Buy my own land

[nam1975]

Thinking about buying a small piece. Probably 20 acres or less. 2 hours or so from home. Good Midwest area. Can’t afford real close to home.

Pros- Hunt improve and manage how I want. Take guests. Maybe build on it one day. Maybe guide a hunt or two on it to help with cost.

Cons- Lodging, probably have to deal with a small cheap camper. Would basically tie up all my hunting money, so any western hunting trip might not happen. Only child is young, not sure of interest. Whitetail only. Might bunny or squirrel hunt once a year. Wife won’t visit, but does like a full freezer and likes to cook.

Risks- Bad neighbors, poachers, non QDMA.

Time or money, we can’t do it all right?!

What say you Roksliders?

 

[Texasbuckeye]

20 acres to potentially bring paid hunters? Thats insane.

The rest is whatever you want to do with your money and your land.

But you would need to multiply that by at least a 10x factor to even consider having paid hunters, and even then it woukd be sparing use (1x per year max) not enough to dent a mortgage payment.

 

[Doc Holliday]

If its the right 20 acres with the right nieghbors, it could be plenty of property to provide you with a place to hunt, but no matter the size of a parcel, you can only control what is done within your boundaries, so the dynamics of the area as far as potential development should be something you have a good feel for before buying. That perfect spot wedged between two large agricultural or timber tracts could one day be surrounded by houses or some type of commercial development. People = problems.

I own my own place, and it is the single greatest source of joy, and greatest source of misery, as far as time I spend in nature. There is nothing like working your own dirt, but you also are never 100% just recreating because if you are like most people, there is always work to be done, and that list of things to do will creep into your mind when you are sitting in the stand just trying to relax. You will have a list of things you want to do every time you go, but when you get there you will find one or five things you weren't planning on doing as well. I enjoy hosting friends and family, but also deal with tresspassers, stray dogs, hogs, mother nature (trees falling across the road, clogged ditches, washed out roads, overgrown areas that need bush hogging, etc,). I run cellular cameras so get updates daily of who or what is on my land. There is never much down time between "problems" that need to be addressed.

If you can afford it, buy the land. If you read the threads on here, you see that most peoples frustrations with hunting have to do with opportunity to hunt (tags), decline/lack of game, or competition/negative impacts on their experience due to other people. Most of these people are hunting on public land. Having some private land in whitetail country where you can go year round whenever you feel like it, and are essentially guaranteed the opportunity to hunt every year and be successful, limited only by your own time and trigger control, is something that most people do not have, and is only going to get harder to come by as time goes by. Your only regret will be that you didn't buy more. A wise man once told me, "Buy all the land you can afford, so you can pick your nieghbors...but, you'll find that the best nieghbors are the trees."

I did notice you said your wife would not go....this is not good. I'd get her involved in a vision of the future where you all have a cabin or something where she would want to go. Talk to her often about your vision for the property and get her involved in that. You don't want it to be something that drives a wedge between you, or that she resents in any way. Long term, you will have a much better chance of keeping it if she gets enjoyment from it as well. Owning land is usually a long term play as far as the fulfillment you will get out of it, as well as any financial return on investment, but the rewards for both can be tremendous.

 

[nam1975]

20 acres to potentially bring paid hunters? Thats insane.

The rest is whatever you want to do with your money and your land.

But you would need to multiply that by at least a 10x factor to even consider having paid hunters, and even then it woukd be sparing use (1x per year max) not enough to dent a mortgage payment.

A solo hunter or maybe parent kid combo would pay for a little honey hole in this area. Especially for a gun season or youth to get off public. Not big $$, but enough to cover my property taxes for the year.

 

[nam1975]

If its the right 20 acres with the right nieghbors, it could be plenty of property to provide you with a place to hunt, but no matter the size of a parcel, you can only control what is done within your boundaries, so the dynamics of the area as far as potential development should be something you have a good feel for before buying. That perfect spot wedged between two large agricultural or timber tracts could one day be surrounded by houses or some type of commercial development. People = problems.

I own my own place, and it is the single greatest source of joy, and greatest source of misery, as far as time I spend in nature. There is nothing like working your own dirt, but you also are never 100% just recreating because if you are like most people, there is always work to be done, and that list of things to do will creep into your mind when you are sitting in the stand just trying to relax. You will have a list of things you want to do every time you go, but when you get there you will find one or five things you weren't planning on doing as well. I enjoy hosting friends and family, but also deal with tresspassers, stray dogs, hogs, mother nature (trees falling across the road, clogged ditches, washed out roads, overgrown areas that need bush hogging, etc,). I run cellular cameras so get updates daily of who or what is on my land. There is never much down time between "problems" that need to be addressed.

