How much does a hunting lease cost in New Hampshire?

A 300-acre hunting lease in New Hampshire typically asks about $4,986 per year, with most comparable properties falling between $3,035 and $7,810. Smaller parcels cost more per acre and larger ones less.

What is the average price per acre for hunting land in New Hampshire?

About $16.62 per acre per year for a 300-acre property, which is 4% below the national median of $17.32. Per-acre rates fall as properties get larger, so this figure is quoted at a fixed 300 acres to stay comparable between states.

Are these New Hampshire lease prices what hunters actually pay?

No. Every figure here is an asking price — what landowners list at, not what a lease finally closes for. The model is fit on listing data, so it reflects what a property is likely to be advertised at.

How reliable is the New Hampshire estimate?

This rate comes mostly from listings in this state. It rests on 30 filtered lease listings from New Hampshire. Across all states, roughly half of real listings fall inside the range shown, and state and acreage together explain about a quarter of the variation in asking price.

Hunting Lease Prices in New Hampshire

$4,986

per year · 300 acres · New Hampshire

Comparable properties list $3,035–$7,810, or about $16.62 per acre.

That is 4% below the national median of $17.32 per acre, ranking New Hampshire 24 of 48 states by price.

What this rests on

Well supported

30 New Hampshire listings

This rate comes mostly from listings in this state.

By property size

Typical New Hampshire lease prices

Yearly asking prices for a property with no amenities or premium habitat specified. Adding food plots, a cabin or a trophy species raises the estimate; the calculator below accounts for those.
Property size	Typical asking price	Usual range	Per acre
40 acres	$2,743	$1,755–$4,224	$68.57
100 acres	$3,599	$2,304–$5,543	$35.99
250 acres	$4,724	$3,023–$7,274	$18.89
500 acres	$5,802	$3,069–$9,532	$11.60
1,000 acres	$7,126	$3,116–$12,489	$7.13
2,500 acres	$9,351	$3,180–$17,852	$3.74

The market

Hunting New Hampshire

New Hampshire has 17% public hunting land and a long tradition of open private timberland, both of which hold lease rates near the national median. Deer density is low by eastern standards. Bear and the state's small moose draw are part of what northern ground is valued for.

Nationally, New Hampshire has more public hunting ground than most states — ranking 14 of 50 states at 17.3% public, and a thinner whitetail herd than the eastern average at 0.9 bucks taken per square mile. Neither figure feeds the estimate above; both are the ground truth a lease is negotiated against.

Whitetail deer
Black bear
Moose
Turkey

Context, not price drivers — see the methodology note below.
Public hunting land	17.3% of the state 991,000 acres · 14 of 50
Bucks harvested	8,339 0.9 per square mile · 2022 season
Leased for	Whitetail deer, Black bear, Moose, Turkey

Within the state

Where New Hampshire prices differ

The $16.62 per-acre figure above is a New Hampshire average. These are the sub-markets it averages over, and they do not trade alike:

Directional, not measured — the estimate is fitted at state level and has no sub-state resolution.
Southern tier	Most of the deer and most of the demand.
White Mountains and north	Bear, moose and low deer density; much of it timberland open by tradition.

Your property

Price your own New Hampshire land

The table above assumes nothing about your land beyond its size. Add your game species, habitat, forage and amenities for an estimate that reflects the property you actually have.

Calculate a New Hampshire lease price

Nearby markets

How New Hampshire compares

States whose hunting lease markets are priced closest to New Hampshire.
State	Per acre	vs. New Hampshire
North Carolina	$16.30	lower
West Virginia	$16.60	lower
Minnesota	$16.70	higher
California	$17.00	higher

Methodology

How we estimate New Hampshire lease prices

The estimate comes from a model fit on 979 filtered hunting lease listings across 48 states. A state's rate and the way price scales with acreage are both measured from that data. 30 of those listings were in New Hampshire, so the New Hampshire rate is drawn largely from that state's own market.

Three things are worth knowing before you quote these numbers:

These are asking prices. They are what landowners list at, not what a lease closes for.
State and size explain about a quarter of the variation. Roughly half of real listings fall inside the range shown, which is what two features can support — it is the honest width of the answer, not a rough edge waiting to be tuned out.
The land and deer figures above are context, not inputs. They come from Backcountry Chronicles (public hunting acreage) and the National Deer Association's 2024 Deer Report (2022 buck harvest). Neither feeds the estimate, and both correlate only weakly with what states actually charge.
Habitat, game and amenity adjustments are expert judgement, not fit from data — the listing feed does not carry those fields. They are set to be neutral on an average property, so they nudge the estimate rather than drive it.