I get a handful of calls every week asking about deer leases. I got to thinking about how I have managed to find good hunting leases for the last few decades. Each lease I have found has come down to one common denominator; a relationship.
Every lease I have been on in the last two-dozen years have been a result of a relationship I have built with someone, maybe two or three removed from the lease “owner” but the door was open as a result of knowing someone how knew someone.
In the last few weeks, I have been advising folks if they are serious about finding a lease then start now developing a relationship with other hunters or at least with folks that are like-minded. One of the best ways I know to meet like minded folks of is to pay-it-forward by volunteering with a group like NWTF, RMEF, DU, QF or any number of others.
I am a NWTF volunteer with the Tri-City Sportsmen (Newcastle, Blanchard, Tittle, etc.) and recently elected to serve on the NWTF State Board of Directors. In the process, you get to know other members fairly well over time. Rather or not you will connect on a lease is up to lot of different factors. When there is an open spot one our leases, one of the first places I search for hunters is within the Chapter or maybe others I have met through the NWTF.
Here is one example of how this can work. I recently went to a NWTF Wildlife Conservation Field Day. I met a landowner that invited me to come hunt hogs on his place. I could care less about hogs, however, had I have taken him up on hunting hogs, killed some, continued to develop the relationship I could end up in a long-term hunter-landowner relationship. You never know what that could have looked like over the long run. I am betting that if I drove up and knocked on his door I would NOT have received the invite, because there was no initial relationship via the NWTF. Get involved and the door will open to meet other hunters and start developing that relationship. You just never know where one connection will lead to another.
Something to think about, start now and you may be hunting choice ground in a year or two. Good luck, if I can help in any way please let me know.