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On Paying to Hunt.....

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huskergun:
I agree with Jim 100%. I have 4 private places that I hunt in Eastern Nebraska with great deer and turkey hunting along with fishing and really good mushroom hunting. I have built a relationship with each on of these farmers. I try to go out and just visit from time to time along with helping them with things if I can. I send them Christmas cards, give them wild salmon and some of the shroom harvest (if I get enough).
 They all have pretty much given me free use of their land anytime I want. I am blessed to have this. I take care of the land like it is mine own, leaving it better than I found it.
 They love it when I bring my daughter out with me also.

 One tip I use to  start the process is rather than go driving up and down gravel roads stopping at every property knocking on doors find a place  that looks promising (use platt maps and areil photos) and send them a letter. Farmers are busy and some times when you just stop by you are being bothersome and they really don't want to talk to you. So, send them a letter explaining who you are and that you would like to sit down with them at thier convenience if possible to talk about doing some hunting on thier land. Include a self addressed stamp envelope with your letter and wait for thier reply. After a few weeks you may want to follow up with them in another letter if you have not got a response.
 
 By doing the above things you are showing them that you respect them, thier family, thier time and thier land. Most of the time I have found that this will at least get one foot in the door. After that you have to continue to respect the landowner and follow all the rules.
 

Wildgoose:
Interesting topic. I guess there is a lot to think about here and at this point I am not sure where I would stand. I can give you my story to add to the information on how I came to rent the ground I hunt on. For years I hunted for free and shared the area with others. The land owner knew me well and there were never any problems. He came to me about ten years ago and said that he was tried of getting grief from neighbors about the fact that he let people form Lincoln hunt on his properties. So he decided that he would charge a modist fee to have reserved hunting rights for each area. He offered them to those who felt he was allowing outsiders to hunt first. They turned the offers down so he then made the offers to those of us who were from outside the area that had been using the land and had a proven record of respect for the property and the rights of neighboring landowners. This solved the issues and has for a long time worked well for all involved. I am not making any kind of statement with this, just telling you what took place with me. To the best of my knowledge this is not the norm in the rest of the area that I hunt in and most still do it with just permission to make use of the land. I can say that over the years there have only been a couple of times that tresspassing has happened and in those cases the landowner has been able to take care of it by just calling the warden or sherrif to deal with it and does not have to confront the persons himself. If I am not with them they are tresspassing. Much safer for him as he has had some pretty scary confrontations with tresspassers in the past. 

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