Last Updated on March 28, 2017
Commercial hunting outfitters can provide a professional land-lease relationship for landowners where leasing hunting permissions to individuals poses too great a risk or hassle. Hunting operations like The Last Buffalo in Darrouzett, Texas, where I hunted quail last season, offer visitor experiences that include both public and private land access. Making these experiences perpetually available requires responsible private land use and relationship accountability year after year. A commercial enterprise has more to lose than an individual hunter. Their business is built on yours.
Hunting leases with individual hunters help prevent eliminate trespassers and poachers. Above and beyond that, lease agreements with commercial outfitters often mean liability insurance is in place. Confirmation of identity, hunting licenses and hunting ethics are all streamlined by commercial outfits. Off-season habitat management relationships can prove resourceful. As a landowner, you have room to negotiate your lease based in part on the outfitter’s business success. If you’re in a position to stick to lease agreements with individuals, companies like Hunting Lease Network alleviate these issues, too.
A commercial enterprise has more to lose than an individual hunter. Their business is built on yours.
Is a lease worth your while? Jared Robertson of The Last Buffalo says, “It seems hunting lease value is very dependent on location, proximity to airport, scarcity of species being sought after, and a number of other factors. However, there are a number of Natural Resources Conservation Service programs that will cost share or completely pay for wildlife conservation and/or habitat improvement.” When it comes to buying land with the revenue of a lease in mind, Robertson goes on to say, “There may be places that can be paid for solely by hunting leases, but they are probably the exception rather than the rule. If stewardship and conservation are your passion and you treat the land as Mother Nature intended, then wildlife value seems to take care of itself.”
Upland hunters at The Last Buffalo are getting ready for quail opening day, just around the corner. The team offers an amazing getaway: an old bank converted to hunter’s lodge with a repurposed bank safe for gun storage, situated in the far-out town of Darrouzett on the Oklahoma Panhandle, where hunting on both private and public lands in Texas as well as Oklahoma is lead and followed by home-cooked meals, good bourbon and great company.
Whether you invite individual hunters to utilize your property or secure agreements with professionals this season, now is the time to put them in place.
