RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

I used to own 146.5 acres and long term leased 1200 acres adjoining it. After paying for several years on it,I blew out my back at work and was laid up for almost 2 years. As we all know,worker's comp at any large corp. will try every trick in the book to keep from paying-INCLUDING attempting to starve us out. Naturally I lost the land. The worst thing about it was losing our hunting heritage for my kids and the fact that I bowkilled a 12 pointer that measured 21 and 5/16",shortest tine was 11 and 3/4". That was the mistake I made because I had a 14 pointer walk under my stand 3 times with rack I could have thrown the 12 point rack thru easily without touching!! That was the last year I owned the land.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

I have lost some great farm country due to the farm losing the land, but I am lucky in that I live almost right next to national forest land. May not be the best hunting around, but it should always be there.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

Being from central IL, and excluding those fortunate enough to inherit some acreage, I know more people that HAVE lost land than not.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

thanks alot. atleast im not the only one, even tho it does suck. now i have to find somewhere to gun hunt. i am goiing to hate gunhunting on public land, thats more scarey than a haunted house lol. i need to find some land ASAP [:@]

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

Yes, I've never been fortunate enough to own my own hunting property, but I've lost some good leases in my time! Some idiot does something stupid, everyone gets the boot! Land gets sold out from under you, you get out-bid, it happens! You just move on to the next challenge!

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

The whole hunting lease or permission to hunt deal is changing everywhere. Our sport of hunting posted some numbers that were down from years past. The blame was on playstations for youngsters and other sports. I'm not buying that. Our sport is turning into a rich man's game. Similar to private country club golf courses. The average guy needs to have a family farm type deal to hunt.
If you have permission from a farmer or friend. You better not be taking it for granted. The lease deals are more an more prevalant. Take it season by season and never take it for granted.
Like anything in the business world, build relationships and you will have a place to hunt.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

If the public you're considering is large enough consider buying a deer cart and going in deeper, you'd really be surprised how few people you encounter once you get out of sight of the parking lot. I occasionally bow and gun hunt a stretch of Natl. forest propety about an hour from my house, and once I get past the first 200 yards the only tracks I normally see are those of the deer and my own. Public land also gives you the advantage of having volunteer "drivers" who will routinely send deer right past your stand if you plot out the deer's escape routes ahead of time and arrange to be on the back end of them.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

In a way I lost some hunting. A place that a friend and I have hunted for a few years was all in grass except for a nice 5 acre corner and a creek that ran right down the middle and was lined with trees about 100 yards wide. The land was in CRP. Then the land owner who is a nice guy but getting kind of senile decided to take it out of CRP. He then rented it to some guys who put cattle in there. The owner even said he was getting less money renting it than the CRP payment. That's where the senile part comes in. However it is his land and he can do what he wants. Well, we can hunt it, but the cattle have nearly ruined the area along the creek for hunting. It used to grow all up in vegetation and was great cover but the cattle have eaten and tromped it bare. The little 5 acre patch in the corner is fenced off, though and should be good hunting.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

Heck yea. Im losing PUBLIC ground here in Ky.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

every year it seems like. im always gaining/loosing hunting ground. Im slowly gaining more than i loose tho, and i now have access to 3 or 4 decent farms, but only 2 of them are worth my huntin time if i wanna kill somethin bigger than a fork horn