If you can afford it, buy the land. If you read the threads on here, you see that most peoples frustrations with hunting have to do with opportunity to hunt (tags), decline/lack of game, or competition/negative impacts on their experience due to other people. Most of these people are hunting on public land. Having some private land in whitetail country where you can go year round whenever you feel like it, and are essentially guaranteed the opportunity to hunt every year and be successful, limited only by your own time and trigger control, is something that most people do not have, and is only going to get harder to come by as time goes by. Your only regret will be that you didn't buy more. A wise man once told me, "Buy all the land you can afford, so you can pick your nieghbors...but, you'll find that the best nieghbors are the trees."

I did notice you said your wife would not go....this is not good. I'd get her involved in a vision of the future where you all have a cabin or something where she would want to go. Talk to her often about your vision for the property and get her involved in that. You don't want it to be something that drives a wedge between you, or that she resents in any way. Long term, you will have a much better chance of keeping it if she gets enjoyment from it as well. Owning land is usually a long term play as far as the fulfillment you will get out of it, as well as any financial return on investment, but the rewards for both can be tremendous.

Thanks for the reply! I forgot about stray dogs. Lol. I’m sure it’s a great thing to get a deer on your own place. The wife supports the hunting habit, But this is another commitment level. And I’m basically giving up out of state hunts on a regular basis.
God isn’t making any more dirt and you can always put up a for sale sign too!

 

[Travis907]

I’d say buy it but your pros need to outweigh your cons. Think of it as a long term investment!
You will have issues with trespassers. People find out you don’t live on the property, it will get used.
You will always have a long to do list when you arrive at your property.
Like Doc said, get your wife on the same page and get her involved. That will definitely help your cause and more than likely getting you on the property more than you normally would.

Couple other Questions to ask yourself and you need to be honest.

How often will you drive 2 hours to your property? Once a week, once a month, once a year?

Is it worth giving up your out of state hunting?

 

[EdP]

I had just over 60 acres with a creek in western Ky and it was just big enough for me and an occasional friend. Only 40 min from home. 2 hrs away is pretty far considering the maintenance needed. 1/2 of the land was in CRP and that increased the maintenance needed
but paid well.

I made a cabin of a 10x14 shed built by an Amish company. Had it built with 8 ft walls, standard house door, extra window. Put in a small wood stove, built in bunk beds and a counter top. Put an outhouse nearby. It worked out great for me and cost a lot less than a camper.

 

[MallardSX2]

No.

Invest the money, wait 10 years, then go on guides hunts for the rest of your days.

 

[loganwayne]

I hunt a close friends property its 24 acres. I hunt it maybe once every two weeks until the rut anymore and its to much pressure for the deer and they go somewhere else. Its in a low deer density area but holds good deer number because I'm pretty much the only one legally hunting in the area. In the last two years I've taken 2 deer and i may not take any this year.

Personally i wouldnt buy land more than an hour or so from my house if it was such a small piece. That said i drive 4+ hours to one of the properties i hunt, but have a friends place to stay at and its over 1200 acres.

 

[YellCoAR]

I would look to find some land closer to my home. When buying small acreage there are many things to consider. First take a hard look at connecting properties. How large are they, who owns them, and how long have they owned them. Spend a lot of time and effort to learn about the section of land around you. Is there a chance you might pick up additional acres in the future. The less owners in the section the better. A lot of owners in the section is bad. If the adjoining lands have residences on them they need to be large properties. Make sure to look for free running dogs and live stock with poor fencing. One big thing to notice is pride of ownership. People can be your biggest problem.

I own a small piece of property(30 acres). It is in a pretty good location, but no chance to add to it as boarding land is State Management Area and 20 acres with 2 homes it. Will never be able to afford that 20 as building value alone is $400,000 to $500,000. I went threw a major problem with the prior owner over a dog. The dog attacked me on my property and I shot it. My well built box stand got struck by lighting shortly after and burnt to the ground. It was almost like it was doused with fuel as nothing but ashes were left. Glad that guy is gone. I really enjoy my property and have killed a few decent deer and hogs over the years. I think the key is it is just about 15 miles from my house. 2 hours one way and I think it would be a burden for me.

