Big jump in lease prices ?

[HT]

With the actual expense of hunting in SC (Lease, Corn, etc) You can take a couple trips to the mid - west or even out west and have a lot better hunt, IMO. That's hunting private lease or public. I took an old friend of mine this past year with me to Kentucky and he said he's seen more bucks, with more grunting / chasing / sparing in 5 days of hunting than he has in the past 10 years of hunting SC. We lease ~700 acres (between 6 farms with 10 members and a cabin), with a small WMA nearby for 2K a person. But we've been leasing this for 13 years.

[centurian]

For the average hunter you either lease, hunt GMA, or buy an outfitter hunt. These days you are going to have to pay for the opportunity to hunt by one means or the other (land gentry excluded).

[ceddy]

Weyerhaeuser is using another company out of Florida to handle all their hunting leases and they went up a lot this year from what I was told last weekend

Our leases are handled in-house. Yes they will continue to go up until we get to a point we don't lease out everything within minutes each year and have 50,000 people calling/texting/emailing for a lease every 5 seconds. It is stupid the price people are driving leases towards just to kill a deer. You can buy some dang good beef for the same amount as some of our leases. People can whine and complain all they want but at the end of the day they have nobody to blame but fellow hunters.

[MolliesMaster]

With the actual expense of hunting in SC (Lease, Corn, etc) You can take a couple trips to the mid - west or even out west and have a lot better hunt, IMO. That's hunting private lease or public. I took an old friend of mine this past year with me to Kentucky and he said he's seen more bucks, with more grunting / chasing / sparing in 5 days of hunting than he has in the past 10 years of hunting SC. We lease ~700 acres (between 6 farms with 10 members and a cabin), with a small WMA nearby for 2K a person. But we've been leasing this for 13 years.

Keep talking about stuff like this and you'll get to watch yourself get priced out of that spot, too.

[tprice]

Completely understand the supply/demand theory (Econ was my minor ) but this jump something I have never seen. This club has had this same land since early 1980’s (I went in 1988) . Same core group of guys

Mainly just curious if this is common this year, I know operating expenses have gone through the roof for any business

SC lease prices have been very reasonable for many years

They will pay it for sure , good track of land but WAY too many stands (long story I discussed on here before ) and great guys .

[stant]

I have been looking for a lease since selling my farm in 2022. Found 100 acres last summer and offered $50 per acre, it was rejected.

Still looking for less than 200 acres with an hour of Laurens, but I really do not expect to find anything.
'
I have booked a MO hunt this year, but want a local place to sit.

Really is a crazy situation.

[Rooster13]

Some landowners in Calhoun and Orangeburg counties have stopped leasing an entire tract but started leasing individual existing deer stands for $1000 a year or more to Florida killers.

[quack head 11]

Idk about leases here since I’m blessed enough not to need one but I can tell you with 100% certainty that where I hunt in the Midwest is $50 per acre. Yes you read that correctly, 200 acres will cost you 10 grand.

It will continue to go up until we quit paying it.

[Remy]

From the perspective of a landowner (especially timber companies) it is better in most cases to have out of town or out of state lessors because they pay top dollar and don’t hunt very much.

If I was leasing land I’d start at $30/acre and go down until I got a bite. I’m surprised more people haven’t doubled their lease rates by now.

[centurian]

Well I have had current lease since 1998. It has went through 3 owners (timber Co.). Lease is up 400% over 25 years. So is everything else. In 1997 had 5 leases in three counties. Tried to consolidate them into one club but couldn’t make it happen. They were all good leases with plenty of deer and turkey at very good prices but much different in habitat.