Hunting land/Ranch purchase thoughts.

[280twoeighty]

I know this has been discussed some and I have searched the archives some as well. But thought I would get some new thoughts.
Thiis is not a new thing for me. Been thinking about it for years. It is getting to be the time to do or shelve the idea for good soon.
Thinking minimum of 240 acres on up. Some infrastructure (shop, cabin, barn, etc.) would be nice but not necessary. Water and cover and varied terrain are probably at the top of the list. Water could be a well, spring, creek, river, drainage, pond, etc. Access is also up there. Does not need to be a paved road, lol. The don't want list is no windmills near or cell towers or transmission power lines. Don't want to be next to an outfitter who pumps clients in and out non stop. Outside of that I am pretty open.
Obviously lop tags for deer and or elk are what matters.
Budget would be $350k up to $1 million at the very top. I have been looking for years but not hard shopping as the timing was not there. The next 4 to eight month will be the window. Owner financing is not necessary but in the short term could be helpful.

Please feel free to pm to discuss off board.

Thanks all.


Wy, MT. No. NM, CO., Id., E, Or. NV,, UT.

 

[Beendare]

I've thought about this a lot...almost pulled the trigger a couple of times.

The 2 things that held me back;
1) I've seen nightmare scenarios with absentee landowners and poaching.
2) cost wise I can buy an expensive hunt every year and be way ahead

That said, I still would like to own a Farm/Ranch if it were the right scenario.

 

[BackcountryIdaho]

You are 40 years late. Good luck with your search

 

[280twoeighty]

You are 40 years late. Good luck with your search

That is not the case. As I have said, I have looked and have found many properties that fall into this criteria in some of these area's. But thanks for the reminder that the debbie downers are always lurking.

Thanks beendare. I appreciate your comment. Me too.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Had some gents from N. Carolina looking at 160 acres north of me a number of years ago. They said they had 50 acres in Virginia with 100 deer on it. They were looking for a place with elk on it.

I told them they might have a chance with a place that covered 2-3 townships. The elk move 3-5 miles a day. At best they might cycle through every 2-4 weeks through a couple months. The bulls have differant patterns so might see a couple of them once or twice a summer.

I think it's critical that the property has springs, bogs or a water source your neighbors don't. These things aren't whitetail.

 

[BackcountryIdaho]

That is not the case. As I have said, I have looked and have found many properties that fall into this criteria in some of these area's. But thanks for the reminder that the debbie downers are always lurking.

Thanks beendare. I appreciate your comment. Me too.

Like I said, good luck with your search. I would be absolutely astounded if you found 240 acres in Idaho for less than a million.

 

[Hnthrdr]

PM’ed ya

 

[Slickhill]

I think the only way you might halfway guarantee a place that small to have a likelihood of holding elk would be to have a bottom planted in irrigated alfalfa directly adjacent to rugged and inaccessible timber and lots of it. Even then on a place that small with you staying in a cabin on it they might only come and go after dark and might blow out and be gone for the rest of season if you bumped them just one time.

For instance. I had a herd of elk coming to the spring on our ranch nightly due to water being scarce at the moment. I would see them bedded in some cedars on the neighbor’s place a mile away daily. Friday morning I caught them leaving the water after shooting light and killed a cow. That evening I glassed them out feeding about half a mile from the next closest water source which was 4 miles away. Past experience says they won’t come back for at least a week or 10 days or maybe a year. They’re a very transient species and it takes something they can’t get anywhere else to hold them, be it water, great feed, or security and even those likely won’t have a firm hold on them.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Our new neighbors just bought 20 acres with a very tired log cabin for $350,000. My other neighbors bought 90 acres of boggy bottom with no buildings for $4,600/acre.

Lot's of luck in your search.

 

[IAm_Not_Lost]

You open to Arizona? Still pretty good chunks of land there available that will have deer and some elk available.

 

[Hnthrdr]

You open to Arizona? Still pretty good chunks of land there available that will have deer and some elk available.

Az does jack squat for landowners, especially NR land owners

 

[Rich M]

Follow thru with your search.

While not looking for an elk hunting place, we were looking for a nice retirement property and it took 20 yrs of on again off again looking. Every time we found a nice place, it was outside our range so we'd save up more and property costs would go up. We finally caught up with a nice piece last year. Shot my first buck off it this past October. Working on getting the place established for retirement and trying to have fun while we work on that.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

Good luck. Having a perennial stream or other surface water source is really going to hinder your search. Make sure you understand water rights on the property. Ponds may need to be drained during Calls and/or you don't have rights to extract surface waters. Your best bet is a well within that price range. If there isnt a well make sure you take into account depth to groundwater and if the water quality allows it to be potable.

