anyone ever lose land?
 

I usually hear of people gaining access to land, usually. well, who has lost land? Either it was a friends and they lost it, the owner moved, you had to sell, whatever the cirumstances.

It sucks, my friend had 20 acres in WV we always hunted. It was actually the first place I killed a dear, 4 years ago. His dad had to sell it for whatever reason. It was sort of the spot for hunting, camping, weekend trips, etc.

Now Im lost on where to shotgun hunt this year. I usually go there for a week on the opener. I am almost scared to hunt public land with firearms, lol. Maybe on real large tracks, but pubic land around here isnt that large.

Anyway, anyone ever lost land? lol

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

hey, i have hunted a friends 800 acre tract for the past three years. all planted pines with a few small ponds. this year they have gotten in a family dispute over the land and it is no longer open to me and the rest of the family to hunt until the legal disputes are settled. they are splitting it into tracts which im sure will be sold off to one of the family members. its only bow season now and i have tried a wma and have gone to the borders where there are no human signs and have seen 2 does and a small buck. loosing land isnt the worst thing in the world as long as you arent afraid to go out and explore. we have permission to hunt a 400 acre farm but want to stick with the wmas till riffle comes in because the hunting and sign are so good. worse comes to worse, im takin a couple does the week before gun opens up here to help out the wma ratio

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

Have before, and with the increasing prevalence of leasing I probably will again. All it does is make me more creative in my choices, and fortunately we have a good amount of low pressure public properties within a reasonable drive. You either adapt or give up.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

Yes twice. Once I was leasing one I lost because I hadn't thgought about it (leasing) and someone else did.The one I lost I was outbid. Leases in NC can now run $15 an acre in places, more I am sure but those I have heard of. I now hunt private property family owned or I own it. Still we have the yahoos to deal with from time to time.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

My dad and brother were members of a trophy management hunting club and they lost their lease this year because the owner sold the land to a developer. They had the lease for 11 years. In my club we are constantly losing parcels of land for various reasons. It started as 60,000 acres 12 years ago and now it is 50,000 acres. Most land was acquired by the Suwanee River Water Management District, which means no hunting on it.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

A friend of the family owned about 600 acres right across the road from my parents. Great hunting and it also had two nice ponds for fishing and frog hunting. We had absolute run of the place. Then, it was all auctioned off in parcels to 4 different people about 3 years ago. The 200 acres with the ponds is now posted, but we still have varying degrees of access to some of the other parcels. And i managed to buy 19 acres of it prior to the auction. So, in a way it worked out well for me, although i do miss having the whole square mile to wander around on whenever i want.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

Being an Illinois resident, I've lost more places to hunt than you can imagine. Even the few landowners of the places i still have access to get hounded relentlessly by outfitters and non-residents to buy/lease/gain access to their property. Even though Illinois has a well earnedreputation , i'm stunned by the amount of money people are willing to pay to hunt here. Perhaps being a life long resident has me spoiled, but i would never consider paying what the average person pays to hunt here.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

I have yet to lose deer ground, but I have lost some very good Iowa pheasant ground. Money talks....I can't blame the owner, he let us hunt because we asked if we could.When we went out we always took him and his wife to dinner, and gave him a couple of birds.

Two years ago; we called and said we were coming out and would like to hunt. He told us sorry, but anoutfitter leased his ground for the season. We were welcome to contact the outfitter.

Hate it.... [:@]but can't blame a farmer formaking money off his land.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

Yep, it is strange the reputation that Illinois has acquired just in the last 10 years. When i was growing up there in the 70s, you just didn't see that many. Some of the local landowners will have people show up on their doorstep looking to lease land. One of my cousins was offered something like 5K to lease one of his 120 acre patches. When folks get that kind of money waved in their face, you can expect to see Posted signs going up all over.

RE: anyone ever lose land?
 

This will be the number one reason hunter numbers will continue to diminish in the future. It won't be because of PETA, anti-hunters, etc. It won't be long where NO landowner anywhere will allow someone to hunt for free. I can understand fees that are within reason, but with the trophy mentality in the hunting world today this is being taken way too far. There is still public land available, but ALL of us won't fit on public land only. Hunting is turning into a rich mans game and unless we are willing to cough up good money many of us will be hanging the guns and bows up for good within the next decade or two.