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Hunting Lease questions

Tin Roof

Tin Roof

Rusted
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
728
Messages
1,377
Loc
Iowa
I'm thinking about buying into a hunting lease. Just over 100 acres local to me with good access. I think I can get it for $2k/yr.

I've owned my own timber for the last 15 years, we sold that with our house this year. Leasing hunting ground is completely new to me.

Is there anything I should be looking for in the lease contract? Any special insurance considerations? What kind of experiences have any of you had with leasing ground?
 
Tons of stuff.

Do you have exclusive rights or can the landowner allow family and friends to hunt it also?

Do you have year round access to it or during season only?

Can you leave feeders, cameras, stands, ATV out there?

Power for a camp or RV?

Water?

Do they care if you dump guts there?

Can you shoot other stuff besides deer?

When are they going to cut timber, mow down fields, etc?

Are you responsible for any main fence of roads, gates, culverts?


If they are selling as a “per gun” basis rather than you setting all the rules you could be in for a giant mess.
 
Exclusive rights for up to 6 hunters under my control

Full access for 12 months

stands/cameras ore ok. Feeders are illegal here

atv access is ok, only for hunting

no water/power/rv parking but it’s only 5 minutes from my house. I also have access to it from the neighbors farm.

lease is for all legal game. Gut piles are ok

it has crops on it, I know the farmer well that does the crops for the owner so will know when planting/harvesting is going to happen

I wouldn’t have to maintain anything on the property
 
Sounds like a decent lease. I don’t have input on the lease itself, but I do have one suggestion.

Double check how Iowa treats trespassers/poachers. Can you, as the leaseholder, contact or discuss with law enforcement if there are unwanted hunters or does the property owner have to do that?

Just to facilitate quickly removing trespassers so you can get back to the hunt instead of burning time dragging the property owner on site or playing telephone tag.
 
You typically pay the insurance on the property.

On our lease we pay for the property and we pay additional for the insurance. The property is a tree farm, so we are required to keep insurance on it for any losses to that business. We have free reign of the place, come and go as we please all year long, can do anything other than cut down trees, can build feeders and stands, can bring guests. No power and no water, so it’s primitive camping.

We have the right to remove anyone who shouldn’t be there. One call to the game warden is all it takes. We’ve luckily never had to do that though.
 
A hunting lease In Iowa 100 acres for 2k….. what’s the catch ?! Should be 5k minimum .
 
Leadfoot21 said:
A hunting lease In Iowa 100 acres for 2k….. what’s the catch ?! Should be 5k minimum .
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Not really. Depends on location. There’s other leases in the general area for $3500 or less and this is prime deer hunting area.

This one isn’t very appealing to someone that doesn’t know the area and is just looking at it online. It’s probably 80% tillable ground but has a spring fed pond and some good bedding areas for deer. I used to trap on this property and know it pretty well.
 
Kind of depend on the terrain and type of hunting. Flat ground for rifle hunting with six hunters seems very crowded. Rolling ground with bow hunters might be doable. That being said, $2K in a prime deer hunting area seems cheap.
 
It would be just me and the kids, one or two of us at a time. Bow/shotgun deer hunting, trapping, turkey hunting and maybe shoot some coyotes.
We’ve spent the last 15 years hunting 27 acres so 100 will be a vast improvement.

The logistics of the land itself isn’t an issue I just want to make sure before I sign a lease that there isn’t anything I should make sure is included or excluded in the paperwork.
 
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The area in general has a history of trespassing and poaching. My timber was approximately 5 miles from this property and I had people shooting deer from the road every season.

Believe it or not, the Amish are hands down the worst for trespassing and poaching. The local DNR are constantly getting calls about them.

This property is sheltered from trespassing/poaching about as well as it can be. A friend of mine owns the farm that borders two sides, and a friend of my in-laws owns the farm that borders one side. The frontage is a state highway.

There’s no road access other than the state highway, and I will have atv access from the back side through my friends farm.
 
The lease auction ended this morning, and I got it for $2500/12 month lease. That includes costs for a $2mill liability policy. I have access starting 12/1/21. This will be interesting. I'm hoping it works out well and the owner is willing to extend without taking it back to auction.
 
I hunt out west, so 100 acres seems ridiculously small. I'll glass 500 - 1,000 acres before lunch on a typical hunt.

I know things are different there, but I can't imagine 6 guys hunting 100 acres.
 
we also use shot guns so a long distance shot would 100yds and amazing day would be 200 yards. with ar platform with 45 cal pistol ammo that is. they are some that have much better results and longer shots here, i am just saying what our group usually does.
 
zlathim said:
I hunt out west, so 100 acres seems ridiculously small. I'll glass 500 - 1,000 acres before lunch on a typical hunt.

I know things are different there, but I can't imagine 6 guys hunting 100 acres.
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Typical rec/hunting ground parcels in the area are selling at +/-40 acres. It’s mostly bow hunting and then some shotgun hunters. My property I sold was 27 acres and we hunted it comfortably.
 
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