As hunters we all know the constant struggle of finding and keeping hunting land available. With the constant selling and leasing land it seems that we are loosing more and more of our favorite whitetail sanctuaries. One way to help keep the properties available for us to enjoy is to show your respect and appreciation to the landowner and his/her land.
I have been very fortunate to be able to hunt some very good and well proven pieces of property over the last 20 years. I believe the reason I have been able to keep this opportunity is respect and appreciation. I always treat the land and landowner with respect and show them my appreciation. Dan Gorman and I probably spend more time on this land than the landowner himself, scouting and setting hanging new stands. Which also allows us to help the landowner keep and eye on the property all year long.
As many of you know Dan runs cameras all year long on this property trying to stay ahead of the deer and constantly learning us new tactics to hopefully give us and encounter with a Iowa Monster Buck. So in the spring time when we’re scouting new places to hang camera we loosen all the straps on our stands so that it doesn’t damage the tree. This is one of the requests of the landowner. We also try to pay attention to what kind of trees we hang our stands in. Some of you may be thinking, what does that matter? Well this particular landowner logs his timber out every few years to better his timber by allowing younger trees the room to grow. So we try to stay away from the sellable trees and hang our sets in the trees that wont be sold. Also paying attention to what trees we trim for our shooting lanes. Its just another one of the ways we pay our respect to the landowner and the land.
About 3-4 years ago a piece of ground we used to hunt adjacent to our other hunting property got leased out to a farmer for his cattle and we no longer had permission to hunt there. We would sit in our stand we have 75yds from the property line and watch all the deer of our dreams constantly walk back and forth on the other side of the fence. It was almost like they were taunting us! For the past 3-4 years I’ve tried and tried to gain permission to hunt that property again, only to be shut down year after year. This year was different we have permission again! We wasted no time to get a stand hung and we are beyond excited to see what this year has to bring! Now I’m not sure if it’s just luck that got me permission again. I would like to think it’s the respect and appreciation I have given the landowners over the past 20yrs that helped me out. By respect I mean: if I didn’t have permission to be somewhere I didn’t go there, I always try to leave the land better than I found it, take out all your trash and didn’t damage anything, if the landowner asked for help with something I try my best to be there to help them.
Another thing we have done in the years past is to get the landowner something in return. It doesn’t have to be anything big, just something to show your gratitude. It could be something like a gift card to a restaurant for him and his family to enjoy a nice dinner on you or put together a goodie basket of deer meat, cheese and crackers. Whatever it may be that you decide to do, just remember it’s their land and at any given moment without warning you could loose your favorite fall playground. So showing your appreciation and respect to the landowner and his/her land really does pay off!
