Wanted - Lease Land

[Philo]

Looking for wooded land to lease for the 3B deer hunting season. Will pay for exclusive access. Prefer land near Rochester.

[Rost]

Philo- I am not trying to bash you here. I am just wondering why you would want to lease land to hunt on? Have you tried scouting around and talking with land owners?

[Philo]

Rost - no offense taken, reasonable question.
My request for lease land comes about as a result of several years of hunting in the area with permission. Sorry I have to vent. Last year was really bad. I had someone walk in on me (right by my truck) while sitting in my tree stand opening morning. He then proceeded to shoot a doe about 30 yards from me. (He asked me what I wanted him to do with the deer - drag it out now or later - like it really matters at that point) Later that weekend I was sitting in a tree stand and a kid drove up on his four wheeler at about dusk (illegal). He asked me what I was doing and I told him. He immediately left the area and presumably told his father. Well, when I got home I got the call to get the hell out of that area. The only problem with this call was that the guy who called me didn't even own the land. I had permission to hunt there and this guy still thought I shouldn't be hunting in that area. Later that week, I had a farmer chew me out because I was on his land he rented for farming. (I had permission from the owner of the land-same owner as in the four wheeler incident)
I am hoping that leasing land will take care of some of these problems. I want my hunt to be peaceful and last year was anything but that as I spent a great deal of time explaining myself.
Anyone else have these issues while hunting?

[Swamp Scooter]

Philo,

Sorry to hear about the bad time. What area do you go to? It is hard getting kicked out of land you have permission to hunt but it may be time to find another spot. Not sure what area you go but I hunt public land and have had to go to the backwoods to find my own area.

If it is accessable by atv or anyone just walking through you should probably move back farther. It stinks to drag a deer out the additional mile up and down hills but you are at least away from others.

Good luck.

[MikeYager - Suzuki]

You may want to place an add in a local paper of the area you are interested in. Put something in there that shows your level of maturity and best yet that you will be hunting alone. This worked for my brother in Michigan and he got a super spot. After earning the respect of the land owner I don't think they would accept his money in later years. He took a trophy on this land. There's lots of land out there off limits thay may open up with the prospect of a decent person hunting it and money in the pocket. Seems logical.

[Iceman77]

Since moving to Minnesota 3 years ago I have run into a few instances on public land and 1 instance on land that I was given permission to hunt on. After I explained the situation and who allowed me permission to hunt on that property he left me alone. The best thing I have done to this point to get exclusive rights to hunt on property is to help out farmers in the areas I want to hunt. I was raised on a farm and know what needs to be done so I can be a great benefit to them especially around harvest when more help is needed. In turn they allow me to hunt on their land and other farmers who own land nearby greatly appreciate the fact that someone is willing to do some labor to help them out so they are willing to allow me to hunt on their property also. Most farmers I know would rather have a polite person to help them out a few weekends out of the year than to receive a small cash sum. Also this creates a good relationship between landowners and hunters alike. I still own some agricultural land with some excellent hunting sloughs in N.D. and have been offered money for exclusive hunting rights. Each time I have turned the offer down due to the fact that I don't appreciate leased hunting nor do I own the game that happens to be on my land.

[kpj5br]

I have leased hunting land for the past 3 years, for the exact reasons that Philo states.

Before reading on, I should note that two years ago, I killed my buck on public land, not the private land I leased, so yes I know it exists and is accessible and productive, but I could write a book on that particular experience, suffice it to say I shot that deer on a Wednesday.

But I want to express why I continue to lease land (already have a paid lease for this year as well).

Here's the trouble: I am not native Minnesotan, I've only been here a little less than 5 years, so I don't have the long family lines and relationships that go into hunting most of the private land in the area.

Scouting around and gaining permission was my first choice. It's not easy to do, at least for me. I tried for two months my first season living in MN, without success. Quite honestly, I was told by many farmers that their relatives from 2 or 3 states came in during season to make big drives on the land, so he couldn't take anyone else on.

Not that these aren't nice people, 99% of them I met, were extremely nice, and offered tips, and one I even still am friends with to this day, but the point is, it's really not productive, especially when the hunt area is 100 or more miles from home when you live in the metro, and we have work and kids and wife to deal with on a daily basis as well.

