Owning land with family

[westonwhitetail]

I owned a piece with my brother. He lived 3 hours away, and rarely hunted it, and we agreed that very low pressure was key, so I didn’t hunt it to death, and it worked out ok. I put a lot of time, money and effort into habitat work, and he did not. Maybe because he thought it was a waste, or maybe because he wasn’t planning on keeping it long. Regardless, I bought him out, and things haven’t changed much. I’ll still tell him he needs to come up and hunt it, and he’ll make excuses and not make it out, or maybe go once or twice.

Our short term partnership worked because 1. Our goals were the same as far as hunting and 2. i didn’t expect him to chip in for my personal habitat goals. As soon as my kids were old enough, they’d (hopefully) want to hunt it, and that would make things messy. So owning it alone is a bit lonely at times: I enjoyed sharing the excitement of a big one on trail camera or a close encounter, but it’s probably better this way.


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You hit on a good point. I would certainly miss the shared enjoyment of planning habitat improvements, stand locations, shared hunt experiences, big bucks on camera etc. Having complete control on the property has some trade offs from that stand point. It could be hard to maintain a balance between that commemorate and "my land, my way". Especially because of the location being close to our other hunting land, it could be a hard line to maintain

 

[westonwhitetail]

40 acres is a decent sized chunk these days in most places but for hunting it will get small with to many hunters.
I own my place alone. Back when I first bought it I invited friends and family to hunt. As time went on and I figured out what I was doing right and wrong I changed the rules of what, and more importantly how it gets hunted.

For several years I would Enter the season stressed because I knew the rules wouldn’t be followed. Then I’d end the season ticked off because someone always knew better than the rules and me.

Eventually I put an end to guests. With the exception of a very very short list.
It was the best thing I ever did. Animal and hunt quality went up. If one of those rule snubbers was part owner it would be nothing but frustration.

Yeah on our lease together the rules and boundaries are always being pushed and changed...frustrating. If we all had a good history of following them, I wouldn't have an issue buying together