Sometime it's as easy as asking
 

It seems like paid hunting is growing and several places I use to hunt now has paid hunters coming so I am out of luck except for doe there after buck season. I hunt public land a lot but that's getting more crowded and I hate hunting where someone else is hunting. Well I started asking around and was delighted when early this summer I got permission to hunt a 10,000 acre farm , actually rangeland . Then I was able to get permission to hunt 3 more new farms within the last week. All I did was set around and drink coffee and talk to them. So it was as easy as asking. Saturday starts rifle season so the scope is on the mountaineer. No time to scout but I look forward to hunting in some new areas:)

Many years ago, there was a real choice chunk of property near where I lived. I wondered why no one ever hunted it, as the farm was perfect for deer. So one afternoon I stopped at the farm. This very old man named Hans, with a broken German accent came out. Rumor was he was an ornery old devil. I introduced myself and explained I like to hunt deer and wondered if I could hunt his property. He kind of scratched his head a few seconds and said.. Don't see why not. He then told me to get in his pick up truck and drove me all over his farm showing me the choice places to hunt.

I later learned that he liked a particular brand of Brandy. And that season I shot one of my best bucks ever, opening day. After season I drove back out there with some photos of the deer. He laughed and said, he'd seen that deer many times and was happy that I got the thing. He was even more happy when I gave him a quart of his favorite Brandy and a 12 pack of beer. I then told him if he ever need help on the farm to give me a call and I would be glad to give him a hand. He died later that spring and his son took over the farm. When I approached the son, he told me NO! But you're right, sometimes all you need do is ask.

Good luck wandering around that range land. Now I know why you have to be able to shoot 200 yards. I saw pictures of that kind of area, and your shots can get some length to them. That Mountaineer should be bad medicine.

Yep about the same around my area most of the farmers dont care along as you ask!!!
A few have given me and the family a few days they dont want any hunters out cause they will be hunting...

Yep, a friendly gift of appreciation never hurts. The big farm I got permission to hunt was because we operate a farmers market and the rancher would stop just about everyday and buy cucumbers to eat while out working. I talked to him and got permission and he got free cucumbers after that all summer long. :)

I've never been shy about asking. I have 6 private lands I can hunt, and the same for creeks that I fly fish.

I was just given a voucher to hunt deer that's good for 5 months. I use it on the nice days. Why suffer in bad weather when there's no rush?

Because there is usually less hunters and more deer movement.

Not when i'm the only one on the land. I can pick and choose my days for 5 months.

A chance meeting standing in line at at the local Hardees one morning led to access to 1,800 acres literally right out my front door. No one else is on it :)

i have permission to hunt several farms and ranches. Sometimes help out on two of those places.

Never, ever take another hunter onto property you have permission to hunt without first getting the landowners permission. I know two guys who got kicked off farms for taking their buds along. A friend was kicked out of his lease when he invited another hunter along. That hunter came back with his buds, they got caught by other hunters in the lease and it was all over.

There is nothing better than owning hunting land; too bad mine is 75-140 miles from home, except for our place in WV which is 1,250 miles from home. :violin:

The best place i hunt was gotten by chance. the owner was an ass according to all of the locals, he will not let anyone hunt, they said.

I had squirrel hunted his neighbors one week and noticed that there were beer cans and trash everywhere. So, the next time i went i took along a trash bag and started picking up what i seen as i was hunting. on my way out the ass was happening down the, road and he stopped and said, boy did you carry all of that in with you. I told him how that i had seen all the trash the last time i was there and thought i would try to help by picking it up. he went on to tell me, that is why he quit letting others hunt. As he was leaving, i thought hell why not and i said well would you be willing to give another a chance. I was 12 yrs. old and i have been hunting on his 400acres for 28 years now. The old man has since past on and his son runs the place now, and i know as long as they own the property, i will have a place to hunt. I take him a ham and a turkey, every year to his family at xmas. anytime i stop by at a meal time, i am invited in to have a meal with his family.
I had at times worried about a leasing company getting in there and ruining things but when i talked to the owner, he stated he would never lease out and i was the only one he trusted on his land.

And what are you? :lmao:

I am the same guy, you spend so much time pretending not to be!! I am pretty sure most on here has figured that out by now.:party0005:

Sometimes it is alot easier to get permission than it is to retain permission.

Gifts and such are nice. But I am a land owner and own a good bit of property. I do allow a few guys to hunt on my place. What I like the most about the guys I allow to hunt is a couple of times a year they show up at my place in the summer and simply ask me if there are a few things I need done around the farm. Those are the guys I really like.

The ones that have a way of knowing when we are square baling instead of putting up rond bales. And the guy who knows where the fence apron and chain saw are at in the building. They just show up and take the 4-wheeler around the farm and cut branches off the fence, and take some staples out of the apron and repair the fence wherever it needs it.

These are the types of things a land owner really likes. Tom.

I know what you mean
I have 15 acres and all the land owners next to me have well over 500 acres a piece my close neighbor is four miles so during the year when cows get out, or there are people road hunting or poaching I give them a hand to help out in anyway I can I doesnt bother me to take a little time to help, and it has payed off for sure!!!!

On the other side of that, we haven't let anyone out to our land this year. Yet somehow in the last three weeks since I was out there last somebody cut the ropes on my tree stand. I'm not saying everyone is like that - I used to be the guy that had to get permission to hunt other people's land. But I've also noticed with where I'm at now there seems to be a lack of respect for fences. It makes it hard to tell other people yes.

Mine was by chance. The land owner was in the local fly shop when I was there, and was asking some question about what flies to use. The guys working in the shop were busy, so I helped him out. We hit it off, and ended up going fishing together. I never knew he owned land, because we always met at the fly shop to go fishing.

One day on the stream he asked me if I hunted. Of course I said yes, and that was the end of it. When hunting season came around he said to come over to his place, because he had something for me. I got there and he handed me a voucher. Those are much better, because they last for 5 months. Compared to just getting a regular licence for the unit and asking if you can hunt someones property. They only last the length of the season (9 days), and you have to go through the draw. There's no draw with a voucher. You just go to the DOW, and hand them the voucher, and they hand you a licence. It's an animal management licence, so that's why they give you 5 months instead of 9 days. They give you every chance possible to get the animal. Some land owners sell the vouchers for a lot of money.

I got a small piece of property to hunt from the help of a friend that is friends with the farmer. Only about 150 acres, but is 2 miles from my house, has deer, and turkey on it and I am the only one on it. Have cut up a few trees that have fallen into the fields to help him so he doesn't have to do it.

He asks me to shoot the doe for meat and don't shoot any bucks unless I intend to have it mounted. Shoot all the turkeys I want though.