Any tips for getting landowner permission????

[HDRoadking3058]

It's never to late in the year to get more land to hunt. Westmoreland County (SW PA) where I live and mostly hunt I have not had much "Luck" in the permission department. One a day that I was off work before the season I rode around in my pickup and knocked on several doors. Now mind you im not a kid. 55 years old and act my age (sometimes). I was dressed well like a 55 year old lol. I was greated at these properties cordially for the most part. I told them I was a predator hunter (mostly fox) and that I was looking for some nice folks who owned some land that I could get permission to hunt on. It went kinda well until I mentioned I would be hunting during night time hours mostly. Seemed like that was the nail in the night hunting coffin. Any suggestions? I have a good bit of spots. power lines, pipe lines, some old abandoned farms bought up by development companies. But you can never have enough. How do you go about it?

[YoteSki]

the people i have talked to were hesitant to give me permission too.  then i started taking my red lights and calls with me and showing them and kinda demonstrating what i do.  after that i haven't had a problem at all they find it kind of intriguing actually,  and i reassure them they probably wont even know i'm there.  cause the time i'm there,  their probably in never ever land!

[Bowman66]

Groundhogs blow the predator door wide open! Meaning, spring time start hitting the farmers up for groundhog hunting, groundhogs are a problem for the farmers, they keep your shooting skills on point and once the farmer see's your helping him out, he will be a lot more likely to help you out with a place to predator hunt.

[Misterjake23]

     I have farmers begging me to shoot ground hogs, and like Bowman said.....that opens the door for the fall to predator hunt.

[j76clev2]

HDRoadking3058 we live in abouts the same area.  I have the same problem, but tack on being a 26 year old "kid" covered in tattoos, big beard and holes in my ear about as big a round as an 30-06 shell.  I am always respectful but sometimes i cant even get land owners to open the door,  I usually try and target farmers with sheep or goats they seem to be very quick to give the green light as they usually have lost a couple head due to predators.  Also check out PA tax map for your county it can help you establish important information such as parcel owner's name and phone numbers.  Its all public record. You will be surprised what kind of info you can find online!

[Shovelheadave]

Your appearance does matter. And the first 20 seconds of your conversation sets the tone for your contact.
I'm sleeved but, cover up and dress appropriately when I'm knocking on doors. I NEVER knock on doors with short sleeves.

I had business cards made up......thats the ice breaker.

"Good morning......I'm not trying to sell you anything (laugh). My name is Dave, I just wanted to take a moment to give you my card and introduce myself. I see that you have (chickens, ducks, sheep.....whatever). Have you been having any predation problems ?"

That gets the conversation going and reminds them about those chickens they lost a few months back.

Turn on the charm, remember that you are there to help them with a problem. Be interested in what they have to say and look them in the eye. People like working with people that are polite, respectful and professional. Sounds silly but, it matters.

[scott]

also, in that converasation make sure you offer some type of assistance.  working farm, you might want to offer to bail hay for a 1/2 day, move cattle.   most won't take you up on it.   some will.   

some of the stuff i do on a yearly basis.   trap problem groundhound and relocate, clean a chimney, move sheep from a pen to a truck for the butcher, but i always offer.   

also, once i get a property i don't forget it.  i take a small something to each PO for Christmas. 

[Shovelheadave]

also, once i get a property i don't forget it.  i take a small something to each PO for Christmas.

Excellent point !!

Pies at Thanksgiving and plate of cookies with the end-of-the-year update.

[j76clev2]

I've had luck also with sportsman club's lease properties. They pay a lot of money for stocked birds and they like to keep them alive (youth hunts are big events at most clubs)  Predation doesn't help the cause so you might luck out and gain access to help keep birds and small game alive.  It's a win win for everyone.  I also always offer to help out on any property i gain access to it goes along way.

[shadowchaser]

Date the owners daughter or close relative.

[uncle buck]

Once they trust you they will allow you in some instances even to hunt deer. Some land owners not all!
Keep an eye out when you hunt their land. If you see possible criminal activity tell them about it. Even call the police on 911 if you know it's criminal! They like that your watching their land and equipment!

[Dale]

like Bowman said above, GROUNDHOGS are the ticket to a lot of hunting... among other places, I had all but one farm tied up north of Schafferstown between 501 and 491 all the way up to Reistville road... got in and started shooting hogs for a couple of places and after the word got around had people stop along the road when they'd see my car or partners truck and come out to ask if we could shoot pigs for them...  had places tell me we could shoot gh's but no deer hunting... till fall rolled around we had all of those places to hunt fox at night plus a bunch more would have let us in for deer...

be respectful, dress decent, have equipment available to show the land owners if they need a little more convincing... we had one place that was leery of letting us in to shoot groundhogs, because of the loud report of centerfire rifles around his dairy herd, but when I told him we mostly shot 22 Hornets that turned him around and it turned out to be one of our better spots for everything... I believe what I told him was, "we shot hornets to keep from scaring the women folk and upsetting the laying hens"...  a small bag of penny candy for the kids once in a while, a $2.00 bouquet of flowers for the haus frau works wonders...

we had business cards made up that I gave to anyone I talked to, even if they didn't need our services, in case a neighbor needed help they could pass the info on... I also had a one page letter that had our names, addresses, phone numbers and a bit of info about us, years experience hunting, membership in clubs {NRA, PPHA, etc} and a listing of hunter safety courses etc that we'd attended... this was given to all the people that gave us permission to hunt, it gave them a solid reference to us if they needed to contact us about anything...

hope some of these pointers will help y'all get more properties to hunt... I just wish we had groundhogs down here in coastal Carolina, but the soils way to sandy, they can tunnel in...