Hunting private ground in your state

[jmez]

I was in College Station for 3 years. I hunted private land archery deer without paying.

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[Fritzh20]

Getting tougher and tougher in oregon with more and more timber companies locking up their properties and charging permit fees

 

[3Esski]

lots of areas up here are native land but you can usually buy a trespass permit to access their lands to hunt. plenty of public land here but as the saying goes, the grass is always greener....

 

[Novashooter]

It's not bad around me, any state varies by area. Growing up in central MN we never asked much. It was more about knowing people than it was asking. There are parts of MN that can be great to knock on doors. Now in NE SD almost everyone is nice, but success can vary. Lots of the landowners hunters would talk to are crop farmers, and they can be very busy in the fall. For the most part you can't even find them in October. Many of them are actually farmers though, unlike out west where the owners rarely farm or are even in the state. Speaking of which, I am 100% failure in Wyoming. Unless you know somebody, I wouldn't even bother there. North Dakota is in an odd place right now. They used to be where any unposted land was open to public hunting, but today so much of it is posted, plus they started this new E-Posting thing. It's a jumbled mess to put it mildly. There's really not that much public land in ND all things considered. Especially for duck hunting, landowners can get hammered with phone calls to where most just say no now. It's not a surprise the whole Jeffery Erman episode last year happened in ND. Until ND gets on a better path, be careful out there. Lots of good people there, and also lots of hunters being dingbats. Don't be the guy to push them over the edge, even if you are technically in the right.

I have very little experience in the south, but it's a whole different world down there. I'd be very careful. Texas especially has a reputation for some harsh encounters with people. I've known people who were met at the front door with a shotgun just because they wanted to get directions. My one and only experience was a guy, who I thought was a friend invited me out to his place because he was having problems with pigs tearing up his crops. I said sure, I'll lend a hand. About a week before I was going to go he was asking $200 to allow me to hunt them. I hope they rooted up the whole dang thing.

 

[FLS]

Unless you have access to family land it’s pay to play in most of he SE. Timber companies lease everything they own that’s huntable. We have lots of public and it’s pressured, but most of the folks I’ve bumped into are no threat to the wildlife.

 

[Jbob]

When asking to hunt around livestock - let them know you are bright enough to close gates behind you...

Leaving gates as you found them seems easy, but easy can be hard for some folks. This include paying attention to how they are latched...

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

How hard is it to get permission to hunt private ground in your state?

Here in Iowa there’s not a ton of public ground so it usually pays off to do some door knocking and try to pick up some private ground to whitetail hunt. I’d say I have a 10-20% success rate getting permission when going door to door asking to deer hunt. If it’s for turkey hunting I’d say it’s a little higher and if it’s for coyote I hardly ever get told no.
My family also farms around 8000 acres that I have the hunting rights to, so I get put on the other end of the question yearly as well. If it’s for bow hunting I say no due to me hunting it, gun season I’ll let one group go each season but only on stuff I don’t bow hunt, pheasant hunting I try to let everyone go that asks me since I don’t do that.
So how hard is it to get permission in your state? I’m sure like in Iowa it might depend on what you’re hunting, but I’m interested in hearing the responses.


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I'm 48, and an Iowa native, and agree with your observations. The one difference I would say is that everything has gotten harder to get permission to hunt since I was a kid. Back in the 80s and first half of the 90s it was relatively easy to knock on a door and get permission.

However, trophy whitetail hunting in Iowa started blowing up in the late 90s with the big hunting celebrities filming and buying property in SE, SC, and NE Iowa. Then the concept of "hunting leases" started growing in the early 2000s in Iowa. While these were very popular in the south and other areas, they weren't a thing when I was growing up or a teenager. Then social media hit the scene hard around 2010, and things have gone downhill since then. Guys that pay big money for deer leases don't want anybody small game or upland hunting and chasing "their" deer off the properties.

 

[Andrew12gauge]

I am in Idaho and I’ve had no success knocking on doors, I’ve even taken my young children and asked if we could shoot small game when all the other seasons are closed and been told no. My favorite rejection of all time was the cattle ranchers wife who told me “we don’t allow animals to be murdered on our land” there was some serious cognitive dissonance going on with her


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[DG1010]

Hunt by reservation in Washington has been great for me, some spots just very competitive. Not sure if other states have this opportunity

 

[Brooks]

Here in NM if you draw an elk tag, that gives you permission to hunt and scout any private land that the owner receives a unit wide E-plus landowner tag. So with the National forest, the BLM and the thousands and thousands of private acres enrolled in E-plus that becomes public elk hunting land you have all the land you could ever want to hunt.

 

[CMP70306]

Here in PA hunting permission can be hit or miss, generally coyotes will get you permission but deer is usually a no go as the majority of people have someone who hunts their property or they don’t allow hunting at all.

