How To Get Permission To Hunt Private Land

Keep reading to learn some of my recommendations on how to get permission to hunt private land.

One of the biggest obstacles to most hunters these days is finding a good place to hunt. Some people have access to family owned land, a hunting lease, or even some high quality public hunting land. However, getting permission to hunt private land is another good option that can lead to some great hunting opportunities. Read on to learn how to get permission to hunt private land.

Choose The Right Land

Obviously, you will want to attempt to get permission to hunt some land that has some good hunting prospects. But beyond that, you’ll also want to attempt to seek out the landowners who are most likely to grant your request for hunting privileges.

This might mean avoiding houses that are in close proximity to large population centers and major roads. Those landowners likely have hunters beating down their door asking for permission. However, landowners who live on back roads and other out of the way places probably don’t get as much attention from hunters. Your odds of getting permission to hunt on those pieces of land are probably higher.

Start Early

Once you find a couple of pieces of private land that you think offer good prospects for getting permission, you’ll need to get in touch with the owners somehow. If at all possible, don’t wait until right before hunting season starts to start asking permission to hunt some private land. Instead, try to find and get in touch with prospective land owners as early in the year as possible.

For one thing, this will allow you to get permission to hunt a piece of land before other hunters ask first. Another reason to ask early is to assist in getting your foot in the door before hunting season actually starts (more on that later).

Locate The Owner

Sometimes it is relatively simple to locate the owner of a piece of land because they live on it. However, this is not always the case. If you’ve got your eye on a particular piece of land and are not sure how to locate the owner, you’ve got a couple of different options.

One way is to locate the owner through the county records office. Another is to buy some computer or GPS software that shows property boundaries and the names of the landowners.

Contact The Landowner

Once you’ve located the landowners, you then need to get in touch with him or her. This can be tricky, and you need to be prepared to have a few people say “no” to your request for permission to hunt.

One good way to get in touch with the landowners, especially if they do not actually live on the land that you are asking permission to hunt, is to send them a letter. If you found them through the county records office, you should have his or her name and address. Simply mail him or her a letter introducing yourself and ask to set up a time to meet face to face.

Other people prefer to initially meet the landowner face to face, and there is nothing wrong with that either. Regardless of whether or not you have made contact with the landowner in some other manner beforehand, it is usually best to arrive alone. Showing up with a whole truck full of friends who want to hunt as well is probably going turn the landowner off.

That being said, there is usually nothing wrong with bringing along a child or spouse that you intend to hunt with. In fact, the presence of a child, or to a lesser extent, a spouse, might even increase your odds of getting permission from the landowner.

Look The Part

When you arrive to meet with the landowner, make sure that you either arrive right on time (if you have an appointment), or that you arrive during the day and outside of regular meal times (if you arrive unannounced). In either case, make sure that you look the part when you arrive.

You don’t want to appear disheveled or dirty, as a landowner might be inclined to believe that a person who looks like a slob won’t respect their property. By the same token, you probably shouldn’t be wearing a suit either.

Start Small

One good way to get permission to hunt on a person’s property is to start small and build a relationship with them. For instance, ask for permission to hunt predators or varmints, such as coyotes. Other landowners might be hesitant to allow you to trophy hunt, but have no problem with having you shoot a doe or two.

In any case, once they know you and see that you respect them and their property, most landowners will be more inclined to give you permission to hunt other animals on their land later on. This is another reason why it is so important to start early in the year when trying to get permission to hunt on private property.

Provide Your Contact Information

Always carry some easy way to deliver your contact information, such as a business card or an index card with your name and phone number, to the landowner. Even if you don’t get permission to hunt, the landowner might change his or her mind later or they might have a friend who is having problems with deer getting into the garden and wants them shot. Either way, it is to your benefit for the landowner to have a way to contact you after you leave.

Be Gracious & Show Respect

Regardless of how it goes, always be courteous and polite when asking permission to hunt. If the landowner declines to give you permission, thank them for their time and leave. If you do receive permission to hunt, make sure that you treat the land with respect and obey any rules or conditions that the landowner gives you.

Offering to share some of your venison, sending a “Thank You” note, and adding the landowner to your Christmas card list are all good ways to stay in the good graces of the landowner and go a long way towards keeping permission to hunt on that land in the future. By the same token, acting like a jerk is a great way to lose permission to hunt on a piece of property and might even get you put on a black list with the landowner’s friends as well.

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NEXT: 6 HUNTING ETHICS EVERY HUNTER SHOULD KNOW

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3 thoughts on “How To Get Permission To Hunt Private Land”

  1. Solid article. I’m usually to chicken to ask private land owners, but after getting skunked so badly this year hunting pheasants in Colorado, it’s time to man up. I might add that going out of your way to ask where is a good spot to park once you get permission could be a key element. Not knowing from experience, but I have heard a farmer or two complain that because of some disrespectful (read lazy) hunters, they refuse all hunting permission on their land now. Their complaint was that the hunters drove through their fields like it was a moto-cross track. Lesson I got out of it? The general rule in life, Don’t be a jerk.

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  2. I have never been hunting. Always wanted too. Guess I just need to learn how. Haha.
    Love the articles!! Thank you. ;-(

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  3. In the 1980’s I had permission to hunt on private land. We did all that you suggested and then some. It was in the Catskills of New York State. Now known as the The People’s Communist Republic of New York. Any way, I came close to getting shot twice. I started hunting the Adirondacks after that.lol Thanks for serving. My nephew did 3 tours over there. Glad to see you both came back in good shape. I feel really bad for the deceased and seriously injured soldiers. Thanks for the great web site too.

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