ORIGINAL: kevin1
ORIGINAL: HuntinGUS
I am knocking on doors but I am in an area that I am not too familiar with. How do you recommend that I find the right guy to talk to.
Do you just go to the nearest house to the land you are intrerested in and hope it's the owner?
When trying to get access to private land it's pretty much a numbers game , you knock on doors or approach the landowner in his yard(better) and politely ask to discuss it with him . Once you get a yes they will frequently reccomend you to fellow landowners , especially farmers . Offer to do some labor or snipe varmints for them , sometimes that can be worth more to them than cash .
ORIGINAL: NEW61375
Kevin1 that idea sounds great except for the fact that if you say "hell no" there is a line of people behind you saying"hell yes" because of the shortage of land.
My entire point was that you don't have to be one of the "say yes to any price" drones yourself , there are alternatives if you look for them . I've hunted many places totally free of charge , public and private , before I finally bought a house with a small amount of acreage . Other than a $4 per day entry fee at a local national forest I haven't been out any money , and I can get a season pass to that forest for only $25 . You seem to be making the same mistake that many others do in thinking that private land is the only good land , and that's just not true . Yes , I'm aware of the differences between hunting here and Virginia , that still doesn't preclude you from being more enterprising than those who just roll over and pay up . You don't have to be in a hunt club to hunt . Believe it or not they don't control all of the good land . You can still hunt for free or very little if you just look around , if I can so can you . Those who give up might as well start saving up to buy land , and where you live that may be even harder than finding a good lease . Start using your noodle instead of simply breaking out your wallet every year , yeah , it can be tough at first , but once you master saying no it comes a lot more natural . Let the suckers pay to hunt , as they crowd the private ground they're just driving more deer off of it every year . Guess where those deer go .
Well I am assuming you are are reading the entire post I put up and the several I put up earlier in the thread because I have already stated there areother reasons people might join clubs (other than land) and the fact that I do hunt several thousand acres of public land. However, I have been hunting in my area for over 20 years and have lots of connections to land and hunting in this particular region but a newcomer to this area/hunting might not and could run in to lots of frustration when trying to find a good place to hunt. Again public land is probably their best bet but they do need to put in some work in tracking it down and getting familiar with it and some might not know exactly where to get started or just be a little lazy. I don't consider paying to hunt with my club a "mistake" as I have made some great friends and had some great times. IfI have to fork out a little money, so be it. The realtionships/comradery I have experienced and continue to experience are well worth the cost. I pay more than my dues each month on gas(I try to keep things in perspective). As far as being a sucker, I guess you know enough about me and otherswho pay to huntto come to that conlusion/opinion. You (Kevin1)have some great points about hunting public land and some good tips on ways to gain access to private land, that is what I take from your posts. As far as people who pay for land to huntbeing "drones, suckers, or anon-noodle users",you could probably leave that stuff out. Youhave very strong opinions about paying to hunt andIam not one to try to changea personsmind, I would just hope
they may take something from what I have said to possibly help them understand from my perspective, rather than telling me what is wrong with my perspective. Ecspecially on a topic where there really isn't right or wrong, just opinions.