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Hunting For Dollars

Decatur ground is definately more when you look on "Hunting Land Websites" than the neighboring counties. I could show you examples of websites that have listings in all the counties.

When Drury's or Kisky or whoever sell their land, they ask about $3200-ish an acre which is obviously a premium for south central (it would be going rate for southeast or Northeast possibly but not that area). If someone had brains they'd buy 1000 acres from "Willy Smith" or "Jane Doe" for $1,000+ less an acre, improve it, manage it and they'd have the same thing.

I wonder which buck that was in NAW? Would I love to own huge acreage, have a land manager (well i'd do that for myself I suppose) and pass great bucks, sure. Is it a far greater accomplishmnet when someone shoots a 200" deer on a 100 acres that's also neighbored by "regular" size land- of course.
 
The dude that bought the Drury Deer Farm paid abit over 7 million for it, believe it was a couple thousand acres. His old sanctuary is in Appanoose county. Was listed 4-sale with Midwest Whitetail last I knew, around 2,300 an acre, nearly 700 acres total. He is on the new Drury video "100% WILD Fair-Chase, Fatal Attraction, Volume 8". Its a monster, I think grossing just over 200 inches. He and the buck are on the cover of the DVD.
 
i'm sure the NR issue the drury's had with iowa, was that they want people on their staff to be able to hunt drury land for the videos. if they sold their iowa land, and bought in MO, with their NR license availability, they can easily have anyone on their staff, hunt their land almost at anytime they want. from standpoint of filming alot of hunts, plus their "reality team competition" show, its a pretty smart move, and probably save them alot of money in tag fees....not like that matters to them. i bet tag fees for a hunting video company are a write off
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">"reality team competition" </div></div>


I don't follow them. Is the reality competition on 1,900 acres of managed ground? Please tell me it's not. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
This is too funny! How many of you actually have facts and or live in Decatur county, I can tell you if they are getting 3200/acre out of the ground they sell then the papers are lieing to me. (P.S. I live in Decatur County) Just amazing to me and trust me I used to be just like you guys till I lived down here and heard all the crap enough times.

And as far as the Drury's, they own a huge farm in Clarke County, after they sold their Decatur County Farm.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> I don't follow them. Is the reality competition on 1,900 acres of managed ground? Please tell me it's not</div></div>

not to stray too far off topic, but their show has their teams video their hunts. the teams assemble at a couple times a year, so they can all be on common/similar ground. i beleive in the past, the teams hava an early season hunt at an outfitter, then, they spend the majority of their seasons at their home states, then meet back up for a late season hunt at another outfitter. hunt video quality, story telling, etc are emphasized over the actuall harvest. there are usually 4 two person teams, or so.
 
I looked at the 700+ acre farm on Midwest Whitetail, it was actually in Monroe county. It was too much $ and it had about 200-250 acres of timber.

Yes, DECATUR county ground has been consistently "LISTED" at about $3,200, it's sold for a bit less than that BUT not much. Some farms in Decatur are cheaper. BUT, the ones I am referring to are the 500-2000 acre farms (I know exact farms that sold) that were owned by hunters from HS, Kisky, Drury, etc. Basically, if you generally see a "160 acre farm" owned by some random farmer it will be about 2000-2400 list, IF it's some big name they "TRY" and go for $3,200-3,500ish and usually they get a "sucker" to pay higher because it's say a "Drury Farm" or whatever. My buddy just bought a farm there for $2,300 an acre (198 acres) and earlier I knew someone that paid $3,000 an acre for a big name farm. Obviously there's much more to it than what I described above BUT...
MY POINT IS: big names, publicity, "celebrity" ownership drives up prices like crazy (obviously as we all knew) when in MAJORITY of cases you could have the same result with far less money spent if you did your homework and were willing to put in the work, example- buying some good ground from a farmer in a county with little or no publicity. It's like Pike county, IL being the only option for top notch ground so you spend $1,500 MORE an acre than 40 minutes away which would be the same.
 
I can see validity in both sides of the arguement......


i just wish i could own my own piece of land, id be a happy man!!!!
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sligh1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ok, I gotta say, if I had a huge lotto win...
I'd probably buy 10,000 acres in Iowa, plenty of room for many many friends to hunt for free.
I'd also buy 2,000-3,000 in both Illinois and Kansas AND a chunk in Canada with fishing on it. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
Give a ton of the money away and yes, live on interest and farm income! I figure this is not too far away from reality, lottery isn't that hard to win?!?! </div></div>

I've had similar dreams almost on a daily basis - but turning half of what I buy into a non profit operation for the handicap and disabled vets (the other half is reserved for my family). Build a giant lodge and offer these hunts for free to people who can't otherwise do it. Nothing makes me happier than helping others succeed in the outdoors.

I tell myself every Wednesday and Saturday - it's only 6 numbers, it's only 6 numbers, it's only 6 numbers...why don't my numbers ever come up!!!! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
Just sold Van Buren county ground. Sold to neighbor and friend, I was figuring $2800/acre but didn't use a realtor so I took off the commission I would have paid and we were both happy. Settled on $2630/acre.
 
Just Remember This Big name Farms that you are talking about also spent alot of time and money Making them what they are if it wasent for them i would not make enough money to feed my family and there is alot of conservation work done on these properties. also lots of money going out in the Community, Coops, Farm Stores, Gas Stations, Grocery and so on when you stop and think about it Lots of money Is going into other peoples pockets to. If it is not Hunters making money off Land Then it would just be someone else.Ya i now out of state Doctors and lawers come in But they Shell out alot more money in the Community.
 
Agreed. Here's an idea though for y'all wanting to make some $- 10 year investment (instead of some silly stocks or mutual funds)....

Go to an auction in southern Iowa for a big peice of "junk ground" I mean old pasture that's "garbage". Pick in up for $1,200-1,500 an acre- I beleive this is do-able pretty easy. Spend your money with Osenbaugh's to get some native grass seed, go to NRCS and have tons of acres of trees planted, get in every program you can, maybe a pond? So, say you bought 200 acres, got 60 acres of trees planted, 60 acres of Native grasses (maybe in Bio-mass program or CRP), apple trees, 10 acres food plots- the rest could be crop, crp or timber- whatever. You'd have a wildlife paradise in 10 years, you'd make the property better on every regard and you'd make some serious loot if you decided to sell it!
I have way more to this idea BUT this is a no brainer if you love land & working on land, have the time and want to invest in something other than paper stocks that are hard to make a weekend of fun out of.
 
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