Anyone want to help me look for a hunting/recreational/investment property?

[kansasdad]

Hopefully a moot point….do what you can to find out about your potential neighbors. It sounds like you have a good handle on this with most of the properties. Some folks make better neighbors than others.

Hopefully you also have a good understanding of different counties building codes, and even drilling (for water) restrictions. If any property has no “permanent” water or ability to improve surface water retention or guzzler style options, it would decrease my desire to own such a piece of real estate.

 

[bonedogg]

one million USD can get you a half section of land up here in Alberta in prime WT habitat. You just need to move here full time for one year and then you can hunt as a resident.

 

[npaden]

Rural Texas is about as good as it gets on building codes and water rights (if you don't want the government telling you what to do that is). About the only restriction is getting your septic inspected.

Neighbors are for sure an issue. I had a couple that I threw out because the neighbor was like a 10 or 30 acre piece with a house. On these rural properties typically if there is someone in a house right next door and you are only visiting a few times a year then it quickly seems to become their property instead of yours. Kinda like having the nicest house on the block, I like to have one of the smaller pieces of property among my neighbors. Doesn't always happen but it is nice when you are the little guy.

The 388 piece I just posted has some really big neighbors. That piece is only 83 miles and 1 hour and 21 minutes from my house. It jumped up pretty high on the list. Realtor already asking me if he could lease it for grazing. Lot's of positives to it.

About have my circuit planned on visiting properties on Saturday. I'm going to go back by the Hidden Lake place, there is a different way in from the north that might not be as much trouble as the way I went in last time.

 

[INMT]

The Ariel of the piece you recently posted looks nice. The high point and the coulee system for bedding with nearby ag and water seems like a nice combination.

Good bucks too and it’s close.

 

[npaden]

Stuck in the 7 properties I want to look at on Saturday into google maps and it is showing 462 miles and 8 hours and 31 minutes of driving!

The crazy thing is that I have a pretty good route planned and only have to do an out and back one time for about 20 miles each way. Other than that it is just a giant circle.



Probably biting off more than I should try to see in a day, but this is about the only day I will have to go look. The 388 acres that isn't even listed yet is moving higher and higher on my list to pretty much be right at the top for now. Being even a little closer than my current place and having a mule deer, whitetail and aoudad really seems like a good option. Add in that I'm going to be more than doubling my acres for just a little bit of extra $ and it seems like a good option.

 

[vanish]

Interesting thread

 

[npaden]

Well I looked at 7 properties yesterday including 2 that were not on the original list.

A different 320 acre piece north of Paducah and a 213 acre piece in Motley county.

https://www.land.com/property/320-acres-in-cottle-county-texas/23418654/

https://www.land.com/property/213-acres-in-motley-county-texas/23404931/

These were after talking to the realtor and these were both actually not his listed properties so no incentive on his part to be leading me astray.

The place that hasn’t been listed yet is still near the top of my list right now. Mule deer, Whitetail and occasional Aoudad. Really neat looking place.



Hope the list price isn’t too bad. This is one of the closest properties as well. 83 miles and took me 1 hour and 15 minutes door to gate.

 

[npaden]

The 2 new properties were both really nice. The 213 acre place has more topography than it looks like when you are there in person and the pond is pretty nice. Both mule deer and whitetail and tons of turkey.



The 320 place doesn’t have that great of topography but has a lot of edge and has super high deer density for this area. We busted 12 whitetail out of their beds driving around and 3 mule deer. No big bucks in person but some good ones on camera and the neighbors shot a 183” whitetail on their place last year. The mule deer are pretty sparse though.



All those trail camera pictures are from the last 2 weeks.

 

[npaden]

The hidden lake place is neat but the most remote location by far. Coming in from the north was nicer, only 13 miles off pavement with about 10 being pretty good gravel road. The last mile or so is going to be a nightmare in the rain or snow though.

 

[npaden]

The 162 acre place and the 52 acre place are moving lower and lower on the list. Just nothing there except the trail camera pictures of the big bucks. The 162 acre place really only has about 60 acres of hunting land and the rest is just open field. It also has access issues with no formal easement although it sure meets the requirements for a prescriptive easement. On the 52 I just don’t see paying a premium price per acre when you are going to be 100% at the mercy of your neighbors and having a good buck happen to come through.

 

[Robert N]

The 162 acre place and the 52 acre place are moving lower and lower on the list. Just nothing there except the trail camera pictures of the big bucks. The 162 acre place really only has about 60 acres of hunting land and the rest is just open field. It also has access issues with no formal easement although it sure meets the requirements for a prescriptive easement. On the 52 I just don’t see paying a premium price per acre when you are going to be 100% at the mercy of your neighbors and having a good buck happen to come through.

