Ever Considered Selling Hunts?

[HB_Hunter]

I’ve been thinking about selling a few bow only hunts a year on the farm for the past couple years. I’ve been really thinking about it hard the last month or so.

My thought was 6 hunts, two hunters opening week (opens first weekend of September), two hunters the week before gun season opens (second Saturday in November) and two more hunters the week before the December ML season (second Saturday in December).

Has anyone else ever considered this? Anyone else ever done this?

 

[catscratch]

Considered it. I'm somewhat obsessed with finding ways to make land pay for itself. Selling hunts has been a consideration but until the kids move out and away I think it will be reserved for family and friends.

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[HB_Hunter]

Considered it. I'm somewhat obsessed with finding ways to make land pay for itself. Selling hunts has been a consideration but until the kids move out and away I think it will be reserved for family and friends.

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I’m definitely in the make land pay for itself boat. The way things lay out, I feel like I can accommodate both. My kids are young and have no interest in deer hunting right now. They might one day and I’d like to reserve the early youth gun hunt and gun season for them. Other family and friends then too. The problem with other family and friends is they are freeloaders .

 

[buckdeer1]

I would check on cost of insurance and are you going do a full service hunt or just let them hunt on their own

 

[HB_Hunter]

I would check on cost of insurance and are you going do a full service hunt or just let them hunt on their own

I’ve got insurance on my current business and will definitely be discussing this with my agent. I’m also going to talk to an attorney about a liability waiver.

Planning to do a full service setup. I’ll take them to the stand and pick them up for the first week of November hunts. I’m also planning to provide lodging and breakfast/dinner.

The early/late season hunts would likely be evening only so I’m not sure how that would work out. I’m going to research the competition .

 

[g squared 23]

Considered it but there are too many drawbacks for me at this point. I think it would be cool and exhilarating for a while but could turn into a drag. Would also depend on who you ended up with as clients. Cool clients would make the experience a huge positive.


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[Baker]

I sell a few hunts on both farm and ranch every year. On farm no kill no pay but I personally guide every one. Rifle only. They only get to shoot what I approve. Has mostly been a bust this year with poor success ratio.

I take a few hunters to ranch every year. Hunt first afternoon, 3 full days, morning hunt and out. Fixed base cost then charge premium for bucks over 150" .All fully guided . Have far more hunters interested than I can take. Mostly do it cause there are always bucks available.

Two edged sword. Generally fun but can get to be a chore sometimes. Key is hunters have to be folks we have a blast with, that get what we are doing and understand what it takes to create what they see. Helps cover a few of the bills.

 

[Chainsaw]

HB, I like your thinking to use the extra resource you feel you have to make a few dollars and if you do the selling hunts I hope it works out real well. Firstly if it were me I would define what working out really well is. My estimation is that it is likely a non-profitable venture that could eat up a tremendous amount of energy. In Bakers case he is accomplishing at least two things, helping to keep his population in line with the property's ability to support the population and offsetting "a few" of the bills. Projects that accomplish two or more goals are much more to my liking when it comes to "second" part time jobs/businesses.

An example to bring in a few dollars off the land here that also improved the hunting and the value of the land to me would be a nursery type business where I specialized in growing high quality nursery stock for northern white tail properties. My sense is that it would not be profitable dollar wise for many, many years although it could bring in more dollars than what goes out but a job at a fast food chain would likely yield more dollars per hour. However the other payment for the job would be that this property would have the best possible fruit trees, nut trees, shrubs and bushes available and thus the second way the project paid me. Additionally I'd get to travel all over the north country while seeking out super specimens of plants to propagate and hunting for great native plant specimens would be fun for me. The dollars in over the dollars out would be of course be taxable but the dollars out would likely exceed dollars in when property taxes and insurance were considered. Since I am retired that part would not give me any deductions that I could benefit from.

Another example here of getting paid twice or even three times is renting acreage out to farmers to grow crops. One gets rent and giant food plots. And with the right deal for best land use practices the land and soil can be improved. And a deal can usually be made to have the farmer plant your smaller food plots as well. The resultant savings in equipment not purchased is another form of non-taxable income.