Then of course, you have the experiences that Philo mentioned, and I have had those myself (I can tell some stories about them, trust me).

So after that first year, I looked into leasing. Yes, it costs money. Yes, I think it's absurd.

But it solves a problem for someone like me, basically it gives me an opening weekend spot, that I can pre-scout, setup stands/blinds, and have confidence I at least have a little patch of land that won't have an ATV, 60 people making a god-forsaken deer drive (which I don't believe in) right in front of my stand (which happened, it was insane, a "sea of orange").

Then I do this: If I'm not productive on opener on the leased land, I go to a backup spot on public land, and by then the crazy weekend is over, and a guy can find a hunting spot to himself and enjoy some time in the woods.

I know a lot of the native Minnesotans think this is crazy. All my buddies at work harrass over it. But I respond to them with this: You have yet to open up "your spot" to an "outsider"...

[fivebucks]

I hunt the public land way up north so I don't run into these problems but I can see that there would be problems. There are alot of landowners who will let you bird hunt but deer hunting is almost religious where they practically wouldn't let their own brother hunt their land. I also have alot of places that I cannot pheasant hunt until after slug season. I can see where you are coming from Philo and I am glad I drive way up north to get away from the sea of orange.

[CRAPPIEBAIT]

I like to pick up a copy of the list that shows which land owners have recieved free "land owner" tags in my hunting area.Then I'll approach them a couple weeks b/4 deer season and intrduce myself.Land owners who get free tags are "supposed" to allow public hunting on their land.They do have the right to refuse you as well.But,If I intruduce myself b/4 the season,I usually can get 1 or 2 of them to let me on if hunting is slow in my area.Most of them seem to be alright with it.Just be sure to ask PERMISSION.

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Greg

[bigbucks]

I've seen that mentioned in the hunting manual where it talks about the landowner deer license. I think it's at the courthouse of the county the land's in, but I'm not sure. It says it in the manual.

[bigbucks]

It does say that they have to allow public hunting to at least one person (nonrelative, but could be their hunting buddy who already hunts with them) I believe, but only during the season the license is for & not for the first two days of that season. That means if they get it for a 4A season for instance they don't have to allow anybody to hunt, the way we've read it.

In the same token, the chances are pretty decent if the guys doesn't want a bunch of people asking to hunt his land, he won't by that license.

[korn_fish]

I feel the pain on this even as a LANDOWNER. It's taken over 10 years to get trespassing down to a manageable level. But that is a side note.

I know it is frustrating with that farmer that rented the land to kick you off, and same with the 4 wheeler, but I have to ask this question because I really am not sure about it.

Is driving a 4 wheeler outside of the times stated by the DNR include all people or just people with a deer tag for that weekend? I thought I read it as just for deer hunters that had a tag for the weekend. Not trying to say anything on what happend in this case, but just looking for general law.

As for the owner/farmer that rented the land and the renter kicking someone off, I beleive you actually need to get permission from the person that rents the land. Just having permission from the actuall owner is not enough. Usually in the contract there is a clause on what activities the "lease" covers. If there is no clause, then the renter has the last say. I am pretty sure on this one. But laws may have changed in the past 5 years and I could now be wrong.

These frustrations are one of the reasons I switched to bow hunting on public land. I have found less pressure there than I found on our own land

[BLACKJACK]

korn fish, I don't understand these quotes from you?!
"It's taken over 10 years to get trespassing down to a manageable level."
"I have found less pressure there than I found on our own land".

Do you have it posted? Have you called the sheriff? Is the land so remote that you can't watch it? It sucks that people are so disrespectful of others property!!

[Willy]

I see where this guy is coming from as I have had the same thing happen to me.

However leasing land isn't what I like to hear. See a lot of the spots that we used to get permission to hunt on, are now leased up by some big city rich man and now we are out of a spot to hunt.

It doesn't really seem fair that just because someone has the money to lock up a spot that they should be the only ones to get good hunting.

But to each his own and there is nothing you can do about it.

