I have been thinking about this for some time now. I would like to get a cabin in Pa that I can hunt, fish, and hang out at if need be 365 days a year. It does not have to have a lot of acreage because here in Pa no matter what direction you go there is outstanding fishing and hunting on public lands.

I also saw recently were someone had 1000's of acreas to lease. I often wondered here in Pa what is the average cost per year if you decided just to have private land to hunt on all the time?

I know there are cabins along lakes that you become part of the lakes organzations and you get to use their beach, club house etc. This would be good if other members of the family to use too. Wife, daughter, grandson sto take fishing from a boat and or shore line.

I do not want to get a lean to.........I want something nice but yet not expenisve....However I heard to many horrorr stories about owning a trailer...........Always patching the things up and doing more work then hunting and fishing.......


So what are some ways to find a cabin other then the net? Should I go a drive by some of the little likes and watch for Sale signs. Is it best to find out from word of mouth.....Just say someone on here knows of someone that wants to get rid of a cabin. Wow that would be great if that could happen.


Tell us about the good and the bad of owning your own get away cabin?
I remember one time I purchased an old old old old old boat from a friend. Worst thing I ever did.....Did more money dumpping and repairs to the boat then fishiing . Swear the next time around for a boat I buy one of the brand new Bass tracker Packages with everything complete instead of adding this and adding that.
Same might apply for a cabin? You think your getting a steal but by the time you start dumping all this kind of money into it. It might have been better to JUST DREAM instead of owning a property in the mountains somewhere????



Anyway would like to hear some of your pro and con of cabin ownership and leasing hunting land too.

You should ask pap about cabins. think he knows (works) about those kits, that are assembled and brought to you. That might be the way to go, get some land to set it on. Probably would be cheaper in the long run. Those are super cute, I always wanted one myself for a weekender.

You can check your classified as well, riding around probably is a good idea too. But yeah, I wouldn't bother with a major fixer upper unless the cost of repair wasn't that bad, and it was a great deal anyway.

And yeah, trailers are the pits on some land you only visit every now and then. That's what we did. We hunted some leased land in a lower county, but bought an acre of land to camp on a few minutes away in the boonies. Then my uncle bought a new place and gave us his old trailer so we hauled it down there to just use it as a camphouse. During the months we weren't down there (didn't go during school, and not at all when season was out for months), we always had to fight the big forest rats away every time we got there. Trailers are so cheaply constructed, those big rats can bore in anytime they want, and will if you dont keep them away or if there isn't a lot of activity in the home to scare them off. A house/cabin is a lot harder to get into I would imagine.

AS far as leasing land, it has it's advantages. You should always scout the land first though, I believe, to see what kinda action you might get as well as review the lease and sign for a couple years so they can't change things on you (like cut your property line). But, with your own, you can plant it how you want and not have to worry about hunter encroachment. Plus, if you have a buddy or kin that likes to hunt, (who is a good person to hunt with and shares your ethics, cause you don't want to be in situations like I have been in with some of my partners over time LOL) you can go in together and split the bill and share and manage it together. It can be a major headache if you pick the wrong person though.

That cabin community you mentioned, that would be nice! That way the whole family can go and do the family perks (beach, whatnot) while you are out hunting,...lol...and they won't rag on ya for being gone so much!

Hands as always thank you for your outstanding foresight. This young lady should be writing outdoor how too books?

Hands has a great idea bout the cabin !!

The sad thing is that I saw some land (~87 acres) being auctioned off between Shade Gap & Neelyton in the local PA weekly rag I get, but never mentioned it to UB cause I was thinking that he was leaning more towards something that was already built.

UB, if you are thinking bout the Cabin Route, I'll be sure to pass on anything else I happen to see in the future. Also, it might not be a bad idea for you to do some digging and try to track down a realtor (Raystown Reality would be one, but another one from around the Chambersburg area might be less expensive) or two that covers that area around Neelyton / Shade Gap (Southern Huntingdon Co. and Fulton Co. if I remember correctly). From Carlisle that would only be ~55 to 60 miles and a tad over 1 hr drive for you !!!!


99er

There's alot of different type leases UB.Some are expensive and some have too many members.But there are good ones that provide quality hunting.
One thing I can say about a cabin,it involves alot of work.If you build your own then just the upkeep alone keeps ya busy.
I built ours about 20 years ago and I honestly doubt I could do that again.Long hard hours of work.
Now that I gave you the negatives,here's the positives.
It's yours and you can go there anytime free of charge.That's a great feeling having another place you can call home.
Let me throw another option at ya which I was considering at one time.Some campgrounds have permenant sites where you can put a nice size camper or trailer.There is a yearly fee but the owner watches over your site and in many cases will fire up your heater for ya before you come up.Kenshire campground on the Tioga/potter border does this and is right along the beautiful pine creek.The people pay him a yearly fee for the lot but can come up whenever they want without a charge.
Feel free to ask anymore questions on a cabin or the campground.Lord knows I have plenty experience with this cabin thing.

Not sure what part of the state UB but here's a nice example of cabins
Sorry foget how to make it a link.

Hunting Camps for sale in Tioga County and North Central PennsylvaniaBrowse the photos and information on this site to locate camps and cabins for sale in Tioga County and surrounding areas of North Central PA. ...
www.connollyrealestate.com/camps-cabins-cottages.htm -

http://www.huntingpa.com/forums/ubbthreads...d=68&page=1

UB, My parents bought our cabin in the early 90's and it was sold to us by the logging company that sub-divided up the land and then put cabin (shells) on certain properties. My opinion..........


Pros-

1. We designed the interior on our own and basically did everything ourselves and the kitchen stuff including stove, cabinets and sink came from an old farm house being demolished in town.
2. Like Hemmy pointed out its ours we can go up when everand not worry about someone elses schedule.
3. Its located within yards of acres of Game Lands

Cons-

1. We've had brake ins approx. 2 since we have owned it, luckly they never took anything of value
2. You must follow a strict winter shut down procedure or you will have frozen toilet traps, frozen shower traps,frozen pipes that could crack and one time we forgot to empty the hot water heater and ended up replacing it (not a fun weekend)
3. Not to menchin now that fuel prices are so high we seem to plan around one vehicle for a larger party when I use to just go up for a day by myself

Thank you everyone for you comments and web links too. I can see there are a lot of things to think about. Just because the getaway place is not a trailer does not mean that you can forget winterization...........


All these comments are things that I need to discuss with my wife and children too. I don't want to purchase a cabin and then the family gives me.......Why This turned Into a Nightmare????????

There are many parts of the state that the deer hunting has gone from excellent to "What Does A Whitetail Deer Look Like?"


Again thank you all for your comments. I appreciate it.