With a recession in the near future what will that do to lease cost and hunting clubs? The club south of me pay $20 ac and they all live around Pensacola so it's not cheap to just run up and hunt every weekend.
I remember in 08 3 big tracks of land around me lost the clubs leasing them. Will that happen again?

We are about to see the biggest shift ever to elites only hunting. The old “rich man’s sport” joke won’t be quite as funny. Middle class man with a family, and no family land, will have no chance. And the domino effects of that will get interesting.

I run two clubs and I can tell you this year is going to be rough on my members!! The cost of everything is stupid expensive now and some folks have no choice but to put family priorities first. I have a feeling there will be some large turn over within clubs and more land available for lease in the near future. I can tell you we will be adjusting the spending we control accordingly. We simply can not afford to do what we have been doing on our budget.

I agree with all of you. I have been looking to buy a couple hundred acres for a while now but people are paying silly money for land. Just like a home, you make your money when you purchase a property at a decent price not when you sell. You can get upside down easy. Lost our lease on Alabama river two years ago and have not found anything to date. With the prices in Alabama I am considering a couple pay hunts a year. Do miss the camp life though. You guys let me know if you run across any opportunities. Thanks!

🤷🏻

While I agree it is getting expensive I still believe when there’s a Will there is a way. A large portion of the people who complain about prices Piss money away like there’s no tomo of things that are far far from needed!

Can’t have vehicles ever reach paid off, smoking, dipping, drinking, eating out daily, buying homes way bigger than needed, ole lady’s shopping constantly and always remodeling their kitchens etc etc the list can go on forever.

Grandparents built one house, 3 bed 1 bath and 1200 sq fr and raised three kids in it, stayed there until they died, never once owned a new vehicle and always packed lunch and ate at home.

And equivalent family today needs 2500 sq fr house with 4 beds 3 baths, two new 60k vehicles and eats out most days.

I just don’t see that. You will see a huge swing in illegal hunting activity for sure.

That’s one of the domino effects on the list

This is why i think the state needs to add more public land and not just to the SOA program. I want to have options when I cant afford a private lease anymore.

Everybody has a new truck and atv and wants to hunt but when time comes to pay dues they all have a sad story. Same about work days, nobody has time but they sure have time to hunt though.

^^^This^^^

I LIVE on My LAND......Be a Bad decision to Poach.....

I think continuous land lease escalation, and fertilizer/fuel inflation is going to cause some sort of shift. There has to be a breaking point. Possibilities:

- knowledgeable people quit due to their clubs being forced to accept more members than they should to keep costs down. Low quality members reduce the experience for everyone. Some people leave the sport.

- wealthy hunters gobble up what the average guy can’t handle

- folks who are too passionate about the sport (relative to their means) over extend themselves to pay for gas, lease, everything else that goes with the season

I hate it. I sure hope there’s some relief

First payments on some leases were due May first and I’ve had two of the big land owners in Marengo/Wilcox counties that are also friends of mine call me asking if we were interested in more land. One of the leases I thought would never come up, same family has had it since I started hunting the area 35 years ago.

All valid points - most people don't have their Priorities in check and this shows when dues are due !! Club's will have some tough decisions: plant select fields, increase dues to cover fertilizer prices/lease prices etc. etc. Alot of clubs will suffer and not make it through the next couple of years. We will have to make tough decisions on ours this year - but once you give Up your lease it will never be avaiable again

Surprisingly my lease didn’t go up this year. Still haven’t worked out details on the other.

I think all of those things have already happened to some extent, and they will only get worse from here. It's all part of the left's plan to destroy the American middle class.

Exactly!! The ones in our club that bitch about money for hunting are the ones that spend $100 or more every weekend on beer!!