Hunting relationships- 2023 season ahead

[Kingcreek]

In many parts of the country (maybe most parts) if you want to hunt on prime private land, you have to pay. Buy a lease or join a club etc.
Fortunately for me, there are some areas that haven't caught up with this practice. It can be hard to get permission, you have to have a connection, but money isn't necessarily part of it. It is changing but thankfully slowly.
Here in Illinois, in the land between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, we are known for some of the best whitetail deer hunting and a generous archery season and inexpensive over the counter tags.
I have 40 acres of my own and exclusive access to 2 other farms with creeks and woods and crop ground with lots of deer. As of now, both farms are under the same renter. I visited him this weekend and delivered a shopping bag full of venison breakfast sausage, my own smoked summer sausage, and some deer sticks. (Just in time for his superbowl party)
I also told him about a tree that came down on the crop ground and the previous tenant farmer just picked around it. I offered to clean it up for him and take the firewood home for me if he didn’t want it. Finished that job yesterday afternoon.
The owner is a 90 year old widow that told him I have hunted that farm since her father lived there (40 years ago) and that No One but yours truly should be hunting it. Her folks lived there into their 90’s and I used to visit them regularly. His wife always had fresh coffee on. I think they both drank coffee all day long.
The current landowner remembers that I helped her dad with an electrical problem in his horse barn and helped him with chores now and then. I shot a deer on that farm in November and counted 22 including the one I arrowed by the time it got dark. The previous farmer's son and his beer buddies have been a pain in my plans for several years but they are now out. Good riddance.
Owner is happy, new tenant farmer is happy, and needless to say I am very happy.
2023 deer season is looking promising.

 

[courtgreene]

I'm happy for you, but your post kind of proves that your part of the country is facing the exact same thing that the rest of it is. You are a legacy hunter. After you, it'll take money to hunt that land. The fact that no one but you can hunt it is not much different from a lease. No money changed hands, but services did. From your perspective it's working, and that's great, but the relationship is still a patron/client relationship, just like the rest of the country. I'm glad I bought land, and feel bad for those who are still knocking on doors. It's tough out there.

 

[jmr40]

I'm fortunate to have access to a LOT of public land. Most of it isn't hunted all that heavily either. You have to walk in or ride on horseback. No ATV's allowed. Some hunters today can't imagine hunting without their ATV. 30-40 years ago these areas were more crowded but more and more are moving to leases.

Most everyone does hunt on a lease around here where they build permanent stands, feed the deer year-round with minerals to grow bigger racks, and then bait during the season. Most have strict rules about where and when you can hunt. Stands are assigned and you have to hunt in your assigned stand. And there are strict rules about what you can shoot. Trail cams are everywhere, and deer movement can be predicted often to within a few minutes.

One club that I looked into joining said I could shoot any legal deer, buck or doe if legal. But anything I killed had to be mounted. This was to encourage only shooting the biggest bucks. IMO that isn't hunting. It is farming deer and then picking out the one you want to take.

To me it just isn't worth $600 a year for that experience. The hunting clubs often had 1000-1500 acres. But the smallest tract of public land I hunt on is 15,000 acres and the largest over 100,000. I'd feel like I was hunting on a postage stamp with 1500 acres. I don't kill a lot of deer, hogs, or bear. But I take one occasionally and just enjoy doing it the way I do it more than I would on a hunting club.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Too bad the owner is 90 and not 30.

I think your years are numbered on that land. It’s good you have your own.

 

[mcb]

I have been blessed with always having land in the family. Growing up I had access to ~360 acres of land in SE Ohio that was the family farm my father grew up on. I can still access that land now if I want, but I have my own land closer to home in middle Tennessee that is nearly as big and is all hunting land. My brother, father, and I work the land as a hunting property and it has been a lot of fun. The modest work we have done on the land has made noticeable improvements to the wildlife populations and quality. I almost enjoy the work we do in the summer and fall as much as I enjoy the hunting in the winter and spring. Just being on the land doing anything is almost always rewarding.

That said in grad school I use to hunt a small parcel of public hunting land. Some of the best squirrel hunting I ever did was early season on that little plot of hardwood and marsh hunting land. Not sure I would want to hunt deer on public land in Ohio but small game on public land was always fun.

 

[gunmechanic]

In newyork state where i live the land /farms are being gobbled up for homes. I have over 20 acres its great hunting but i am board hunting on it. there is an 86 acre parcel that abuts mine.Its land locked i am trying to buy it lets hope so i can hay most of it and harvest timber from the wood lot but i would have a note on it !

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Too bad the owner is 90 and not 30.

I think your years are numbered on that land.

Too bad Kingcreek isn't still 30, LOL! He has been hunting it for 40 years...

 

[somethingbenign]

My primary land permission started with rabbit and squirrel hunting. Asked questions and tried to be helpful with what I saw. Showed an appreciation for not just the experience but the food I got as well. Permission expanded to foraging mushrooms and nuts, then to turkey and waterfowl, now I'm at anything in season. Sure, I do some odd jobs and thankfully I have skills that are in demand. The big thing was I started small and my personality meshes well with the landowner. He would not have let me start with deer out the gate.

 

[wombat13]

In newyork state where i live the land /farms are being gobbled up for homes. I have over 20 acres its great hunting but i am board hunting on it. there is an 86 acre parcel that abuts mine.Its land locked i am trying to buy it lets hope so i can hay most of it and harvest timber from the wood lot but i would have a note on it !

Sounds like you’re closer to a city than my hunting property (also in NY). I’ve been able to buy land cheaply, $500-$700 per acre, but the property taxes are hefty and never go away. At $35 per $1,000 assessed value, the property taxes over the next 30 years will total what the land cost.