How do we fix the access problem of eastern hunters?

[BAKPAKR]

I grew up in Idaho and my style of hunting for big game was to cover ground. After I moved to West Virginia, I had access to several tracts of private property. I soon learned that I am not a big stand hunter and it doesn’t take me too long to cover a 50 to 200 acre tract. Luckily, we have lots of National Forest land and several public hunting areas, so I can roam as I please.

 

[Oregon]

I lived for awhile where it was poor hunting/access.
I moved.

 

[sram9102]

I still don't understand how so many people from the eastern half of the country (I'm from IN) will drive a day plus to go hunt elk/deer out west but won't drive half a day or less to hunt whitetails... Turn on google maps and go to the closest patch of green. There is a ton of public land in the east just have to find it. In my experience if you get 1/2 a mile from a parking lot you are probably one of the few.

 

[Glendon Mullins]

I gotta agree with SRAM, I have hunted public land (and plenty of it) all my life growing up in West Virginia and Virginia. My family used to pull campers 4 hours to get to the best hunting grounds which has tons of national forest and a couple different WMA's. We don't pull campers anymore because we bought a small house/hunting camp in the late 80's and now I don't even drive the 4 hours anymore because I moved into the hunting camp. I can literally walk out my front door across my property and hit national forest and go for probably 5 miles before i come to a dirt road, which has another 4 or 5 miles of national forest on the other side of it. Lived in North Carolina for a bit, hunted some public land there too, killed a couple small bucks there. Drive to georgia every year, hunted wild pigs on a huge chunk of public there. New York has lot of public in the adirondacks. PA has alot of National Forest as well? Ohio seems to have plenty of public from what little I have researched it, of course every Ohionion tells you they are overrun. Maine i think has alot of public land. Tennessee and Kentucky have bunches of national forest as well. Not sure what access issue you guys are talkin about?

 

[camping1601]

Pa has .5 million acres of national forest, 1.5 state game lands, and around 2.1 state forest.
Also 2.1 million acres of private enrolled in the hunter access program.

No opportunity here. Best head to Colorado or Wyoming.

 

[MallardSX2]

Its an overpopulation issue at the root of most problems regaurding access and overcrowding.

Here is a solution:

Half of the people need to try to swim to Hawaii.

The other half need to start using rubbers.

Its literally that simple.

I cant tell you how many people I see having more than 2 kids in this country. Yet everyone wants to complain about the amount of hunters and people.

 

[kicker338]

I still don't understand how so many people from the eastern half of the country (I'm from IN) will drive a day plus to go hunt elk/deer out west but won't drive half a day or less to hunt whitetails... Turn on google maps and go to the closest patch of green. There is a ton of public land in the east just have to find it. In my experience if you get 1/2 a mile from a parking lot you are probably one of the few.

Don't know if you've ever hunted elk but if you haven't then give it a try and you will understand guys will go that far to hunt them.

 

[sram9102]

Don't know if you've ever hunted elk but if you haven't then give it a try and you will understand guys will go that far to hunt them.

Headed out for the first time this year. I was mainly emphasizing the lack of willingness to travel for public lands for the average easterner who thinks they have zero places to hunt. I understand the draw to western hunting.

 

[kicker338]

A great big warning for you sram, elk hunting is VERY ADDICTING be careful, you kill one and you'll be hooked for life LOL. no cure either haha.

 

[sneaky]

Agreed on the liability point. Ohio released all liability for hunters who have legal written permission.

Landowners either don’t care or are ignorant of it. “What’s in it for me?” You give them a financial incentive you will see participation. Until then you will see very few landowners be willing to open up their land to strangers.

What part of Ohio are you in? Where we hunt in Ohio we've seen two other hunters in 3 years in the whole county on private and that was a father son combo, seen a handful in the county hunting public.

I grew up at the foot of the Smoky mountains and the Cherokee National Forest. It's no different than here in the west. Get more than a 1/4 mile from a road and 95% of the locals have never seen it.

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[Brendan]

My 2 cents: I live 6-7 miles north of one of the busiest cities in the country. #1 for worst traffic in the nation this year. Trust me, if I could move to Montana, I would tomorrow.

But, I consistently get into deer and turkeys along my commute to work, great fresh and saltwater fishing. If you work, you can find some solitude, enough to get a decent hunt in. If I want to really get away from the crowds, a couple hours and I'm in National Forest in NH. Really - it's what you make of it.

