Photo sent with a letter requesting permission to hunt.
Oh no, the hunting seasons are closed now what is a hunter to do?
- Fish
- Hike
- Excercise
- Practice Shooting
- Get permission to hunt
All the above are good wholesome & entertaining. Personally, I put #5 up to number one. Even though I own land, I still continue securing permission to hunt on other parcels, sometimes I trade with another willing landowner. Occasionally, some high-quality ambitious hunters contact me for permission to access my land. The initial contact varies from phone calls to stopping by the house. Nine times out of 10 the unannounced house visit is the least likely to catch me home or with time to visit. Those call first to arrange a visit generally get a more favorable response. With the exception of turkey season, someone is hunting my property during all hunting seasons; bear, deer, squirrels, fox, coyotes and trappers. But I digress, that is not the point of this post.
A party of hunters sent me the above picture of those who would like to hunt my land along with a well thought out letter to “sell” me on the idea. Excerpt from the body of the letter.
Hello my name is Steve, my son, grandson and a family friend are looking for a place to hunt. We are looking forsome quality deer hunting land, we practice quality deer management. But we are not just trophy hunters we love to ear venison and will harvest does if allowed.
We understand the need to keep the deer population at a reasonable level, to reduce crop damage an over browsing. We are very safe and ethical hunters who are looking to pass on those values to the next generation. We always abide by state and federal regulations. Safety is a major concern for us, we all wear safety belts. We have liability insurance to protect you from any lawsuits, etc. We understand that your land is valuable and very important to you and your family, we will treat the land with the utmost respect, by not cutting down trees, erecting permanent stands, driving in fields causing ruts, leaving litter or any other debris. In a nutshesll we leave the property as we found it or better.
They continue by offering the possibility of a modest lease payment to offset taxes and being flexible to hunt around the time slots of my family members or friends who may be currently hunting, in closing, I am invited to call them. In my nutshell, this is a very straightforward persuasive approach, and it’s the first I’ve ever received an introductory letter of this type. The letter gives the impression of some top notch hunters, and I would have granted them permission to hunt this year had there been an opening. Their contact information will be kept, and they’ll be contacted for a time to hunt.
FirstBubba says
My parents allowed me to leave the house with a vehicle at age 14.
I always took a buddy with me. We spent lazy summer days driving (gas was 20 cents a gallon and min wage was 75 cents an hour!) backwoods roads in search of working farmers. We offered our meager (youthful exuberance) services in exchange for hunting/fishing permission.
Cover up your tats. Remove your ear, nose, eyebrow, cheek, lip and tongue rings.
Dress code should be clean and not be full of ragged holes…stylish or not.
Leave your beer and other mind altering substances at home.
Remember to say “Ma’am” AND “Sir”
ESPECIALLY “ma’am”! LOL! (Older folks love it when you’re polite to their womenfolk!)
Even a “No.” should get a “Thank you.”
Look them in the eye.
Introduce yourself and offer your hand.
…and leave your political statement “T shirt” at home too!
Charlie says
Do those who wear
hunt?
Tracy says
Yes, they do. I know more than one person with lots of piercings who hunts. Not a huge fan of that kind of body art myself, but to each their own. Character goes more than skin-deep.
Charlie says
My thinking is from the practicality perspective. 25 below was the coldest day when I shot a turkey Metal is an excellent conductor of temperature, so I have no desire to put metal in my skin on a day like that.
Nor would I want to shoot a bow with a nose ring. A real potential OUCH! there.
FirstBubba says
I was watching a “major” hunting DVD I had just bought.
Two of the hunters on one episode sported ear rings. BOTH ears!
One of those had a neck tattoo.
The other had tats covering his forearms and hands.
Haven’t bought a hunting video since.
Call it OFS!
Tracy says
Personally, the only way I would grant someone permission to hunt land I owned would be after a face-t0-face meeting. No letters, and certainly no phone calls. It’s too easy for someone to disguise their true self over the phone or by letter. Not quite so easy in person. If a complete stranger called or wrote me a letter asking to hunt, I would consider that a turn-off. Just my 2 cents…
Charlie says
Agree, letters and phone calls make a good pre-approach followed up with a face to face meeting of all the hunters involved. Anyone who gets permission to hunt here gets an in-person tour of the boundaries. With today’s technology anyone can check public records for violations.