Guest policy on leases ... whats up?

[Kingfisher]

I completely agree that we should all take out kiddos out and teach them about the outdoors and hunting. My daughter will be with me everywhere I go.

But, if you take your kids to a sporting event of your favorite team, doesn't your kid need a ticket. There are no guest privileges for Texas or Texas atm or Texas Tech or Baylor or name your team for home football games. There are no guest privileges for Cowboys or Texans or Mavs/Spurs/Rockets. If you want to take the family, you pay.

But when it comes to hunting there should be exceptions?

Just asking.

[jerp]

Once a year I go with a friend to his fish camp at the coast which has 6 members/owners - in their rules there is a $50 per day guest fee which I think is reasonable. It discourages members from bringing too many guests and the fee helps defray camp expenses - might work for a deer camp that is having the too many guests problem.

[Snakelover]

I've been a lease manager and there is one certainty... you can't please everyone no matter what you do. There are all kinds of leases out there. And it's up to each hunter to find the one that's right for him or her.

[Smart]

I completely agree that we should all take out kiddos out and teach them about the outdoors and hunting. My daughter will be with me everywhere I go.

But, if you take your kids to a sporting event of your favorite team, doesn't your kid need a ticket. There are no guest privileges for Texas or Texas atm or Texas Tech or Baylor or name your team for home football games. There are no guest privileges for Cowboys or Texans or Mavs/Spurs/Rockets. If you want to take the family, you pay.

But when it comes to hunting there should be exceptions?

Just asking.

When you were introduced to hunting as a kid did your dad lease or own the property?

[TexasCanesFan]

I completely agree that we should all take out kiddos out and teach them about the outdoors and hunting. My daughter will be with me everywhere I go.

But, if you take your kids to a sporting event of your favorite team, doesn't your kid need a ticket. There are no guest privileges for Texas or Texas atm or Texas Tech or Baylor or name your team for home football games. There are no guest privileges for Cowboys or Texans or Mavs/Spurs/Rockets. If you want to take the family, you pay.

But when it comes to hunting there should be exceptions?

Just asking.

That is an "event" you are talking about, not a deer lease. I will give you a logical comparison though.

A guided elk hunt is New Mexico would be more of an "event" and comparable to a sporting event. If you want to take a guest, family or otherwise you are gonna have to pay. If your kid wants to hunt elk as well, then they have to pay for a hunt.

That completely makes sense.

Having to pay more to take your child to the deer lease with you is beyond ridiculous.

And we wonder why hunter numbers are on the decline?!?!??! Not when you read this thread!!!!

[TexasCanesFan]

I've been a lease manager and there is one certainty... you can't please everyone no matter what you do.

You can say that again.

However, I will stand by original post at the start of this thread.

If you are a father and get on a deer lease that will not allow you to take your kids hunting with you then I got no respect for you (to say the least).

[Snakelover]

Having to pay more to take your child to the deer lease with you is beyond ridiculous.

It would be for me too. That's why I wouldn't get on that lease and would choose one instead that allowed me to bring a child, probably hunting on my tags. But I support the right of the lessor to make the rules as they see fit. Of course, I'm a property rights advocate from way back!

[RJK70]

I went through this while looking for leases this year. Most ranchers try to tell you no guests but when you have a group of guys that are good people and about to fill the whole lease and write him a big check they negotiate.

In a perfect world for the rancher they want only the
hunters. The hunters want freedom to bring their family an guests. Sit down and talk about and make a deal that works for everyone. Stick to the deal after it is made and in writing.

[ratterrier]

Beware the Dratted Guest!!!

