Do you pay for hunting access?

[myshootinstinks]

Or do you lease a property just for hunting? Or hire an outfitter?  If so, what part of the country do you hunt in?
   I'm not critical of any of the above. We live in a free market society and landowners, outfitters, etc. should be compensated. If I were a property owner I'd want compensation and if we want a quality hunt it may cost us.
   Even here in Wyoming I'd have to admit that I will nearly always see more elk, deer, and antelope on my private land hunts than on BLM or national forest. While I've known the property owners where I hunt for years, I always give them something in return for their generosity. Sometimes it's a fancy supper for the rancher and his wife, another rancher always wants several cases of Bud Light, yet another will let me hunt simply for returning the favor with some chores.  This type of access is slowly drying up though. Landowners that have good game populations are offered BIG dollars for exclusive hunting rights.
Again, I cannot be critical of those property owners, they are simply taking care of themselves.  
    Just a crude poll to see what your situation is.
 

[Soilarch]

I hunt on private lands here in W. KY and back home in So. Il.  I'm one of the fortunate few who either owns or has family that owns quite a bit of land. (Farmers)  So leasing and permission and "lack" of access has never been an issue.  Here at school I have to ask permission.  But in a rifle state I almost think  people feel sorry for you when you want to hunt deer with a bow. lol!!

However, we (well, the family) does lease out one farm.  Don't know how much money is involved but like you, can't blame the uncle.  It just makes sense.  Besides, it's nice to get something from hunters instead of just trying to run people without permission off the land.

Now, I'm in a minority cause I don't trophy hunt at  all.  I've lost count of how many does I've shot.  2 buttons, 1 spike, one buck that needed culled he had a limp and his right rack was half the size of the left, one big bodied, small racked 8 pointer that had a very strange "kink" on one main beam, and one basket 6.   I've shot at least 3 times that many does.  I just don't care enough I guess.  If old mossy ever comes by that's great, but I can't justify going after him when does are still challenging enough and the meat is other big motivator........having said that if I DID care about scores a lot of my views on leasing/permission would be different.

[adkmountainken]

never have never will. as long as i can walk i can find a place to hunt for free.

[non-typical]

Just mortgage and taxes.

[Rooselk]

I agree with adkmountainken on that one. I live in the west where there's plenty of public land. The closest I come to paying for access is when I purchase a non-resident tag in a neighboring state.

[SteveB]

Lease with 1 a 250 acre farm - only 60 is woods.
Share 200 acre woods lease with 4.
Own 20 - caretake 80.
Doing a late mz(Jan) outfitted hunt in Iowa.
Hope to go for moose in 09 or 10.

Steve

[MikeW]

I don't have a lease right now but I'm in the market for one. Typical is $1000-$2000 around here.
Texas.

[caleb7mm]

had leases for years, the last two years ive been public only. I cant take it anymore, getting a lease next year again. It seems every single person in fl that doesnt know anything about hunting edicate walks by me or asks me to help track gut shot animals, its an everyday occurance here. im done with it.

[JEFF B]

iam with ken on this one. but after saying that the place where i hunt is thinking about charging but he said it would only be about $60 or 70 or 80 or 100 all depends on how big the deer is. but over here ya dont have to pay a cent if ya dont want to there is plenty of national parks to hunt in for free if ya dont mind hunting when the gun hunters are in there. and all ya have to do is get a permit from d.o.c to enter there land and it costs nothing. zip zero. free. but as my hunting is half an hour away thats the only place i hunt.you can pay big money here to hunt if ya want with any of the outfitters it up to you. but i am all for cheap free what ever. if the day comes when i lose my hunting spot i will just have to look for another but you know the saying thats the way the cookie crumbles  

[trapperDave]

Originally posted by adkmountainken:
never have never will. as long as i can walk i can find a place to hunt for free.

X2

[MikeW]

never have never will. as long as i can walk i can find a place to hunt for free

You've never walked in Texas then...  

Granted we do have some public land but it is pounded hard if it's close to a major city or it's a long long drive for me and you aren't just going to take a 4 day weekend walk out there and shoot a deer. You have to do a lot of scouting and home work.

That's time and gas a lot of us just don't have. It's cheaper I think to just pay for a lease in the long run.

All of you that have good public hunting land consider yourself very fortunate.

[adkmountainken]

i am very, very fortunate, i do not take that for granted. if i could not hunt without paying i would most certanily move, not to say thats what others should do its just that hunting and the Adirondacks are so important to me i could NOT do without either of them.

[Tioga]

I don't think I'd ever go the lease route again. I belonged to one for 2 seasons. I was the only local that belonged. I hunted all week and the other members that lived 200 miles away kinda/sorta resented that. The first year, the timber company that owned the land was timbering the entire bow season. The second year a big buck showed up and got everybody worried about who was going to shoot him. He ended up getting shot across the road on stateland anyhow. Had guys that would wait until the evening before opening day to scout and hang stands and take dumps near others stands. Come work days building food plots, 3 out of 10 members would show up. Lots of backstabbing between the members. Tresspassers out the gazoo. Just wasn't a very nice experience. Never again.

  I'm a loner, always will be a loner. Other people in my immediate hunting AO gives me heartburn. Plenty of state land to hunt for free if you can find the deer. I'll stick with that.

[jmdavis]

I own some land. Lease a couple of hundred acres with two others and belong to a club with 2500 acres and 20 members. I also occasionally hunt public land but not more than once a year or so.

My land is adjacent to 800 acres that the club leases. Across the road is another 240 acres that we lease.

I've hunted some of this land for 26 years other of it for the past 8. We have a lot of deer and a few nice bucks. We also have very low archery pressure. 8 bow hunters this year. During the week there might be 2 people hunting.

My experience is a higher density on public land than on the private land I hunt. Thursday I went to a public land for a controlled hunt. We had 8 hunters on 250 acres.

[Shawn Leonard]

I have a bow only area that was 40 acres and than the gentleman hunting the other part of the property moved opening up another 100 acres. My son-in-law and I have exclusive rights to it now. The farmer family lets us hunt it for free and told us we can always hunt it/ I also have another 180 acres that was aquired this year all I did was ask. I aklso have another 100 acres or so around my house that is private and I have exclusive rights. I am fortunate as I also have several thousand acres of state land some as close as 10 minuts, others yake a 1/2 hour and than there is always the 3 million acres in the Adirondacks which most is open to hunting as well. Shawn

[Bjorn]

I live in California and we lease, pay, hire do whatever needs to be done so we can hunt.
Works well for us.

[bowless]

Just public land for me.  But then, I don't see many deer either.

[Cory Mattson]

I hunt about half the year on public land - the other half on leased land - I like both. Would not waste my time hunting private land that I did not lease though.
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[Swamp Pygmy]

I'm not against private land. More power to you.

But we're broke around these parts and I hunt public land. It would be nice to own land, and not worry about other hunters in a stand seventy yards from you and not know it, or the guy that shoots at everything that might be a squirrel.

But it's also nice to have tens of thousands of acres of land to hunt, and to have it like the indians had it. No food plots, no ag fields, no 4wheelers. Just push down narrow debris cluttered trails into the bush. I'd have to be Bill Gates to have that much land.

[George D. Stout]

I'm with Ken.....I'll walk the public land.  And I could care less about Texas so don't bother with that remark.  Leasing will be the ruination of hunting as we know it.  And by the way, my father-in-law owns a hundred acres of mountain land and it has never been posted, nor is anyone ever charged to hunt there.  Sounds like Great Brittain....let's lease to the peasants.