Permission To Hunt

[Ashsplash]

So I have never been hunting before and I am currently in the processes of obtaining my Hunting license, How would I go about getting permission to hunt? Is there a site or would i have to just show up to someones land and ask them in person?

[Doc]

Let's try a few suggestions:

 

Local town halls usually have aerial maps with property lines defined. Locate the property and the landowner's name and address there and then pay the landowner a personal visit.

 

Personal contacts only.

 

Try to pick a time that will not be an imposition. Not at traditional mealtimes .... lol.

 

Dress somewhat conservatively (no camo).

 

Be very polite and present yourself as a responsible individual.

 

Try to work out an introductory pitch ahead of time.

 

Offer to donate  bit of help around the farm if the landowner is a farmer

 

More?????

[sweet old bill]

just what Doc said and do it early prior to the hunting season, now would be a good time to start.

 

[WNYBuckHunter]

All great suggestions. Also, print up the DEC forms and take them with. Many land owners are mistaken about liability laws and think they are responsible for injuries if people are hunting on their property. Most of the time, its simply not true.

 

Also, read the laws and regs, especially the major ones. If you are educated about them, most land owners will be much more comfortable with you there.

 

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/ask.pdf

 

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/8371.html

[Curmudgeon]

Some counties - Otsego for example - have their tax maps on GIS on the county web sites. You can get a mailing address for landowners on-line. This is quite helpful for learning if the owner lives on the property.

 

I have sought permission for access a number of times from absentee landowners on the phone. Generally the response is poor. Most of these attempts were for non-disruptive research purposes. I would think this to be less of a concern than hunting. It is much better to make an initial contact in person.

[phade]

People on this site dismiss letters as an approach and that is A-OK by me. Not one approach works for all scenarios, but like anything in life, you leverage your strengths to get a return.

 

 

[Five Seasons]

tax maps and being nice and asking are the basics. Following that there are many ways, but in the end some people don't want you hunting their property because they're not fans of hunters, not fans of hunting or they themselves hunt. Some of your fence sitter property owners just need some money, chores, venison or a bottle of wine to sweeten the deal.

 

Be advised though, if you find a good piece of land chances are someones hunting it or has tried. NY has one of the highest hunters per square mile ratios in the country. But don't just assume because sometimes you'd be surprised.

 

It's like asking a girl on a date, no harm in asking.

Edited June 30, 2015 by Belo

[steve863]

Since you are from the city without any hunting friends, finding private land to hunt will be a monumental challenge for you.  If you lived in a rural area things might be a little easier, but treking upstate on summer weekends to look for places to hunt will require a LOT of effort with probably very little to show for it.  I don't mean to discourage you, just giving you some straight facts here.  If I were you, I'd look into public land areas.  The time you'll waste looking for private land, you can find a few public areas and maybe scout them before the season.

 

 

 

[phade]

Since you are from the city without any hunting friends, finding private land to hunt will be a monumental challenge for you.  If you lived in a rural area things might be a little easier, but treking upstate on summer weekends to look for places to hunt will require a LOT of effort with probably very little to show for it.  I don't mean to discourage you, just giving you some straight facts here.  If I were you, I'd look into public land areas.  The time you'll waste looking for private land, you can find a few public areas and maybe scout them before the season.

 

In a half day's work (four hours) he could have letters in the mail to 75 or more landowners based off of GIS and cyber scouting. A letter approach likely would be relatively cheap, minimal time consumption, and probably a good fit for this person, especially if he's willing to drive upstate a bit to open the areas to reach out to.

 

I posted a pic in the trail cam forum of a decent buck that's started showing up. That property is exclusive to me and my hunting partners now, and all I did was send a letter and ask for permission. On our third season on that ground. And, that's just one of 15-20 parcels I've obtained permission on via letters over the past 5 years.

 

Here's some pics from letters....various states, people that hunt with me (I've asked for others to join me in letters even), deer on cam, dead deer, etc. And these are just the ones on my work computer.

[Four Season Whitetail's]

Since you are from the city without any hunting friends, finding private land to hunt will be a monumental challenge for you.  If you lived in a rural area things might be a little easier, but treking upstate on summer weekends to look for places to hunt will require a LOT of effort with probably very little to show for it.  I don't mean to discourage you, just giving you some straight facts here.  If I were you, I'd look into public land areas.  The time you'll waste looking for private land, you can find a few public areas and maybe scout them before the season.

Good advice. A GPS with your big boy pants on. Go deep in most state lands and you will find lots of great hunting and very few hunters. Most are afraid to go very deep into a forest, or unhealthy and lazy.

 

Doc says offer a little help to farmers. Good advice also but the guys that get to put footprints on my properties offered alot of help and were there to help. They also came back a couple of times to talk to see if anything had changed even after i told them i was not so sure on adding another hunter to the property. Show you are more than willing to do what it takes.

[Curmudgeon]

I have one small game hunter who drops off a bottle of wine every Christmas. A bow hunter who uses my property brought me several packages of caribou steaks after he went hunting in Quebec. He has also pitched in here during Christmas tree season. These things are always appreciated. 

[GreeneHunter]

Rod & Gun Clubs !!!

[steve863]

In a half day's work (four hours) he could have letters in the mail to 75 or more landowners based off of GIS and cyber scouting. A letter approach likely would be relatively cheap, minimal time consumption, and probably a good fit for this person, especially if he's willing to drive upstate a bit to open the areas to reach out to.

 

I posted a pic in the trail cam forum of a decent buck that's started showing up. That property is exclusive to me and my hunting partners now, and all I did was send a letter and ask for permission. On our third season on that ground. And, that's just one of 15-20 parcels I've obtained permission on via letters over the past 5 years.

