The thread about deer camp being near and upon us reminded me of what I and my huting friends do to keep, and sometimes gain for the first time, access to private land to hunt upon.

Maybe these will assist some of you, and if YOU have ideas or tactics that have worked for you, gaining hunting access where you live, PLEASE add them here!

Out here in SE Washingtons arid Mule Deer country, one needs to have access to many hundred of acres of land (thousands of acres is better) to have a place to hunt. Most of the land owned around here is measured in hundreds of acres or more so buying a hunting camp plot is out of the question for us middle class folks.

My methods HAVE, however, worked to get us a couple of smaller plots to hunt ducks and pheasant on in the rare wet spots near here. I absolutely LOVE having small farm ponds and creeks to hunt on. Or at least I did when I was more able to utilize them.

These ideas possibly would be less effective in highly populated areas, or areas with great demand for highly sought after animals, but out here in rural SouthEastern WA this method has worked pretty well for us. I am putting it here and in the general big game forum in case it helps a member or two to gain access to some good places to hunt.

If you live in WA state or wish to hunt here, please be a good sportsman and do not copycat my idea for trying to gain access on the land in between (North of) Clyde and the Snake River as this is the stomping grounds I and my family and buddies have hunted for 31 years now. Bad manners to use my method to try to bump me/us out of our long hunted area. If you want to hunt in this region, I am most happy to help you find some other good spots nearby, and, being retired, I can even look up and send you some landowners names and addresses. Happy to do it and help you out, no cost of course.

We in our small band of hunters take up a collection between ourselves each late summer, and I handle the details from there. We set aside some of the moeny for buying steel T Posts, cement, gate building posts and chains and no tresspassing signs, 2x4 and 4x4 treated wood posts for building or repairing water guzzlers, salt and mineral blocks etc but MOST of the money is used to purchase generous gift cards and or gifts for the landowners who have allowed us access in the past, and smaller gifts and gift cards for propery owners who have not allowed permission in the past, YET!

Here is the rest of my plan, in case my ideas help someone else here gain access to a piece of land to hunt on.....

Most of the CRP and wheat land around here is owned by folks several states away or at least on the wet opposite and populated side of the state.

I contact these folks by looking them up in the county records, and in my letter (sent priority mail in a large flat envelope to look and feel more important) I offer in writing that my hunting group will 1) post - at our expense- and patrol the land, keeping large vehicles from driving cross country right across everything 2) build and or keep in good repair the water guzzlers (needed out in this arid region) that all of the wildlife uses or any other habitat improvement the landowner would like to see done and 3) treat the land with great care. This year, we included a couple of small gifts with the permission request letters for the first time, so I am hoping for a little bit better response. The only letter I was able to deliver in person to a landowner who lives in town here was well recieved, and permission was granted. My buddies and I are having a work day on Tuesday to post up this new to us property and look it over a little.

I hope my idea is found useful to someone here. It has kept our little band of brothers in great deer hunting territory for the past several decades. Good luck and good hunting! MARK

PS: Please post up your thoughts here, and more importantly, YOUR ideas that have worked to gain you access to places to hunt or fish.

You just can't make chit like this up..

I bought mine.

Hey, it works here and has been for a good long while. Plus, I am posting it in hopes that it helps others. Why is this a cause for ridicule?

AWESOME! I am glad you had the bucks to do that. Truly. That said, most folks do not, thus my posting here.

Anyone have any HELPFUL, POSITIVE and USEFULL to most folks idea's to share?

Only if they don't use your help near "your" stomping grounds..

I would have to say your lack of self awareness has to be more serious than any of your various claimed illnesses and diseases.

So, where you hunt and in your circle, it is considered OK to go around a friend who has shown you a good spot to hunt and try to gain access for yourself?

Here, and in this group, that is considered rude at a minimum, and a pretty major faux pau. A social line you just do not cross. Likely to get a man un invited to future hunts etc. Is this different in MT or among your group?

The area I spoke of as our hunt area is very small, and I offered help to anyone wanting to hunt out this way real help in getting the landowners info. and more. On top of that, I HAVE invited a few 24hrcf members to hunt with me both in past years and this year. Asking me if one can join our merry band of deer slayers and or duck and pheasant is likely to garner an invite even though I am not up to much bird hunting lately.

