American Prairie loses grazing rights

[Sandhills]

Great point. Something that I like to point out to private land owners is that they can help themselves and other by being friendly to public land hunters. Being friendly to public land users/hunters does not always mean allowing the public to hunt the property. It can mean allowing access along an established path, trail, or road to otherwise inaccessible or difficult to access public land or allowing people to retrieve shot game if it crosses the property boundary. By doing those 2 things alone private land owners can help to maximize public land opportunity without having potential issues with people hunting on a property which sometimes is not practical or the landowner simply does not want to grant access for.

A lot of guys will let you do that. But some people for whatever reason, be it jealousy or fear of litigation or whatever, can be dicks about access.

My father in law has a group of guys from Michigan that come every year and archery hunt his place and several neighbors in southern Nebraska the week before rifle season. One year a guy crippled a buck and it got on the neighbors place. The hunter saw the buck go down and also saw a tractor in the field fertilizing. He drove over and asked the guy in the tractor, who was the landowners son, if he could retrieve his deer. The tractor operator said sure go ahead. While doing retrieving the deer, the landowner drove by and saw them. He called the game warden. Game warden came and wrote the Michigan hunter a ticket while the landowner was present. His son drove up and said dad I gave em permission to get the deer. His dad's response was Your name ain't on the ground and if you do that again you can't hunt out here either. The landowner is first cousin to my mother-in-law.

Assholes are everywhere. I've dealt with some pretty shitty people on public land while duck, pheasant, and bear hunting with hounds. There's been some pretty contentious moments too. Never did take kindly to some asshole deer hunter with a bear tag in his pocket coming in and shooting a bear out of a tree that my dogs put up there. Especially when they don't tie off any of em.

 

[CJ19]

A lot of guys will let you do that. But some people for whatever reason, be it jealousy or fear of litigation or whatever, can be dicks about access.

My father in law has a group of guys from Michigan that come every year and archery hunt his place and several neighbors in southern Nebraska the week before rifle season. One year a guy crippled a buck and it got on the neighbors place. The hunter saw the buck go down and also saw a tractor in the field fertilizing. He drove over and asked the guy in the tractor, who was the landowners son, if he could retrieve his deer. The tractor operator said sure go ahead. While doing retrieving the deer, the landowner drove by and saw them. He called the game warden. Game warden came and wrote the Michigan hunter a ticket while the landowner was present. His son drove up and said dad I gave em permission to get the deer. His dad's response was Your name ain't on the ground and if you do that again you can't hunt out here either. The landowner is first cousin to my mother-in-law.

Assholes are everywhere. I've dealt with some pretty shitty people on public land while duck, pheasant, and bear hunting with hounds. There's been some pretty contentious moments too. Never did take kindly to some asshole deer hunter with a bear tag in his pocket coming in and shooting a bear out of a tree that my dogs put up there. Especially when they don't tie off any of em.

there is no doubt some people can be jerks. sometimes those interactions are the result of a previously bad experience or something that may not be immediately apparent. I am not defending the jerks, but I am familiar with complex situations with landownership that the public would not be aware of that influences how those types of situations shake out. it is one of the thing that frustrates me immensely when i read public hunters descriptions or posts about private land or landowners. It might be a jerk issue or it might be the general public does not know issue.

 

[Sandhills]

there is no doubt some people can be jerks. sometimes those interactions are the result of a previously bad experience or something that may not be immediately apparent. I am not defending the jerks, but I am familiar with complex situations with landownership that the public would not be aware of that influences how those types of situations shake out. it is one of the thing that frustrates me immensely when i read public hunters descriptions or posts about private land or landowners. It might be a jerk issue or it might be the general public does not know issue.

According to my dad, used to be anyone you asked about goose hunting used to let you when he was growing up. By the time I came around one ranch allowed access. There was another that had a goose club on it. Only one guy was active and hunted it only a couple times a year. Wouldn't let anyone else join. Since I've moved I guess things have got tighter on the place that allowed access because people were going in with out permission from the owner or driving on wet fields.

I got access on a couple ranches a bit further away, some I was the only guy outside family to hunt. I offered to help fence, work brandings, hay, and help during calving. Still do that sort of thing today. I'm not saying everyone has the ability to do that but a little sweat equity goes a long way on access.