Farmers -- What would it take to get permission to hunt on your property?

[AGarbers]

I am already set for hunting property so I am not asking this for me, but I keep seeing folks wanting to find farmers that are willing to allow deer hunting on their property.

The question would be, what approach would it take?

Some on here have suggested that sweat equity would be great, as in actually working around the farm. ie: mucking out barns, cleaning fence rows, painting buildings, etc.

It also has been stated that offering to hunt coyotes and ground hogs is not as valuable a skill as some might think, and won't open many doors, or gates, so to speak.

A friend of mine used to give out jars of honey while asking permission. The farmer got to keep the honey regardless if he received permission to hunt or not. He said that after a few years of giving out honey, folks started giving permission.

My thinking, if I were a farmer, would be, let me get to know you before I allow you on my property with a weapon. And considering that farmers make good money leasing their hunting rights, what real service can you provide the farmer?

Some have suggested that offering half the meat would be nice. I could see pros and cons on offering processed meat, as I like to know who did what in the cutting room.

Ideas?

 

[BogWalker]

A cut of the meat from your take is definitely a good idea and a popular option with a lot of the farmers I know.

Personal connections also help. If you've got a friend who knows a farmer and can vouch for your character that will tremendously aid in getting a foot in the door.

 

[woowoo2]

Start dating the mans daughter......

 

[jerrob]

Stop dating the man's wife........

 

[HamsterStyle]

Hahahahaha.

 

[bocefus78]

Not a farmer here, but I got the place I hunt on by paying a neighbor to plow their quarter mile gravel driveway when it snows. They had no idea I did it until they finally asked me if I saw who keeps plowing it. I also grade it out in the spring for them.

 

[Cynical]

I am already set for hunting property so I am not asking this for me, but I keep seeing folks wanting to find farmers that are willing to allow deer hunting on their property.

The question would be, what approach would it take?

Some on here have suggested that sweat equity would be great, as in actually working around the farm. ie: mucking out barns, cleaning fence rows, painting buildings, etc.

It also has been stated that offering to hunt coyotes and ground hogs is not as valuable a skill as some might think, and won't open many doors, or gates, so to speak.

A friend of mine used to give out jars of honey while asking permission. The farmer got to keep the honey regardless if he received permission to hunt or not. He said that after a few years of giving out honey, folks started giving permission.

My thinking, if I were a farmer, would be, let me get to know you before I allow you on my property with a weapon. And considering that farmers make good money leasing their hunting rights, what real service can you provide the farmer?

Some have suggested that offering half the meat would be nice. I could see pros and cons on offering processed meat, as I like to know who did what in the cutting room.

Ideas?

I landed hunting rights on a thousand acre farm by asking for permission to hunt groundhogs. Farmer said he didn't care but remove the carcasses. One afternoon he was baling hay in the same field where I shot those groundhogs and I walked out and asked if he needed a hand. I was pretty much golden after that. I asked to squirrel hunt some river property and he said I was welcome to hunt anywhere on his farm but to leave gates as I find them be it closed or open, and don't bring guests unless I checked with him first. I had an army buddy who traveled from Georgia three years in a row and was welcome as long as I was with him.I followed up by driving grain trucks in the fall and helping wherever I could. The best idea was my hunting buddy and I got his wife a $100.00 gift card every year for Christmas. We hunted that farm for twenty plus years until it sold last year and sadly I am without private ground again. My advice is ask little but give alot and it will usually work out well.

 

[Jiezh1]

good information establishing good connections with farmers is a key...

 

[Hosted]

We farm a couple thousand acres and have different people that ask us for a place to hunt weekly. The main problem for us is that we have people hunting in every corner possible already. I would start with groundhogs because we'll let everyone shoot them and work your way into it. As you get to know them find a common interest and try to become friends. We turn down people all the time but I would actually sit down and try to find a place for a friend.

 

[whiteoak]

Become friends with them before you ask. I come from a farm family that had (until mines bought it out) 1500 acres scattered around the north side of the county, in Southern Indiana. Friends were always welcome and given an area to hunt as their own. But strangers were most often turned away. One of the issues farmers face is poachers/tresspassers. Who ruin it for anyone who wants to hunt. Some land owners like having hunters on the land just to keep others off of it, it works in both their best interests, especially if there are game cameras up, and you e-mail photos of anything that looks funny to the owner. I do know some local guys that have taken to leasing out the woods on the farm for hunting or rights to a field and adjoining woodlots. They don't advertise however just word of mouth gets leases sold quick.