All sales final on an azz fuucking is considered pretty rude, too..

But ymmv.

Good luck with that, make improvements to someone elses land that are taxable so you can hunt for free.

Having said that as already posted. I inherited some of mine, bought some more, and did a 3:1 land swap for some more, but it adjoins many thousands of public land as well for anyone that wants to hunt there.

Kinda reminds me of something that Larry Root has posted a time or two.

I understand not liking another poster, but stalking his every post and chitting all over them seems kind of creepy.
What makes you guys the watchmen for the world?
If a guy is a bad guy, most folks will figure it out quickly enough. Let them.

^^^^^^^^^ Has nothing to do what I think of Mark. It is exactly the way Larry Root handles himself here and I think it's a bit strange.

I bought land 243 mi from home. It was a 7 ac. parcel with river frontage. Across the river (north) is about 2,000 ac. of land. To may south there is another 20,000 ac. of county forest land. To my west is the Flambeau River State Forest. I can go 18 miles west before I get to any real chunks of private land. A guy has to go on a DIY hunt, own land or hunt public land where he can. Near my house, I have 30,000 ac. of Kettle Moraine State Forest. It's hunted very hard but it is public and free of charge. I write this cause I am all done asking people for permission to hunt their land. I will never ask again. They owe me nothing I I will not ask for something for nothing. I even have a good friend a mi. away, he has 120 ac. I have never asked him to hunt his land except mushrooms cause he doesn't like them. Just the way I am.

Get on as a reserve officer then claim you saw evidence of criminal activity on the property and while accessing the property to check it out, claim whatever it was you were wanting to hunt tried to attack you.

Since when is working and paying for access anything new?

I sure wish I lived "out West" where everything is different than in Texas.....oh wait, nevermind.

I hunted the best turkey property in the county in Florida for a number of years. When some locals found out I was hunting that property they always had the same response 'How did you get in on that property? He never lets anyone hunt his property'

I didn't do a thing but talk to man, never asked. He had some other pasture land that bordered where I worked and I would see him out there at different times with his cattle. I'd swing by and talk with him for a little while and go on my way.

One day while talking he asked me 'Do you like to turkey hunt?' (he knew I was a deer hunter), too which I said YES. He then told me he didn't hunt but he had a bunch of turkey on his property and if I wanted to hunt them I was welcome to. He said stop by one day and I'll show you around.

That's how I got to hunt the best turkey property in the county, by not knowing he had turkeys on his property and not asking for anything from him but some of his company for a few minutes a week to chat the breeze.

Yeah, well, but that only works for personable folks.

^
all the private land i hunt, is owned by people who are my friends and trust me.

Grote's, Thompkins or Barker?

The group sends you the dough?
Wow.

Yeah, imagine that!.... And quite a few fellows here still send me items for sale with just my promise to pay and I do the same with them with zero glitches either way. You should try living in the PRESENT, it is a neat place to hang out.

I have hunted on a ranch owned by the Barker family, if that is what you were reffering to above, but not in a few years. Where I hunt now is farther East, but that was a good ranch as well. I take it that you have hunted out this way some?

Maybe buy them better presents.......

I won.

actually kinda funny cause i spent more time hunting private ground in high school than i have as an adult just cause i found a chunk of public land i really enjoyed hunting on.....but in high school had only a few problems getting on private land.....easiest way to get on was not to bug them in the fall, was to show up in March/April/May and offer to help here and there.....never had much luck waiting till fall to ask.....

Ask to shoot gophers first. They always say yes.

Don't say a thing, just let them see you treat their property as you would treat your own.


Stop and visit before and after a shoot.

ALWAYS call ahead and ask if theres anything they need from town. Unless its exorbitant, its on your dime.

Pitch in with chores if theres something you can help with.

By and by they will usually ask YOU if you'd like to hunt deer etc.

If not, don't broach the issue. They've already offered up fun for you.

Its called courtesy, like Scott spoke of. It still works.

You should have send a slinky and a Arby's gift card.........
Helping them on the ranch won't work........

