You haven't attempted to hunt pheasants in the wild lately, have you? Outside of North or South Dakota, I mean. It's a lot less expensive for me to pay for a day at a local game farm than to drive to N. or S. Dakota, find public land, and hunt it. I also get to shoot hens then. They taste just as good. Even out there in the Dakotas , it's mostly guided hunts on private land. The only difference is the birds are wild, though often stocked yearly, just not set out immediately before the hunt.
As for deer preserves, a guy bought a 40 from my father in law, fenced it, set up food plots, and started raising deer, both penned and loose on the fenced in property. (His ultimate goal was to produce and sell 'siring services' like is done with bulls.) He even had the gall to tell me "Don't shoot any big bucks you see on your farm, they're mine. They jump the fence now and again." He also turned my son, who hunted with him a couple years, into a rack hunter for a while. My son has since recanted, and realizes the utility of shooting does and lesser bucks. My philosiphy has always been "You can't eat antlers, unless your a mouse." That guy kind of soured me on deer preserves.
Never heard of a 'pay lake'. In Minnesota, there are some lakes that the owners claim are 'privately owned' but their claim violates State law. The lake itself is the property of the people of the State of Minnesota. If you can land a seaplane or float copter on it, there isn't a dang thing the land owner can do about it. I always wanted to fish Lake Giffilian in North Oaks with a STOL floatplane. Big crappies, so I hear.