DuckSouth.com

Does anyone on here hunt around Rodney, MS?

JMallard.... I have a friend who just started hunting in the hills around Rodney... I have heard the hunting is great anywhere around that area... ducks in the bottomlands and deer everywhere. You in a club around that area?

Just duck hunt down there around Rodney Island. Heard that all of the IP land down there has sold. Wondering if anyone on the LA side kept there lease.

Joe: My brother-in-law is in a club around Rodney. I'll have to ask him what is going on....

Thats a chunck of land IP owns down there if someone bought it they got some good hunting land.

JMallard....Just talked to a guy that hunted in a club down there...He said their longtime lease with IP went belly up when IP sold the land....so I guess it is true that IP is selling their land left and right. ....This group just snatched up a lease in Claiborne County....At about $3500.00 a head...leased it from a private individual... 15 members...2 lodges...too rich for my blood.

IP has sold most every acre in the 6 counties in South Mississippi. The first thing they did in anticipation of the sales were to terminate leases with hunting clubs. In 60,000 to 90,000 acre tracts the land sold for $800 per acre plus the timber value. Most of these purchaser's immediately have been flipping the land at 1500 to 2500 per acre in smaller tracts plus the timber value. Having watched a few hurricanes come thru the coast, timber in these coastal counties is less than desirable since high wind is hell on timber. Obviously, IP can 1031 these dollars into timberland away from the coastline and have a much more profitable crop.

Having hunted the bottoms around Rodney for almost 20 yrs, you are correct there is really good hunting in the area. The individual who is buying up all the land in this area( 20,000+ acres so far) is managing it for ducks. Sounds good so far right. He is taking it all out of hunting,no ducks,deer etc. Hundreds of hunters in this area have been displaced and are looking for new places to hunt. What do you think this will do for already high lease prices? If you can find a place to hunt, there is now a 20,000+ acre, and growing every year, refuge managed for waterfowl that will never be disturbed. You can't compete with that. I guess I'll be hunting divers on the big muddy this year. What is the world coming to!

IP has been selling land in other areas as well. Last year Weyerhaeuser bought everything they had in Webster, Choctaw and Winston counties. Not exactly sure of the acreage but I know it was several thousand. Weyerhaeuser turned around and sold tracts that would be more beneficial as hunting tracts or recreational areas. To my knowledge IP hasn't sold any of their land in Leake or Attala county but I'm not sure about that. I guess after closing their mills there's no need to keep the land base.

I am not going to be upset over someone having the money to buy something like that. If you got, more power to you. At least he is not draining it and hipping up pine trees. It is a refuge now that will be protected for a long time. That is a good thing.