The guy that owns my fave gopher patch got a gift card for something better than Arbys last Xmas.

if i stick around here im gonna have to figure out something on the gopher end next spring.....damn virus wiped out the ones out at my uncles

Of course.
You are loaded........
We can't compete with tweed.

Wait. You mean having no hidden agenda, having no designs on someone's property or hunting, and simply being personable because you actually like the person involved works?

Who would have ever thought of such a thing?

Why, it harkened back to the day of actually knowing your neighbors and thinking of them, and not about what you can get from them.

I don't wear tweed till October�..

I'll kindly ask you and Scott to refrain from using reason and 'courtesy' upstairs here....it has no place.

You would not believe how courteous Scott is when he's passing a bottle of Boon's Farm Fuzzy Navel around.

Good info there mark..
Here in SE neb we have many farms broken up in 160 and 80 acre plots most farmers are pretty big and farm several thousand and it get hard to control all the hunters and trespass is a problem. Our farm is kind rare as we have 600 acres all joined and another 240 together with a lone 80..
Most of the people here are pretty good about letting people hunt as long as they ask..and are respectful.. Most don't respond to favors as it can be an insult to their hospitality..me included.. If a father and son show up for a weekend stomping around I'm glad to let them do it.. Had some turkey hunters show up last spring. We let the driver hunt last year and he was successful. This year he brings along 2 truck loads of guys and expects to get access. I think not....
Lesson here is keep a low profile. Get permission and try to not let the land owner know you were even there.. Don't take advantage of them.
I have used this method in eastern Oregon and western Montana and North Dakota. Always been successful...always check out when leaving and tell them how great of time you had on their ranch/farm. They really don't want or care if the hunting was any good..
First impressions are important... Flashy lifted trucks don't impress. Nor do full on camo.. Best to drive in with an older simple truck no more than 2 guys wearing every day clothes.. This always was easy for me as I haven't had a new truck since 1993 and have always dressed like a farmer...I kinda just fit in..

Brady would agree...

Thanks. When I went to visit the one landowner who lives around here I drove my bare stock '97 Ford F-250 and wore black wranglers and a plaid shirt with a ball cap. Seemed to work OK.

Also finding out that the gifts are not always the best method, but sometimes they are.

The "Be niehborly" works when the landowners are nearby, but as I stated in the original thread, out here the places are much larger and owned by folks from all over the US, and not usually in the West. Thusly, my methods have had to change. When I first started hunting the properties I am talking about, they were owned and controlled by a local family, but since the old man passed away and his one son killed himself by hitting a tree while high on ______________ the pieces have been sold off to out of staters. I had to adapt to be able to hunt, thought my method might help some others out. Also was hoping others might share some methods they use to obtain permission to hunt.

Would you believe that he's 6ft tall and is pushing 180?
He still doesn't cuss around me but would probably take you up on your F-Bomb for a C-Note offer. And he'll take his turn on passing the Boon's Farm around too.
He grew up too fast.

Mark..
I think the key here is know you hunting area... Our little broken up patches of land are becoming owned by outsiders also but they usually give access control to the tenants..
Neighborly is the key word......
I discovered the dress by accedent. Was asking for permission wearing a dekalb seed corn hat. Which struck a conversation about farming and how I had to leave in the 80 when farming was tough.. And ended up on the west coast. I had full access to 54 section ranch and hunted prarrie dogs there for the next 7 years..
Still have an open invitation..

I have had some great hunting spots via a tenant who had this control before also. You are right, of course, about knowing the area. I have had to adapt to new owners, tenants and methodologies several times, and it is way different way out in the breaks of the Snake river VS the smaller family farms nearby. Those a walk up and talk works well on, usually.

You WERE going to invite your friend Mark to shoot prarie dogs out there, right?

Sure will, if I can ever get time to go again......

Yup. Only way it will work.

This thread is so awesome.

Dog and Steelie have it down....

I'd like to add, the thing that matters most is, SHOW SOME LOYALTY.

I haven't hunted my own land in 3 years. But it's amazing how many people have it all figured out when I run into them in town when I am over there. The normal stuff about the rich people, leasing it out (I don't) and a variety of other reasons.

In fact when I'm over there I do more of my hunting on adjacent public land. But for whatever reason they get pretty ticky when I try and cut timber on it as opposed to my own land

We all did.