Benefits of say owning 40-100 acres, leasing 200=400 acres or being in a club with 1,000 to 3,000 acres. What say ye? Also, I am open to all three next year somewhere between Andalusia and Brewton next year. So keep me in mind too.

Just a shot from the peanut gallery here, but if you own or lease, you're the boss. If you're in a club you ain't. But 40-100 acres isn't a huge place and you can deal with a lot of external factors beyond your control.

also if you lease or own your own land you get to decide who hunts and who doesn't

I think all 3 are reasonable. I don't think I'd want to be in a huge club though.

Huge club with few members

I'm lookiong at a couple of tracts Monday, ONE IS 55 Acres and the other is 68... tired of drunks in clubs

They all have there good and bad. Strictly for hunting if I could afford it I would lease 500 - 1,000 acres by myself or join a club with that many acres per member. Or if I could buy 250-500 acres. Unless I could find something less than 100 with neighbors that don't hunt.

I had a lease by myself for a while and the control was awesome, but not having somebody to share the work load with was not. I found myself paying to do a lot of jobs because I didn't have the time. This made that lease very expensive. I don't mind paying a few thousand dollars to have somebody improve land I own, but it stings a little to pay to improve somebody else land.

Depends on the club your talking about joining. If you can get paired with like minded people, you will be all set. If you own the land or own the lease, you have control of what happens on your hunting land. People's hunting styles vary so much that it is hard to get in with the right group of people that you can afford to hunt with.

If you can find the right piece of property in the right area.....I'd take owning 100 acres all day long over the other options. For anyone in the market for a 100-800 acre piece of land....there's several for sale around here that outta pretty awesome places to hunt.

I was thinking along the same lines as you guys. I figured it would be good fodder for discussion. I would like to own about 500 acres one day, but leasing is a much more viable option for me though. I have been in some great clubs and some terrible clubs.

Owning is the way to go but not everyone can do that. Clubs are a pain because good ones, meaning few hunters and a lot of land with good deer management and everyone being on the same page, are hard to find.

The biggest issue with having your own lease is pouring money and labor into it for a few years and having the lease pulled by the owner

My goal is a hybird approach. I'd like to own a small piece to build a cabin and have one or two nice private food plots on on next (or close) to my hunting club.

Owning is the only one you have control of. The other 2, the land owner controls the land and timber management thus restricting a persons wildlife management.

From a hunting perspective, club all day.... Something with a few like minded individuals leasing a big piece of land. Owning or leasing small tracts, you're at the mercy of your neighbors.

What would you consider a big piece of land.

Been there it sucks.

Depends on the terrain and how thick it is. More than 2k, ideally 3-5k with 1 member per 6-800 acres.

Not to say that small pieces can't be very very good, but once again, you're at the mercy of your neighbors. Your neighbors determine how good it's is or how bad it is.

With 6-800 acres you're going to have one helluva budget unless you are leasing at a ridiculously low price per acre. At $10/acre you're at 6-8000 per member before any planting, stand maintenance or camp operation. In about 10 years you could buy 40-80 acres depending on location and timber.

Sure, that's why I said ideally... As in "in my dreams".

I like the way you think

Some of y'all must be made of money. Ain't no way on this earth, i dont play the lottery, that i could ever afford 500 acres

The problem with owning 40-100 acres for hunting is you are at the mercy of your neighbors. I live on 96 acres and it is not worth a piss for hunting due to the surrounding properties. The same would be true for a small lease. Really it is all about location with those two options. With a 3000 acre club with the right members you could really have some good hunting.

From my experience, the clubs that I thought I had the right members in was the one who seemed to "WANT" to be the right member was always the worst of the bunch. The one that said "no does on plots, no bucks younger than 3.5 years old, and limited pressure, was the one that went walking or riding from plot to plot when most of the members weren't there shooting does out of them, and who shot a 4 point. Of course they were the president of the club too. I could do the club thing again if it was 3-4 guys I have known a long time. Otherwise a small lease or maybe someday a small purchase will be all I can do. I guess I would need to have an alliance with the neighbors. Maybe I could try to go the incorporated purchase route where 3-4 guys bought land together, but then I could see losing friendships and a lot of money over that.

Gotcha.

Not every small tract is going to be perfect. But there are some that produce well. Location, location, location.

Can't deny location but almost equal if not equal is work, work, and work. Also, do NOT set expectations higher than the norm for the area. They most ALL will produce given the right work done to it. The right work is done by seeing what your neighbors DON'T have and your best guess after research what your land needs. I could go on and on but I am a firm believer to make it work, really work to the maximum potential on any property large or small, start with one that is close enough to home to give the full attention it needs. In other words, if you live in Mobile an buy in Birmingham, you're not going to be able to drop in after work and trim up the roads.