Illinois or Kentucky land wanted

I am looking to hunt in Kentucky or Illinois for the 2023-24 season. If anyone on here is interested in taking on two others to help acquire a lease let me know. I am getting on up in age and this is on my bucket list. I am not getting any younger. I was very impressed with the small lease we had this year. I loved the country and the critters we saw there. There is just too much pressure on the lease my son has with the two of us hunting at the same time so we need something bigger.

Thanks
B

I been wanting to do this as well.

I would also be interested! Holler at me if y'all find something!

My buddy has been looking for us a lease for a couple of years. Hard to find a reasonable place. The biggest farmer in the area leases his for $40 an acre. Forget that.

Yea I ain’t paying $40 an acre.

It’s worth it in my opinion. You don’t need much land either. We just look for places that have a decent amount of timber around. To be able to watch deer do what deer do in the rut. If I was forced to choose, I’d drop Bama Hunting just to be able to bow hunt November up there.

This. May as well do a paid hunt at that price

I’m about at that point myself with Alabama hunting..

Teacher One I'm not sure what county you hunted in, but I'll share my thoughts on Illinois. This year made 23 or 24 years I have hunted the state, so I been fond of the hunting there. I have been in the southern part of the state for the last 10+. I personally feel like the quality has dropped way off in this part of the state over the last few years. It seems the central part of the state has made a big recovery from consecutive years of EHD outbreaks, which probably helped them get back on track. The area had become overpopulated therefore quality had dropped off. If I were in the market for a new lease, I would be looking north of southern 1/4 portion of the state. Get above the counties around the KY state line! Granted there are still pockets of quality deer to be found, but it's fell off pretty bad in my personal opinion.

As for cost you can expect $20 per acre minimum for anything halfway decent. To get that price you will be dealing directly with the landowner, so encourage you to seek out some landowners. Anything with a middle person involved will be north of $30 i'd say. If I were you, I would make a road trip and try to meet some landowners. I have a couple contacts that are up in age that have acquired land by making a road trip and meeting folks. Seems like these farmers feel more comfortable leasing to someone similar in age as them. The further north you go the more expensive these tracts will be. Back in hayday of the golden triangle, I heard talk of ground leasing for $100 acre for the hunting rights.

My overall opinion of IL is not what it once was!! I think the legalizing of crossbows has hurt the quality tremendously and has increased hunting pressure 10 fold. I also think the new rifle reg is going to continue the decline. The state also lacks serious game enforcement and a good many of the locals run rampant up there due to that fact. It's nearly impossible to manage for quality if you have locals as neighbors. This opinion is based off firsthand personal experience across multiple counties throughout the state.

My best advice is be careful who you deal with and try to find out as much information as can on the available property. It's for lease for a reason which could be legit or it have a host of problems.

What Squeaky said is true for Western KY. I thought for a minute he was talking about WKY.

Thanks so much Squeaky for the wisdom you have shared!

B

If my three kids didn’t love it so much , I would give up Alabama hunting. I would try to a a DIY out west and a Western Kentucky lease
And be done with it

Check out hunt lease network

There’s a lot of good ground in South central Kentucky. Got a lot of buddies that live around Oak Grove/Hopkinsville and they pay around $10-$15/acre and are killing 150’s just about every year.

Your buddies are lucky men because that is not the norm for that area, especially non-resident that do not live there. You noted a key point "they live there", that makes a big difference when developing relationships with landowners and getting a fair price on a lease. Every SW KY lease that has decent timber posted online is at a minimum of $20 and most are $30+. The key to finding a quality affordable lease is to deal directly with the landowner. The online leasing companies are gonna break it off in your rearend if one chooses to go that route!!

I once had a lease in Christian Cty that was 1000 acres that I paid $15 acre. Some TN boys came in an offered more money, so I lost the lease. It wasn't worth a penny more than $15 acre and I didn't counteroffer. It had trespass, thief's and dope heads growing dope on it. I walked away and found something else but it was $5 more per acre and deal straight with the landowner. He is consistently offered more money for the lease every year, thank God we have a great friendship.

Alot of wisdom here. I have seen the same things and dealing directly with the landowner would be best, but can be difficult if you do not live there. You might have to lease somewhere as a jumping off point and meet people while you are there hunting. I have done it and have hunted many counties, all for less than $20/acre in the last few years.

There are still many good farmers and tracts to hunt, but you cannot just lease any ground and expect to harvest a 160" + deer. You have to use your judgement on which land would be best.

Also to note, no i wont give you my contacts information - so don't ask.

I'll 3rd this opinion. I don't deer hunt Illinois but I'm neck deep in it because many of my friends have farms there or hunt it. I waterfowl hunt, turkey hunt, and youth deer hunt (now) over there and generally just spend a ton of time on that side of the river. I used to take drives just to count big bucks. Now, just seeing deer is tougher. It isn't what it used to be and there is now way I'd spend that kind of money on out of state tags and leases on "any given land." Now, having said that I have a buddy that is on a larger property where they don't shoot anything but big bucks. It is awesome hunting. But, finding a spot like that is hard to do. What makes it even worse is if you find one you have to pass on all those 140-150 inch deer or you will ruin it. Which is what has happened to much of southern Illinois.

Sounds like we all need to go to Missouri. They are trying to increase the deer harvest for next year.

Shut your mouth. But you are right. They are turning up the heat. It has been bad already going back since they allowed pistols during muzzleloader and crossbows during bow season. Unlimited antlerless archery for a while. Now they are increasing antlerless gun tags, letting people use unfilled tags on bucks in antlerless season, and generally trying to keep the numbers way down.

Heck, everyone with 10 acres in CWD zones gets an extra 10 anydeer tags. I put mine in my pocket, but others are out there whacking them.

They only killed 93 355 opening weekend. Slackers

I got your pm Squeaky. Thanks for the information!

B

A coworker goes on a lot of out of state hunts and he says kentucky and illinois are not as good as they used to be. He says Ohio is a sleeper.

Squeaky hit the nail on the head with his recommendation of getting up there and meeting some of the farmers.

My buddy and I started with a 220ac SE Illinois lease and wound up with a little over 1000ac in a couple of years. We found that the farmers are very friendly for the most part and if they don't want to lease their place they will point you in the direction of someone who will.

Just leased 200 acres in western Kentucky. Great County I really wanted to be in. Wanted to get my foot in the door there and see what happens.

I am still looking. Bump to the top since AL deer season has closed. Any leads appreciated.

B

Teacher One- Sent u a PM

I sent you my contact number.

Thanks,
B

If you guys need someone to go in with you. I'd be interested.

Include me in the boat looking for land in KY and willing to go in with someone.

You don’t need to have farm land to kill a good one up there. My BIL shot the #2 Kentucky non typical at the time on $4 acre strip mine land several years ago, scored around 250.

Don't think you can lease hunting rights in a parking lot in Kentucky for single digits in today's market.

Squeaky-I sent you a pm.

Give me a call and we can talk see if we are on the same page,12178893731

Looking at a tract in KY next week.

Looks like this may be the one.

B

Deal fell through. I am hanging it up for the coming year. I am going to hunt the land I have here and smile at what I kept in my pocket. There is some great looking land, but it is out of sight when it comes to leasing.

Thanks for all the help and the great information.
B