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Short answer: anywhere from about $5 an acre to well over $60 an acre a year, depending on the state, the game, the water, and how many guns are on the place. Per-gun, most season leases in the Southeast and Texas land somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000 a hunter, with premium South Texas and Delta duck ground running far past that.
That's a wide range, and the reason is simple: you're not really renting dirt. You're renting the odds of killing something, and how much privacy you get while you try. This guide breaks down what drives the number, what the going rates look like by state and species, and — if you own the land — what you ought to be asking.
1. The game. Duck ground with dependable water is the most expensive hunting real estate in the region, by a wide margin. Trophy-managed whitetail is next. General deer and hog ground is the cheapest, and it's where most first-time leases start.
2. Deer quality and management history. A tract that's been under a quality-management program for a decade, with food plots, stands already set, and a hard buck restriction, costs several times what the same acreage costs raw. You're paying for years of somebody else's restraint.
3. Water. In Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and on the Texas coast, whether the ground floods — reliably, with surface water, in a normal year — is most of the price.
4. Drive time from a metro. Ground within two hours of Houston, DFW, Atlanta or Birmingham costs more than better ground four hours out. Convenience is worth real money.
5. Guns per acre. A 500-acre tract split among four hunters is a different product than the same tract split among twelve. Fewer guns, higher price per gun.
6. What comes with it. Camp house, electricity, water, a locked gate, an existing stand-and-feeder setup, year-round access. Each one adds.
Treat these as starting points, not quotes. Ask around locally before you commit — county-level variation inside a single state is often bigger than the difference between states.
Texas. The widest spread in the country. West Texas and Panhandle ground can be had at the low end per acre; the Hill Country runs moderate and climbs with exotics; and the South Texas brush country is the premium market in the state, where a single gun on a well-managed low-fence place is a serious annual number. Most Texas leases are priced per gun for the season, not per acre, which is worth knowing when you compare listings.
Oklahoma. Generally cheaper than Texas for comparable deer ground, with the southeast timber country at the low end and river-bottom and Cross Timbers tracts higher. Waterfowl ground near the reservoirs prices up sharply in season.
Georgia. Sold mostly as club memberships rather than whole-tract leases — you buy a spot in a club, and the club leases the land, often from a timber company. Dues are the number most hunters actually compare. Middle and South Georgia are the deepest markets.
Alabama. Same club culture as Georgia. Black Belt ground — Dallas, Perry, Marengo, Wilcox, Bullock counties — carries a premium for the soil and the bucks it grows; north Alabama timber runs cheaper.
Arkansas. Two completely different markets in one state. Deer ground in the Ozarks and Ouachitas is among the more affordable in the region. Grand Prairie and Delta duck ground is among the most expensive hunting ground in America — flooded rice fields and green timber lease by the field or by the blind, per season, at prices that make deer leases look like rounding errors.
Louisiana and Mississippi. Deer clubs across the timber country are broadly comparable to Alabama and Georgia. Marsh and Delta duck leases follow the Arkansas pattern — water sets the price, and the good ground is spoken for by October.
A full-season lease is the traditional deal, and it's still what most serious hunters want: their own ground, their own stands, nobody else's truck at the gate. But day access has grown fast, because a lot of hunters would rather pay for three good days than carry a lease they hunt six times a year. If you're deciding which to buy — or which to offer — our day lease vs. season lease guide walks through the tradeoffs.
This is the question we get most, and the honest answer is that most landowners underprice their ground, especially the first year. They pick a number that feels polite, get five calls in a day, and realize too late they left money on the table.
A reasonable way to set it: 1. Find your county's baseline. What are neighbors getting per acre, or per gun, for comparable ground? Ask two or three people; the number is not a secret. 2. Adjust for what you actually have. Water, food plots, existing stands, a camp house, a locked gate, and a real management history all justify going above the baseline. No access road and no water justifies going below.
3. Decide your gun count first, then price per gun. How many hunters can your acreage carry without them running into each other? That number, not the acreage, is what you're selling. 4. Price the first year to fill, then raise it. A tract that leases in a week was underpriced. A tract that sits until November was overpriced. You'll know by next season.
We put per-acre ranges and a worked example in our guide on how much you can make leasing your land, and the full setup process — agreement, rules, insurance, how to write the listing — in how to lease your land for hunting.
On The Hunting Exchange, listing is free for landowners. You set your price and keep 100% of it — hunters pay a small 5% service fee added on top, so it never comes out of your payout. Payment runs through the site; on a season lease the money is held in escrow until the hunter has been out and confirmed the property, then released to you. Day hunts pay out instantly.
Prices in this guide are general market ranges gathered from public lease listings and are meant as a starting point for your own research, not as an appraisal or a quote. Lease rates change year to year and vary widely by county. Nothing here is legal or financial advice — talk to your own attorney and insurance agent before signing a lease agreement.
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