Hunting Permission Letter

[funderburk]

One of my goals for 2020 is to acquire a free permission piece of private land. With my job, I do not have much time to travel around and knock on doors. My thought was to type up a letter and send it out to as many landowners as I can find that have desirable property hoping that at least one responds positively.

With that said, does anyone have any recommendations on what to include in such a letter and/or have an example document they’d be willing to share? Thanks for the input!

[tbunao]

http://smallacrehunting.blogspot.com/20 ... r.html?m=1

[funderburk]

http://smallacrehunting.blogspot.com/2012/06/writing-can-i-hunt-letter.html?m=1

Incredible. Thank you!

[BuffaloBill]

Meateater had a podcast episode about getting permission, called "Permissions" I believe. This guy wrote into the show about his technique writing letters.
http://easyisnotworthit.blogspot.com/20 ... ments.html

I sent out some letters a couple of seasons back. Didn't lead to any access but I did get some responses. Most of them saying that they didn't allow hunting or already had hunters. I need to try it again once our season ends and the holidays are over. I used the county GIS site and Google maps to find spots within a reasonable distance from my house. Not much risk, just the cost of stamps and envelopes.

[roosterstraw]

I did the whole letter thing. Ended up sending out close to 80 letters throughout the year. Out of the 80 letters I had one person that allowed me to hunt. If I were you I would take the time to knock on doors. I think people would rather see a face than a letter.

[Grizzlyadam]

I know at least where I'm living, a letter is much too impersonal. It's really hard to win them over that way. I need to talk face to face with someone if I ever have a realistic chance at getting permission.

[Swedishbowhunter]

I tried the letter thing, sent a lot of letters and did get a few responses, but did not get permission from anyone. I have had better luck knocking on doors.

[jman22]

I've wrote letters and have had some success. My letters are more of an ice breaker to actual face to face interaction. I got the idea from a John Eberhart book. Basically you state your intentions in a letter but instead of asking for a response, you put a date and time at which you will stop at the landowners house to personally meet them and discuss hunting. You also include your phone number and email so they can contact you if they dont want you to stop by their house. I've had some landowners call me and say not to bother stopping and others that have appreciated the "warning letter " so they had time to think things over before actually meeting me.

[Twenty Up]

I mailed out 100 letters last summer and got one text and a phone call back. Over 2 dozen letters got sent back due to changed/wrong addresses etc..

The phone call was actually a “yes” but unfortunately the landowners grandsons were bow hunting it and made a big scene...

With how much time/effort you’re going to sink into mailing letters, just knock on the doors

[Jdw]

Something that has worked for me is contacting farmers way before the season starts and establish a relationship with them.
I swap hay help and other work for permission.

Family, church and work connections are all better than cold calls.

[Sailfish_WC]

I did the whole letter thing. Ended up sending out close to 80 letters throughout the year. Out of the 80 letters I had one person that allowed me to hunt. If I were you I would take the time to knock on doors. I think people would rather see a face than a letter.

Not bad

I never got any replies

[Boogieman1]

I don’t wanna be a negative Nancy but random letters went out of style in the 80s. What to include would be a blank check if u wanna have any luck. I mean just look at the effort required. They gotta read it, correspond back, take time out to meet u, all for the grand total of zip. It’s just easier to throw it in the trash.

In today’s times, if a guy has property with deer on it he is well educated on what similar properties are getting for access. Knocking on doors isn’t much better now days.

You pretty much have got to know people to get in or have something they want to swap for hunting rights. A big plus for me is I reside in a major gun state. Many of these landowners don’t want guns blasting around there farm house or livestock. However they see me with a stickbow and figure how much damage can this guy do.

I would rather run a few adds in farm town papers atleast the calls u get from that u know wanna play ball.

Best advice I can give ya is become friendly with the banks, county, and anything else that forecloses on properties. Ranchers are another good one! They often lease grazing rights from numerous landowners and can get u in on the action.

But hey any effort is good effort and it only takes 1 to say yes. Just think getting that 1 is much much harder than it used to be. Good luck!

[Jonny]

I never did the sending letters route but I have gotten more private than I want through word of mouth and reputation. And usually what it ends up being is the owner will hunt or their kids might hunt and they just let me come and go as I please. I just know well enough that if I shoot something big I will jeopardize it.

I have permission to hunt some extended families land up near the public I hunt a lot. Way more deer on that private. But I can’t shoot any does per the owners, they have a list of young bucks I can’t shoot cause they have potential, and we all know what will happen if i shoot one of their bigger bucks. So basically I can go sit in a tree and watch deer.

[MN_DeerHunter]

I did this a few years back and got a response from a few people after putting a lot of hours into the project.

One guy did give me permission but he gave everyone permission so it was worse than public. In some areas it might work but it’s a lot of effort. I think this tactic would work well for finding new leases however.

[jteulker]

One of my goals for 2020 is to acquire a free permission piece of private land. With my job, I do not have much time to travel around and knock on doors. My thought was to type up a letter and send it out to as many landowners as I can find that have desirable property hoping that at least one responds positively.

With that said, does anyone have any recommendations on what to include in such a letter and/or have an example document they’d be willing to share? Thanks for the input!

I sent out letters last year. I gained about 100 acres and had some nice conversations with other land owners that dont allow hunting but appreciated the letter. I also had some crazy lady from Kentucky call me and chew me up and down for sending the letter and said I better not be on "HER" road. lol. But youll have that.

Anyway, I just included a nice letter telling them about myself, asking politely for permission, and thanking them for there time. I also include a real photo of their property so they know which Im writing about and a signed document i got from the Indiana DNR website taking the liability away from the land owner. If sent out quit a few this year after season waiting to here back.