 

[shibumiseeker]

he said I was welcome to hunt anywhere on his farm but to leave gates as I find them be it closed or open, and don't bring guests unless I checked with him first.

These two right here.

Gates exist for a reason and losing stock because someone didn't know the gate protocol is annoying at the least when you have to track down stock and costly at the most when stock gets out and gets hit by a car which means you, the stock owner, are liable for the damages AND your stock is dead/injured.

Having someone you invite out to your place bring unexpected guests is also really annoying. I know and trust *you*, but I don't know your buddy. Those two are the quickest ways to not get invited back to my place.

 

[natdscott]

Lots of good information here.

I'll add minor clarifications/additions:

1) If you want to help with farm work (which is a damned good idea), make sure that you have some idea what you are doing with whatever task it is that you want to help with on the farm, and if you don't know...ASK. Also, make sure you have a strong back. Talking is fine, but keep working while you talk, and don't complain...just work until it's done. Follow your landowner's lead on this unless it's unsafe, or refer to the first sentence about unfamiliarity. If you're unfamiliar, and faking it, but the farmer knows it and makes suggestions on a better way (or the ONLY way) to do some task, just leave the ego silent, and do it.

But the strong back/non-complaining part is pretty critical.


2) As has been said: do NOT "bring a friend". I'd go so far as to suggest don't even TRY for 2-3 years. When you do, bring the friend to the hay wagons first, because if you are working on item #1 all summer to get the best hunting rights you've had, then by summer 2 or 3, you probably will want "ol buddy from high school" to work for it as well. If you're really working at it, you just might start to have similar pride in the farm that your landowner does.

Everybody that has ever "phoned a friend" out to our farm without clearing it with us first has never come back. That's final, and there might be people here on this very forum that are on that list.

If I can't trust a guy with something that simple, how can I trust them with a rifle in their hands, and nobody looking? It's how you act in the woods when nobody's there to say 'you can't' that is of such concern.



3) Make prudent, precise shots, and if you can't do that, then don't TAKE the shot. Farmers generally have a dislike for deer, but most also won't tolerate wounded and unrecoverable animals running around bleeding out of their a$#hole where you shot them because you weren't mature enough to NOT shoot. This is triple-double true if your farmer also hunts, and will have to participate in tracking your deer if you need help.


4) Ask the farmer, on their own schedule, to show you the farm. They like to show and tell, and you showing real interest in safety and security by seeing where all buildings, valuables, stock, and/or houses and children are located will go a long way toward their feeling that you know what you are doing.

It will also mean that you DO know what you're doing.


-Nate

 

[RMC]

You make it sound like if a person is over 30 yrs old they shouldn't even bother because they can't throw bales like they did 15 yrs ago.

 

[Leadeye]

These two right here.

Gates exist for a reason and losing stock because someone didn't know the gate protocol is annoying at the least when you have to track down stock and costly at the most when stock gets out and gets hit by a car which means you, the stock owner, are liable for the damages AND your stock is dead/injured.

Having someone you invite out to your place bring unexpected guests is also really annoying. I know and trust *you*, but I don't know your buddy. Those two are the quickest ways to not get invited back to my place.

This right here. Being a land owner and listening to land owners I can say that the number one problem with letting people hunt is "buddies". Best story is one from Orange county where a land owner friend of mine found a camping trailer, pick up trucks and everything set up for a hunting camp on the back side of his property, but no hunters, during turkey season. Returning with the local law and CO they met the hunters returning to the camp. Their story was that one of them had deer hunted with a "buddy" who had permission from the landowner and this had somehow been interpreted as OK for what they were doing now. I've run off hunters from my own property getting similar stories, like somebody's, friend's, brother's, cousin Billy Bob said it was OK to hunt here.

 

[AngryRooster]

This right here. Being a land owner and listening to land owners I can say that the number one problem with letting people hunt is "buddies". Best story is one from Orange county where a land owner friend of mine found a camping trailer, pick up trucks and everything set up for a hunting camp on the back side of his property, but no hunters, during turkey season. Returning with the local law and CO they met the hunters returning to the camp. Their story was that one of them had deer hunted with a "buddy" who had permission from the landowner and this had somehow been interpreted as OK for what they were doing now. I've run off hunters from my own property getting similar stories, like somebody's, friend's, brother's, cousin Billy Bob said it was OK to hunt here.

