Land Owners

[roy reali]

Generally, what are the attitudes of private land owners in your area towards hunters? What are the odds of getting permission to hunt their property? Do you have to personally know them or are they cool with anyone?

[deanadell]

Around here, you can forget it if you don't know them personally.

[GEM]

Around here, you can forget it if you don't know them personally.

+1

There's a large archery shop not far from my home and there's at least 50 notes on their bulletin board from hunters willing to pay significant $'s for a place just to hunt whitetail. Efforts you put toward getting to know any of your local landowners and/or farmers, helping them in the fields during the Summer, harvest time, cutting and storing hay, ANYTHING you can do to build bridges with them are energies well spent.

[kraigwy]

There is a good artical on this topic in the American Hunter this year.

What I was looking at is the ideal of landowers wanting hunters to hunt their land with doe tags. Deer do a heck of a lot of damage to crops and farmland.

I was thinking about that my self. Its nothing to see a 12 or so deer raising hell with my hay, At $150 a ton or better, they cost me a ment. I would entertain letting people with doe tags hunt. My problem it there are more deer then hunters here. There is plenty of gooberment land too so there is no reason for resident to shoot does out of my back yard. There are many out of state hunters, but few of them will spend the money for a Wyoming hunt to shoot does out of somebody's back pasture.

Mean time my wife is constantly on my butt because the dern deer are destorying her bird feeders and flowers. Crap I even had to chase the damn things off the porch. I have 4 dogs, they hardly bark at them anymore they are so use to them.

The problem is, its not the trophy bucks doing the damage. Shooting one or two bucks out of ones yard accomplises nothing as it leaves the remaining smaller bucks with more girlfriends. No less fawns, no less does.

Check out this months American Hunter, Good tips on getting permition to hunt on private land. But if you ask early, before season, and have doe tags you're gonna have better luck. But don't start banging on some farmer door at 4am on the openning day, asking to hunt.

The same thing goes for turkeys, they do about as much damage as deer to my wifes flower and bird feeders. Some days it looks like I raise turkeys.

[Doyle]

I think that the combination of slob hunters who don't respect the land and lawyers who don't respect anything but a lawsuit have ruined it for most landowners.

[elkman06]

There is plenty of gooberment land too so there is no reason for resident to shoot does out of my back yard. There are many out of state hunters, but few of them will spend the money for a Wyoming hunt to shoot does out of somebody's back pasture.

Interesting to see another Wy guy posting. I do have a couple of comments here. I grew up on the eastern side of the state and now reside on the western side. Eastern side 85% private and 15% public. This usually equated to two things. Either A: You had to pay for a trespass fee(sometimes astronomical). or B: You asked permission and got your A**&^& chewed due to some slob hunter in the past. Either way you left the front porch of the landowner w/ a sour taste in your mouth. I actually invited a few off of the porch and out onto the county road.......
Nonetheless I primarily hunt public lands due to this.
There have been a couple exceptions to this since I now live on the western side of the state(85% public, 15% private). I once helped a rancher/farmer find a particular hydraulic part for his swather saving him several hundred dollars on the price as well as shortening his downtime. He ultimately let me hunt his property when he had originally said no.
The bottom line is this: You still have to ask if you want to hunt private land and I feel it's a crapshoot as to the type of landowner you will find. I hope that KraigWyo is the better type.
I would eliminate all subsidy payments to landowners unless they allow FREE hunting. Unfortunately I don't see this happening in Wy though as the Game and Fish is controlled by the affluent ranchers in our state. The G&F actually create hunting zones and permits just for the ranchers to be able to charge for killing my(our) wildlife. They also continue to attempt to capture a larger portion of the permits to be designated to landowners/outfitters. Lotsa history here why folks shy away from landowners. They're not all bad but unfortunately they can be categorized just like the few poor hunters who screw it up for the rest of us.
Stepping off of the soapbox now.
elkman06

[12GaugeShuggoth]

Having had the fun of "escorting" trespassers off our family farm for pretty much my entire life, and knowing other landowners with similar experiences; I can say for sure that it's out of the question unless the person is already a friend. It's normally not very difficult to differentiate between the people who have genuinely made a mistake and crossed property lines, and those who have purposely decided to take it upon themselves to "come on over". 90% of the time hunters have fallen in to the second group, especially the dog-starving club hunting sissies..........note, I'm not trying to bash hunting with dogs, it's just an observation about the particular hunting clubs near me, who typically aren't what I'd call responsible.

