Buying Hunting Land Series: Tract Size Matters

Gary called Randy and said, “I can bring my boat, and we can make it out to Ossabaw on Wednesday and get camp set up. Warren is going to ride with me.” Randy responded, “This is our 15th trip to the island in 30 years. I really look forward to this every time we are drawn!”

Depending on your circumstances, just getting by with an opportunity to go with friends to a WMA or public fishing area for hunting or fishing may be your best chance of enjoying the outdoors. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Georgia is blessed with numerous hunting and fishing options—large and small—throughout the state. Depending on if the WMA offers a quota hunt, or if it is open during the season, opportunities to hunt close to home may be limited.

Owning your hunting property or owning it along with some friends or family—or for that matter sharing the ownership of a lake home somewhere—changes the perspective. How much land do you need? How far is too far? How much am I going to pay? What am I hunting? Who can hunt, and can we have a cabin or camp there? Will there be electricity, water, septic? All these questions, and all I wanted to hang a deer stand on my own property!

I get this call almost every week. It usually starts off with someone asking about a parcel of land they saw in GON or a website and want to know if they can lease it.

If it were for lease, the ad would say so.

My next question is, why not investigate buying some land yourself? “I don’t have that kind of money,” is the standard answer. I understand that, and there are a lot of considerations.

“My eyes were bigger than my stomach” comes to mind for some reason. Do you really need 500 acres to have a place to deer hunt, or to hunt any kind of small game or turkeys? No, 500 acres is not required. How about the fact you were in a club that had 300 acres and 10 members? If everyone showed up to hunt, it was not crowded, and it worked fine. You can make it work on 30 acres of your own. Think about it this way, your house is probably around 2,000 square feet give or take 1,000. Big enough for you and your family. Thirty acres is 653 times bigger than your house, and I say if a deer is hiding in one of the bedrooms 653 times bigger, you are going to have to hunt to find it.

For your needs, 20 to 30 acres may be enough if it is in the right location. Next to a larger tract, along a powerline, backed up to a big swamp—it could be perfect. How far away from home may determine what you must pay for it. I have to say, with the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been gobbling up small parcels as family compounds, and it has put pressure on prices for now. In normal times, areas an hour from more densely populated communities are about where prices begin to improve, and where more agriculture or timberland is located.

Utilizing topo maps, county tax maps and getting out on the road may get you into areas where you would be likely to find something you like. Personally, I would prefer you find a good realtor in the area who hunts, and ask them about what is available. Often enough, they will know about something coming onto the market or a place that someone would consider selling off a part of, if they knew it was not going to be developed. Does it cost more to use a real estate agent? No, the seller is paying the commission, and you get a “guide” who knows where the opportunity is. In fact, it may well save you money and a lot of heartache if there ends up being issues involving family, estates, easements—things you don’t want to spend a lot of time and money on.

Size matters less than the quality of the land for your intended use. Location, affordability and utility are the keys to making your own piece of land work for you. And once it is yours, you know where you can go, and where you can bring your child and teach them the things you want to pass down to another generation.