There are no doubt many more possible examples of getting paid twice but you get the idea. In other words for me and we are all different but if the business/project does not align with my goal to have better hunting and a better managed deer herd and property then it is out. We can all do one thing better than everything else we do and hopefully it is what we do for a living. And working a few more hours at that will usually yield more dollars returned than most second legitimate for dollars profit businesses.

To recap, define what doing really well at this venture could be dollar and otherwise and define all of the costs dollars and otherwise and add that to your decision making process.

 

[HB_Hunter]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

To recap, define what doing really well at this venture could be dollar and otherwise and define all of the costs dollars and otherwise and add that to your decision making process.

I’m currently breaking things down chainsaw. I have a good friend that analyzes these things for a living. If my pitch goes well with him, I’ll keep moving forward.

 

[swat1018]

I sell a few hunts on both farm and ranch every year. On farm no kill no pay but I personally guide every one. Rifle only. They only get to shoot what I approve. Has mostly been a bust this year with poor success ratio.

I take a few hunters to ranch every year. Hunt first afternoon, 3 full days, morning hunt and out. Fixed base cost then charge premium for bucks over 150" .All fully guided . Have far more hunters interested than I can take. Mostly do it cause there are always bucks available.

Two edged sword. Generally fun but can get to be a chore sometimes. Key is hunters have to be folks we have a blast with, that get what we are doing and understand what it takes to create what they see. Helps cover a few of the bills.

Put me on the list! Actually, I'd even love a tour without a weapon.

 

[Baker]

Put me on the list! Actually, I'd even love a tour without a weapon.

Here's a bit of a tour my buddies son took from their ranch in Mexico. Pretty cool video just taken over Thanksgiving holiday including taking a 160" class 8 pt with bow.

 

[catscratch]

Great video! Those big bucks down there are incredible. If I ever stop watching Baker's video's someone needs to come to my house and slap me around a bit.

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[Triple C]

Holy Cow! Mexico got it going on in a good way. Once loved going down there wing shooting but never encountered anything like that. Pretty special.

 

[Letmgrow]

I wouldn't consider bringing in outsiders to hunt my property. I bought my land (200 acres) for the pleasure of my family and myself. We have rules which everyone agrees to and follows. When it comes time to plant food plots, trim trees and trails, plant trees, mow borders etc. I don't need to ask for help. It's a family affair. If someone shoots a trophy that is their reward.
Presently, besides me, my wife hunts, my son hunts and he often brings either my 15 YO grand daughter or his girlfriend's daughter 17 YO along as they both like to hunt. My daughter hunts but not too often on my property as she has her own right out her back door.
It wouldn't be fair if I allowed outsiders in and use the property my family has helped to maintain and improve over the years so I could gain a profit. I never intended to do that from the start.
Every piece of land around me has people hunting on it. Some are ethical while some others are not. We had one young man get several tickets this season after shooting 5 bucks and tagging them with other members of his family's tags. This was on a large farm with several hundred acres which is less than 1/2 mile from my property. One deer was tagged with his grand mother's tag. When the conservation officer said he wanted to talk with grandma it was revealed she was in the hospital suffering with back pain.
I do rent out 85 acres to a farmer to grow crops on. The rental payment and my USDA payment more than pays the taxes and insurance fees on my land. It's a savings to me also as I don't have to maintain the 85 acres and like Chainsaw said I have a giant food plot which helps to feed the deer all summer long into the fall.
It's good I have help readily available. My son lives next door to me less than 100 yards away. It's not uncommon to hear one of my tractors start and see it pull out of my barn in the early morning headed out to do some mowing, tilling or any other task necessary. When planting smaller plots my wife and daughter will run hand seeders, drive my ATV to pull a chain drag or roll the plots or do whatever else is necessary while either my son or I am tilling or spreading fertilizer or lime. My daughter lives 1 1/3 miles away and will bring her ATV if necessary or use her mom's or her brother's.
I could never bring myself to have a stranger come onto my property and shoot a trophy deer and not give someone I love the opportunity.

 

[catscratch]

Our place was leased for a while many yrs ago. I always showed the hunters all my trailcam pics and stands. They were free to ask anything and get an honest answer from me and to use any of my stands that they wanted. It was my FIL's deal and I didn't see a dime of it, but they were good guys and I enjoyed helping them as much as they wanted. They were good hunters and our age structure dropped quickly and drastically. For a long time the property that produced many 150's and bigger dropped to 120's at best. It's been many years since it's been leased and bucks are returning back to normal for the area. I didn't like the fact that the herd was affected in a negative way though and it left a negative in my mind.

