Hey guys so this is the first year I've ever had the privilege of hunting private land. I have been hunting public for 15 years! As you can probably figure I'm pretty excited about this opportunity to hunt this private land, and if you saw my previous post there is some monsters on it. I am the only one with permission to hunt it and the landowner is a farmer who doesn't hunt. I want to show the guy how grateful I am for the opportunity, so I was thinking of getting him a case of beer, a really nice bottle of wine and a ham or turkey for thanksgiving. What do you guys think? I don't even know if he drinks beer or wine, and the fact that he is a farmer pretty sure he doesn't need the meat but I'm not sure how else to say thanks other than verbally saying thanks which I have done a dozen times already.
I send my landowners a X-mas card with a $50 gift card from a restaurant. I'd make sure he drinks before getting him beer.
He could potentially be offended if he does not drink. Send/bring him a card and write something in there that shows how grateful you really are. Put in there a gift card otherwise send him meat/cheese tray or something of that sort during the holidays. Also offer to give him some jerky or sausage or something from your kill and offer to help him if he needs anything on the farm. Anything really that will show your appreciation to the guy.
You want to show him how grateful you are? Offer to help him around the farm. That will mean more than a case of beer or a turkey.
I would say for sure offer some venison to start with. Help around the farm, and a nice gift card to a restaurant or something like that. If he is married don't forget to do something nice for the wife as well, because if you can win her as a friend, you have a hunting spot for a long time.
If you have already offered to help, I read once in a book by Gene Wensel he always gives his newly acquired hunting land owners a framed aerial photograph of their property. Land owners are proud of their land, regardless of size. Seemed like a good idea to me, if I ever get permission on private land I plan to do it. You could print it off of Google maps and then frame it, not like you have to do a fly over haha.
I offer deer meat to them plus I also get a gift card for a restaurant from town also. It is always good if you want to lock up that property for years to come to do something like that. The owner of my property only likes deer sausage so that is what he gets.
I burn pasture, build fence, clear trees they don't want, offer an entire deer every year if they want, pretty much anything they want done but don't want to do themselves
Thank you should suffice, offer a portion of your harvest if successful but don't go overboard and get yourself roped into tradeoffs or feel that you have to become a servant. Serve the landowner as you will as needed (just like a man would normally do) but your hand shake and thank you sir should stand. Advise against the beer. Advocate for a Thank You! Card at Christmas