NP, the 52 acre property - I’m not quite so sure I agree there. I hunted a plot out near Yancy for 15 years - it was fully land-locked in between several other major ranches.

As the hunting season progressed, we regularly saw the hunting pressure force animals off those major properties into this land-locked property in the middle. The surrounding ranches were a mix of high and low fence. High fence or not, a buck that catches a doe in heat at the right moment can clear that fence.

That little oasis property was a major producer year after year. On the other hand, being land-locked meant if it rained, that road was going to be a sloppy mess in no time.

It might be worth some consideration to walk the fenceline and seeing what kind of fencing has been put in place.

 

[npaden]

Overall I’m not sure looking at them in person really helped sway me much one way or the other on any property.

I think pretty much any of them (or a combination of the smaller places) is going to be a step up from my current place both from a hunting perspective and an investment perspective. Not sure I can go wrong on any of them.

Currently the plan is to wait for the 388 place to actually go up for sale and then make an offer on it at what I think is a fair price.

I think the next offer would go on the 320 acre place with the good deer. It also has some CRP income and that helps it out too on comparisons. Probably its biggest negative is being almost 2 hours away.

Only other one I would be tempted to actually make an offer on is the 213 acre place. It was one of those places that looks a lot better in person than in the pictures. Big neighbor to the west and seems like a place that hunts a lot better than it should for its size. That’s not much of a step up from my current place in acres, I would make an offer considerably lower than the asking price and if they accepted I would use the money left over from my sale for either the 40 acres in Colorado or maybe low ball offer on that 52 acres.

They indicated they would take a lower offer in the hidden lake place but I just can’t get there on it. Real rough country that has a low density of wildlife and any animals coming into that property will have to cross several other 300ish acre places to get to mine.

I didn’t get a chance to look at the 382 place by Colorado city but it doesn’t seem that cool to me although it’s priced pretty well. Negative on it is that it has an active oil pump jack and storage tanks. Not a huge deal but something to consider. At least they aren’t where I would anticipate spending most of my time hunting.

 

[npaden]

NP, the 52 acre property - I’m not quite so sure I agree there. I hunted a plot out near Yancy for 15 years - it was fully land-locked in between several other major ranches.

As the hunting season progressed, we regularly saw the hunting pressure force animals off those major properties into this land-locked property in the middle. The surrounding ranches were a mix of high and low fence. High fence or not, a buck that catches a doe in heat at the right moment can clear that fence.

That little oasis property was a major producer year after year. On the other hand, being land-locked meant if it rained, that road was going to be a sloppy mess in no time.

It might be worth some consideration to walk the fenceline and seeing what kind of fencing has been put in place.

I visited the 52 acre place very quickly driving to the other places. It’s okay. Bigger places to the west. Some other smaller places mixed in. None of it looked like it got much hunting pressure.

The 52 acres is the corner piece with the cursor on it.

 

[Greybeard]

The place you have listed in the original post near Paducah in Cottle Co bordering Matador WMA is interesting. That WMA is home to some of the best mule deer and whitetail hunting in the entire state.

 

[npaden]

The place you have listed in the original post near Paducah bordering the WMA is interesting. That WMA would be Matador and is home to some of the best mule deer and whitetail hunting in the entire state.

The second 320 is a little better topography and is just 1 mile from the WMA and borders a 50,000 acre place to the southwest. These properties are on the eastern side of the WMA, the mule deer hunting is better on the west side.

 

[Steiny77]

Bigger is better.
Get something that has some water (creek, river, ponds, etc.) on it.

 

[thomas89]

Not me debating between the Walmart vs name brand and this guy’s asking for guidance on buying a property from strangers.

I have nothing to add of use, but congratulations for being in a position where this is possible! Whatever you decide, you can be very proud of it.

 

[npaden]

Not me debating between the Walmart vs name brand and this guy’s asking for guidance on buying a property from strangers.

I have nothing to add of use, but congratulations for being in a position where this is possible! Whatever you decide, you can be very proud of it.

I’m a big believer in getting as much input as possible when making big decisions. Historically I’ve been the recipient of some excellent advice here on hunt talk about things other than hunting and have seen others get some excellent advice as well.

Lots of things to consider and if nothing else me posting here helps me organize my thoughts and ideas and helps from that perspective as well.

Really thinking that there isn’t a real bad decision to be made here so that helps too.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Choosing between good, better and best is a good place to be.

 

[Irrelevant]

Those two new ones look really cool