With that said, I did enjoy helping the hunters and seeing them go home ecstatic with bucks that they could never expect to see in their home state. The land is a cattle ranch. I could see me using money from hunting to run less head and opening up more land for plots and habitat. Money has to be made from this land, it could be neat if money could be made in a way that made my hunting better.

 

[swat1018]

Our place was leased for a while many yrs ago. I always showed the hunters all my trailcam pics and stands. They were free to ask anything and get an honest answer from me and to use any of my stands that they wanted. It was my FIL's deal and I didn't see a dime of it, but they were good guys and I enjoyed helping them as much as they wanted. They were good hunters and our age structure dropped quickly and drastically. For a long time the property that produced many 150's and bigger dropped to 120's at best. It's been many years since it's been leased and bucks are returning back to normal for the area. I didn't like the fact that the herd was affected in a negative way though and it left a negative in my mind.

With that said, I did enjoy helping the hunters and seeing them go home ecstatic with bucks that they could never expect to see in their home state. The land is a cattle ranch. I could see me using money from hunting to run less head and opening up more land for plots and habitat. Money has to be made from this land, it could be neat if money could be made in a way that made my hunting better.

Most people have the attitude that if they pay, they are going to kill something before they leave. Unfortunately.

 

[OkieKubota]

I am getting ready to log about 30 acres of our place taking a bunch of really great white oaks out in an area that is not beneficial to us or the deer due to proximity to our neighbors house. We will see income from that. There is no way I would have someone come in here and hunt these bucks I have spent a great deal of time on getting to a good age. They are not my deer and I have no control over my neighbors but apparently what I am doing here is working and we have a lot of daytime activity in here during a time when we should have none due to our rifle season. My wife and I have 4 grandsons of which only 1 is hunting so far but another has expressed some interest. My wife hunts some and I hunt a lot.

Our other property (Home 10) measures right at 30 acres now and I am having a dozer we purchased delivered there by the end of this week. I am going to rehab a pond, dig another pond, and clear some areas for fencing. My wife and I are going to put a few cattle in there for an additional income and we have a renter in our old house that is producing income. We have good hunting there as well but due to open ground nearby we just don’t get the age we do on deer here because if they are visible in the open they get shot toot sweet.

 

[catscratch]

Most people have the attitude that if they pay, they are going to kill something before they leave. Unfortunately.

I can understand to a point. We work hard for our money and want something to show for what we spend. The big divider in my opinion is a guided hunt vs a long term lease. I figure most people who pay for a guided hunt have little invested in the long term goals of the property, they want results on that particular hunt. A person with a long term lease has something to gain from letting a young one walk as they plan on coming back next yr. Everybody is different though.

 

[OkieKubota]

I can understand to a point. We work hard for our money and want something to show for what we spend. The big divider in my opinion is a guided hunt vs a long term lease. I figure most people who pay for a guided hunt have little invested in the long term goals of the property, they want results on that particular hunt. A person with a long term lease has something to gain from letting a young one walk as they plan on coming back next yr. Everybody is different though.

You would think...unfortunately some of our long time members are stuck in that it’s a buck-shoot it mode...it’s harder to get a deer to 4 years old on that 1500 acres than it is here on 90...they are good hunters but very trigger happy and we have had that lease over 20 years...

 

[catscratch]

You would think...unfortunately some of our long time members are stuck in that it’s a buck-shoot it mode...it’s harder to get a deer to 4 years old on that 1500 acres than it is here on 90...they are good hunters but very trigger happy and we have had that lease over 20 years...

Very hard to regulate people who have different ideas, but pay equal amounts. I wonder how best to convince people to let young'ns walk? I figure if I ever leased or guided I would charge a reduced fee for shooting bucks over a certain size or going home empty handed (some money back sort of thing), and keep full price for shooting a small one. Full price would already be paid before the hunt and they could at that point shoot whatever they want, but maybe a lump sum returned for shooting a 165+ (or nothing) would make it easier to decide to let the little one's walk.

I will probably never lease our land out even though I've thought of it many times. Truth be told I would probably give a hunt or two a year to local kids before I leased out.