Out of state permission??

[Mwilson]

Has anyone had any luck getting out of state, mainly Midwest, private land permission to hunt deer? im from the southeast where deer aren’t as big, and super pressured. If so how did you go about gaining the permission? Looking to make an attempt at this. Any and all tips and info welcomed

 

[Recurveaholic]

Fellow pressured deer Hunter from NC following......

 

[cdg097]

Being from Michigan, I am in the same boat as you. Lots of pressure here, and the mindset of hunters is to shoot the first legal buck, so seeing a mature animal is slim and none. Many of my friends have been going out of state for years, and go with the intentions of hunting public land, but will knock on doors when they get out there and most of them have pretty good success. Other than that I have no advice for you. Will be following to see what others are doing!

 

[Mwilson]

Being from Michigan, I am in the same boat as you. Lots of pressure here, and the mindset of hunters is to shoot the first legal buck, so seeing a mature animal is slim and none. Many of my friends have been going out of state for years, and go with the intentions of hunting public land, but will knock on doors when they get out there and most of them have pretty good success. Other than that I have no advice for you. Will be following to see what others are doing!

I hadn’t thought about the door knocking idea once there. That’s pretty good, thank you

 

[timekiller13]

You may be surprised at how pressured those mid west deer are. I hunted Ohio a few times and vowed I would never go back. I hunted both public and private land. Boat loads of trespassers on private and tons of pressure on public.

 

[Mwilson]

You may be surprised at how pressured those mid west deer are. I hunted Ohio a few times and vowed I would never go back. I hunted both public and private land. Boat loads of trespassers on private and tons of pressure on public.

That’s pretty depressing. I’ve always heard about Kansas, or Illinois and Iowa and how the deer aren’t near as spooky or skiddish as they are here in Georgia

 

[cdg097]

You may be surprised at how pressured those mid west deer are. I hunted Ohio a few times and vowed I would never go back. I hunted both public and private land. Boat loads of trespassers on private and tons of pressure on public.

I think this is all relative honestly. Also, mindset plays into it as well. I have a lot of friends who have been hunting Ohio for years and run into very few people there. It depends on where you go. The Midwest also has a mindset where they refuse to shoot small bucks as well, so the chances of seeing bigger, mature animals goes way up.

 

[Mwilson]

it Does seem that the majority of the south is in a ”if it’s brown, it’s down” mindset. To each their own I guess, but it does make it hard to have a chance at a big mature deer when the neighbors seem to shoot anything.

 

[timekiller13]

States like Iowa or Kansas would be better due to limited tag availability for non-residents. I had terrible experiences in Ohio. I have had good experiences in Kentucky. I have a buddy who does very well on public land in Indiana and Missouri.

 

[TheArdentOutdoorsman]

I've hunted all over the midwest not to mention grew up there. I find knocking on doors typically reveals alot of annoyed landowners. They get bugged much more than you think, my grandparents own only 18 acres in Ohio and they get asked 2-3 times every year by a stranger. I wish ALL states would have restrictions on non residents. We wouldnt be able to just up and run to a state for hunting but when we did it would provide a higher quality experience. I see a TON of people spending lots of money and time on trips that yield very little, if anything at all.

 

[Billy Goat]

How much time do you have to put into it?

In my experience whitetail hunting takes a lot of time. Finding the area or a property to hunt. Finding the bedding and feed areas. Finding the traffic corridors. Then finding a mature deer that might or might not exist in the area.

I have hunted Ohio and Kentucky and also lease land 3 hours from where I live in an area that bigger deer are killed routinely.
I shoot bigger deer right here around home and I think it's because of being able to pick the right days to hunt instead of trying to hunt everyday of a trip, and I can spend more time hunting here than anywhere else I go.

So point being I think if you want to hunt the Midwest the way to do it might really be to go through an outfitter who already knows the ground, the deer, and has stands setup. I always like the diy stuff so that's not how I'd do it, so if I make another trip to hunt whitetail I'll do it like a trip out west and plan on being there for 2.5-3 weeks.

