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Post by wesb81219 on May 8, 2017 19:01:20 GMT -5
I'm curious to know how many out there at some point in your hunting career did you get your place to hunt by knocking on a complete strangers door? Last year I got access to a 237 acre piece of prime land by the door knocking method. The owner asked for nothing in return however my services were offered if ever called upon. I lost it in a sale but I still have a small acre place to hunt . I'm back to hitting the pavement since I would like to attempt to harvest multiple deer. This is the main struggle of the hunt for many.
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Post by firstwd on May 8, 2017 19:26:59 GMT -5
Honestly, I haven't knocked on doors or even asked for a place to hunt in too many years to count. I have been asked to hunt more places than I have time to get to. What you get truly is a direct result of what you put into it. The better person you are and you portray will reward you with more and better places to hunt.
My best tip would be to not just concentrate on places to deer hunt. Get your foot in the fence with squirrel, rabbits, turkey, or what helped me so much was waterfowl. I currently have about 4000 acres in 6 counties that I can move between, but at one point had a little over 12,000 in just my home county. At the height of my "hunting is the only life I have" days I had slightly under 20,000 acres to hunt.
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Post by wesb81219 on May 8, 2017 19:29:24 GMT -5
Honestly, I haven't knocked on doors or even asked for a place to hunt in too many years to count. I have been asked to hunt more places than I have time to get to. What you get truly is a direct result of what you put into it. The better person you are and you portray will reward you with more and better places to hunt. My best tip would be to not just concentrate on places to deer hunt. Get your foot in the fence with squirrel, rabbits, turkey, or what helped me so much was waterfowl. I currently have about 4000 acres in 6 counties that I can move between, but at one point had a little over 12,000 in just my home county. At the height of my "hunting is the only life I have" days I had slightly under 20,000 acres to hunt. You may be in the top 10 for luckiest man alive. |
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Post by firstwd on May 8, 2017 20:02:20 GMT -5
No sir. I grew up in a hunting family and all of the ground I had as a young adult came from families my dad hunted on for years. As those owners started passing away I was adding my own connections.
I got into waterfowl and things exploded. Relatively, there are few waterfowlers compared to deer hunters. I started getting permission to hunt a few farms, we'd take groups out out-of-towners hunting and then to breakfast at the local farmer restaurants. We'd run into the farmers I was hunting on, they'd ask about our success and hear us talking over breakfast. Other farmers would ask what we were doing and end up offering more ground to hunt. It didn't take long with other hunter's actions on those properties for us to get asked if we wanted hunt other critters, and then have exclusive access.
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Post by nfalls116 on May 8, 2017 20:17:21 GMT -5
I used to have a lot more ground to hunt than I do now. to me it just isn't worth it to go out begging to hunt on someone else's property. If in casual conversation we bring up Hunting and you tell me I can do so on your land then by all means I'll do it and I will do things for you and treat your property with respect but I'm not going to go out asking. I have access to a couple little plots that produce deer and other animals but mainly I've been getting joy out of hunting public. All the fun and half the work  but I guess to answer your question I never really asked a complete stranger to hunt on their property only fish. |
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Post by Jamie Brooks 1John5:13 on May 8, 2017 20:29:34 GMT -5
The only door I knocked on was heaven's door. When I started hunting, I prayed for land, because I needed some to hunt. That week, two people approached me to offer their land. I've never asked anyone to hunt their land. I tried both, but physically couldn't hunt both, so I let one go. I kept the closest to me.
I have knocked on more doors than I'd like to ask permission to recover a deer.
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Post by trapperdave on May 8, 2017 22:38:32 GMT -5
I have, more than once
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Post by featherduster on May 9, 2017 6:20:35 GMT -5
I knocked on the door of a bank and that was the last time I ever needed to knock on a door again.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2017 6:45:13 GMT -5
I have asked all the neighbors around my area and most were okay with me bow hunting and or cutting through their back yards. The area I'm in is (2-10 acres lots (8 of them)). I have around 25% that said no hunting and or cutting through. So sometimes I have to walk out to the street and walk over to the other side or a house down. I've asked three landscaping companies and all three said yes, no questions asked. I have enough small lots now that I might hunt my neighborhood this coming season and not hunt my brothers as much. Save it for the best days.
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Post by steiny on May 9, 2017 8:47:59 GMT -5
Don't need to do it anymore, but in my earlier hunting years that is how I got access to many places. It's not as tough as people make it out to be.
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Post by squirrelhunter on May 9, 2017 11:15:04 GMT -5
I haven't yet but I'm thinking of trying it this year. The 2 properties I use for squirrel or deer and rabbit are both owned by guys around 80 years old and could die at any time,the only other places I have permission for are coyote places and not much chance of any other species.