Yep, it's reasons and experiences like this that have made us pull all previous permissions for hunting on our land. Over the past 15 years we've let a hand full of people hunt our few hundred acres, all have ended in disappointment with the person at best. One was family, others have been co-workers, neighbors, a couple friends of our cousins, a couple of people we didn't know at all that just showed up and asked. One offered to clear out some old junk that was at the edge of the woodline for permission. Many have brought buddies that we were not told about. Some of those buddies returned on their own to hunt. A couple snuck back and were caught poaching. A few people thought that since they had permission to hunt then they were allowed to go back anytime they like and do whatever they wanted, such as camp, drink and smoke dope. This same group (only one was ever given permission to be on the land, the one who cleared out the junk) accidentally set fire to part of the field and burned just under an acre.


There have been people sneak back to the isolated part of the field behind the woods and plant pot. We got the sheriff involved when we found it. Ginseng poachers. General trespassers. Artifact hunters. The list goes on.

These people have made us change how we handle others. If you are not invited by us then it's considered trespassing and you will be escorted off the property immediately. Any static at all then the sheriff is called and charged will be pursued. Between the eyes & ears of us and the dogs, along with the Dakota sensors, we have a pretty good handle on it. We still have to chase someone out at least once a month through the summer and fall though. This usually brings out my favorite excuse from them..."I didn't know it was your land." Yeah right. It's posted everywhere, including the sign you drove past to get where you are. Besides, you KNEW it wasn't YOUR land, why are you on it without asking?

 

[natdscott]

You make it sound like if a person is over 30 yrs old they shouldn't even bother because they can't throw bales like they did 15 yrs ago.

No, you read it that way.

You read a LOT into my statements, in fact.


Do less of that.

-Nate

 

[nighthawk80]

There is a lot of good information here. I do have a question for the Land Owners that have responded here. I have hunted state ground for a while now and have been fine with it, but I have kids that are showing interest in going hunting with me (girl is 9, boy is 7). How are your views on people bringing their kids? Not the first year, but later? I would like them to watch me do it once before I let them take a deer (me with them the whole time). I even thought about just finding some private property just so I can take my kids, not for just me.
Also, do you prefer bow hunters over gun hunters or visa versa?

 

[indiucky]

We got lucky...

We bought a small farm house on an acre surrounded by three farms (owned by three siblings and their spouses) comprising of about 2500 acres...What they do not own is Hoosier National Forest.....When we bought it they all came down to meet with us...They told me they use our yard to turn around their tractors in and to get access to a barn behind our place...I said that's fine....There was a moment of silence and I got out "I sure would like..." And he said "and of course you can hunt, fish, star gaze, shoot, or hunt arrowheads on any of our property...All I ask is that you look after what's ours and run off anyone that isn't ours...If they don't know our name then they ain't supposed to be there..."

I feel like the two fields and woods by the house are ours anyway...As he said to me once..."I am only in those two fields plowing a couple of times a year and can't remember the last time I was in the woods....Just treat it like it's yours and look after it..."

I love southern Indiana.....

 

[Leadeye]

We got lucky...

We bought a small farm house on an acre surrounded by three farms (owned by three siblings and their spouses) comprising of about 2500 acres...What they do not own is Hoosier National Forest.....When we bought it they all came down to meet with us...They told me they use our yard to turn around their tractors in and to get access to a barn behind our place...I said that's fine....There was a moment of silence and I got out "I sure would like..." And he said "and of course you can hunt, fish, star gaze, shoot, or hunt arrowheads on any of our property...All I ask is that you look after what's ours and run off anyone that isn't ours...If they don't know our name then they ain't supposed to be there..."

I feel like the two fields and woods by the house are ours anyway...As he said to me once..."I am only in those two fields plowing a couple of times a year and can't remember the last time I was in the woods....Just treat it like it's yours and look after it..."

I love southern Indiana.....

Sound like good neighbors.

 

[RMC]

No, you read it that way.

You read a LOT into my statements, in fact.


Do less of that.

-Nate

I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your post but you made multiple references to having a strong back and not complaining which is probably what threw me off. Is it monetary reimbursement you want for permission or cheap labor or both? To me it sounds more like a business deal and if that's the case then both sides should know up front what is wanted and/or expected. I assume you feel the same way when you buy equipment for your acreage.

I'm not trying to be difficult but the last conversation I had here with a land owner was an absolute waste of time. All he did was talk in riddles which just led to unpleasant feelings for both parties. I'm not asking you for permission to hunt your land because I feel the only right way to do that is face to face. I'm just asking what the parameters are to work within.