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Top 10 Techniques for Getting Permission to Hunt on Private Land.

dear ken:

i am a newspaper editor - and a weekly columnist. so i will approach your question first as a writer, then as an editor.

writer's view: i would love to write a do-it-yourself hunting column and/or do-it-yourself hunting articles. two reasons: 1) hunting glamour game is evermore an expensive proposition. by glamour game, i mean any game not found within a half day's drive of one's home state or region. for an alabamian like myself, tied to home by family, work and financial commitments, pheasant in kansas is glamour game. same for caribou in alaska, bear in maine, elk in montana, or even wild pigs in tennessee. putting together and executing a glamour game hunt on a joe blow budget seems an endlessly fascinating topic. oh, the stories that would result from putting together the hunt to the hunt itself. 2) even the common whitetail deer can be a glamour animal in one's own state or region because of hunt club/lease costs. alabama, for example, is rich in whitetail but trophies are hard to come by on public land. a 10-point buck scoring in the 180s is relatively easy to come by when plinked from a greenfield during the rut on a high dollar, well-managed lease - or a paid "hunt" on a deer plantation. what about the joe blows who have to hunt public land? I would love to write how-to and success stories on public land hunts.

editor's view: i would love to edit stories that live and die in the field - not in a high-fenced yard. show me - don't tell me - what it was like. give me a fact in every sentence, not an opinion - or a cliche - anywhere in the piece. of course, what applies for me as an editor goes for me as a reader.

if you need any help with this endeavor that can be done via e-mail, i would be happy to help - gratis.

Interesting second point fish.

2 things I have never seen in my life are a game fence and a tree stand.

Everything I ever killed, was inhibited by not more than a normal cattle fence and was taken on shanks pony after a stalk.

I would feel "dirty" if I killed an animal behind a fence, the practice being considered abhorrent downunder and I know "me" well enough to know I could never sit in a stand and call myself a "hunter". Kind of the equivalent of spotlighting deer and claiming it fair chase or getting your guide to shoot it from a chopper with a shotgun, land and take the pictures with your rifle leaning against the "trophy".

I have to live with me and I am very hard on myself when it comes to credability.

I have been a major high profile hunting club president and I have seen enough with trophy awards applications that I will never join another one. I like solitude, wild animals and a nice rifle to weigh me down.

The ones you lose make the wins worthwhile. Being there is the reason you go in the first place. Everything else is cream.

AGW

Ray -

Havilah Babcock Papers, 1920-1964 - Manuscripts Division - South Caroliniana Library - University Libraries - USC
Extent: 2 cartons. Location: Annex. Materials stored offsite; advance notice required. ... Medical LibrarySpecial Library Collections Other USC campus Libraries. Havilah Babcock Papers, 1920-1964 ... Educator, author, and outdoorsman, Havilah Babcock was born on March 6, 1898 ...

http://www.sc.edu/library/socar/mnscrpts/babcockh.html

agw:
can't say i haven't used a treestand. such is just slap necessary for a lot of whitetail hunting in the southeast with its temperate jungles, especially on public land.
stalking can get you shot by a drunk redneck on some public lands.
'sides, most "hunting" from a treestand is done when scouting out the spot to place the stand. the actual waiting for a shot is mere aftermath keyed to patience - if one has "hunted" well.
but the older i get, the less a treestand interests me. i cannot act the monkey like i could 20 years ago. balance, flexibility just are not there.
so, back to the stalk and a compressed foam rumble seat ...

Thanks, Lee

Try saying that after you hunt the Western Oregon Coastal rainforest. . . . . . <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Nothing personal, but here food, cover, and water are everywhere. That is not an exageration. There simply is no gathering point like a water hole, a food source, or trail leading to a patch of cover.

Here, the brush is quite thick and 30 yards is a wide field of view. Long shots happen, but are often accidental encounters across a draw or a clear cut. There just ain't no spot and stalk hunting here.

Thus, the trick is to scout, scout, scout and figure out where the deer will be based upon wind direction. The wind is everything here. The deer cannot see much either, so they rely heavily on their nose.