Then again, I may have a jaded view since I've come close to being shot by them during their *shoot anything that moves* frenzies.......while on our property

[zahnzieh]

The situation in Illinois is just the opposite of Wyoming. Too many hunters, too few properties = hunters stepping on each others toes, arguing over priveleges, stands etc.., and landowners finally getting sick of the whole thing. I personally have seen small wooded properies of about 30 acres where every 40 yards is somebody's treestand! Eight guys hunting a property like this cannot expect to see many deer! You add liability issues, rampant development and destruction of habitat and you get an envirinment that is not conducive to hunting. No wonder young adults no longer see hunting as a viable pastime/lifestyle, at least in No. Illinois!

[HOGGHEAD]

It is basically impossible to understand a land owner if you are not one-when it comes to hunting rights. The problem with non-land owners is they only show up a week before hunting season, and their only concern is "where can I hunt". I have a couple of guys I let hunt on my property. These guys always CALL ME a week before hay season so they can make arrangements to help in the fields. They always come around in the off season and walk the fence line with staples, hammer, and a chainsaw. They basically help out year round. Then when a guy shows up a week before season I become the ass**** to the normal guy because I let the guy who helped me all year hunt, but I will not let them.

Basically farmers and land owners are good people. Treat them that way, and you will eventually find a good place. Show up the week before season-and well you know the rest. I would like to have a dollar for every guy who stopped at my place the weekend before hunting season, and asked permission to hunt. I would have a pretty tall stack of bills. Tom.

[Dearhunter61]

I read your post and although I am not sure what the state allows as far as licensing...if there was an opportunity for someone especially from out of state to come to hunt your land for perhaps a nice buck and then also taking 1-2 does you would have more requests than you can handle even at a reasonable cost.

I know I have had the opportunity to hunt in S Carolina and it was a hoot. This is something I would like to do again but unfortunately the cost is generally astonomical which prevents me and a lot of others from hunting out of state.

As far as getting permission here in the big state of Texas from land owners...good luck...oh wait...if you have enough $$$$$ then you can get permission.

I can sympathize with the land owners who have had issues with trespassers though...My Father-in-law had a 100 acres we hunted for a couple of years and it never failed that every year we found candy wrappers and coke cans around our stands from people hunting there without permission. AGH!

But I am curious about the ones that have the courage to come knock on your door and even perhaps offer a little $$$ as to why the land owners would be sooo rude to them...they are not the ones hunting illegally on the owners land...not only that but if the person is willing to ask in person he at least is showing that he wants to do things right...perhaps there is a reason for the landowners to be rude?

[Dearhunter61]

I am curious if you all offer "hunting leases" there? And if someone came and knocked on your door and was willing to pay say $500-$1000 for the privaledge to hunt on your property would you consider it?

I understand and agree with your earlier post but I also know there are some family men out there that simply do not have the time to help out as you described but by paying you a little cash would that provide the "help" you could use? Like offsetting your cost to feed as well as providing funds for you to purcahse supplies for your fence etc?

Just curious....

[globemaster3]

Its amazing the different attitudes I've found in my USAF travels.

Growing up in FL, unless you were blood kin (or damned close to it)to someone with property, you didn't even bother asking. The answer would be no. I was lucky as hell to get on a friends ranch a couple times, shot my first hog on his property, and caught a bunch of bass in their numerous ponds.

First assignment in the USAF was in Spokane, WA. The palouse area out there was great at that time! 95% of the time, if you went to ask permission, and were friendly and respectful, they told you yes. I had several properties to hunt duck, goose, deer, phesant, chukkar, partridge, etc. In fact, the only time I was told no was when I asked permission to use a launch on a lake to get better access to some small islands that were holding ducks. The problem: that was the owner's sweet spot. It was almost 6 miles from the closest public launch. I gave up on that one as an 0dark30 run in the winter there for 6 miles would have been brutal!

New Jersey was pretty open. Lots of deer in the pinelands and people found them as pests. Had a better than 50-50 chance there.

