The title pretty much says it all. How much effort did/do you put into obtaining what you feel is good hunting land? Save & buy your own? Pay for a lease? Knock on a 1000 doors? Drive hours & hours?
I bought land over a ten year period, it was the best thing I've ever done. Until you have lived or hunted in PA you will never understand the frustration of hunting public land.
I bought some ground in 2005 that we also live on. However, my best tract to hunt I was asked if I wanted to hunt it. The landowner is a client, great guy. I still have to knock on doors to turkey hunt but I'm set for now on deer hunting land.
I have been fortunate. My family has 185 acres of "good" hunting land. I fell into 61 acres of "great" land. It's not enough. I am trying to gain access to some more "great" land. I am writing letter and making phone calls, offering to trade sweat for access.
I think I am one of the few lucky ones that has good public land to hunt. There are about 4000 acres all within about 30 minutes of where I live. It is the rare event that I see anyone else during bow season and I don't often see anyone during ML or shotgun. I probably go a little further back than most folks, especially the gun hunters. I also have permission to hunt the 40+ acres behind my house.
Fortunate enough to have my parents 90 acres they live on, and I live 1.5 miles from. I'm also a member of a hunting club 20 minutes away consisting of 1200 acres (sounds better than it really is, however). I'm, planning to save up and buy my own to add to the collection if possible. That is if the landowners around here trying to sell will realize their ground can't fetch $8k/acre.
I try to scout as much as i can on public land and narrow it down. I've knocked on a ton of doors but have only ever received permission for a couple places, liability is a huge issue around here even if you have liability release forms. Only one place has ever amounted to anything, I'm about 1.5hrs from there currently.
I'm fortunate that I own my camp in Ontario and have over 200 square miles of land to hunt. My family also owns 520 acres here in WI, but I rarely get to hunt it because I'm gone a bunch. Though, there is a public piece near one of our cabins that I would consider better than our private. I also shell out the money for a good lease in IL as well as have a customer of mine give us access to a great piece to hunt down there for nothing. Wow....I look at that and then look in the mirror and wonder why I haven't killed a deer this year! HA!
every year we get a deer we share it with the land owners that let us hunt. Summer sausage, deer sticks, and a thank you note care goes along way when asking next year for permission .
I have access to about 40,000 acres of public land via a military base. It has its challenges, but I am very fortunate to have access to such a large, well managed piece of public land. This year I am going to put in the effort to secure 3-4 different private spots this year. I am not looking at anything big, I just want 3-4, 3-5 acre spots in the right areas to hunt at the right times.
All of the above. I spent over 30 years doing it and finally bought my own land. Best feeling I ever had.
I am fortunate to have access to excellent private river bottom land 15 minutes from my house. No worries about people messing with my stands, trail cameras, feeder ect. Landowner is a "casual" rifle hunter and other than that i get it to myself. I consider myself extremely lucky!
I hunt mostly public land and some small pieces of private land.I am considering the possibility of sharing in the purchase of 125 acres with a close friend in a very good area here locally,this piece is bordered by about anohter 125 acres that my friend has permission on.I am also seriously considering leasing land if I could find the right circumstances.Quite honestly our public land sucks,way over mature hard wood forest and pretty decent hunting pressure on the area's where the deer are concentrated. Just this weekend I was asked to participate in a 1200 acre lease in Kentucky,Clay county I believe.To far for me to be able to get there often enough to make it enjoyable.
15 years ago - just be nice to a few people and had over 500 acres of prime ground. 10 years ago - IL suddenly has a 140" behind every tree - I'm forced to lease...but it was a great 350 acre farm...bigger money pushed me out the next season. 5 years ago I buy 35 acres with my dad...along with his other 30 we have 65 private acres to hunt....I can't complain Also have over 4000 acres of public ground within minutes of our ground. I've never driven over 45 minutes to hunt.
bawanajim-Until you have lived or hunted in PA you will never understand the frustration of hunting public land That is so true pa stinks for public land way to many people and if u live in the suburbs of a city u have to drive for a couple hours to find big property u wont see anyone. and i have knocked on thousands of doors to get good property i do it every year. I spot alot and when i find a big deer i ask and it has payed off and whats great about it i have about 20 diff places totally around 15,000 acres im able to hunt so i put alot of time into it . The bad thing is i havnt hunted half the property thats why i put the thread on here for people who wanna come hunt pa i got alot of land i can take u to to hunt .
I lucked into mine. It starts at my house (800 acres) My neighbor does some reclaim work for the over seier of the property (old coal mine ground) They decided to lease it out because it was over run with hunters and a lawsuit was just waiting to happen. they wanted people in close proxcemity to police it and I just happen to fit the bill living beside it, and im a good friend with my neighbor who does the work for them. He ask me if i wanted in. its now a contract deal and a signed waver for insurance purposes. after years of managing it, it now holds bucks OVER 1.5 year olds
Cool thread Ryan, great Idea for one!! Eventually, you betch ya!! Right now I'm way to far In debt to even think about asking the bank for money, they'd laugh at me. As of right now I hunt In my dads woods that he owns. My brother owns some of the land too that's connected with my dads but his Is all ag land and not woods. I'd do It If the chunk of land was big enough and If the price of the lease was fairly reasonable. I'd like to do the lease myself, that way I have control over what goes on. I've done some of this but I've backed down on doing this the last 7 to 8 years. 99% of the private land around here gets hunted from others gaining permission, most of these same hunters have hunted the same pieces for a while now. I know mostly everybody and I know for a fact feelings would get hurt If I butted In on their hunting. It's happened already, I'm not going down that road again. I'll wait my turn If someone backs out. That's a deal I have with many of the land owners In the area. For the right piece of land? In a heart beat!! The last few years, no I haven't done this but I have In the past. I'll be doing this again In the coming years. State land In my area doesn't get hunted all to hard from the bowhunters In the early season. When the pheasant season opens all bets are off around here though, It gets pounded!!! Gun seasons during the deer season Is the same, gets pounded then too.
I dont have the money nor the resources right now to buy land... Me and my buddy last year during the summer ...went house to house..farm to farm and just asked people for permission. I was suprise on how many people said yes to us...now we got alot of places to go that are private and dont have to be stuck on public land..
I suppose I should share my effort. To be honest it's not much. My primary spot has been one that my family has hunted for a very long time. At this point though, only my Dad & me are the only ones still hunting there. The landowner likes us. This is a pretty good spot, so it's tough to leave that "comfort zone". I fell into my 2nd spot, its not that great, I show up and hunt a few times, show my thanks for the permission and keep it in my pocket in case something ever happened to my main spot. And my thrid spot I fell into also, worked with a guy that owns some land a few miles from me. It's a decent spot, but is hunted a good bit. Other random places have come and gone. Every now and then I'll get the guts to go knock on some doors. It's never paid off for me yet. What seems to be the case often around here, is that private land where you can get permission to hunt, so can everyone else. And they do. Rarely do you find places with exclusive or limited permission being granted.