[jlm]

I have questioned the land rental thing for many years and still have never gotten a straight answer. The way I understand it now is that the land may only be utilized by the renter for the purpose for which it is rented. For example, a farmer may only "farm" the land and has no other "right" to the land unless it is specifically stated in the rental or lease contract. If it were the other way around (renter has exclusive rights beyond just farming), the renter could kick the land owner off during deer season...that does not make much sense to me. Any legal people out there that can clear this up for us? I sure would like to get a clear answer!

[jbdragon]

Where do you get a list like that?

[korn_fish]

Blackjack,

you read correctly. Have called TIP, called the sherriff and all that fun stuff. What worked the best was trail cameras and getting pictures of their vehicles The property is posted very well too.

During deer season they do patrol that area big time now. My dad got checked 3 times in two days by the same CO. And I have heard rumors of a few busts a couple of years ago.

It is hard to watch the land because I live in the cities and the land is south of Mankato. It was also a party hangout for some local kids for a while. That was fine with me until they decided that it would be neat to build an open area in the middle of a corn field and have parties in the middle of a corn field.

The previous owner let a lot of people go and hunt, and a lot of them came back and just assumed they had permission still. I heard a lot of "we have hunted this land for 15 years". But we also did it to ourselves too. We used to let a fair number of people on it for pheasant hunting and deer hunting. When the numbers really seemed to be getting low, I convinced the rest of the family and the renter that we needed to cut everyone off. That is when we found out how bad it really was. People thought that asking for permission once meant forever, others thought that since they had permission that they could give others permission and those told others they could hunt it and majority of them never called again to ask permission, they just went to hunt. Now if I only kick 5 people off a year, I feel it is acceptable.

My statement about public land is correct. There are some areas that are public that people don't touch. and I have met more respectful people bow hunting public lands than the people I ran into pheasant hunting or slug hunting our own land. Couldn't tell you if it is that way for all places as I just go to bow only areas.

[BLACKJACK]

kornfish, I've also seen where people get permission to hunt a piece of land, then think that they have permission forever. Unbelievable. I've also seen where the locals will hunt a piece of property heavily during the week, when they know the absentee landlord is not there. Sounds like you're getting a handle on the problem.

Good luck!

[mdeiley]

Philo, send and email to me I might be able to help you out.

[email protected]

[mdeiley]

Philo i have 300 acres available in wabasha county. Give me a note.

[email protected]

[wannafishto]

If you check with the county where you want to hunt, they may have a leasing opp for you. Sometimes you can lease tax forfeit property for hunting, and once you lease it you can post it. Just like renting a home or apartment. Also, usually tax forfeit land is open to the public like most gov. owned land. you can buy a plot book at most county seats which will tell you where tax forfeit land is. The plot book also includes names of the owners of private land (at the time the book is printed) so it may help you contact a landowner to secure permission to hunt their land. Lots of times there is publis land that is surrounded by private property and all you have to do is get one landowner to give you permission to cross theirs to get to it. FYI

[Philo]

Thanks for the replies!
In terms of the legalities of the renter/owner permission issue, I researched it after last year's fiasco. In Minnesota, hunting rights are profit a pendre rights, meaning they are a for profit right, like mining and farming. As such, just because you lease land for farming does not mean that hunting rights are guaranteed. I would say that you do not need permission from the renting farmer unless he has a written contract giving him hunting rights. I beleive that a farmer renting land for agricultural purposes only has nothing to say about hunting on that land(unless the hunter is interfering with the farming). If anybody wants to read some of the cases let me know and I will get them the citations.

mdeiley - you have mail.

[jlm]

Great post and thanks for the information! I am going to print this one and carry it with me at all times.

[Ely Lake Expert]

This is kind of off the subject, but I am just glad that most people in this state think Da Range is way up there and to far in the woods hehe. And all of you that know all about the range, ssshhhhhhhhh!!! More woods for us.

Ely Lake expert

[Beeber]

If anyone is still intrested in finding a spot to hunt I know of a farmer near Cook MN (NE part of the State) who wants to lease out one of his farm houses and aprox. 200 acres of land on the little fork river. (218)-666-5564 Give him a call after 9:00 PM

Take it easy

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Beeber

If the road less travled was smooth everyone would take it.