Originally Posted by Bulls eye
Originally Posted by Mbrock
I’ve got a buddy from KS who’s drawn Iowa and he hunted public. Absolute giants on public out there. 180-200+ are not out of the ordinary for a few public tracts. The leasing game in the Midwest has gotten very difficult. Lots of smaller farms are leased to out of staters but basically hunted when they’re not there. Bad thing is you never know it and have no idea what they’re killing. That’s not just Iowa. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I’m going to spend that kind of money I’m WAY ahead leasing ground in AL by the right people and managing for 130-150” deer and being content.


Your right Matt- my leasing out of state days are over when these run out. Too many variables you can’t control. Im staying home from now on except maybe for the occasional pay hunt somewhere.


I am strongly considering doing a couple pay hunts a year and let outfitters do all the work and deal with all the issues that come with leasing OOS.

Unless one leases a really special property, the cost doesn't math out in the long run. I have been lucky early on to have leased some of those special properties, however as Matt noted so much has changed in the Midwest. I currently lease just shy of 600 continuous acres that has taken a good deal of effort to put together. There are only 3 of us that hunt this property, we manage pressure and are pretty particular with what we shoot and mid 40's is all it has consistently produced. I know of 5 groups of guys in my area doing something very similar as we are and we just aren't killing 150's or better on these private leases. That is a big white flag for me!

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