Hunting public land or private land

Mike Belt

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Joined
Mar 26, 1999
Messages
27,376
Location
Lakeland, Tn.
A lot of things are different now than from a few years back. Hunter numbers may be declining now but at that time they were just beginning to rise. Money wasn't as tight and you didn't have to cut every corner to make ends meet. Over the years deer hunting land became a cash cow. If I was a non hunting land owner I'd try to get as much return for my investment as possible as well.
 

JeepKuntry

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
20,213
Location
Clinton, TN
I hunt public land. I'd love the opportunity to have a private land in my area. But landowners have been burnt and they aren't willing to give it another try. I don't see it as messing with the landowner. You have a good relationship with them and you have a spot for years. I also don't see a problem with them wanting a little money out of the deal. I'm not gonna spend a couple grand on a place, but a few hundred dollars to put towards taxes or bill is the least I can do.
 

Simpleman.2

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Joined
May 9, 2015
Messages
1,800
Hunt public land 99% of the time. I love it. It's challenging at times but It makes the kills that much more satisfying!


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csi-tech

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Joined
Mar 24, 2015
Messages
828
Location
Columbia, TN.
I had a great lease in Giles and now I am alone on our family farm. I have hunted Yanhali, Williamsport, LBL and all of that wonderful paper company land back in the day (Doochen and Wilamette). No luck on public land but I have seen a few. All of my good ones came off of a private lease and I have killed a couple on the farm over the years.
 

tasaman

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Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
1,555
Location
Woodlawn, TN
I only ever had one private land spot to myself and lost it last year. Was great knowing you would show up and not be surprised that someone was in your spot or that it had been hunted to death all week long and now is burned out. That said I do ok on public land but I do put in some long hours in the stand. It took me all of the season last year to get my bucks though. Right down to the wire with 2 days left.
 

TN Whitetail Freak

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Joined
Nov 29, 2009
Messages
3,826
Location
Dyersburg,TN
harley 2008":asr5rh07 said:
I was just curious about how many of you would rather Just hunt public land rather than mess with land owners

I actually got permission to hunt on a local farmer near Fowlkes just south of dyersburg, the permission came in February of this year, he said just call him and he would find me a place to hunt. I tried to call him three times and we could never meet up due to me working or him in the fields. About that time turkey season started then i was getting decent pictures on public land and I haven't attempted to contact him since then.
 

EastTNHunter

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2-Step Enabled
Joined
Mar 8, 2010
Messages
9,452
Location
Rhea Co., TN
Other than 1 very small patch, I hunt exclusively public land. Last year all of my deer were killed on public land.

I would love to find some private land to hunt, but for now I will stick with the public land and do my best to find the lower hunter density pockets
 

Snake

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Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
48,047
Location
McMinn Co.Tennessee U.S.
I've been fortunate to have a place in Giles since early 90' and also had a great place in Lincoln but lost it when the owner got killed . I've also got 10 acres I own which I've only killed two seven pointers off of but just don't hunt it much any more due to low sightings . The company I work for let's us bow hunt their property so I really don't hunt public any more . Used to buy the Bowater permits before they started leasing their land and have killed some really decent bucks from their land . I've had permission to hunt private land before but not exclusive so others hunted it and so I opted out because of some of the attitudes other hunters had by not respecting the owners property . By leasing both parties get something out of the deal but still hunters must respect the landowner's requests and that will be my first question toward any landowner I'm trying to access his property " what do you expect from me "? If you can't comply with the owners demand then to me the agreement ends there unless a compromise can be made . We as hunters must try and understand what some landowners have had to deal with when some seem put off by hunters .
 

Hunter 257W

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Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
10,548
Location
Franklin County
I have read where several of you guys are talking about how it used to be easy to gain free access to deer hunt private property, and I'm not doubting your word, but in the Franklin county area I've never seen that in my lifetime and I'm 56. Now in the 1970's in areas where there were few to no deer, you could get free access to hunt but it was understood that meant rabbits or squirrels. As soon as deer numbers got high enough to deer hunt, I could never get permission to hunt anywhere. The reputation of deer hunters wasn't that good as it was feared they would be drunk, leave gates open and shoot cows or horses. I couldn't blame people at all for feeling that way as I knew a lot of those type characters myself - they were my classmates in school. Back then I was a flat broke teenager and the idea of paying to hunt wasn't even remotely possible even if it had been popular.

All things considered, leasing land to deer hunt is not a bad thing as it gives the landowner control regarding who is on their land and it reassures the hunter of exclusive right to hunt there. Unfortunately kids like myself who started on their own with no hunting adult in the family to pay the lease are most likely to get left out with no place to go.
 

Winchester

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2003
Messages
29,572
Location
TN
I hunt a mix of both with maybe 65% being public. I much prefer Private land but finding it even for a fee is a hard thing to do sometimes.
 

Pinwheeled

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
592
Location
Nashville, TN
I am extremely fortunate to have a nice parcel of private ground to hunt here in middle TN that I don't pay a dime to hunt. The only expectation is to keep the place posted and run out trespassers. Simple enough for me. I still hunt public ground on occasion to keep from burning up my private spot, convenience, or just a change of pace.

When I lived in IL, I was lucky enough to have access to 4 or 5 80-120ac private farms. I had great relationships with those farmers but still hunted public over half the time. My public spots were just night and day better than the private ground I had access to.


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Land Between the Lakes

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 6, 2015
Messages
694
Location
Kentucky/ Barkley Lakes
In western Kentucky finding private land is almost impossible, even if you do have the money. Because just about every single farm/property is already bought or being leased by someone else. There are people in west KY paying $5,000 plus per season to deer hunt private land, even though KY is a 1 buck state. To me that's a lot of money for 1 buck! You could probably book a trophy deer hunt in Saskatchewan, Canada for less money than what thousands of KY hunters pay to hunt private land lol.
 

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