Sad Day....

T-Max

Well-Known Member
Well, the worst case scenario came to fruition last night. All the land I primarily hunt sold at auction. I was able to be the high bidder on one individual tract, but they offered the property as a whole in the end and it appears an outfit out of New Jersey will be the proud new owners of all of my hunting ground. I don't even know where to go from here. This might be the biggest kick in the nuts I have ever experienced...... Will someone tell me its gonna be okay, please? :(
 
Sorry to hear about your loss. People can say its only land, but it's so much more than that. Tradions of opening day spent with buddies. Memories of good times and bad. Knowing how to hunt that particular area. The improvement work you put into it.
Hopefully you find another spot with more long-term stability. It's hard to beat owning your own real estate, even if it's a small place, it's yours, no one can take it from you.
 
That sucks. My buddy has a really good farm he’s hunting that was listed for sale. He’d be lost without it.

Start knocking on doors and watch the master commissioner sales. You might get lucky on a tract of land. I’d also recommend reaching out to local loggers. One close to me buys the land, cuts it, then sells after. Most people don’t want forest ground that’s just been cut. Perfect to start a deer hunting property.
 
The good news is that you are young and have time to be working on something else. Sorry to hear the bad news, but good luck on the future.
That is what my dad told me. In hind sight, I should have been better prepared. This property is where I have done 99% of my hunting my entire life. Now its gone. I haven't even fully processed it I think. Start saving and pour even more effort into our place.
 
Awful feeling. So sorry for you. I lost the family farm about 7 years ago, and I never thought I’d forgive my dad and uncles for selling it. I reached out to the new owner and we’ve become friends. He lives out of state and doesn’t hunt, so I look after the place for him in return for exclusive hunting rights. Maybe you can work something similar out with a nearby landowner.
 
That is what my dad told me. In hind sight, I should have been better prepared. This property is where I have done 99% of my hunting my entire life. Now its gone. I haven't even fully processed it I think. Start saving and pour even more effort into our place.

Are you certain you won't be able to lease or otherwise hunt? Lots of investors in the market now buying just for ROI and less volatility.
 
Well that sux Tmax. I almost cried once when the farmer timbered "my " land he let me hunt. Cut down a prime acorn producer that had given me many a buck over the years. But I think their is hope on the horizon. My dad always said the only thing you can count on is nothing ever stays the same. Hate old man sayings when young but dang I've found he was right too many times. Good luck
 
Yeah, that’s a bummer. The only way to beat that is to own your place. Easier said than done though. I bought the place I live on 25 years ago and the debt scared me to death, but hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had bought more. Good luck to you !
 
Well, the worst case scenario came to fruition last night. All the land I primarily hunt sold at auction. I was able to be the high bidder on one individual tract, but they offered the property as a whole in the end and it appears an outfit out of New Jersey will be the proud new owners of all of my hunting ground. I don't even know where to go from here. This might be the biggest kick in the nuts I have ever experienced...... Will someone tell me its gonna be okay, please? :(
Hopefully you made it into your 20's before you lost your first hunting spot. It's gonna happen a few more times in your life. These are the experiences that lead us to either give up, or gird up and figure it out.

Grab a notepad and sit down at the table and don't get up until you find a way to buy your own land. There is no substitute for outright ownership. None.
 
We are roughly same age, I'm maybe little younger, but i know i struggle with as well lot of recommendations here are buy your own land.

Man i wish it was that easy. 80 acres of land which is maybe the minimum a hunter would want to own and be able to manage it a little bit around here i'm looking at 250k for anything decent. in what world can a 30 year old working man w/ family afford that and retire before 65.

I'm lucky to have some family land to hunt on, but quite honestly if i'm in your shoes i'm going to work hard at trying to lease and hunt public, and then mix in for 3k/year for a guided whitetail hunt in IA, KS, MO, WI etc big buck states over your lifetime you could do a lot of pretty fun hunts and shoot big deer for 100k vs 250k. Granted the best thing about deer hunting isn't even hunting sometimes it is the off season work that goes into a property hard to give that up and put price on it.
 
I was where you are. After repeatedly losing leased grounds, I looked at buying land, but didn't think I'd ever be able to do it. Well, I couldn't around where I live, so I started looking other places. If you want land to hunt, buy it, or hunt public. Even if you have to hunt public land while you save money, do that. The way I rationalized it was, I was leasing property. For the amount I was leasing good ground for, I could buy something and make it good. That's what I did, and at your age, I never thought I would be able to.
 
I agree in that you may be able to work out an agreement with the new owners....so certainly make sure you look into that option. If the owners are out of state, they may be willing to trade some hunting access for someone that will keep an eye on the place for them.

As far as a long term solution goes....the only way to prevent it again is to have your own dirt.

It's not the end of the world....just one of those crappy pot-holes in the road of life....keep on truck'n because there is a long road ahead yet. Not a lot of use worrying about what is behind you now....learn from it and try to be prepared for the next one.
 
It does seem daunting sometimes... My wife and I both drive 13 year old trucks, we built our own 900 sf house, and I scraped by to come out of college debt free. I make a pretty good salary for the area, but no matter how hard I save, it seems like I am just slightly behind the curve. I see a lot of guys that I know are similar to my status driving new cars, living in nice houses, owning land and I wonder what that takes. Are they just more comfortable living in extreme debt? Debt terrifies me! Haha! Maybe that's what its gonna take though.... Or I have noticed that I have two kidneys and I only need one..........
 
I agree in that you may be able to work out an agreement with the new owners....so certainly make sure you look into that option. If the owners are out of state, they may be willing to trade some hunting access for someone that will keep an eye on the place for them.

As far as a long term solution goes....the only way to prevent it again is to have your own dirt.

It's not the end of the world....just one of those crappy pot-holes in the road of life....keep on truck'n because there is a long road ahead yet. Not a lot of use worrying about what is behind you now....learn from it and try to be prepared for the next one.

I do know that the guy who purchased it did so for the purpose of deer hunting. I hear he has been looking for years for something to come up. And I do take ownership of the fact that I had all of my eggs in that basket, which was definitely a mistake. I never needed to look for somewhere else to hunt, and so I didn't. That led me here...
 
You're doing it right. Keep out of debt. It's amazing how much you can save by limiting yourself and just doing a little at a time. Even the small things add up. I used to dip. We used to eat out once a week. Doing away with the little things can add up over time. The saving and keeping your lifestyle well under your means is the way to get what you want.
 
It does seem daunting sometimes... My wife and I both drive 13 year old trucks, we built our own 900 sf house, and I scraped by to come out of college debt free. I make a pretty good salary for the area, but no matter how hard I save, it seems like I am just slightly behind the curve. I see a lot of guys that I know are similar to my status driving new cars, living in nice houses, owning land and I wonder what that takes. Are they just more comfortable living in extreme debt? Debt terrifies me! Haha! Maybe that's what its gonna take though.... Or I have noticed that I have two kidneys and I only need one..........
I'd be thinking of cheaper land within a 2 hour drive of my house. Good hunting land does not have to be a lot of acres, or be pretty, in fact, a rugged looking pile of brambles and brush is often the best hunting in the neighborhood. I have one spot that I own, only 11 acres, but IMO it's the best spot east of the mississippi. Also, saying this in an encouraging way, at your stage in life, and at your age, I was still in the stage of slaving and saving, and watching land sales closely. Good deals on hunting land are more often than not picked up at the local feed store than from a realtor. Hang in there and save, and good things will come your way.
 
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