We hunt a combination of our own property as well as a farm that we have hunted for over 40 years and are practically family to the owners. We generally don’t let anyone hunt our property as we have a larger group that hunts and there are only so many deer that the property can hold.

 

[LongWayAround]

In Colorado, you might count it as a success if someone has the courtesy to come to the door and tell you to piss off.

I went about 0-40 my first season and pretty much gave up. In the ten years and many fewer attempts since, I have been successful in one random door knock.

 

[elkyinzer]

It depends. In rural PA most landowners hunt. The relative few that don't usually allow family/friends to, and you need that in. In less rural areas, my experience is a little more dated, but my perception is that was a little less difficult, but I've had more weird/territorial/aggressive people encounters on urban/suburban private than anywhere else, public or private. I think in general, the private that is accessible and known to be accessible gets hit harder than most public in these parts.

 

[Mtns2hunt]

Pay attention to the legs. Your rifle still needs to recoil straight back. If it pushes back unevenly on just one leg it will pogo itself a bit.

Virginia here, still seems pretty easy to get permission around where i live, i got several pieces of private I deer hunt, plus all the public so i havent had to ask for permission to deer hunt in forever. I have picked up two small pieces to squirrel hunt with my dogs this year. Same people would probably let me deer hunt to, but not worried about it cause the deer hunt and i got my own spots as well etc.

Treat your neighbors good, and be a good neighbor and thing seem to work out

Never, really asked for permission in Virginia as there is over a million acres of public land and very little pressure. Deer quantity is lower than private but there are some big bucks on public. After I get tired of chasing my tail on public I am fortunate enough to have family members lease me a very nice parcel.

Hunted with a guy in Kansas was able to gain permission to a property where I killed a nice gobbler.

Same Wyoming: just asked and got permission to hunt Lion.

Seems to be a mixed bag about getting permission but I always try to hunt with a local which increases the odds.

Can not say the same about giving permission. I just don't do it. My parcel is small but loaded with deer and turkey. Neighbors have been a pain for years driving it when I am not around. One told me he had a right to hunt. I told him sure he did but not here. I now have cameras hidden around the place and signs up stating under video surveillance. I think they finally got the message after the signs and wardens came around. That is the kind of behavior that landowners don't want to fool with.

On public land I freely give directions to productive areas so long as the plates on their cars are out of state. I know chances of them coming back are slim even when they kill a nice deer.. Plus after 30+ years I could never run out of areas to hunt despite what the internet says.

 

[AvgOtdrsmnLf]

Every wood chunk larger than 2 acres seems to have a treestand in it here in IN. I have the best luck gaining permission on parcels that nobody else thinks are good. I have had good luck and opportunities hunting 100 - 200 acre bean fields (No Timber besides some minor fence line brush on property lines) during early Oct as the deer use them as bedding cover and browse (A ghost town after the crops are harvested). Some of my best permission spots are under 8 acre residential pieces that run up along major highways. Gaining permission on rural 60 acre perfect habitat tracts seems to be a thing of the past unless you have some sort of connection to the land owner.

 

[ihookem]

I live in S.E. Wisconsin. It has been 40 yrs. since I got permission to hunt in central Wis. I would never ask again.. I hunt 100% public land and get a doe most years and a buck a few times in a decade. I have 7,000 ac. to hunt 5 mi. from my home. Lots of hunting pressure , but I know it so well that I do ok.. I have a 7 ac. river front property in N.W. Wis. and saw my 1st buck in 9 yrs. up there. Almost no deer from wolves. but I have many miles to roam and rarely see a hunter.

 

[tkhuntsman]

In montana for elk its pretty close to 0% from my experience.

I agree elk is usually a no deer is about a 10%, Turkey and Coyotes are usually 50/50.

 

[Beaglegun]

When I was a kid you could hunt anywhere in KY but now land is all leased out for deer hunting. Everybody had bird dogs or beagle hounds. Everybody hunted. Not anymore

 

[35Ripper]

How hard is it to get permission to hunt private ground in your state?

Here in Iowa there’s not a ton of public ground so it usually pays off to do some door knocking and try to pick up some private ground to whitetail hunt. I’d say I have a 10-20% success rate getting permission when going door to door asking to deer hunt. If it’s for turkey hunting I’d say it’s a little higher and if it’s for coyote I hardly ever get told no.
My family also farms around 8000 acres that I have the hunting rights to, so I get put on the other end of the question yearly as well. If it’s for bow hunting I say no due to me hunting it, gun season I’ll let one group go each season but only on stuff I don’t bow hunt, pheasant hunting I try to let everyone go that asks me since I don’t do that.
So how hard is it to get permission in your state? I’m sure like in Iowa it might depend on what you’re hunting, but I’m interested in hearing the responses.


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[rearnakedchoke]

Brutal out there. I only have experience in the high pressured mid west but it’s rough out there.