Shaking and sniffling from the flu, I picked up a popular hunting magazine off the rack while waiting for a prescription that would hopefully end my misery. “4 Hot Tips to Get Access on Great Hunting Land” the headline across the cover read. Okay, I’ll bite, I thought as I scrambled to page forty-something, hoping to read something profound and then hide my new secrets by placing all those issues behind the least popular magazines. What I read was this: Tip 1) Lease some land, 2) Buy some land, 3) Knock on doors and ask permission, and 4) Hunt public land.
Wow, are you kidding? Hot tips? I was kinda thinking my 4 year old would’ve known that much already. One of the most common questions I see on our hunting forum and in emails sent to me is, “How do I get permission on good properties?” So in these late winter, early spring months that find us pondering the next hunting season, I thought I’d offer up some more detailed, applicable advice when it comes to finding that next hotspot.
1) Lower Your Expectations: First, you’re going to need to face the reality that strolling up to a landowner’s doorstep out-of-the-blue and gaining exclusive permission to hunt his 400 acre never-before-hunted-yet-teeming-with-big-bucks slice of heaven for free is simply not realistic. Yet, so many of us stubbornly pass on very good properties because they’re less than our “ideal” property. Maybe it gets “pounded” by gun hunters. Maybe you’d have to share with others. Maybe you would only be allowed to hunt on Tuesdays. Whatever, the stipulations the landowner has, if the property is good, then it’s worth it to sacrifice these less than ideal conditions. If there’s one thing certain about the future, it’s change. Getting your foot in the door and having a chance to build trust should be all you can ask for. You might not kill a good buck with “Lee & Tiffany” tactics on the property, but if good bucks are around, they’ve obviously found a way to survive, so if you’re willing to pattern the hunters and not just the deer, you could be in for some great hunting.
2) Shorten Your Timeframe: Keep your eyes on a certain property you think would be tough to get access on and keep a mental note of when it looks busy and when it’s not. Visit the landowner when things are slow and ask for permission for just that day or for a particular day or two. Tell him specifically that you’re just hoping to hunt for a day or two. I think landowners are more willing to take a chance on a stranger when there is a short timeframe around the request. If you do get access, make a point to get to know them more and let them get to know you! This builds trust and might give you a better chance for more access next time.
3) Will You Be My Friend?: If you suddenly inherited more land than you could possibly hunt, who would you share access with? I doubt you would put an ad in the paper inviting strangers to hunt with you. You’d call up your FRIENDS, right? We all do it. When we need an electrician, we ask a friend for a recommendation. When we need a new bow, we ask our friends, “what do you shoot?” Well, if ‘ol lady Tingley finally gets fed up with the deer eating her garden, she’s going to ask her friends if she knows any nice hunters who might come out and kill some of her deer! The more you are known by your co-workers, church congregation, family and friends as a respectful, trustworthy hunter, the better your odds that your name will be given to those folks who are “asking around”.
4) Forget About Hunting: As hard as it might be, sometimes the best thing we can do for our hunting future is to pretend we don’t do it. Stop by a neighbor’s and introduce yourself just because it’s a nice thing to do. Maybe strike up a conversation about the cool old car he has in his driveway. Let him get to know you and see you’re a well-rounded person. Don’t offer to do some work for him for hunting, just offer to do some work for him, period! Do things for people because you’re a good person and don’t expect anything in return. Sometimes when we set aside our biggest passions and selfish motivations, the doors of opportunity open the widest.
I wish you all luck in achieving access to the properties of your dreams!
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