Every rancher knows that the problems guests always produce year after year, for one they get drunk usually in camp, bring in another bad apple with them and try to shoot up the lease since they think its ok since they are a guest and have no money on the table, they usually never obey the rules or even sign a release of liability, they usually never can judge a mature deer and shoot something out of the quota or a off limits deer. A good lease wont allow them on the ranch unless they have signed a release of liab and a copy of the written lease and agree to abide by it. The deer lease should not be available to non paying guests period, the chances for something going wrong increase 100 times when these type of freeloaders come onto a lease with nothing to lose, ranchers and ranchhands know this and watch the allowed guests closer than the regualar lease holders. Guests on our ranches over the years have been the majority of the rule breakers, from shooting a painted orange 160 inch cripple camphouse buck to getting on ranchbackhoes and ranch tractors to unstick themselves or overharvesting ducks by baiting lakes with grain, dont get me wrong, not all guests do these things, but it does happen and it tends to be persons with light checkbooks who dont have money in the lease that screw it up time and time again, and then occassionally there is the idiot who is a lease member and paid that does these things no matter he signs and pays for, beware of the guest and watch them close and check there truck and trunk going out of the lease!!!!

[TexasCanesFan]

It would be for me too. That's why I wouldn't get on that lease and would choose one instead that allowed me to bring a child, probably hunting on my tags. But I support the right of the lessor to make the rules as they see fit. Of course, I'm a property rights advocate from way back!

Hunting on my tags, of course.

That is the only kind of guest policy I have ever hunted under.

[TexasCanesFan]

No Sir I do not have kids which is why I said this in an earlier post.

"When and if I have kids I will either A. Pay the extra money for my child or B. Look for a different lease. Until then I'm not going to question other hunters or leases rules. To each his own."

I worded my reply wrong and the message got lost.

I saw that you posted you did not have kids.

[Kingfisher]

When you were introduced to hunting as a kid did your dad lease or own the property?

I grew up on family land that we still have. We also lease out portions of our land and have had issues with more folks hunting than paid to hunt.
So, please answer this question. Why should a landowner allow non-paying hunters of any age or relation? It is my experience that if you give an inch, a mile is taken.

[Snakelover]

Hunting on my tags, of course.

That is the only kind of guest policy I have ever hunted under.

For me as well. I will relay an experience I had as lease manager. We had the common policy of family members can hunt on your tags. Had someone get on that was there practically every weekend with two teenage boys and the wife hunted too. Anyway, it became an unfair situation to other lease members who only had one kid or a spouse hunting on their tags and weren't coming as frequently. It was small acreage and the lease was getting a lot of undo hunting pressure and, had all the lease members done what this one lease member was doing, it could have been a disaster and I knew I needed to head off that possibility. During the renewal period, I made a rule where each person could designate only one family member who would hunt on their tags, whether that be spouse or child. As a result, the husband and wife had to each get their own spot, with one child hunting under each set of tags. That made it fair to everyone else and the problem was solved. It simply meant that family had to pay an amount that was equal to what they were getting.

One of the problems is people want to have their cake and eat it too. Let's say you have a 500 acre lease for $7500. No one wants to pay more than $1,500, so you have to split it five ways, 100 acres per gun. But then everyone wants to bring family and guests too. Next thing you know, you've got ten or fifteen people wanting to hunt on 500 acres at the same time and it's a big cluster-you-know-what.

Now if you have two guns on 500 acres, then bringing family and friends is not a problem, right? Only trouble is it's $3,750 a gun and nobody wants to pay that much. It really all boils down to supply and demand issues. It's up to the lessor to make some sensible rules that their target niche can live with. And then it's up to the lessees to find a place that fits their particular criteria.

[Kdog]

Here is how I would handle guests/kids, if the deer lease gods put me in charge.
1) Child can hunt until they are 17. Deer taken come off paid hunters tags. (If you allow guests, well the 17 rule would not apply, the child would just be considered a guest.)
2) Paid hunter must accompany child/guest in the blind/stand with kid/guest at all times during the hunt. Paid hunter takes responsibility for all child/guest kills.
3) Paid hunters only hunt their own blind/stand/area.

If you want your child or guest to be able to go off by themselves as if they were a member of the lease, make them a member of the lease.

Problem solved!

[westguy76]

We have always tried to keep it real simple. Guests hunt off your tag (not literally) but you know what I mean. I would like to have a rule to limit guests on opening weekends to just immediate family members, that's about it. Unfortunatley this year I am a guest and not a member.

I would like to find a lease without yahoos someday, a place less than 3 hours away, with Christian folks who like to drink and tell dirty jokes, but not excessively, and a place where I feel comfortable bringing my son and a place where my wife will sleep in comfort. Is this too much to ask???