Tommyt. I have a small property (275 acres) by comparison to those surrounding me, I don’t and have never charged anyone for hunting my place, it is used primarily by family, but on occasion they do bring friends along.
As for the large “pay for hunt” properties, they are few in comparison to the number of small property farms/ranches; I contribute the number of game animals in Texas, in part, to the management and breeding on some of the larger high fence ranches. Most of these places have big dollars invested in their game management, feed alone for one owner I know in Coleman County runs near 200K a year. He charges a handsome price for taking a trophy deer off his place, but he likely makes a small profit when compared to the cost of running the place. His goal is breeding, developing a quality herd and selling sperm to other breeders.
I can fully understand the need to charge for hunting, a piece of property, in order to maintain a place charging is often necessary to meet expenses (tax, insurance, etc.) Ranching and farming in my area is not always a profitable endeavor, seven years of drought have put many out of the ranching/farming business, the only means of holding on to their land is to lease for hunting.
As I said I have a relatively small place, I am situated ion the middle of several large ranches. After turning off a Farm to Market road, I travel approximately seven miles through a ranch, then down a lane that fronts the 220 acre place south of mine. To my North is a 6000 plus acre ranch (some say it is double that), no hunting allowed, to the East a property of approximately the same size, again, no hunting allowed, to the West is large property, I am not sure of the acreage, but would guess it exceeds 5000 acres, it is very rough, mostly scrub oak and cedar trees so thick a man can’t walk through. I have seen a hunters there over the years, but very few.
Fibrous law suits have caused many to stop hunting on their place; hunters have also contributed to many properties being posted. I know of one case where a hunter sued a property owner because he was shot by someone on the adjoining property. He didn’t win his case, but it cost the property owner several thousand to defend himself. Needless to say, no one hunts there any more.
To address marc’s comments, yes we have tried traps, but keep in mind, someone has to check the traps daily, and I don’t have the time to do that each day. As for running dogs, I have a small place, once the hogs cross the fence line I can proceed no further, the dogs would likely be shot if seen on two of the places.
