I'm a school teacher, have been for 20 years. I teach in the area I grew up in. I've had nearly 3,000 students and have gotten to know most of their parents. I live in BFE...and so do my students. A lot of them live on farms...I have buddys with land. I've even taken some of them to my farm in WV to hunt. Many of the people that attend the church that I'm a member of have land. Can I find a place to hunt around here? No. I am still hunting my 80 year old parents 10 acres. That's the only place I can find and I have to fight with his neighbor that has 3/4 acre and puts a stand up in his back yard on the property line.

I have taken 3 or 4 guys with me to WV for a week of gun hunting. We have a modern cabin with all the amenities of home...running water, heat, TV, microwave, fridge, washer, dryer, etc. After they have come down and killed 2 deer or more in their week...I'll ask if I can hunt their land around here and 2 of them actually looked at me and said that they allow no hunting on their property. They never saw my farm again.

The biggest problem in my area is that a farmer will not allow permission because he has ONE grandson that hunts. Even if the kid hunts 2 days/year, the farm is off limits. I realize that it's his land, but that makes it no less frustrating.

My buddy..a butcher....has been bow hunting hard since the 60's. He'll spend 75 days/year in a tree stand. He said in the late 80's he had written permission on over 20 farms. Now he's relegated to public land. He's not killed a buck in 3 years...and he killed a buck 8 pts or more for 12 years in a row. He's lived in the same town since birth and he's 64 and a great guy. He can find no place to hunt.

Sad, sad, sad.