Corporate Hunting Lease Questions/Opinions

[gtsticker]

We are looking at possibly buying a new ranch that has a year round guided hunting operation currently in place. I have been looking at the income expense and time requirements of the current operation and wondering if a corporate lease might be a better way to go. Honestly I have never run or leased a place to a corporation we have always done guided hunts, From what I understand and have researched there are normally a set number of animals that are in the contract. For example 25 WT Bucks, 50 does, 10 axis ect. my questions are more about ranch use and lodging and meals. The ranch is set up with a large lodge and sleeping facilities there is a large commercial kitchen and full processing facilities ect. I would say 4* or low 5* it is very nice. There is currently a ranch manager on site that takes care of everything and we would have someone there no matter how it works.
So some of my questions are.
Do the hunters come in on set days and the ranch provide meals. guides ect?
Do they hunt on their own until the number of animals are reached?
Do they usually have full access at any time during the season if ranch does not provide meals and guides?
This would be for deer season only. would have ponds stocked with fish for other activities and there is a outdoor cooking area. fire pit ect,
I am just trying to decide if this is something we may look at instead of the current guide centered hunts,
Any experience and ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Adgerc15]

You’ve got to decide this things. I’ve seen everything under the sun, not a textbook answer. Depending on the lessee they may want full access and manage the schedule, you provide the operating and accommodations….or they may want time/date slots and they send guys to DIY…or anything in between!

Id prefer to keep the control and collect the money. Handing over a place to a corporate lease if asking for foul play and costly mistakes to facilities, herd and staff morale.

good luck!

ac

[The Sicilian]

You could run it like an outfitter and limit the number of people their per day and the duration of their stay... and have them book, first come, first serve...... for 3 day, 2 night hunt...etc... keep the number in your span of control with your people..... and your people act as guides... tips would be welcomed

[Quackerbox]

I've been to a couple large corporate places to dove hunt. Two had full time people to maintain the place provided by land owner. On weekends hunters where there a cook and a deer skinner. Usually one guy doubled as both (and who invited me).

the number of deer was set by the biologist. Trophy's where approved..

another place leased to several companies that got different weeks. The rest was the same. Only they had a couple "guides" and had a lottery each weekend to see who got a trophy animal.

all the places where basically a place to entertain clients and prevent paying uncle sam more than he already had been paid. Almost always deer were leftover that needed killing because most clients didn't really hunt

[Greenheadless]

We had a corporate lease for years. To answer some of you questions:

Do the hunters come in on set days and the ranch provide meals. guides ect?
- we would do a Thursday afternoon thru noon Sunday hunt. Depends on travel time to ranch. We brought in our own cook cleaning (man/wife) team. We got a list of recommended folks from LO and chose them from there.

Do they hunt on their own until the number of animals are reached?
- both, most on their own. We would schedule x number of individuals to equal x number of tags. If some didn’t harvest, host would have the opportunity to tag at the last hunt of the year. We would ask they shoot only a mature buck and one one they would be proud to mount, but you know how that goes. We didn’t fret over it. Where we were we lost WAY more deer to natural loss than getting shot.

Do they usually have full access at any time during the season if ranch does not provide meals and guides?
- we had access, but never used it after we got on feeding program with local feed shop. Would hold one ‘team building ‘ trip prior to season start to get all the stands and roads in shape. We all looked forward to this more that taking guests during season,

We had 20 buck tags and would schedule 4-5 hunt trips each season with 4-5 clients per trip. We required at least two company employees to be present at all times while clients were present. We also had a guy who would clean the deer, hang them in cooler, and them break down into coolers prior to leaving,

[gtsticker]

Great information thank you!