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Post by wesb81219 on May 9, 2017 11:58:07 GMT -5
I knocked on the door of a bank and that was the last time I ever needed to knock on a door again. That is my goal, within the next 4 years to have my own property to hunt. I'll probably never own anything big but small acres in the right place can still be great hunting. The place I hunt now is only 16 acres but is in a prime location. |
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Post by M4Madness on May 9, 2017 15:35:50 GMT -5
I knocked on the door of a bank and that was the last time I ever needed to knock on a door again. I doubt I could be happy with less than 300 acres when it comes to deer hunting, so short of winning the lottery, that'll never happen for me. Lol! Don't get me wrong. I've killed plenty of deer on 40 acres (and even 10 acres once). I just feel that it is really easy to overhunt an area, and even on large farms, I feel obligated to change areas a lot to keep the pressure down. That said, I've knocked on a lot of doors in the past. Once, as a 27-year old with hair darn near to my waist, I knocked on the door of an elderly farmer after being warned that it would be a waste of time. To top it off, I accidentally disturbed his supper -- I saw him rise from the dining room table through the glass door. I got sole permission to a 350-acre farm, and I still have it to this day. He has long since passed, but his daughter continues the relationship with me, and still allows me free sole access, even though she leases hunting rights on all the other farms. Don't be afraid to ask. Sure, the negative answers will probably outweigh the positives, but when you do hit paydirt, it'll be well worth it. |
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Post by beermaker on May 9, 2017 17:40:41 GMT -5
I did, once, in the late 1980's between (some of you will know the area) Holland and Stendal. I knocked on the door of an old farmhouse that was neatly kept. He said "sure, kill all them *&%$#@! deer you can." His barnyard was literally a parking lot for the entire gun season. I soon realized that I already had a good thing going and stuck with the land I already had.
I have found that it is very difficult to find private land since leaving where I grew up. "Back home" I had over 1k acres of land to hunt within 30 minutes of the house and more farm ponds to fish than I could get to. Now I lease hunting ground and can't find enough ponds to keep the fish fryer hot.
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Post by Jamie Brooks 1John5:13 on May 9, 2017 18:17:21 GMT -5
I knocked on the door of a bank and that was the last time I ever needed to knock on a door again. I doubt I could be happy with less than 300 acres when it comes to deer hunting, so short of winning the lottery, that'll never happen for me. Lol! Don't get me wrong. I've killed plenty of deer on 40 acres (and even 10 acres once). I just feel that it is really easy to overhunt an area, and even on large farms, I feel obligated to change areas a lot to keep the pressure down. That said, I've knocked on a lot of doors in the past. Once, as a 27-year old with hair darn near to my waist, I knocked on the door of an elderly farmer after being warned that it would be a waste of time. To top it off, I accidentally disturbed his supper -- I saw him rise from the dining room table through the glass door. I got sole permission to a 350-acre farm, and I still have it to this day. He has long since passed, but his daughter continues the relationship with me, and still allows me free sole access, even though she leases hunting rights on all the other farms. Don't be afraid to ask. Sure, the negative answers will probably outweigh the positives, but when you do hit paydirt, it'll be well worth it. I doubt that I'd be happy with less than 2ac. If I just had one acre, I'd probably just quit hunting. |
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Post by wesb81219 on May 9, 2017 18:51:56 GMT -5
I stopped at a couple more places this evening. It's always the same answer ... family or someone already hunts there. Won't stop me though, I'll keep knocking and get a yes eventually.
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Post by firstwd on May 9, 2017 19:09:11 GMT -5
I stopped at a couple more places this evening. It's always the same answer ... family or someone already hunts there. Won't stop me though, I'll keep knocking and get a yes eventually. I'm telling ya man, expand your hunting portfolio. Deer are big money, bit talk, and big headaches. If your kids decide to get into the sport, squirrel and waterfowl will get you places to take a kid hunting. |
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Post by wesb81219 on May 9, 2017 19:32:20 GMT -5
I stopped at a couple more places this evening. It's always the same answer ... family or someone already hunts there. Won't stop me though, I'll keep knocking and get a yes eventually. I'm telling ya man, expand your hunting portfolio. Deer are big money, bit talk, and big headaches. If your kids decide to get into the sport, squirrel and waterfowl will get you places to take a kid hunting. I currently hunt : deer,turkey, squirrel, doves and would like to get in to waterfowl. I have also taken each of my 3 boys out to hunt. None of them seem to enthused to go again. I won't push what I like and love about hunting on them, but I will give them all more chances to try it enough to see if it's for them or not. |
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Post by M4Madness on May 9, 2017 19:50:16 GMT -5
I definitely feel that starting with a non-deer species can get your foot in the door and possibly lead to deer later. If all goes well, I'm planning to step up my coyote game big time, which will require LOTS of door knocking in the near future. I have a Facebook friend who currently has permission to coyote hunt on over 250 properties, and is always looking to expand. If he can do it, there's no reason that I can't do it too. Lol!
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Post by wesb81219 on May 9, 2017 20:06:09 GMT -5
When I stop and ask someone I don't specify anything. I just ask if they allow hunting. Kinda leaves the door open for interpretation.
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but I guess to answer your question I never really asked a complete stranger to hunt on their property only fish. 
