Saturday, April 28, 2007

Hunting Public Land


These days finding public lands to hunt is getting harder than ever but with the right persistence and attitude anyone wanting to go hunting can find some place to hunt. Alot of times all you need is to know one good farmer or rancher that is willing to take a chance that his livestock,fences and property will be protected by you and your in for the long haul of a lifetime. There's alot of public property out there that the government owns that one can hunt but for my preference I choose to hunt property owned by farmers who know what hunting is all about. Don't just go out a couple of weeks before hunting season and expect to find that one great far to hunt or expect that the farmer will even allow you to hunt his farm on such short notice cause most of the time the farmer has already got someone hunting his property or may not even know you. The best thing to do is start early in the year looking for a farm then when you spot the one you would like to hunt go up talk to the owner, explain who you are,where you live, who your parents are, and what your intentions are as far as hunting his farm, protecting his livestock, helping around the farm in anyway possible such as mending fences,helping vaccinate his livestock, hauling hay,cleaning out barn stables or clearing fence rows around the farm for the privilege to hunt the following season. Many of the farmers today have seen what alot of the unethical hunters of our society do to farm property either by first hand experience or by word of mouth and that's the biggest reason it's so hard to find a good farm to hunt these days. With so many farms across this land of ours we need to help our neighbor farmers out as much as we can to help them keep the farmland their fighting so desperately to hold on too. Alittle work never hurt anyone and who knows the farmland you work on may produce a state record or maybe even a world record buck. The main thing to remember is that everyone needs help at sometime in their life and especially as we all grow older. Even if the farmer doesn't allow you to hunt at least offer to give him your help from time to time and maybe one day he'll finally come to see that your not a bad person like every other hunter he's heard about and decide to let you hunt his farm. If not then at least you've made one more friend in your little town of many for future references and believe me word will get out of your hard labor on his farm. Public land is a valuable thing and sometimes can be hard to come by when it comes to hunting the property but there's plenty of farms and ranches out there that can be hunted if you use the right approach with the land owner and keep a code of ethics about yourself when on one of these farms or ranches. I just got 800 acres to hunt through a friend of mine but I still want to talk to the land owner before doing any scouting or hunting on the property mainly to let the owner know who I am, what I look like, what dates I can hunt, and if I can help out around his farm in anyway. This farm has produced some really nice bucks and hopefully with a little pre-season scouting I'll be able to take one for myself as well.

13 comments:

Editor said...

great post!
a great way to find a place to hunt, make friends and show the best side of hunters.

deerslayer said...

Thanks Editor, thats exactly what I was trying to show here to our young adult hunters and all our other readers as well. Hunting can be hard work but can also be very rewarding as well.

Othmar Vohringer said...

I love public land hunting. It gives me a special thrill to outsmart or at least try to, the other hunters. I also think that it is just great that we in North America have so much land available that can be accessed by all hunters of all walks of live and income brackets.

You’re dead on with finding private land to hunt. One hand washes the other hand still can open gates. Hunters that turn up on a farm a month before the season opens are selling themselves short when they think that they can get permission.

I used to hunt on a nice farm in Illinois. It took me over a year to get permission. But helping the farmer during the hay and harvest time showed him that I am sincere. Every time I harvested game on that farm I gave half of it to the farmer and I always let him know what I do, when I come and go. Naturally I followed his rules, after all this was his place and I was a guest. Some hunters seem to forget this.

-Othmar Vohringer-

deerslayer said...

Hi Othmar, Your right we have more land to hunt then we could possibly hunt in our lifetime even if we hunted every day of our life.Its always fun to try to outsmart the deer but even more fun to try to outsmart the other hunters in the woods around you.I like to get in the woods an hour beore daylight and let the other hunters run the deer to me as they are coming in at daylight.

Editor said...

Kevin at huntinglife.com gave a really good post and link about your site, check him out, you might want to add him as a link.

Anonymous said...

Check out military bases in your area. Most of the time, they will allow public hunting, fishing and off season scouting and even give you a pass to enter and avoid the searches.

deerslayer said...

Thanks Editor I'll do that and see if I can add his link and view his post now too.

deerslayer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Othmar Vohringer said...

Deerslayer that is exactly what I do on public land. For this reason I scout out what the other hunters do and given what human nature is they will do, more or less, the exact same thing next fall. I hunt mainly escape routs and the other hunters, unbeknowing to them, are mydeer drivers.

-Othmar Vohringer-

deerslayer said...

Othmar, I do this on all my hunting land cause when the shooting starts thats when the deer lok for the hiding holes and thats where I find my deer coming cross my area where its not so heavyly hunted.

deerslayer said...

Thanks Jon Bryan, and if you have a website post it in my comments and if its all right with you I'd like to add it to my post links column for others to read and view.

Othmar Vohringer said...

I'm tagging you for a meme. Check it out at Outdoors with Othmar Vohringer
http://outdoorswithothmarvohringer.blogspot.com/

-Othmar Vohringer-

Anonymous said...

Good post and good comments by all!