 

Here's some pics from letters....various states, people that hunt with me (I've asked for others to join me in letters even), deer on cam, dead deer, etc. And these are just the ones on my work computer.

 

 

You obviously have way more luck than most people.  Finding places to hunt within a couple of hours of NYC is a whole different animal.  Even trying to get in on a lease is not easy.  They want big money for leases and then they have like 10 people hunting 50 acres of land.  To heck with that!  In other cases not even money will get the landowner to give you permission. You can ask the few people on this site who live around NYC what their experiences finding private land has been like if you don't believe me.  Not an easy undertaking, that's for sure.  I've seen more than a few give up on hunting completely because of the difficulty in finding private land to hunt.  Just last year I lost the only private hunting spot that I had.  Had it for 23 seasons, so it was a very big disappointment to lose it.  Didn't even bother looking for another.  Found an inexpensive outfitted hunt in another state not too far away from NY, where I was also issued a handful of doe tags, so for me it was a NO brainer which was the better deal.  Just not worth the headaches in NY for me.

[phade]

You obviously have way more luck than most people.  Finding places to hunt within a couple of hours of NYC is a whole different animal.  Even trying to get in on a lease is not easy.  They want big money for leases and then they have like 10 people hunting 50 acres of land.  To heck with that!  In other cases not even money will get the landowner to give you permission. You can ask the few people on this site who live around NYC what their experiences finding private land has been like if you don't believe me.  Not an easy undertaking, that's for sure.  I've seen more than a few give up on hunting completely because of the difficulty in finding private land to hunt.  Just last year I lost the only private hunting spot that I had.  Had it for 23 seasons, so it was a very big disappointment to lose it.  Didn't even bother looking for another.  Found an inexpensive outfitted hunt in another state not too far away from NY, where I was also issued a handful of doe tags, so for me it was a NO brainer which was the better deal.  Just not worth the headaches in NY for me.

 

Region 8 and 9 have some of the highest hunter per sq mi in the entire country. Think about that for a second.

 

It also sounds like you are discounting effort before it's even spent. Some of those pics are from Ohio, some are from NY...and it's not hard. I'm not doing anything different than any other person would do. I am not sprinkling fairy dust into the envelopes.

Edited June 30, 2015 by phade

[Doc]

One word of caution about private land hunting permissions would be not to assume that because you did everything right and got permission that you now have exclusive access to pristine, unhunted land. Some of the most densely hunted property that I ever was on was private, but completely open to all (permission or not). It made state land look desolate and untouched.

 

Make sure you have alternate choices in case things get a little crowded on that opening morning.

[Five Seasons]

Good advice. A GPS with your big boy pants on. Go deep in most state lands and you will find lots of great hunting and very few hunters. Most are afraid to go very deep into a forest, or unhealthy and lazy.

 

Doc says offer a little help to farmers. Good advice also but the guys that get to put footprints on my properties offered alot of help and were there to help. They also came back a couple of times to talk to see if anything had changed even after i told them i was not so sure on adding another hunter to the property. Show you are more than willing to do what it takes.

 

i hunt public land down south and a good handhelp garmin was worth every penny. I got deep off the 4 wheeler paths and shot a nice 9 point. It's amazing really how short a distance most guys go from their truck.

[CuseHunter]

Well I'll chime in... I did some looking on the GIS two years ago and asked only two of the houses I thought were really nice spots. Out of the two, the one was okay with me hunting because he was a vet and we talked about the Army for a couple minutes. WITH THAT SAID, I was supposed to have the only rights to hunt there but that was not the case. It was apparent that others have been there in the past. I left a climber stand in the woods for one night and the next day it was gone. So moral of the story, if you get rights to hunt there still treat it as public land until you establish a better feeling for the area. 

[Two Track]

What city did you refer to in another post.  There are several in the state: Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, NYC, ...

 

If you are referring to NYC, there is public land in Dutchess and Orange Counties, or go a bit further and hit the Catskills.

[Doc]

Doc says offer a little help to farmers. Good advice also but the guys that get to put footprints on my properties offered alot of help and were there to help.

Yeah, I used the term "little" to indicate that if you really don't have to become full-time slave labor, you might want to re-evaluate how much that particular hunting parcel might be worth to you. It sounds like there may be some that might go a bit overboard in exploiting the situation......lol. Not all farmers or landowners are like that.

[Curmudgeon]

Well I'll chime in... I did some looking on the GIS two years ago and asked only two of the houses I thought were really nice spots. Out of the two, the one was okay with me hunting because he was a vet and we talked about the Army for a couple minutes. WITH THAT SAID, I was supposed to have the only rights to hunt there but that was not the case. It was apparent that others have been there in the past. I left a climber stand in the woods for one night and the next day it was gone. So moral of the story, if you get rights to hunt there still treat it as public land until you establish a better feeling for the area. 

 

My brother likes to make blinds on the ground out of branches and such. He uses these for rifle season - especially opening weekend when we tend to sit tight. He had one set up on the neighbor's place where we have permission to hunt. He found out opening morning that a ladder stand had been placed directly over his blind.

 

You have no exclusive use of other's property unless that is made clear at the outset. Such an arrangement would probably require a lease.

 

The offending party that put up that stand wasn't even known to the absentee property owner. He was a friend of a friend of a friend. So many of them ended up hunting next door that we had to abandon using that property opening weekend. They even started coming over the line where they had compressed us - a situation I fixed promptly. 

 

[G-Man]

Ask in person or write letters, most people are to afraid to do either. Most that can tell you is no, some people prefer letters Esp with return envelope stamped inside. Most land owners I dealt with in the past just wanted to know if you there and where.