Around my farm in upper SC tracts will vary from $4-10 an acre, this all depends on tract size the habitat (planted 10 year old pines or Hardwoods with young clearcuts) location, historic deer harvest #'s and amount of quality bucks know to come from an area. Also if it has well developed roads and established foodplots it will be much more. Its easier to plow and plant an existing food plot even if not planted the last 2 years than to try and make a new one. I think some of the better areas in the country for deer like south GA, Texas, illonois can get $10+ an acre i think some tracts even in S. GA will fetch this price and posibbly $20 an acre for tracts in metro ATL. Illinois may be in the $15 an acre for some good areas but i have no idea. My cousin and i had talked about starting a club on a tract over a 1000 acres and i think it would have been in the $7-10/acre range. Smaller parcels like 40 acres might just be a lumpsum of $500-700 which will work out to over $12/acre.
The days of cheap leases are over, those corporate wusses come to the country in thier huge brand new 4x4 trucks to try and get that macho kick and buy and lease up more land than they ever know they have and sit on their 10K $ food plots and shoot does and wound the bucks with their 2K $ rifles and 1K $ scopes. Every now and then they will kill a monster just by sheer numbers if you put that much into a place and have a guy knowing what he is doing you will grow um. This is at least the case where my family land is , were 1 hour south of Charlotte and they flow out of that place like a river on thursdays and fridays in deer season, in their $50K trucks. Some how i manage to kill as good or better deer than them on my families 130 acre tract and a disjunct 40 acres and then various tracts of public land, that i hunt. Needless to say i am biased of the weekend hunter who can buy deer with his Money.
-Nate
