Hunting Lease - FL Nature Coast

[Group W Bench]

Does anyone know of a relatively affordable hunting lease around the Nature Coast in FL (affordable being the operative word here)? We spent the last 5 days from Cedar Key to Chiefland looking for cheap property for casting and blasting with the boys. Had a great time fishing, but struck out on cheap land. Some buddies and I thought that land could still be found for well less than $1,000/acre in the area. No dice.  We have decided to punt and try and find a reasonable lease for the upcoming season.

Those boys are asking $3-5k an acre anywhere west of 19 which is way more than my cheap arse ever imagined. I was looking for a decent 20-50 acre plot where there were still decent salable hardwoods and younger planted Loblolly or Slash pine to harvest a few years down the road at a reasonable cost. I was not prepared for the crazy prices asked for recently harvested land. At $3-5k with no salable timber, that parcel better come with a blowjob every morning. There seems to be land everywhere up in Levy and Dixie County, but those boys are mighty proud of it. Is it too much for a dad to want a piece of God's country to put out some feeders and teach his boys to gut shoot filthy feral hogs, hunt deer and red cockaded woodpeckers (I never said I was a decent shot and may actually hold some form of record for gut shooting pigs)? My entire county is a no discharge zone, so my children are being raised in the land of heathens. We have to cross into the next county to blast puddlers and divers by water for goodness sakes.

Any decently managed lease within 2-3 hours of Clearwater for less than $2,500/yr would be great, but seem to be nonexistent. Most reasonably priced leases close to home are piss poorly managed with way too many lessees on way too few acres. Even the south GA leases that I have seen are $3,500+, and that's a helluva drive.

Incidentally, if y'all ever get up/down Levy Co. way, check out the Treasure Camp Y'all Mart and General Store in Fowler's Bluff. There is a Levy Co. public ramp right in their parking lot. They have amazing food and watermelon sangria that will set you right after a long day on the water. It's right at 20 miles down the Suwannee to the Gulf. Nothing like getting in both fresh and saltwater fishing in a day.

[gran398]

Those are some good lookin' youngun's

Gonna go ahead and get that on record, before we look for land

[Group W Bench]

The youngun's love the Nature Coast area. We stopped in to see some friends in Chiefland with some mud trucks and a mud bog on their farm. My little guys are way more interested in mud trucks than boats now.



I am pretty discouraged about the property right now. I have a buddy with a nice 39 ft fifth wheel and another with a front end loader and a Kawasaki Mule that they are willing to leave on a property if we can find one. They basically have all the housing and hunting stuff covered, and I could leave a boat up there. We thought the cost would not be bad between 3 families. However, we were factoring in around $1,000/ acre, not $3-5k. There are folks still stuck on 2008 prices up there.

[gran398]

Best to ya'll on the land search. You may have to go inland to find the acreage at the price you want.

Or move up here. And discount the prices by 60%.

Regardless...THANKS for the pics, and give those two a kiss on the haid in the morning.

[seabob4]

Eugene,
We had some friends when I was a kid in Chicago that inherited a WHOLE lot of prime Iowa farmland.  Seriously excellent farms.  They went to sell, and asked around $7500/acre.  The farmers around there thought they were crazy.  Our friends didn't need the money, they just wanted to sell...

Guess what?  It sold...and thereafter, every farmer around was asking $7500/acre!  Apparently, the property you are looking at?  The sellers don't need the money...

Find a landowner that NEEDS the $$$...then you'll get your price...

[Group W Bench]

Bob,

That's kind of what happened along 345 running from Chiefland to Cedar Key. The Nature Conservancy paid stupid money for the 250+ acres of Suwannee frontage bordering the Lower Suwannee Federal lands. They later traded the Federal government for some other more environmentally sensitive land elsewhere, and now it is all federal land. The crazy thing is that property was sold to a Pinellas Co. family for $900/acre prior to the Nature Conservancy sale. Tommy Usher Timber then started selling land to the federal gov. at stupid money also after the timber was harvested. The slippery slope ensued I reckon.

