How much is the average DUCK lease?

[friscopaint]

I have lost most of my spots in Oklahoma to outfitters. I think its comical to blame duck dynasty, I for one got priced out of deer hunting so I guess I'll blame Realtree......more people less ground and the market bears it.

[ultrastealth]

I have lost most of my spots in Oklahoma to outfitters. I think its comical to blame duck dynasty, I for one got priced out of deer hunting so I guess I'll blame Realtree......more people less ground and the market bears it.

The way it works around here is an outfitter leases property, pays a deposit, then never pays the balance. The landowner kicks him off, and the next outfitter moves in and does the same. You'd think these landowners would learn and lease to individuals for reasonable money on long term contracts, but they keep doing the same thing over and over again.

[jdg13]

I have lost most of my spots in Oklahoma to outfitters. I think its comical to blame duck dynasty, I for one got priced out of deer hunting so I guess I'll blame Realtree......more people less ground and the market bears it.

I agree, more people, less places to hunt raises prices. Good leases have always been expensive. As soon as DD got popular though, more people got interested. What I saw hunting public convinced me of it. Places I have hunted for years could get crowded if hunting was good, but there was definitely an uptick once hammering ducks and posting it all over facebook got cool. Used to be I could get to a place morning of and still get in to hunt. Didn't take long and we're sleeping in a line of trucks with a bunch of peach fuzz bearded duck commanders just so we can get in the gate the next morning. A lot of private got to be the same way. All of the sudden every dude with a camo wrapped f250 and a lab is an outfitter. All of this jacked up prices on what little good duck hunting land there is left.

[SaintBlaise]

Duck hunting is going through a renaissance right now, and that has driven up lease costs and driven the birds away in many areas. We are on a $10,000 per blind place now, and I'd say that it's pretty average. If you go high end, like Thunderbird, you kill more birds and you get more conveniences, but we're talking $5500 per gun with a waiting list. The days of easy, cheap, and productive duck hunting are gone.

I see Katy in your avatar. Back in the 80's traveling through Katy/Brookshire on I-10 to the deer lease, we would see tons of snow geese in the rice fields that lined the interstate. Now it has been replaced with subdivision, moving the flyway.

[friscopaint]

I would say access to internet has been the biggest downfall. Used to nobody knew who the landowners were but me and my family. Now Google earth and onx and there they go and pay them $50 a gun hunting 8 people that day

[CTR0022]

All of the sudden every dude with a camo wrapped f250 and a lab is an outfitter. All of this jacked up prices on what little good duck hunting land there is left.

That is one of my biggest beefs.... all you have to do is buy a guide license and open up a social media account and now your a guide. Maybe they buy general liability insurance.

I really wish the state would crack down and make more barriers to entry for "GUIDES". there are a few really good guides/outfitters out there and a whole lot more wannabe guides that just want to be a paid hunter or have their clients help pay the bill for their surface drive they can't afford.

To be a guide you should have to pass a background check, have basic first aid training to include CPR, show proof of commercial general liability insurance, and not be able to shoot or take a limit of birds while guiding other hunters.

[friscopaint]

That is one of my biggest beefs.... all you have to do is buy a guide license and open up a social media account and now your a guide. Maybe they buy general liability insurance.

I really wish the state would crack down and make more barriers to entry for "GUIDES". there are a few really good guides/outfitters out there and a whole lot more wannabe guides that just want to be a paid hunter or have their clients help pay the bill for their surface drive they can't afford.

To be a guide you should have to pass a background check, have basic first aid training to include CPR, show proof of commercial general liability insurance, and not be able to shoot or take a limit of birds while guiding other hunters.

In NW Oklahoma everyone now is a "guide/outfitter"......then after a few yrs their "guides" become outfitters

[ram04]

You can blame social media and low interest rates for all of this, whether it's fishing or hunting. Social media pumps up the craze, loose lip idiots spill the beans on the "secrets", posting information and pictures so everyone can like their post giving them the social media dopamine hit, then the cycle repeats itself.

Banking trying to keep the economy moving lowers interest rates and increase loan terms, so now most any fool can buy a buggy, boat, truck, deer lease, duck lease, whatever, pay for it all year become a "guide" and take money from idiots coming from the city who don't know any better.

Add changing weather patterns and less birds or fish in normal places and you get what we have now on the bay or in the marsh. It's hilarious the stupid stuff going on now. The worst part to me is most of these newbies wannabe's don't even put in the work or try to gain the knowledge it takes to be a respectable guide who deserves to get paid to do it for a living, watering down the profession for all the real guides who deserve everything they get.

Social media is the devil!!! lol sorry rant over.

[Mule Skinner]

My duck lease is $200 and it's about 20 minutes from the house. I don't really hunt it in November-December as I'm usually deer hunting at that time.

Had a decent mid-day hunt New Year's Eve.

[gfulton]

Do people pay money to shoot those things.