This goes out to all of those who have done it, but even if you haven't, I would like to hear what you have to say. When it comes to asking landowners for permission to hunt on their land, what is the best approach to it? Please share any experiences. If there are any landowners on here too, how would you hope for an encounter with a hunter asking for permission to play out?

never had good results, unless I know landowners neighbors.








hold on Newt, we got a runaway

I would think in this day and time with the cost of everything and the liability associated with owning land that it would be very hard to find a landowner that would let you hunt for free. Relatives and friends would be a different story maybe.

Just ask, its like cold calling expect to get shot down a bunch of times. Having an existing relationship of one form or another might go a long way. I would expect to offer some form of service or reimbursement.

I saw a guy watering his grass stopped and asked him if he knew of any land available to hunt around him. (I knew he had land from a friend of mine but no one knew if he would lease it and most people were afraid to ask because he wasn't supposed to be the nicest guy.) He told me he had some land but nobody had hunted on it fore 10 years and he had it leased for cattle but not hunting. I asked what it would cost if he was to lease it. He told me it would probably be out of my price range. I laughed and said you are probably right I better get on down the road, I got a bottle of Jack I'd like to twist the top off of. He got this big old grin on his face and asked "Why didn't you say so, earlier." Next thing you know I'm helping him move his sprinklers around while he's in the house putting ice in glasses. For the next 3 or 4 hours we were telling stories and talking about past lives. We went through the bottle of jack and my buddy had to come pick me up but I left out of there with a 1500 acre place to hunt in exchange for fixing fences and mowing now and then. Everytime I went though I took a bottle of Jack and left it at his house if he was home or not. Too bad he passed away. The family took over and ran us off.

Too much jack?

Sometimes you just gotta ask.

hook_n_line, I feel likes there's a lot more to gain then just a place to hunt. Good story, thanks for sharing.

Yep, sometimes you can make a great friend in the process. The owner's ( my friend's) wife would make suasage, patatoes and cabbage and a German Chocolate cake, for my birthday and send me home with the cake pan and tell me "make sure you bring that pan back." She left us a 2 years before he did. Almost 10 years with them and it was awesome! I was blessed to meet them.

RedChevy: You can never have too much Jack when in good company. It's all about knowing your limits.

It's like the good ol days of chasing girls in college... Never hesitate and the worst they can say is NO!
And the more you ask out the better your chances are of finding one that says YES!

Years ago it was quite common to get permission to hunt on someone's place. A polite knock on the door asking if they allowed hunting and if you could go out and promising to mind the gates etc... usually got an ok. Or a casual conversation in town and meeting the right people sure helped. But now a days it seems hard to even find the right person to ask and when you do find the right person it seems they have the place leased or don't allow anyone out because of fear of liabilities or someone in the past made them mad and messed things up for those to follow. But again it never hurts to be polite and simply ask if you can hunt. The worst anybody can say is "no". Even if they scream "get the F off my porch"!!! All they are really saying is "no"... kind of like the girls back in college!

It truly is a numbers game! and Jack and Jim are a few good friends

I guess it never hurts to blindly go asking, but as has already been mentioned, a bunch of people have been burned by being friendly only to have their land trashed or some sort of lawsuit filed.

In my opinion, your best bet is to make friends with someone that has land first, and once you've earned their trust, then ask if you can hunt.

Just be respectful and have some perks like picking up trash and keeping an eye on the place for him... The words yes sir and no sir will go further than you think... Oh and shut your phone off

I'll just say older men don't like words or phrases like, "Bro" "dude" and "hit me up"

haha

Call me what you want judgmental etc., but im not even close to older and that would be an instant deal killer.

agree!!!

being polite, good eye contact, firm handshake (but don't break their hand), being a good listener, showing respect goes a long ways too. And don't act like you know it all, that's a turn off to the older generation too.

I pretty much gave up on this years ago. I tried it a lot in high school and college but never had any luck, even with family friends or people I knew.

In Wisconsins hunters safety they used to cover this I looked online but could not find it (was 20 years ago). But Wisconsin DNR did have this link posted http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10363_10913-197613--,00.html They also used to hand out cards you can get the landowner to sign.

IMO, the good old days of that are pretty much over. When I was a kid, we would do it and the trade was usually half the deer or fish, there was no real monetary value in the h60's really though. Even then, we only got permission from people that knew us kids,or our family, so past 10 miles, we usually where sol even then.

I think it's worth a shot, but I suspect LO's would be on guard in this day and time and may even find it suspicious IDK.

I guess I got it good up north. In WY, I have a couple neighbors that have approached me and asked to come hunt their place because they were sick of all the animals posting up in their pastures meant for cattle. And every time I would say thank you and don't mind if I do. Then proceed to take my hat off out of respect.

If the landowner doesn't make money off hunting then you have a very slim chance. Mainly because (as others have mentioned), of our sue happy culture.

If the landowner depends on hunting income, you have virtually no chance of hunting on a handshake. I mean think about it, if I walk up to you (off the street), and ask you for $1000 to $5000 of your next months salary... What are you gonna tell me? No matter how sweet I ask.

Friends and family are a different deal.

I would say it is a bit different in the Mountains, or some western states. I had friends with allot of land in Colorado that offered to let me hunt without me asking, never did though. They outfit in the fall as part of their income and I would have felt a bit guilty going for nothing, even if I put time in working the ranch. If they didn't outfit though, or where sure it wouldn't harm their paid hunts, I'd sure trade some work for a hunt, did that several times for metal work.

It's a great thing to have folks that will let you enjoy their land like that.

I would compare it to the band geek asking out the head cheerleader. This whole "I'll sue you because of blah blah" is truly getting out of control these days. Wish there was some way hunters as a whole, could gain back the trust of landowners and open up hunting opportunities for guys who can't afford overpriced leases. Until the, I'll just keep asking around with a smile on my face.

Oh, and it would help if TPWD would acquire some more land out here in west Texas.

Hunt several places for free. Be polite, offer help around the place, abd be ready to get told no.

The way I figure it is I ask 10 people, get told no 9 times, I have 1 place to hunt. Lots of times the ones that tell me no become coffee shop buddies and sometimes come around to giving me permission after I'm not a stranger.

I don't think I have ever gotten permission to hunt for free, at least not in Texas. Speaking of the mountain states out west, that's an entirely different ball game. Western land owners usually don't expect to be paid for hunting because hunters won't pay it. Even if their tag restricts them to one unit, they have thousands and thousands acres of public land to hunt. Most hunters in Utah have probably never heard of a deer lease.

Yep. It's not any fun paying but my brother has free hunting on two tracts of land (not in Texas). Unfortunately other guys have the same permissions on one of the tracts so it gets shot up pretty quick pretty fast.