5 Commons Reasons Hunters Lose a Hunting Lease

Recently, I had a customer at my day job share a story about how his group of friends had just lost their deer hunting lease on a prime piece of property. The landowner has cows on the land, and one of his buddies on the lease mistakenly shot a young cow, thinking it was a deer. To be honest, I was a bit confused about how that kind of mistaken identity could occur, but I didn’t witness the incident, so I can’t speak to any details other than what the customer shared with me.

The conversation got me thinking about all the different reasons that I’ve heard, over the years, about why hunters lose a lease or have a hunting lease terminated. I also thought about my experiences with hunting leases, having lost a few myself.

So, I decided to put together a short list of 5 of the most common reasons for hunters losing a hunting lease:

The Land was Sold or Changed Hands

In my experience, this is one of the most common ways that hunting leases end up being canceled or are not renewed. Several leases I’ve been involved with over the years have even included verbiage that addresses the status of the lease if the land is sold.

In one situation, a landowner passed away, and his heirs took possession of the property. One of the heirs wanted sole possession of the property, so he bought the others out. Once he took sole possession of the land, he notified the leasing hunter that the land had been sold and the lease was being terminated in 30 days.

Unfortunately, this occurred right in the middle of deer season, so all eight people on the lease (including me) had to have all our deer stands, equipment, and property off the land in 30 days. Although I had other hunting options, that particular year wasn’t one of my favorite deer seasons.

The Current Lessee Gets Outbid When the Lease Renewed

This scenario is becoming more and more common, especially when timber companies or corporations are involved. I’ve personally been involved with two leases where a corporation or company approached the landowners before the lease was set to renew and offered them a significantly higher lease rate. In both cases, the offer was well over the current fair market lease value, so the current lessees (of which I was one) did not counteroffer.

I’ve also seen this occur with large hunt clubs expanding their membership. They will approach landowners and offer an increased lease rate well over the current rate. Money talks and a large hunt club may have deeper pockets than ten guys who hunt only on the weekends.

Rules were Broken, or the Land was Abused

I’d say that this is probably the 3^rd most common reason I see where hunters lose a hunting lease. To make matters worse, the grounds for the lease termination could have easily been prevented in most cases. For example, a gate isn’t properly closed, so cows get out, or some hunters leave trash on the land or mistake a cow for a deer (which still puzzles me).

Another one that seems to happen more than it should involves hunters and fire, especially when it’s brutally cold. I’m guessing they start a fire while cleaning a deer and some part of the land catches on fire.

From a landowner’s perspective, I can certainly understand how any of the abovementioned situations would leave a bad taste in their mouth and make them second guess the hunting lease.

The Lease Cost Increases More than the Lessees Want to Pay

Typically, with a hunting lease, several hunters spread the cost of the lease out across the group. So, a $3500 per year lease costs ten hunters $350 a year.

However, when the lease price reaches a certain point, it may price members of the current lease out of the market. In these situations, the primary lessee has three choices:

1. Find new members who are willing to pay the new increased lease amount
2. Add more hunters to the lease to decrease the overall costs to each hunter
3. Spread the increased costs to fewer hunters willing to pay a higher rate in return for fewer hunters on the property.

However, if the primary lessee can’t come up with a solution, then they may have to let the lease go.

The Economy Takes a Downturn

I saw this happen quite a bit during the COVID pandemic. Hunters lost jobs, so money that previously went to pay for a lease was re-routed to pay for more important bills like rent, mortgage, and groceries.

I completely understand how this happens and have been in the same boat myself. I typically like to have a few different private locations to hunt, so I usually go in on 3-4 leases each year.

However, when things have gotten tight financially, I’ve had to scale my leasing participation back as that money was needed elsewhere in the family budget.

Awareness of these common issues may help you address them with the members of any hunting lease you happen to be involved with.

The last thing I’ll say about hunting leases is this: where possible, I try to build lasting relationships with landowners on a personal level, so they know me, and I know them.

I try to do it with little things, like:

• Sending them a gift card to a local restaurant at Christmas
• Notifying them of any issues observed when on their land
• Periodically stopping by their house to check in (especially if they are elderly folks)

Little things like that can make a lasting impression with people, and that relationship may mean the opportunity for a second chance if something goes wrong with the lease or someone comes in offering more money.