 

[KenLee]

Nothing better than busting a good buck off the back porch. Did it for the 10th time last Friday, but it was special bc I had gout in both feet and no way I could climb into a stand. Drove 5 yards from the buck to load it.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

If there are bigger parcels available, I would ask friends if they were interested in going in on purchase. My brother owned 160 acres in the Piutes Mt. in southern Cal with a friend of his. Not really big enough for good year after year deer hunting. The surrounding parcels were seldom used and the deer caught on pretty quick. If you were to go that route, make sure everything is in a contract, from property maintenance, too who uses it and when.

 

[KenLee]

If there are bigger parcels available, I would ask friends if they were interested in going in on purchase. My brother owned 160 acres in the Piutes Mt. in southern Cal with a friend of his. Not really big enough for good year after year deer hunting. The surrounding parcels were seldom used and the deer caught on pretty quick. If you were to go that route, make sure everything is in a contract, from property maintenance, too who uses it and when.

Nope. Never buy with others IF you have sufficient funds. It's a recipe for disaster

 

[kpk]

I think you'd have to have a pretty special 20 acres to make it worthwhile if you're driving 2 hours to hunt whitetail only. I don't think there would be any way to manage the deer how you want with that small of a chunk unless none of the neighbors hunt - and even then you could blow the deer off the property with 1 wrong wind.

If you find a PROVEN honey hole that may change things - but that'd be quite a gamble IMO.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Nope. Never buy with others IF you have sufficient funds. It's a recipe for disaster

This is why I was careful to mention, have a contract. Not fool proof, but if push come to shove, you have it in writing. Another way to find out who your true friends are.

 

[wind gypsy]

You absolutely can find a 20 with the right neighbors that could be dynamite for whitetail BUT IMO there are likely some qualifiers that may be tough to be met:
1. If great access that prevents sight, scent, sound from getting to the areas you're hunting is available or can be created
2. If you stay the hell out of most of it most of the year/season. There's a good chance that with certain winds hunting the property will primarily ruin things and you'd need to have discipline to not hunt it when conditions are wrong
3. You don't have neighbors that are hunting your borders - 20 acres is small and 1 person hunting a border can mess up half of it in a hurry
4. Your neighbors dont have outdoor dogs that stray from their yard

That said, if you're happy to shoot does/fawns/immature bucks and occasionally have a good one slip through in the rut, that stuff could be less important.

 

[KenLee]

This is why I was careful to mention, have a contract. Not fool proof, but if push come to shove, you have it in writing. Another way to find out who your true friends are.

My brother is the only person I trust on land deals and we still argue on thinning does. We've hunted together 50 yrs

 

[wind gypsy]

This is why I was careful to mention, have a contact. Not fool proof, but if push come to shove, you have it in writing. Another way to find out who your true friends are.

To me the issue isn't so much about "true friends" or doing what you said you would do, it's that peoples desires, priorities, and financial situation are almost always different and rarely static.

What I want to do with my land this year might differ from what I want next year.

Priority on minimizing human pressure for mature bucks could quickly go out the window in a decade when I've got kids getting introduced to hunting.

Could you afford to buy out partners if they fall on hard times or they find other priorities for their funds? Could they do the same for you?

Sounds like a good way to lose "true friends".

 

[KenLee]

To me the issue isn't so much about "true friends" or doing what you said you would do, it's that peoples desires, priorities, and financial situation are almost always different and rarely static.

What I want to do with my land this year might differ from what I want next year.

Priority on minimizing human pressure for mature bucks could quickly go out the window in a decade when I've got kids getting introduced to hunting.

Could you afford to buy out partners if they fall on hard times or they find other priorities for their funds? Could they do the same for you?

Sounds like a good way to lose "true friends".

Amen

 

[kpk]

2. If you stay the hell out of most of it most of the year/season. There's a good chance that with certain winds hunting the property will primarily ruin things and you'd need to have discipline to not hunt it when conditions are wrong

Exactly. I hunt a 107 acre property and there are spots you can hunt, and there are spots to stay the hell out of. On this particular property there's a spot where 2 valleys intersect - it's maybe a 5 acre hot spot. There is a camera in there and we get tons of pictures of does, mature bucks, and coyotes. But, there's absolutely no way to hunt that spot productively. The wind swirls in there so bad it's impossible to not get winded.

I could send out hundreds of trailcam pics and sell that little chunk for crazy amounts of money (unfortunately I don't own it) but the buyer would likely never kill anything in there.

That's what I meant by it being a big gamble. Learning how to hunt spots like that can take years and a small property would leave very little room for mistakes.