Glad everyone is happy now!

I haven't kept up much the past few days, but speaking as a landowner and as a turkey hunter, I don't think the comparison of leasing a truck and leasing land is remotely valid. Every mile put on the truck depreciates it, and you never know how they might drive it. There's huge risk and liability in that.

Leasing land to a turkey hunter for 6 weeks carries very little risk and liability, especially if you really check out your lessee. If you were to lease your land to me, the only thing I might do is remove a few turkeys, which you obviously care nothing about anyway if you are gonna lease the rights. I wouldn't depreciate the value of your land in any way, and might even be able to help with some problem that I notice that you haven't seen.

I don't know of many landowners who don't lease out certain rights on their land from time to time. It is a type of lease when you do a timber sale, and I haven't met a logger yet who would treat your land as well as I would. You probably are gonna get more money from that lease, but the depreciation and risk is miles higher.

If I ever become unable to turkey hunt, and nobody in my family wants to hunt them, I would certainly lease the rights. And I would try to get a reasonable price for both of us. I think my 400 acres ought to be worth $2/acre right now, and if I include the use of the camp house, that's gotta be worth another $1. That would be $1200 that I'd be happy to put in my pocket. I can't understand why anyone else would not do the same, but its your land and you can do what you want.

Good luck to all trying to find a place to hunt. The Coosa WMA that I have hunted for years is now down to just the FW block, and I never hunted it. Hunting is going to become a sport that few can participate in, and its happening quickly. With fewer hunters, our political power goes fast. I suspect the younger members of our forum will live to see the day when all hunting is outlawed in the USA. Turkey rights will be worthless then. The value of land is also gonna be a whole lot less, as the recreation component adds a great deal to the current value.