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!!

I’ll jump in on this topic and give my views from a different angle. When I started deer hunting I worked extra jobs to pay for my hunting because it was the only thing I really enjoyed. Time went by and my closest hunting friends became drs and I started a business but they were making lots more than me at the time but I worked extra hard to save extra money for our leases because it was important to me and never once did I deprive my wife or daughters anything to support my habit. Time went on and I took over one of our leases by myself so I could take a customer from time to time without drama or feeling like I was imposing on my friends. Their sons got older and they ran out of room so my move to go on my own worked out. Fast forward 10 years and I decided I was tired of driving to Arkansas every other weekend to duck hunt and a place came up for sale in Scottsboro and I bought it that same week. It produced good return on investment so a started adding to it as stuff came up that had agricultural land I could get a return on. The typical guy hunting with probably his son will not pay as much to hunt because they have to bass fish, have ski boat and side by sides and have to go to the beach a couple times and probably go deep sea fishing at least once and have no time to do work at a hunting club except maybe planting day and constantly complain about how expensive hunting is. Y’all are right about this inflation situation affecting clubs and leases because hunting money is disposable income for most people but I made it a priority that I had a good place to hunt and didn’t go on beach trips and vacations and piss money away on fancy things I didn’t need. I’m thankful I’m not 25 anymore though and had to start over. Sorry for the rant.

^^^^ same here. I do side work that doesn't interfere with living expenses just to fuel my hunting dues and I don't cry a bit to cut a check for it. Also my hunting clothes are old as dirt and most are not even camo. My hunting equipment is not fancy at all. One club member said I looked like the poorest hunter in the club, I just smiled.

Hunting will be just another payment for those already living WAY beyond their means.... It'll likely never get cheaper or easier to find land

Glad I've never had to pay for hunting land...I'd probably just fish and book a hunt or 2 if I had to pay for a club or lease

I’m seriously considering just booking a yearly trip to Texas or some other state and just hunt close to home maybe public land. The cost of a quality lease way to painful these days,

All this season change bs, along with the popularity of the traveling hunters these days, Texas itself is a harder nut to crack than you think. When you do find a quality place (there’s plenty that will take your money and they are t quality) the price is getting higher every and higher.

Evidently, a lot of folks are using this train of thought. I hunted Kansas 5 consecutive years until about 3 years ago. It was almost a foregone conclusion you'd get drawn. I talked to the outfitter about a month ago and 25% of his booked hunters failed to draw. He is changing his business. He is booking fewer hunters, repeat only, and is staggering them every other year. One group will hunt this year while the second group buys preference points. The second group will hunt next year while the first group buys points. Paying for and preparing leases then losing the hunters hurt him pretty bad.

Ive always done side work to pay for hunting. That wont change. Turned 50 last Sunday and still wont use my "real money" for it. Just wont do it, its expendable and until we are empty nesters and the girls are out of college and married i will do it the same way. Its the way we do vacations as well.

I think you can plant the right rotation of food, and cut your costs. For instance. If you plant some form of clover, you basically have food year round. Then in the fall, plant cereals and brassica's, and some annual clovers. The cereals will decompose in the spring and feed your clover, and the clover fixes nitrogen which helps your creals and brassicas.

It may take a couple years to get there, but you shouldn't have to fertilize as much, and if you lime and get your PH right, its even easier. I started switching to clover 2 years ago, and really hit it hard last fall, and have really good stands established. The deer wear it out too.