I also dont think WY gives LO tags unless you have a minimum of 600 acres. Someone please correct me if wrong there. Other states have minimums for PLO tags and you must meet certain requirements. I'd definitely factor that in to your search.

This is a big ask for sub $1 mil...I think you need to be realistic, not sure where you live now?

 

[wildwilderness]

Do you want to be Land Rich and Cash Poor?

Unless you already have enough $ to buy it outright and bank roll the many monthly expenses and travel costs , that’s what will happen. (Unless this will be your primary residence?)

I know because I had 187 prime whitetail acres with a shop and 2 bedroom house for 3 years. Sold it and put the equity into an investment earning 15%- now the cash flow is 110% flipped!

From putting $60k+ a year into mortgage interest, maintenance and improvements, I’m getting $50k a year out of my investment- with that I got a hunting lease near by (with even more and bigger deer) for a fraction of the total cost, and can now pay for many hunts all over the world.

Now if it did work out right, and I had excess money and could live close enough or even convince my wife to make it a primary residence then I would love to own some recreational hunting/fishing land.

 

[rookieforever33]

I bought propert because I was tired of crowded hunting spots and intruding in landowners lives. Not far from where I lived so we traveled there easily. I had issues with trespassers immediately. Plus instead of enjoying it we were always working when we went there. Enjoyed it, but not why we bought it. We had an option to build a house on the property and did. Pretty much figured it was be there full time or sell it and travel hunt more.
Another friend bought land a few hours from home. Had to rent a storage unit nearby so he wasnt always bringing a trailer. Saved money and finally built a building. 2 years later the building was burglarized and cleaned out. The insurance agency covered the quad and other big ticket items. SOL on clothes and smaller items. Back to a storage unit for his stuff between trips.

 

[IAm_Not_Lost]

Az does jack squat for landowners, especially NR land owners

I genuinely don’t follow. Educate me.

 

[kipper09]

My experience isn’t maybe as extensive as the last two but I bought a couple hundred acres 20 minutes from my house and it become more headache than fun. Constantly trying to keep people off it, and people fishing in the pond. Keeping meadows mowed. I guess if I had time it would be different but with 3 kids playing sports and work I kinda settled on it’s best for me to just pay to go hunt once or twice a year. I have enough headaches and don’t want anymore. I will agree with wildwilderness I invested the money and it’s really done well and hopefully will continue to

I will say if I was a little older and different stage of my life I think I would feel different. A farm or ranch close enough to get to and enjoy would keep me busy and I would enjoy it. But at this point in my life it just isn’t best for me.


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[rookieforever33]

Also want to state that you never get to choose what your neighbors do. Even public land gets sold or rights given you have no choice in. Since I have bought my property windmills, solar field, and biosolids have all been on the table so far. Right now its been biosolids spreading. A smell that can be mild to definitely there a couple days, a couple times a year.

 

[RockAndSage]

Couple of things come to mind:

1) Each state has different approaches to landowner tags. Some have minimum acreage requirements, others require working directly with wildlife department biologists to have a game-plan for habitat preservation/development, others assess directly what they think the amount of economic damage to crops the wildlife are doing and allot tags based on depredation needs alone, etc. Each state's different in what boxes you need to check to get tags, so that would be critical research.

2) Not to throw cold-water too hard, but at least out West...buying land for hunting just isn't something that's a good idea if the word "budget" is part of that discussion. For reasons others have mentioned above. As was also mentioned above...you can do a hell of a lot of Western big-game hunting every year, across the West, for a lot less that the cost of your payments on any land you bought big enough to provide landowner tags. Depending on the state's tax regime, property taxes alone could exceed the cost of just buying a landowner's mule deer tag. And that's for a good buck hunt. Cow elk can be had for less than $1k if you know where to look.

 

[Hnthrdr]

I genuinely don’t follow. Educate me.

There are 0 land owner tag options for AZ land holders? Ie you have to draw tags like everyone else. Draw odds are abysmal for NR in AZ you will likely not hunt your land 2x in a row, if it’s a decent elk unit you will hunt it 1x in your life probably.