Shrinking land v hunters and others.

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Maybe hunters are just getting lazier in general?

The Northern 1/3 of Wisconsin is pretty much State and National forest land, with a smattering of Indian reservatations included. There are lots o places wher eyou can drive 20 miles and not see any kind of human settlement.

Where I hunt, there is roughly, according to my plat books, about 65,000 acres of county forest land that is ringed with private property along the edges. There are a lot of guys where I hunt, but all it takes is to walk 10 minutes off any road or logging trail and you won't see another human being. I would imagine its similar everywhere, where the vast majority of hunters hunt within a hundred yards or so of a vehicle access route.
 
I don't know with accuracy, but I understand that some states' laws have allowed "free" hunting on unposted private lands. (?) That is, if the land is not posted, a person doesn't need specific permission to hunt.

Anyway, the problem seems to be access to private lands, not so much about public lands.

Apparently the Wisconsin/Minnesota problem stems from hunter behavior, leading to more landowners putting up posted signs. Per the article, the numbers of licenses sold has remained fairly constant--which says to me that the older hunters are dying off and the younger ones reflect some of the rudeness and discourtesy endemic in today's world.

The Texas solution for access evolved over time, with money being the limiting factor as regards access. We've long had the idea of "hunting leases", where folks would pay a rancher a certain amount for some time period for hunting-acess. Problems for average-billfold guys began in the 1970s with the unending increases in leasing costs. The solution worked for the well-heeled, but it's rough on "po' folks". The state's Wildlife folks have worked pretty hard over the last fifteen or so years to acquire hunting rights to large areas, with small fees for their use.

Most long-time landowners with larger tracts won't put up "Posted" signs without some good reason--and it usually has to do with hunter behavior.

Art
 
Permission to hunt.

Around where i live now, I've found it depends on the individual landowner and his or her experiences with hunters, or if there land is already leased for private hunting or saved for relatives who hunt.

I lived near the Iowa / Missouri border in the early 90's, i never had a problem with getting permission to hunt anyones land, as long as i asked and followed common sense rules that go with being on someone Else's property with a gun.

12-34hom.
 
To me, it doesn't seem too difficult. Get a plat book, and either get a list of area available to public hunting (whether public or provate land), or start calling landowners. Worst they'll do is tell you no. Never had a problem yet with that approach.
 
As a long time landowner, I can say that, as a whole, experiences with hunters has been less than positive over the years. Between minor trashing (beer cans, wrappers, etc.) to downright vandalism, me, and my family, have long sinced cracked down on letting others hunt. Trust me, I'm not the only local landowner who feels this way. It gets expensive repairing fences and roads damaged by "hunters".

After saying this, I put my own "hunter" hat on and say that we, as hunters, need to collectively better police ourselves if land is going to continue to be made available. I know people like to say that it is 10% screwing it up for the other 90% but this hasn't been my personal experience. We have to quit blaming everyone else and take carefule note of what we do ourselves. Just simple things such as:

1. DON'T CLIMB OVER THAT BARBED WIRE FENCE
2. FASTEN GATES BACK
3. KEEP YOUR 4WD TRUCKS OFF MUDDY FIELDS AND ROADS
4. DON'T SHOOT AROUND LIVESTOCK
5. DON'T NAIL DEER STANDS TO TREES
6. CLEAN UP YOUR MESSES

Also, if while you're out hunting and you see something wrong (maybe a limb down on a fence) you score lots of points with the landowner if you help fix it or at least bring it to his/her attention.

Simple things (should be common courtesy) like these help keep private lands open to hunting.

Sorry for the rant.
 
As a long time landowner, I can say that, as a whole, experiences with hunters has been less than positive over the years. Between minor trashing (beer cans, wrappers, etc.) to downright vandalism, me, and my family, have long sinced cracked down on letting others hunt. Trust me, I'm not the only local landowner who feels this way. It gets expensive repairing fences and roads damaged by "hunters".

After saying this, I put my own "hunter" hat on and say that we, as hunters, need to collectively better police ourselves if land is going to continue to be made available. I know people like to say that it is 10% screwing it up for the other 90% but this hasn't been my personal experience. We have to quit blaming everyone else and take carefule note of what we do ourselves. Just simple things such as:

1. DON'T CLIMB OVER THAT BARBED WIRE FENCE
2. FASTEN GATES BACK
3. KEEP YOUR 4WD TRUCKS OFF MUDDY FIELDS AND ROADS
4. DON'T SHOOT AROUND LIVESTOCK
5. DON'T NAIL DEER STANDS TO TREES
6. CLEAN UP YOUR MESSES

Also, if while you're out hunting and you see something wrong (maybe a limb down on a fence) you score lots of points with the landowner if you help fix it or at least bring it to his/her attention.

Simple things (should be common courtesy) like these help keep private lands open to hunting.

Sorry for the rant.
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That sounds like good, respectful, common sense to me..Nothing hard about
those rules at all, and if I were a hunter I'd abide by em..
 
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Maybe one more rule, good for private or public land -

If it ain't your treestand, stay off of it. Blinds too.

Ok, that was two rules.

Regards.
 
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