Gaining Access To Hunting Ground

A new article from The Iowa Sportsman!

“For me April means two things, turkey hunting and finding new property to hunt. If you’re like me you don’t own your own property, you can’t afford to lease property, and you weren’t blessed by being born into a family that owns a large amount of hunting ground. Looks like your only other options are outfitters and public land… The fact is, if you want to avoid the rigors of public land hunting there is plenty of private property out there for you to hunt, and all you have to do is find it. And here is what you do once you do find it.

Preparation
The days of randomly rolling up to a farm and asking who owns the property behind the house is over. With several mapping resources to choose from, all you have to do is spend a little time behind the keyboard and in no time you will know the name of the property owner, where they live, the property boarders, and how many acres they own. Almost every county in the U.S. now has some form of digital mapping for public use. If you can’t find it through a Google search you should be able to contact the county assessor’s office and they should have the information.

Why is this information important? Because the more information you can bring with you to the first meeting between you and the landowner the better. Be prepared to answer questions regarding the hunting seasons, when they start and end, how much and what seasons you plan on hunting, and the ability to discuss some of the other important regulations. If you come off as someone who sounds educated about what they are asking to do, the better chance you have of gaining access to that property.

I hate to say it, but Facebook can offer some useful information as well. Here is my example. After I found out who the property owner of a particular property was I jumped on Facebook and did some creepin’. I was able to pull up the landowner’s profile where I noticed that he was a huge fan of Iowa wrestling. When I finally made it to his farm to ask for permission I was sure to wear my wrestling t-shirt and even bring it up in conversation. We literally talked about the sport for almost an hour before I brought up bow hunting. He mentioned he already had a couple other guys who were hunting on the property along with some family members. We continued to talk a while longer about hunting before I took off. But he did say one thing before I left, “Come back next summer and we’ll see if we can make some room for you.” My foot was in the door.”

The full article can be found here.

Photo Credit: Original Author

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