 

[Corey Paulsen (teamkabob)]

Most of my land I get to hunt is from connecting with friends or word of mouth from someone I know. Kansas I hunt private and Missouri I hunt public since I hunt where other people over look. Look at Missouri’s MDC page and if you bow hunt your in business since you can find some land that’s really productive. Missouri is just like other stated during the opening weekend of rifle and most clear out after the weekend. It can be tough gaining access to land close to KC; as stated above cross off areas somewhat close to big cities. I what states are you looking at?

 

[wytx]

Find some areas that have lots of ag and you'll find farmers that think they have too many deer.
I have had good luck first asking if they allow hunting, via phone, if they waffle I ask about trespass fee hunting.
If they still are iffy I go to doe hunting and that usually leads to a buck hunt at some point. I also make sure to let them know I will be by for a face to face meeting so they know who I am. Make an offer to do some work for them as well while you are out for your hunt.

 

[Mwilson]

Most of my land I get to hunt is from connecting with friends or word of mouth from someone I know. Kansas I hunt private and Missouri I hunt public since I hunt where other people over look. Look at Missouri’s MDC page and if you bow hunt your in business since you can find some land that’s really productive. Missouri is just like other stated during the opening weekend of rifle and most clear out after the weekend. It can be tough gaining access to land close to KC; as stated above cross off areas somewhat close to big cities. I what states are you looking at?

I do. Bowhunting only

 

[ICU_RN]

Northern IN keeps getting worse in terms of finding a place to hunt. Unless one leases or owns land, private usually has no tresspassing written all over it or 15 people already have permission. Public land is a joke. A 200 acre chunk of public 10 minutes from me had 23 tree stands still up when I walked it looking for sheds...and over half of the land is prairie grass!

 

[T3clay]

I have gotten permission by knocking in doors in Texas ( over 1000 acres) Minnesota (probably 5000 acres), And Wisconsin (100 acres). The key is to finding properties that people don't own for the sole purpose of hunting, find farms with very little wooded areas or no wooded areas. One of my best spots was a corn field with a strip of grass 10' wide and a few hundred yards long, saw tons of bucks that would come out of the neighbors property to check the grass for does.

 

[Corvus Corax]

Check with the wildlife agency in the sates you’re interested in and see if they have any state run private land access programs. Washington, Montana and others have programs that incentivize land owners to allow access to their land for hunting. Or at the very least offer money to land owners to offset impacts of allowing access. These range from “feel free to hunt” to “hunt by online reservation only.” I’d have to guess a few midwest states have some kind of comparable system in place.

 

[Newtosavage]

I have no better advice than just get out there and knock on doors. Spend a little time in the area. Offer to come up and work for a week in the summer before the hunting season. If you tell a landowner "I am looking for a place where I can work for a week this summer in exchange for a place to hunt" that might get you further toward your goal. Anyone not willing to spend a week working on a person's farm really doesn't have enough skin in the game IMO. Every place I've gained permission to hunt on private land (dozens of places now), I've put in sweat equity before I ever set foot on the place to hunt. That almost guarantees me multi-year hunting privileges.

A week of 10-hour days is about $1K worth of labor, depending on what they have you doing. At the place I have now, I put about 60-80 hours on a tractor every summer/fall, in addition to another 20-40 hours of manual labor for the right to hunt about 100 acres with 5 doe tags. That's basically the equivalent of paying $2K for a 100-ac. hunting lease, or $20/ac. The landowner is getting a good deal, and can keep her property enrolled in the wildlife management program because of my work.

I only take 3 does/year off that place for my own freezer. You could argue that those does cost me about $700 each, or $20/lb. LOL I probably shouldn't think of it that way though.

 

[Rich M]

That’s pretty depressing. I’ve always heard about Kansas, or Illinois and Iowa and how the deer aren’t near as spooky or skiddish as they are here in Georgia

Nope - just as skittish.

 

[Newtosavage]

Nope - just as skittish.

Not my experience at all with Illinois and Missouri deer. Dumb as bricks compared to the Texas whitetails I grew up hunting. This is just based on my own experience of chasing both for many years. As they say, YMMV but I can tell you I got away with things in Illinois and Missouri that I never, ever got away with in Texas. Multiple times. Folks up there may want to believe their deer are skittish, but I'd disagree based on my experience. Deer in those areas of the midwest remind me of mule deer. Stand there and stare at you while you shoot them. Crazy.