to love. I often wonder if this piece of hunting heaven is leased today to hunters. If so, I bet there is a hunter/landowner liability lease policy in effect.
If you are considering leasing hunting land I have some very good news for you.
Did you know that hunting lease liability insurance is not expensive and it covers not only you, but the landowner as well? I am positive that if I could have supplied that lawyer years ago with a policy that protected him from liabilities, we would have been able to come to an agreement.
Today, the ability to supply a hunting lease liability policy opens doors to ranches that might otherwise be tough to lease. I understand that ranch land is extremely valuable and ranch owners have a lot of liability to consider when they lease their land to hunters.
Steve Meng with American Hunting Lease Association (ahuntinglease.org) noted that the peace of mind a liability hunting lease policy offers is well worth the price.
"For as little as $175 per year, hunters and landowners can have the assurance of knowing that they are protected," he said. "We've seen many instances where having this very affordable insurance helped hunters gain access to leases that were previously unavailable."
Leasing hunting land is very popular here in Texas, but definitely not the only means of gaining access to good hunting property.
For some folks with limited time to spend filling game feeders, working on cabins and keeping up a deer lease, booking a hunt with a respected outfitter might be a better plan. For the past couple years, I've worked on the 6,000-acre Clay Hill Ranch near Fairfield in Freestone County, guiding deer and hog hunters. I've found many of the clients to be veteran hunters that no longer have the time to devote to managing their own leases.
Many have told me that for the cost of a three- or four-day hunt with lodging, meals and transportation furnished, they are actually saving dollars from when they had to do it all themselves. They have the advantage of hunting a big, well-managed ranch where bucks are allowed to reach their potential. On small tracts, management is simply not possible. Once a buck jumps a property line fence, he's legal game for the hunters on the adjacent land and their idea of what to shoot might be vastly different.
Public land hunting is certainly not as popular in Texas as many of the western states, but it does exist.
For the price of an annual public hunting permit ($48), over a million acres of hunting on some state parks or U.S. Forrest Service Lands and Wildlife Management units is available. A quick Google search of "Public hunting lands in Texas" is a good place to begin your search.
One often overlooked hunting hotspot is the lands adjacent Lake Whitney and Lake Aquilla.
This country has an abundance of Rio Grande Turkey, white tail deer and wild hogs, all accessible with a permit issued by The Whitney Lake Office in Clifton. Research for locating these almost free hunting hotspots has never been easier, thanks to the internet. Thirty minutes on Google can accomplish what used to equate to a costly gasoline or phone bill.
Listen to Outdoors with Luke Clayton at: catfishradio.com. Contact Luke with hunting and fishing news from your area via the website.
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