Southern OK was tough!!!! Despite an exponentially rising feral pig population causing all kinds of damage, nobody would let you hunt...for free. If you wanted to pay $15-20 an ACRE for leases, or $300-500 for an animal, then you could get in. Sorry, too expensive for my tastes. The funny thing would be engaging locals in different venues and they would complain like no tomorrow about the ferals. I'd suggest letting me come out and trap them or shoot some, let me bring my oldest out and connect, etc. Immediate reply was "No, that's OK". I gave up. However, last season I was given permission on 1 qtr section, so I guess I can't say it was completely impossible.

Another thing driving OK property access is Texas. Rumor has it since Texas is mostly leased up, there are a lot of Texans driving to OK to hunt. A couple corporations dropped BIG $$ on a couple landowners for long term leases for their clients/employees.

As mentioned before, I'm sure I cannot understand all the problems landowners deal with. What is really bad are the slob hunters ruining it for everyone else. The landowner that allowed me on his property last season mentioned I was the first back on his land after a couple year break. The story he told was incredible. Came onto his own farm and was approached by someone asking what he was doing on his own property. The knucklehead he gave permission to copies the key and gave some to friends without the landowner's permisison.

A recent gun rag article I read bemoaned the downward spiral in the number of hunters over the last 20 years. With private land access issues for hunters and most public lands saturated, where do you go?

[HOGGHEAD]

Your are spot on with your assessment. I recently purchased 60 acres of exceptionally good deer hunting property. It is adjacent to a couple of other farms we either own or control. However we do not hunt on this property. So I did exactly what you suggested. I leased the 60 acres out to 4 hunters who paid a total of $1,000 for a complete year. There are a bunch of deer and turkeys on this property. I actually believe they got a pretty good deal. I talked to a couple of people who said I charged too much, but I though $1,000 for the 60 acres for a full year was a good deal?? I know the taxes for the year was $850, and the property insurance for one year was just under $400. So I spent $1,250 in taxes and insurance, so I can not see where $1,000 was too much. Tom.

[B. Lahey]

Don't know about deer, but if any of you like to hunt rabbits I have three words for you:

Christmas-tree farm.

Rabbits play hell with young pines, I've never been turned away, and have frequently been told to come back with friends.

In fact I don't think I've ever been refused access to hunt small game anywhere. Must be a deer thing.

[S832]

A bunch of half drunk hunters always find themselves onto my families private property, one even threatened us. I usually call the police if they have a bad attitude, most of them don't seem to posses hunting licenses either.

[WeedWacker]

My family owns a large plot of land in Wisconsin that we hunt and plan on hunting this year. We do not like other people to be there purely for the reason that we have not had time to plan so each party would know exactly where the other is. Safety first, fun later. Last time we were out there some people were literally sitting on the fence line watching out property for deer. we couldn't see them from our box blind and nailed two deer pretty much right under their noses and walked up when we claimed our deer. They left shortly after this incident and didn't come back. (they own their own 50+ acres on the other side of the road so go figure )

[fbrown333@suddenlink]

I have hunted both privat and public land. I must say that public hunting is dangerous half of the people on the public areas don't know which end of the gun the bullet comes out of. private land is great to hunt but unless your rich it is out of reach. I am forced to hunt public land simply due to the fact that I am not rich. You must hike way way way in to get away from the (slob) type hunters. I hunt where they (lazy,slob hunters) don't like to go as I like to enjoy nature and not watch some bum throw his trash on the ground after he sits there and eats his Mcbreakfast in the woods!:barf: The way I look at it (you pack it in, you pack it out!) OK rant over.

[VaFisher]

Around here in my area we have hunting club's that lease most all the land with exception of some that don't like hunting or some small peaces that allow a few freind's only. SO knocking on doors is a loosing efford that's seldom rewarded.
Reading some of the above post like kraigwy posted got me thinking.
If someone from out of State was willing to travel to your State to help with your doe's, 1. could they get several tag's to help with the issue at hand.
2. Would you be willing to let them take a decent buck or two during this time frame they are helping as a reward. If so it may be worth the efford on both sides.
Just a thought but if so you could get more help for the asking then you think with your problem.
I my area things will never change so it would be very rewarding for folk's from this area to be able to help and hunt.
I did travel one year to Alberta Canada and had a blast, all is different up there. You can knock on just about any door and get permission for the asking. The goverment will not the let land owner's lease out their land so it has no value other then what they use it for and or hunters if asking.
I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable hunt's I have ever had the pleasure of being on and meet some of the best people God ever put on this earth. Not only did they give permission they went out of their way to help, one farmer plowed a road through his land two feet of snow about a half mile so I could drive back and get my deer. I different farmer did the same with a moose except he picked the moose up with the loader and brought it all the way out and put it in our truck. The only issue I had with their system is you have to have a outfitter or a person that lives there to be your personal guide, with that said the freind living there does not have to go hunt with you so it's hard to understand that one, but it's a great place to hunt but get's expensive if going with a outfitter.