A tree stand allows the hunter to get his scent above the ground. The hunter then stakes out a small gap that he expects a deer to cross. The quarters are often quite close (under 20 yards). No way a hunter wins if his scent is on the ground.

The real hunting takes place in 2 parts: (1) scouting; and (2) getting in place without leaving a "scent trail."

A tree stand, while the refuge of the lazy hunter in some locales, is different here.

Good Shooting,

BMT

You blokes are perfectly correct about the hunting scenarios you outline and I was never intending to slander the practice of tree stands nor did I, but I was intending to slander myself, if I gave into a practice I was unfamiliar with, culturally.

I am a deer stalker and have been for many years. Every deer I ever shot, I hunted free range, honorably and either got lucky or earned the buck.

I put an old fallow buck on the cover of my first book that was so old, he was toothless on the top and had 4 stumps remaining on the lower jaw. Fallow can live a dozen years or so inthe old country as the preditors are not there, as they are here.

That was a trophy hunt in my mind because I stalked a ridge line following tracks, rubs, scrapes and urine tracks until I disrurbed him in his bed.

I first spotted him on the neighboring property just after dawn with another shootable buck and about 15 does and took a punt that he would cross the river into our hunting place. He did.

He was so old he gave me the impression his vision was impared, either that, or he was as arrogant as hell at the intruder into his pine decorated bedroom because, he stood, pulled his head back in defiance as if to say " what are you doing on my hill" as I sent a 180 grain Failsafe into his shoulder.

I'll never forget him. He was so large a fallow, that the taxidermist had to open his largest form 2 inches to accommodate the headskin.

I earned him by out-smarting him and lacing my day with luck not owed me. I paid him homage with a shoulder mount and a book cover.

For me, and this is no slander on anyone else, or their method of hunting, for me, if I sat on my ass and assassinated a deer that walked under my tree, I would feel personally like I did not earn it. My rules, for me.

I am not living in the land of Oz anymore and the hunting is regulated here, where once I could kill several hundred or even more animals a year wearing gun barrels out and trying every buillet made on game in the field.

On that basis alone, I may haev to change my ideas on hunting or miss out on the opportunities, but for now, I am content to stick to the old ways. For now!

Enjoy your hunt, because it is your life's experience, no-one can share it, no-one can take it from you or dilute it in any way. Your life's experiences are what you are and as a hunter, I would rate you all as fine breeding stock on that basis alone.

Now, how to get the wives to agree on all this?

AGW

And with that, you point out the differences in terrain and hunting style. What works for you isn't a consideration for me. I would expect that those differences can make things difficult for an editor.

For example, much of the big game hunting in Ontario, Canada is done in close, in moderate to heavy cover. To write an article about the virtues of a 280, wouldn't mean much to a deer hunter here, or in Europe or Vermont for that matter.

This is the centre of the "which bullet to use, which gun is enough or the best" discussions. I think that most of us know the short answer is none. They're simply tools, and to be successful, you choose the ones most appropriate for your unique situation.

A properly developed discussion on how to choose the correct bullet or cartridge/rifle type/sighting system for that matter would be a massive undertaking, given the myriad of hunting locales and animals. Add the hunting technique into the mix and oh my!

Glad I ain't pickin'! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Well put, Gentlemen. BMT

I've never hunted deer with dogs, but it was a practice used by some (in some areas) and condemned by others (in other areas) a good number of years ago. What I remember as notable to a hunter (me) on the sidelines watching and listening is that (a) those who condemned it judged it on the basis of their knowledge of hunting in their areas, and (b) many were quick converts when they tried to hunt deer their way in the parts of the country where locals used hounds. They quickly saw that the significant differences in terrain and cover made their earlier judgements irrelevant because they were fatally biased.

It seems to me that tree stands and possibly other local practices make a lot more sense than hunters in other areas are capable of understanding and judging.

I've long been sick of meat-hunters condemning trophy hunters and vice versa, and of fly-fishermen scorning other fishermen, for example. It seems to me that there's usually some good reason justifying hunting practices and methods that have evolved in some areas but remain unknown and unnecessary in others.

