As more and more folks keep paying more and more for hunting rights, the price will keep going up. In a few years, I don't see much land in TN going for less than $10 per acre, with many parcels bringing $25.
I disagree with you.
Keep in mind I'm talking about deer hunting leases,
as it can be totally different with waterfowl,
and it's totally different anywhere within a few minutes
of a major metropolitan area.
Here's why:
Many lease prices simply got too high.
The more avid, lifetime hunters recently started doing more buying than leasing of hunting land.
These hunters are no longer in the market of "leasing" hunting land. However, these also tend to be the very, most avid deer hunters who are "dying out" and not being replaced. Many their heirs don't hunt, and the next generation will either beg for deer hunters, or lease the hunting rights.
At the same time, we've been losing more "trophy" minded deer hunters than gaining. What I mean by this is that most of the new deer hunters are simply that "deer" hunters, many getting into hunting mainly to obtain free-range "organic" meat. Some of these hunters are willing to pay a small fee to hunt, but most can find places to kill a deer from a friend who will simply let them hunt on his land.
But maybe most significantly, collectively, we deer hunters are "aging out". There are relatively few young hunters replacing us older ones. As to those of us still hunting, we're not hunting as hard, not hunting as much, and becoming increasingly less likely to over-pay for a little more deer hunting opportunity.
I've been hunting family land, private land, leased land, and public land now for over 5 decades in TN. Despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, there are more places with deer now in TN than at most any time in the past. What's more, our public land deer hunting is currently the least crowded I've ever seen, again, in over 50 years of hunting public lands.
Sure, public lands close to major cities are crowded. lease prices there are high, this is nothing new. What I'm saying is they were even more crowded (if they had deer) two decades ago.
What's essentially, relatively, gone is no-cost deer hunting simply for the asking of the landowner. But then, if all you really want is to kill a deer, many landowners will beg you to come kill some on their property. The caveat is,
"if they feel they can trust you". The
sincere attending of events that build long-term friendships & trust, such as Sunday school or church, will usually provide most any decent fellow a place to deer hunt (assuming some there own land with deer).
What I see happening with deer hunting, has already happened with squirrel hunting. In my youth, the opening of squirrel season was a bigger event for more hunters than the opening of deer season is today. There also seems to be an issue in many areas of many deer hunters more or less just quitting deer hunting to instead waterfowl hunt. As waterfowl hunting become increasingly more expensive, perhaps most those aging codgers will simply just quit hunting entirely?
As more proof of less deer hunting, take a look at the number of archery deer hunters. We had perhaps 10 times more bowhunters here 10 years ago as compared to now. By no means have all these quit deer hunting, but they certainly are not spending as many days annually deer hunting as they were a few years ago.
Last but not least, a growing number of TN deer hunters have found better "free" public land deer hunting as non-residents in other states, and are abandoning leasing deer hunting land in TN. They're simply taking what they spent on leasing, applying that to a "vacation" public land hunt in some other state. Others are simply saving their money, and going back to hunting land owned by friends & family, and/or public lands.
These are the trends I'm seeing, and they are not unique to Tennessee. They are happening in most other deer-hunting states as well, and the law of supply vs demand will determine the prices.
Want more proof we avid deer hunters are a dying breed?
