Finding Places to Hunt

It took time and effort but I found private property to hunt on and here is how I did it. Go to the county web site then go to the county tax assessor page. I found a county map that I could expand larger and larger until lots and boundary lines were visible. I was then able to select a piece of property and find out who owned the property. A little further snooping I found the address of the property owners. With the address information I sent the owners letters requesting their permission to hog hunt on their property. In the letters I included back ground information about myself. Include any information that gives you credibility like I'm an Eagle Boy scout. I also included pictures of hogs on or near their property. I encouraged them to call me and I included my email address and a self addressed stamped envelop so they could respond 3 different ways. I mailed out 15 or 20 letters to property owners and 3 of them granted me permission to hunt their property, one of them had 140 acres (Bingo). A few property owners called me on the phone. I actually became friends with one property owner even though he never did give me permission to hunt his property. We meet once a week for a couple of beers. It pays to get to know the locals.

Smart move!

I mailed out 3 letters to the Cedar Key area asking for permission to hunt private property. Received NO replies either way,,,nothing.
Not sure if I should try another contact and offer work for permission to hunt or forget it. I probably should have offered something
to begin with. Maybe personal contact would be effective?

What could (??)be happening down in the Cedar Key area - - -> There are several guided canned hunting areas down that way now. The operators of these businesses could be paying trappers and/or landowners to take the hogs off the property and move the animals into the high fence areas.
This could be why none of the local land owners want to let anyone hunt their property. --- pruhdlr

Oh ya, Tiger Island Outfitters is there and they offer hog hunts where clients shoot 3 hogs for a few hundred bucks. They would kill
a bunch of hogs in a weeks time so I would assume they would need to import new hogs all the time. Sounds like a canned hog hunt to me but they receive positive reviews. On the other hand I probably did 50 hog hunts last winter and only bagged 3 hogs. Now figure the time I spent putting down bait and checking the trail camera,,,,,those 3 hogs took many hours to kill. On the other hand I had nothing else to do and the tree stand is only a mile from where the motorhome is setup. My goal is more hunting area so I'm not hunting the same area all the time. I'm new at hog hunting, only at it for 2 years

Getting land owner permission can be an instruction into human psychology. I know a guy who owns 12K acres of unhunted citrus groves down near Venus Fl. He likes wild game meat. Over 3 years I supplied him with 3 processed does and 7 or 8 eatable hogs. Then I told him I was out of places to hunt and if he wanted more he would have to give me permission to hunt his land... He declined.
He still pesters me every year to give him meat..and I stick to my guns that if he wants me to supply it he will have to let me harvest it off his land.

I think the worst reason (for me) not allowing hunting , is we have road hunters, neighbors with no respect for private property and most times , when we have allowed some hunting, persons abuse the privilege and invite friends, then the friends invite friends, i have to pick up trash, close gates, then start pissing people off telling them "no more", takes 3 months before everyones friensd gets the message that my land is not a public park, so we just stopped allowing hunting and i like to hunt hogs as well (not to be a dick) but its rare to find someone that cares enough to not be a pain, also a lot of land in my area is recreational, so most owners are out if town and don't won't people using there land for the reason they purchased it

Then there are the old farmers that have hogs. In some cases,hogs doing damage to their crops. Their son,nephew, brother,etc,etc,has convinced them that they can take care of the problem for them.
They hunt when they have time,in the middle of the day,with their kids laughing and talking,etc,and almost never kill a hog. They do not use any kind of NV or thermal. In some cases they have the old farmer convinced that they are "taking care of the problem".
I ask the farmer how many hogs have been killed and the answer is always . . . . "oh several". I tell them that you have to kill 70% of the hogs on your property,just to maintain the existing number. They obviously do not believe that. They feel that if you kill "several" . . . . problem solved.
Add to this,the reasons mentioned above,and we actually feel pretty lucky with the places we have to hunt now. --- pruhdlr

I lease 140 acres near Homosassa and I have a stone quarry in Iowa where I can shoot anytime I want to. Both places I acquired just by asking for it. Both places are golden to me. I spend days picking up litter around the leased property in Homosassa, and there is plenty of it. The stone quarry has a grassy area where other people shoot. I decided I would mow the grass weekly and take care of litter, trash, and spent shells. I'll do anything to keep the welcome mat out.

I became an Eagle Boy Scout 50 years ago and decided then I would live the Boy Scout motto the rest of my life and that is
"do a good deed everyday". Make something better, help a lady change a flat tire, anything. It is part of my daily routine.

jglass said:

I became an Eagle Boy Scout 50 years ago and decided then I would live the Boy Scout motto the rest of my life and that is
"do a good deed everyday". Make something better, help a lady change a flat tire, anything. It is part of my daily routine.

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Exactly, if more people were like you, it would be a better place, i have a business where we are contracted work on other properties, its standard to pick up trash around our work area regardless of who dropped it, I don't want anyone saying it was ours

chthump said:

Exactly, if more people were like you, it would be a better place, i have a business where we are contracted work on other properties, its standard to pick up trash around our work area regardless of who dropped it, I don't want anyone saying it was ours

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Exactly, I tell the others I invited to hunt the lease with the same thing, they are on board as well, good guys

most land owners that don't allow people to kill hogs have been burned in the past by hunters. ive heard stories about people leaving trash all over, leaving gates open, getting stuck in the middle of the night, and then wanting the land owners to come pull them out. if you can build a good trusting relationship with a land owner, the word will get out, and you'll have no problem finding places to hunt. one place we hunt we get the land owner a gift card to a local steakhouse to show our appreciation.

I've been trying to accumulate free land to hunt on for close to 10 years now. I currently have 6 properties to hunt, 5 dairy farms and 1 ranch. Only the ranch has hogs. I cannot afford a lease so I had 10,000 business cards made up that basically say I can rid your place of predators if you give me free access to your property. My kids and I would drive around on pretty days and put them in ranchers mailboxes. I had zero luck the first 3 years and then I got lucky, a dairy farmer who's wife was giving him grief because her outside cats were coming up missing. I killed 14 red fox in 1 month and then he started spreading the word that he liked me, thought I was trustworthy, and that I fixed his problem. After that people started calling me. Moral of the story is don't give up and try anything to get land to hunt because eventually it will pay off.

We have "buisness" cards also. We give them to farmers that we see working outside. We put them on the bulletin boards at the CO-OP's and farmers feed stores. They are handed out at the deer,hog,coyote siminars that we attend. --- pruhdlr

pruhdlr said:

We have "buisness" cards also. We give them to farmers that we see working outside. We put them on the bulletin boards at the CO-OP's and farmers feed stores. They are handed out at the deer,hog,coyote siminars that we attend. --- pruhdlr

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So, do you put "Have Gun, Will Travel" on them?