Jesus of Nazareth is the only One, IMHO, Who can rightly say "My way is the only way."

.

Ken.
All true, the distinction however, is the rules you set for yourself, not the condemnation of others who choose alternate methods.

eg: I am extremely uncomfortable with the ccncept of shooting a mountain lion out of a tree, irrespective of the hunting method to get it there.

I do however, accept that it may be the only way to get the opportunity. I also balance that with the con aspect of hunting. A good example of that wopuld be the hunting of blackbuck antelope and the common descriptions on the difficulty of the hunt afterwards.

When you learn about the animals you hunt, and it is a reasonably good idea if you have never hunted a particular species, you learn about the habits of animals. Therefore if you learn that a blackbuck has a tendency to crap on the same pile every day in exactly the same location for obvious reasons, apart from the fact that 99.9% of all blackbuck are taken behind wire, it therefore negates any hunting skill whatsoever if you stand guard over the dung and wait. Funny how you never read about that part in the blackbuck stories recited.

Now that, I won't do, nor would I condemn others as I already stated, hunting is a life's experience. Each man is entitled to follow his own judgement calls.

AGW

absolutely no slander taken, agw. things be different from place to place. here in 'bama, the country just is not big enough for spot and stalk except in very, very limited ways, and generally only on leased land.
now, there are oddities. i knew a young man who would sneak only, but only on his father's leased property. he couldn't stand tree stands. didn't wear camouflage. he wore muted colors, and wrapped his waist with a light, soft wool blanket so he could ease through briars and other underbrush. in this rig, he would silently slip through young pine plantations, hunting whitetail with a colt 1911 in 45 acp. now THAT's hunting.

fish, I gotta try that... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Mr. Howell, please let us know how we can get on the subscribers list for that new magazine when you can. Count me in.

You'll get the word here, and � believe me � you'll know it when you see it. I hope that you'll really like it (it's going to be different).

.

get 'em, ken.

Post deleted by Ken Howell

please,oh please have a humorist(s)!!!!

I would write about sharing this sport of ours: about the people who use our little (well, long but narrow) range out on the ranch, about my daughter and son, teenagers, driving for hours and hours to see if they even like hunting. How they fought in the truck while we dealt with snow and mountain lions and the death of elk.

I like stories that relate hunting and guns to people and places and gestures.


I would write about four kids getting the stupidest Brant that ever landed too close to a group of boys with guns, and how my cousin Tom and I got three geese with one shot from a 410: Hint, it paid for us to be on the track team at the time.

On the technical side, how do we REALLY derrive loads at the loading bench, when we can't find Reloader 22 or Retumbo, but HAVE to settle for 4350. I would write about loving my T/C carbines even thought they are , well you know, inconsistent, yea that is it, inconsistent. About the friendship I am working on with Mike Bellm hoping to end up with an honest to god minute of angle T/C rifle that weighs 3.5 pounds and is powerful enough for elk at 250. Knowing it will never be as fine as the friendship itself.

I would write the elk truth, that cows and spikes are hard won trophies and darn good eating. That seeing them TOOOO far away for even those nuts with the 50BMG's is still enough for a hunt to be successful. I would write about them running away throught the snow, and about their legs under pine thickets as they hide their heads so I can't shoot.

I would write about the way my addiction to my 416 lead me to buy mass quantities of 416 bullets. Most boxes missing 2 or 3 bullets for some unfathonable (recoil) reason. About how my 416 is taking me to Africa, not on a hunting trip, but a scouting trip: where I will observe Kenya and Tanzania from the highest point I can, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and how I already know I will be back in Africa with my 416, and my 300.

I would write about the way my 7X57 looks lying on the ground in autumn leaves while I loaf in the woods, eating, waiting for the ripples of a mans walking to die away, waiting for deer to come and feed me.

I would write about the dream of an animals death I often have the night before a successful hunt.

I would write about 5000 words a month, so I can hunt more, teach my children by example, and meet more of the great people who share the instinct of the hunter, and embrace their gun loving nature.

Put me in coach.

Post deleted by Ken Howell