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ILL has gone downhill

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ILL has gone downhill

Old 12-15-2009, 09:13 PM
  #41  
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I realized 6 or 7 years ago that the only way to go is to buy your own land. But its hard to convince some folks that is the case. __________________
Lanse, respectfully some people just cannot afford to buy land. A lot of hard working people can't.

Seriously, the ability to gain permission to find land to hunt started shrinking when farms got bigger. In other words when small farms fell by the wayside and were gobbled up by bigger farmers. I know of several thousand acres that are unhunted or hunted by one or two people simply because the new landowner refuses to let anyone walk on their land.
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Old 12-16-2009, 07:13 AM
  #42  
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Cougar,

Not everybody can afford to buy land, but there are plenty of folks who can pull it off if they really want to. I live in a house that costs about $20K less than i could have actually afforded. I
drive a 1999 Ford Ranger and a 2001 Hyundai instead of carrying a $300 a month note on a new vehicle. I don't own a 4-wheeler, a closet full of guns, or a couple thousand bucks worth of various hunting gadgets. So, I could afford to buy my two modest pieces of land. I didn't buy it for deer hunting so much as to have it for other types of hunting since I noticed 7 or 8 years ago that more and more land is getting bought up for deer hunting and posted for everything else. Of course, you are also getting more and more people who are wanting to move from town out into the country just for the peace and quiet and don't not even hunt or approve of it. Land is being lost that way too. That kind of narrows ones options if they still want to be hunting 10 years for now or want their kids and grandkids to have a place to hunt 20 years from now.
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Old 12-16-2009, 08:20 AM
  #43  
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Im lucky enough to be a decent sized farmer and have my own land. But honestly i have not seen land prices take drastic jumps in my area. Yes they can be outrageous but theyre not as bad as you might think. Also around my area what hurts everyone is the coal mines still own alot of ground. But theres always ground for sale around me that someone could pick up at a fair price.
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Old 12-16-2009, 08:32 AM
  #44  
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Land prices are much more reasonable once you get well away from the large urban areas and portions of the state where you have the prime farmground. I know that in southeastern Illinois you can find hunting ground for $1000 and acre if you look good enough. Part of that is because of the economy,but even when the hunting ground prices peaked, you didnt see it for much over 2000 and acre.
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Old 12-16-2009, 06:54 PM
  #45  
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the price of ground in my area (pike co.) is crazy high . the middle class working man would have a very hard time afforing it . im lucky to have inherited 350 acres of some primo . if that wasnt the case this area would be off limits to me and my blue collar .
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Old 12-18-2009, 05:27 PM
  #46  
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Its not the lack of check stations. It ALL points to one thing...OUTFITTERS!!! They are swarming Illinois just like killer bees, they hovered in West Central IL for awhile and now they are moving onto other parts of the state where they will continue to wipe out all the mature deer and leave the Doe's standing, for they do not attract out of staters. Our DNR is to blame just as much if not more for even allowing so many to infest our state. Once again its all about our state gov't being money hungary whores. And we sportsman flip the bill for people who jog, hike, watch birds, animal rights douche bags, but yet we have VERY little say in how the DNR Department is ran.
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Old 12-18-2009, 05:33 PM
  #47  
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Originally Posted by Lanse couche couche
I know that in southeastern Illinois you can find hunting ground for $1000 and acre if you look good enough.
PLEASE email me any if you find some for $1k an acre. We looked hard this year for SE IL and about the cheapest we found was $1800 and it wasnt what you would call "prime". Im sure it had deer go through there, but nothing special. Those "special" pieces were running $2000-3500 an acre. Alot of this has to do with outfitters are migrating from West Central IL to SE IL.
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Old 12-19-2009, 07:12 AM
  #48  
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i yeah outfitters are choking us out in west central il. . its just so easy to become an outfitter just get you 300 acres and run 5 to ten guys a week the whole season . its pretty easy money . guys dont realize that the hunts they c on tv is not the ground they will be hunting if they book a hunt with the same outfitter . they set these farms for tv and movie personality to the side and the people that save all year to hunt get the ground that has bn hunted every day for the the whole season . i use to guide for a major outfitter in the area and was made to lie to my hunters and get there hopes up when i knew it was guna be a hard hunt just due to the fact i had three hunters a week on the same property every day for the last 2 months . this is why i quit guiding . guided hunt can be a very shady business . so if you book a hunt be carefull . plus i got the largest outfitter n our area on film dropping a guy off to try and stalk a beded buck that wasnt even close to there property line . and they have started leasing ground and not paying for it at the end of the year . this has bn a problem the last couple of years . im not sayin that all the outfitters are like this but if your guna book a hunt make shure you do plenty of home work . dont just go by the hunts u c on tv , cause you pry arent guna b hunting were the personality guys and gals hunt
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Old 12-19-2009, 11:45 AM
  #49  
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I live here in Fulton county and we would love to find any ground for under $3,000 per acre! Average here right now seems to be around the 3,200 to 3,500/acre. Our neighbor is selling his little tract and he wants $4500/acre... sad thing is, he will eventually get it!
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Old 12-19-2009, 03:25 PM
  #50  
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Im sure glad im not payin 4500 an acre for ground. Little steep i dont care if its prime ground. Ill barely pay 3000, but we have a couple farmers where i live who pay whatever for ground just because they think they have to farm the whole county and then they dont let people hunt and then try to turn around and get big time hunters to pay them to come hunt it and they think they can run all over everyones ground and its ok. Sure is nice to own ground next to them. (sometimes i forget where the property line is oops).
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