With that said, really, really look forward to my trips out west... I leave on August 30th this year.

 

[Chordeiles]

I have plenty of land to hunt in Va.(National Forest, WMAs)
I’ve been hunting Muleys in Montana since ‘94. I don’t go west due to lack of opportunity. I go because it is a totally different style of hunting, that I enjoy immensely.


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[prm]

At the most basic level I think the OP has a valid point. More access to hunt will allow for more hunters. There are opportunities to hunt in the east but getting them is hard. For some, knocking on doors is not a challenge, for others it’s a roadblock. It’s certainly not conducive to getting more young people into hunting. Suggestions that incentivize land owners to allow hunting access would certainly not hurt. They would enable better game management for the state and more hunting opportunities for us hunters.

 

[Billy Goat]

I think it's a mental thing. Everyone sees the west as still being wide open.

Lots of public land in the east. Some restrictions on access but it's not bad. I frequently work on new properties that have been purchased for public access. Many are properties that are adjoining larger tracts. 20 years ago our public ground in VA was covered up in Hunter's. Not many out there now. Of course the land isn't managed as well as it could be. It's not the fault of the ones trying to manage it, it's the bureaucracy of the public land system.

Ground is out there. Especially Ohio. And if you are in Ohio look at traveling to Western PA, West Va, or Ky. Lots of options. You just need to have the same mind set as traveling west. Need to go and explore ground.

 

[willfrye027]

As mentioned above Virginia has plenty of public ground. I’m in a huge city and there are still too many places to choose from within an hour or so. I occasionally see people in the parking lot during muzzleloader or rifle season (never bowseason), but have never actually run into a person in the woods in three years of hunting here! The acreage is smaller but there is absolutely as good or better opportunity here than many places out west. Guys have a very preconceived notion about public ground here that’s just not true. Hate to let the cat out of the bag, but public land is where it’s at...these are just the nicer ones from the last two years not counting meat bucks and does. Oh and I’m basically brand new at whitetails, imagine what an experienced guy could do..
...

 

[Mojave]

It's like anything else in life. People choose where they live based on the "access" they have to whatever interests them. That may be a job, any other hobby or passion, or just restaurants and fine arts. I could ask "how do we fix the access to beaches here in Colorado". I love going to the beach, but we just don't have much access to them. Keep in mind that we do indeed have some beaches here.

A lot of locations just don't provide meaningful access to what interests us. That's why we move to where we do have access to what interests us. It's hard to force others to cooperate with your interests, as it just may not be in their "interests" to yield to your interests. I.e.......I want access to hunt your property, they want to keep their property "private".

How do we solve the problem of beaches and ocean fishing in Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. What about Nevada.

If you want some kind of millenial/z gen hand out get off your ass and move to a mountain state.

Change jobs, move the family, and build a life.

You are welcome to do that.

Please don't vote liberal, say "y'all or fixintoo", and please don't wear a tank top.

 

[Mikido]

You’re not looking hard enough.

I live in nyc, hunt 5 months out of the year, and spearfish the rest.

 

[WTFJohn]

How do we solve the problem of beaches and ocean fishing in Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. What about Nevada.

If you want some kind of millenial/z gen hand out get off your ass and move to a mountain state.

Change jobs, move the family, and build a life.

You are welcome to do that.

Please don't vote liberal, say "y'all or fixintoo", and please don't wear a tank top.

OP makes a lot of threads asking for/complaining about stuff. Best to ignore and move on, like he would after a questionable shot and no immediate blood trail.

 

[Mojave]

OP makes a lot of threads asking for/complaining about stuff. Best to ignore and move on, like he would after a questionable shot and no immediate blood trail

People will bitch about a t-bone with a ribeye on their plate.

 

[schmalzy]

So I don’t think it’s an access problem but more of a problem with people actually acting on opportunities. I live in the suburbs of Northern VA right outside DC. There are ways to get access to private property but it takes work that I don’t think people want to put into it. There is also public land that people overlook because for some reason in the east it is frowned upon. Sure there may not be opportunities for everyone to hunt on private but people that really want to find a place can put the work in for it and will find something.


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Couldn’t say it any better (I just was fixinto try though haha). Plenty of opportunities if you want to find it.


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