[john1911]

In general, the days of "free" hunting on private landowners is over. Leasing is taking over.

Farming is a tough venture for most small operators. Any additional income is sorely needed, leasing land to a couple hunters at $1000-$2000/year sure helps the bottom line.

Public land hunting can be tough but is possible. Avoid opening weekend (or ant weekend if possible), hunt through the week. Get away from the usual access areas. Find alternative methods of access (boat in, use a bicycle to get further in, etc.). Burn some boot leather, most hunters set up within 1/4 mile of an access area. Hike in a mile or so and pitch a tent.

[Smaug]

I asked a similar question a couple weeks ago, and got some good responses.

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...d.php?t=309332

[shortwave]

Have had the priledge to hunt some of the best private hunting grounds around my area and am very thankfull to the landowners for permission to do so. A lot of this land adjoins my own. One of the first things I was told when I moved here was about the poaching, trash being dumped on property and in general the lack of respect towards one`s property someone else could have. After being burned several times myself by some people that live close by it didn`t take long for me to have to really know someone to give them permission to hunt. Most of the farmers that have been around here for years told me I would get that way. I,as them don`t let people hunt unless we know them. Its sad to have to be that way but after having to replace fence`s people have run through ATV`S, drove or screwed tree climbing steps into valuable trees,etc. you have to do something.

[hoytinak]

It's just family and some close friends that hunt (rabbit, quail, peasant, coyote, whitetail and antelope) on our land. We tried letting others hunt for free but got tired of other stuff getting shot and tore up. Thought about starting to let others again but putting up hidden trail cameras around but figured if anyone found them they'd get shot up or end up missing.

[elkman06]

Farming is a tough venture for most small operators. Any additional income is sorely needed, leasing land to a couple hunters at $1000-$2000/year sure helps the bottom line.

While I would agree that any small business has its' drawbacks and certainly would expect that anyone would utilize their land as best suits them financially, with the government subsidies out there, anyone who can't make it on the gov welfare opportunities should go get a job. If you want to talk about the CRP program or the amount that ranchers pay to feed their animals on public ground then one could have the opinion that landowners are allready being paid by public funds and we should have some opportunity to hunt OUR wildlife w/o paying exorbatant fees to do so.
Discuss......
elkman06

[john1911]

Expanding on your line of thought...Since the cornflakes in your cupboard are provided by these welfare leeching farmers, I should be free to enter your home at my leisure and enjoy a bowl?

I can understand your frustration trying to find hunting areas but it's silly to suggest collectivizing private land for hunting. It reeks of envy.

[elkman06]

Well John,
Kind of an odd way to twist my thoughts...I don't believe I have any checks nor yearly subsidies, nor special loan programs that I tap into so No..I don't believe your thought process equates in following mine. If you are hungry though I might just help you out though. It just amazes me that the same people who do enjoy such benefits can do so w/o ever having to give back to the folks who support them. Much like that same group would scream about welfare being handed out in the inner city. They would insist that the welfare recipients have to do some form of public works to receive the monthly check.
Unfortunately we pander to them, allow them special hunting seasons and licensing, allow them to graze their cattle on public ground for $3.50 per AU and they still get to charge me trespass fees when my tax dollars are allready supporting them. Maybe you don't have generations of farmers living off of the public dole where you live w/o ever putting a plow into the ground but here in Wyo we do. I believe that the minute they cash their CRP check that they should be giving something back to me....the taxpayer. All I want is the ability to hunt and fish our public wildlife providing I do no destruction to his property and treat it w/ respect.
Lastly, your post suggests I owe them something for growing the food I eat. Last I checked, that food cost me something to purchase. That's where he should get his wages and if he can't make it, he can get a job like me. No one is paying me to not go to work each day.
elkman06