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If you own land in Georgia and a hunter or a club has offered you money for access, the first thing worth knowing is what the state expects of you before you take it.
Here's the short version, and it comes with an honest caveat: Georgia DNR's license pages do not list any special landowner "hunting lease license" the way Texas does, and we could not find one in the state's license materials. Texas requires the landowner to hold a Hunting Lease License from TPWD. Georgia, as far as the published DNR information shows, does not have an equivalent. But "we couldn't find one" is not the same as a guarantee, so confirm with Georgia DNR's Wildlife Resources Division before you accept money. One phone call settles it.
What does have a clear, written Georgia license requirement is a different business: releasing pen-raised birds. That's covered below, and it's the line landowners most need to understand.
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules and fees change. Verify anything here with Georgia DNR before money changes hands, and talk to a Georgia attorney about your lease agreement.
Leasing hunting rights on your own ground means selling access to the land. The wildlife isn't yours to sell. The hunter still needs their own valid Georgia hunting privileges, the correct licenses and any required permits, same as anywhere else. Your lease doesn't replace their license.
One related point that trips people up: Georgia's license exemption for hunting your own land (and land owned by immediate family living in your household, per the DNR hunting regulations) applies to you and your household. It doesn't extend to the people you lease to. Lessees need their own licenses.
If you're not leasing wild game hunting but running something closer to a bird-hunting operation, Georgia DNR requires a shooting preserve license. Under Georgia law (O.C.G.A. 27-3-110), anyone releasing pen-raised game birds needs one unless an exemption applies. From DNR's published application and memo:
Two kinds. A commercial shooting preserve license is for operations open to the public for a fee. A private license is for owners, members and guests. DNR's 2025 application listed the fees at $155 and $55 respectively. Check current fees with DNR.
Acreage. The preserve has to be at least 100 contiguous acres and no more than 1,000 acres per license, and the applicant has to own the land or lease it.
Birds. The application lists bobwhite quail, chukar, coturnix quail, ring-necked pheasant, mallard and black duck. Commercial preserves may also offer deer and dove hunting with department approval.
Paperwork. Boundary signs, complete records of every bird propagated, released or taken (including who you bought them from), and a hunter education check or on-site safety instruction for every hunter.
Hunters. Patrons need valid Georgia hunting privileges. DNR also sells a shooting preserve license to patrons.
The line isn't whether you're charging money. It's whether you're releasing birds. A landowner who leases 300 acres of woods and field to a deer club is in a different category from one who buys a few hundred quail and sells hunts over them.
If you plan to guide hunters yourself, or bring in an outfitter, ask DNR what is required. We were not able to verify a state hunting guide license for private-land hunts in Georgia from DNR's published license pages, so we're not going to tell you there is one or isn't one. Ask before you advertise guided hunts, and keep in mind that guided and outfitter bookings on The Hunting Exchange are instant-pay and don't carry the escrow and site-visit refund window that applies to season leases.
For most Georgia landowners leasing wild-game hunting, the real trouble is rarely a license. It's the lease.
Get it in writing. Cover the term and dates, the money and when it's due, how many hunters and whether guests are allowed, what may be taken, stands and feeders and whether they come down at the end, vehicles and gates, and what happens if somebody gets hurt. Most lease fights trace back to something obvious nobody wrote down. Our free sample hunting lease agreement walks through it.
Understand your liability. Georgia, like most states, has a recreational property statute meant to limit landowner liability, but how it treats land used for a fee is a question for a Georgia attorney and your insurance agent, not a paragraph on a website. Our guide on hunting lease liability and insurance for landowners covers the questions to ask.
Decide what you're selling. A full-season lease and a handful of day hunts are different products. Georgia ground that won't lease for a season will often sell days all fall, which is a lower-commitment way to learn what your place is worth. Our guide on day lease vs. season lease goes into more detail.
The Hunting Exchange is a free way to put your land in front of hunters already searching for ground, including hunters looking for whitetail ground in Georgia and Alabama.
It costs nothing to list. You set the price, the dates, the number of hunters and the rules, and you message the hunter through the site before you agree to anything, so you choose who's on your property. On a season lease, payment is held in escrow until the hunter has been out and confirmed the place matches your listing, then released to you. Day access pays out instantly.
You keep 100% of the price you set. The hunter pays a small 5% service fee on top of your number. It never comes out of your payout. If your land never books, you never owe anything.
Our Oklahoma and Texas landowner requirements guides are the siblings to this one. Oklahoma also has no landowner lease license but has its own commercial-hunting-area and guide rules; Texas, by contrast, does require the landowner to hold a license. For the full setup process, see how to lease your land for hunting, and our Georgia hunting leases page covers the state as a whole.
Own ground next door in Alabama, or over in Arkansas? Our Alabama and Arkansas hunting lease requirements guides cover those states the same way.
Nothing on this page is legal advice. Georgia wildlife regulations, license requirements and fees change; confirm current rules directly with Georgia DNR's Wildlife Resources Division, and consult a Georgia attorney about your situation and your lease agreement.
Browse hunting leases with Stripe escrow protection. Free to search.