I need to find a meth head who inherited some dirt in the area. A good purchase between 3 families with a decent timber management and harvest plan could be cheaper than leasing in the long run. Any leads are much appreciated.

[akbridge]

It was good talking to you this morning.  I talked to my father.  He will give you a call later on.  I will keep an eye open for a property for you guys in the mean time.

[John Jones]

The situation is no better over here.  ANY land is $3K/acre and up, mostly up.  
Good deer club membership is $2k/year and up.  I have no idea what leasing your own place would cost.
Club memberships are available for $800 - $1200/year but small land parcels and helter-skelter members, rules made up as you go, in-fighting, etc.
State management areas and National Forest land is covered up with yahoos with the $200 to buy a gun and no idea about safety.

[seabob4]

Not that it's the same, but there is a 5 acre parcel up for scale a couple roads over from us.  Granted, close to everything but still rural.  $100K, nothing special, typical scrub oak with some oaks and pines...

$100K?

[Aswaff400]

we have property in dixie county near the Suwanee, about 8-10 miles up river from fanning springs, my parents paid around 34K for 6 acres on a dead end road back in early '06, power, water, septic, well, where already done. all of the other properties we looked at in the 6 acre range where 40k to 55k, some without power/well/septic. but we where looking in a specific area as friends of ours already had property up there. we have deer and turkey on our property.

we'll be up there with the boats from july 13-17
pm me if you want more info.

heres a couple photo albums from up there
http://s738.photobucket.com/albums/xx30 ... ?start=all
http://www.fordtruckclub.net/forum/gall ... 39&userid=

[Group W Bench]

What a great board. In one day I have some good leads from folks who have contacted me. I love this place. Thanks Akbridge, I look forward to your dad's call. Aaron, we will be in Homosassa from the 10-17th scalloping if you want to try and meet up while you are up there. We will have a buddy's 4 seater sand rail buggy up there if you want to play around in the dirt also. It's a good thing you are mechanically inclined, as we will likely be tinkering with this tempermental rig. It is not really up to the standards of your Ford, but it runs on occasion and is a lot of fun. I'll pm you my number so we can try and get together.

[Group W Bench]

Thanks Bob, but $20m/acre is way too rich for our blood. We are looking for a 20-50 acre tract zoned ag, as the taxes are substantially less. Even average timber tracts of around 400 trees/acre can yield around $3,500-$5,000/acre at harvest. Amortized over 35 years, it would only be around $100/acre average annual return for Slash pine, but it at least covers a portion of taxes, insurance and stocking feeders each year.

Not that it's the same, but there is a 5 acre parcel up for scale a couple roads over from us.  Granted, close to everything but still rural.  $100K, nothing special, typical scrub oak with some oaks and pines...

$100K?

[HIFLUTIN]

Have a place & family in Old Town on the river -349/Yellow Jacket
The new Treasure Camp is a Hoot-Try the Fried Mullet samwich
Hunting lease what your looking for close to Clw  is tuff
Hernado County has good deer but All private-The rut is late
Levy has some-pops up every so often gotta keep lookin
Dixie co is rough(I still love it)-Lots of Dog Huntin & locals etc.
Decent deer north of Perry-Jefferson & Madison county-get into some farm land
Hear about Polk county leases every so often.
Lots of Hunt clubs around Perry-But lots of rules & politics involved
We hunt the lower Suwanee federal land during bow season
go in by boat its- hard core- no feeders/atv but decent deer.
Have private family land in Dixie county for Rifle-More user friendly
Get one of the Woods-N-Water Magazines(Out of Perry)-Think they have a web site- they have a listing in their classified-their was a Citgo on 49TH street that sold them
If you find something close let me know,we could work something out

[seabob4]

Eugene...that was a facetious post!  If you know the area around Weeki Wachee Springs, just east along 50, no area should be $20K/acre!!!

But that's what they are asking.  Sign's been there 2 years now...

[gran398]

Enjoying following you guys tonight....this looking out for brothers holds close to the soul...good work.