Availability of Hunting Ground and The Human Psyche
 

Hey guys I don't post in this forum alot, but figured this was the best place for it. Its kind of a rant so stick with me.


I never had to worry about finding a place to hunt until I strayed off the family farm and started going to school in Michigan. When I got here I was thinking "ok no big deal go get some permission slips and its game on". Wow did I get a slap in the face when the first door slammed in it. How could someone not want to be a steward of the land that they own and manage the local deer herd? But I was determined to find a place to hunt. So I continued on and the more and more I got turned down the more and more I wanted to know why these people wouldn't let me hunt? So one day after getting turned down once again, I asked the man what he had against hunting? He looked at me kind of funny and thought a moment then replied "nothin’ I guess, just don't want you to hunt". Well after pondering this for a while and making sure I didn't smell bad or look crazy, I came to the conclusion that most people really don't have a good reason to with hold permission to hunt from a well dressed, well spoken, polite individual. Its not that they have anything against hunting, they just don't want you to hunt. I approached another land owner one day while she was planting a tree. I said "hello" and "that’s a good lookin' oak tree your plantin' mam" in what I'm told up here is a southern draw. She replied "Yes it is, if the deer don't kill it first, what can I do for ya"? Seizing the opportunity I said "well I was going to ask you if you would allow me to slow your deer damage down a bit through some selective bow hunting"? She gave me a long look and said " You mean kill them"? I said "not all of them just a couple" she replied "I hate the damn things sometimes but I don't want them killed"! Again I was left floored! How could some one that has to replace trees because of the damage the deer are causing not want them to be thinned out a little bit. Now we aren't talking about eradication we are talking about managing the influx in the deer population. But no matter how you try to explain it to some people the answer is still no. Its people like this that have put the thought in the minds of so many people that steaks grow on the shelves of grocery stores and that not eating meat at all is a normal human diet. Newsflash: They don't call us omnivores for nothing! Once again I was beaten by the stupidity called mainstream America! All in all I did find two farms to hunt on this past season, but it would have been nice to have permission on a 1/15 of the other fifty that I asked.
But my message is this that we as HUNTER'S, not bow hunter's, not gun hunter's, HUNTER'S as a whole must work together to educate the public on what it is that we do.

Adrian Woods
--
Pope & Young Chaser

I seem to have the same problem around here. I try to look at it from the landowners perspective. I think most people just view it as a liability. They look at it as someone walking around their property that could hurt themseves and possibly a lawyer could talk them into a lawsuit against them. The risk of a lawsuit vs. the reward of a thinning deer heard does not payoff. And the people who do promote hunting usually like to hunt there own land, and why would they want more hunting pressure from someone else?

Recreational User statutes protect landowners from this so called liability (as long as they don't lease the ground for money). Most landowners are ignorant of how little liability they have when it comes to letting hunters on their ground. It is my opinion that they use this liability excuse to not sound like such a jerk for not having a reason other then "because" for not letting hunt their ground. Arm yourself with your states Recreational User Statutes and when the liability issue arises you can nicely show them they have no liability. Then their true colors will show. They just don't want you there.

This link is in a mountain biking forum, but biking and hunting both fall under the same use catagory.

http://www.imba.com/resources/trail_...liability.html

I own property and I hunt, a lot. If someone came knocking on my door for permission to hunt my property, I would say no way, mainly because I hunt my property. Just because someone is polite and well dressed doesn't mean you can trust them. I assume you are talking about getting permission from landowners that don't hunt, but that doesn't change things a whole lot. My previous land owner-neighbor who didn't hunt, granted permission to a man who was "polite" and hunting "alone" several years back. To make a long story short, that one polite hunter turned into 4 or 5. To make matters worse, I had to chase two of them off my land turkey hunting one day. My neighbor has since died, and the new landowner and myself have become friends. It's way more than just a liability issue. I simply just don't trust most human beings. It's not fair for you to scrutinize a landowners decision not to let you hunt their property. That's their choice and you shouldn't question it. Like you said, you found 2 places to hunt, so be happy with that. There are a lot of hunters who would love to have permission to hunt two different properties.

Well said ss....

Land owners have many reasons for not granting permission to hunt their land. No matter what that reason is, we must always respect it. They have that right.
No one is beaten by mainstream America. We all wish we could get permission every time we ask. That's simply not the case. Sometimes we do, sometimes we do not. To say that every land owner that does not grant us permission to hunt are all the same, makes no sense to me. It not fair to have a negative outlook on all landowners.

Its not a "right" to be allowed to hunt on private land, its a privilege. Making the assumption that you are doing the landowner a favor is a stretch and quite possibly not even accurate. I hunt thousands of acres of private land and have rarely been denied access on adjoining farms. Since much of the land I hunt belongs to my brother in law, personally I think he's a bit to free with the access myself.

A few bad apples........

Just read some the garbage here. Fighting over who gets the deer, baiting, whats ethical and so on. I wouldn't let most of the posters here pick up trash out of the ditch on my land, much less hunt on it.

I do agree with all of you that it is the landowner's right to say "no". I do however think the non-hunting public has a jaded view of what we do as hunters. I don't think we as hunters do a good job of informing the public.

+1

Too many hunters show up during hunting season and not during working season. It doesn't take much to sort the opportunists from the potential friends.

Human Beings are Strange and Imperfect
 

Just try being a salesman. It's a wonderful experience on learning that people will tell you something and not tell you their real objection.

On the reverse side, I once knew a man slightly. He never asked me directly to hunt on his land. But he mentioned that the deer had hit his sister's food plot next to her home. He knew I was a archery hunter, with expertise. He made his request without me rejecting any request. So he just brought the deer problem to my attention.

Hunted that property for a number of years. The owner never told me that I had permission. It was an indirect understanding.

Instead of asking directly, you might ask if they know of someone in the area that needed an experienced hunter to cull some of their deer problems. Why you might get grabbed up, before some other neighbor starts using you for nothing.