Best Hunting Property in MN

[Musky Buck]

I'm an Ottertail County guy too, however there are great hunks of land in all counties. With deer being number 1 for me and geographically to where I live is OT. county. I have lots of relatives and they are all in OT. county. All of my relatives have taken some truly large bucks and their living room walls prove it, antler growth is excellent in this fertile farming county, but I wouldn't be able to manage on 40 acres in the wrong spot because so many of us in our area are QDM folk and we practice go/grow. 40 in my area no one shoots immature bucks to my knowledge, in other areas it's brown down so taking a quality buck on a 40 may never happen. Find out what it's like around where the land is you want to buy is what I'm trying to say. Good Luck hunting !

[Bear55]

Good advice Musky Buck, your future neighbors may have more say over your hunting success then anything else. Find out who they are and how they hunt.

[Coach1310]

If it were me.... I would consider:

#1. Ottertail/Becker Counties: Great mix of farmland, swamps, harwoods creating habitat for bucks, ducks and fish--being able to use the land year round as a base for fishing as well as hunting increases its value dramatically in my opinion.

#2. Hackensack Area: Big blocks of timber, lots of public ground, great fishing, located centrally in MN.

#3. Northern Iron Range: HUGE blocks of Timber, low hunter pressure, thousands upon thousands of acres of public ground, untouched fisheries and peace and quiet like no other areas.

Things I would consider when purchasing:

*Accessability... is it on a township/county road that will be maintained and plowed in the winter

*Electricity.... if you decide to build a cabin/shack will power be available for a decent price

*Tax considerations/gov't programs... some counties/lands have special tax programs that inhibit you from building a permanent structure for the first 5-10 years and you get a great tax break on in

*Ease of use.... if it is 4 hours away, you have to committ multiple days to be able to use it. If it is 1 hour away, you could hunt/fish a half a day without a problem

*Potential for expansion... is it located next to other private parcels that could possibly be purchased in the future. I think many of us dream of owning our own property that would could cultivate and tinker with to our liking, however many of us don't have the time or the means. Leave the door open for that possibility if you think it is something you might be interested in.

Sorry I kinda got long there... just things I would consider.

[CSSF3]

if you really want all 4 species (turkeys, grouse, deer, waterfowl), then the only logical area is southeast MN. Rochester or east. You get very far north of the cities, and the turkey population drops dramatically. Any farther west of Rochester, and your deer population drops drastically. Plus, you've got the Mississippi River valley for waterfowl

[fletcher]

nice skie in your avatar

it is not easy to obtain good intel on neighbors before you buy and claims of QDM can be just that claims, but good neighbors can make or brake especially if your abscent much of time

theft and vandals/tresspassers can be a "neighborhood" specific issue but you never can tell

if you get good relations it makes a world of difference

[Basseyes]

My dad and I bought a 40 about 5 years ago between Cloquet and Hibbing. Just some helpful hints from things we've learned.

First things first figure out what you can afford and what you want to spend before approaching a realtor.

Next is almost as important as the cost of the property drive time. We can get to our property in less than 3 hours, 2 1/2 if we push it. This is a big factor in bringing the kids and the wife with.

I love the south eastern part of the state. Cost per acre should be thought over very carefully. 40 acres X $3,000/acre=$120,000. That's a lot of cabbage for recreational property. Considering the individual property in that region you'll more than likely have deer and turkeys as the main game to hunt. Not a tremendous amount of good pheasant and waterfowl hunting properties for sale on that small of a scale in that region. Some down sides of the area are farmers are not very receptive to hunters. Food plots can be a challenge on some of the timbered areas that will dominant the smaller chunks for sale that will be non prime areas like hillsides or heavily timbered valleys. Not to say there can't be some gold mines for hunting just be aware of each individual piece of property and the regions characteristics going into it.

Northern MN has the great advantage of county tax forfeited land as well as state and national forest. We border tax forfeited land and state forest. One issue we have is we have few people in the area so it's been hard to get to know anybody. Something to consider.

Our area is mainly deer, bear and grouse. No pheasants and little waterfowl. We are mainly upland bird and waterfowl hunters. Go figure. But we have been very happy with what we got with cost per acre. We've shot deer, bear and grouse in the area.

We were cutting trees down last December. It was cold and I had to work at getting my diesel started. When it finally did it smoked to holy high heaven. A CO saw the smoke and came to investigate. He was very nice and I appreciated him stopping by. Talked to him for a long while. One thing about the area is it is ditched, flat, has plenty of hay fields intermixed with thick stands of aspens, brush and bogs. Not easy walking. Leads to many of the locals road hunting. He's tagged local guys numerous times. Reason I tell the story is talking to local CO's never crossed my mind before hand but is something I'll consider in the future if I can afford to buy another piece of property in north western or western MN for waterfowl or pheasants. Could be helpful.

When we started looking for land after deciding what my dad and I could afford I started a long search on line to figure out cost's per acre in regions we wanted land as well as other areas. We weeded out many properties. I ended up with about 40 properties all over the state's northern 2/3rd's. Then over a couple months we did the drive by's. We took a car to save on gas instead of our SUV's or trucks. Was a learning curve on the different cost's per acre and how many factors are involved. On the drive by's would learn why one was cheaper or one more expensive in the same region. It's an old saying but it rings so true it's all about location, location, location. We widdled that list of 40 down to a dozen more or less. We sat on that list for a while and did some more research into the areas. Like fish able lakes, aerial photos, surrounding public lands and other things that could be positives or negatives. After digesting all the information we had we had half a dozen properties on the top of the list. Next we took my mom and my wife on a tour of the top 6. We then listed them in priority of 1 to 5. Next we invited my brother on a trip and took him by some of the top picks. His opinion was much appreciated and he pointed out some very important things about some of the properties we'd missed. That was very valuable information at the time. Invite and listen to as many peoples opinions as possible. Other people will see things you miss.

Next I contacted the realtor of our number one choice. He said the sale was pending. I asked if it was a done deal and if I could leave my number? He said it was a done deal. Well I learned latter it fell through. Wasn't un happy about it because I believe that property was about 5 hours away. Great piece of property but a long drive none the less.

We then moved on property number 2. I called the realtor and he said he had some body very interested in it. After the first property I learned unless there's cash on the table nothings a done deal. I asked if it was a done deal and he said the guy was getting some money together but had yet to put anything on paper. I was a bit concerned this was a sales pitch. This was on Friday of a holiday weekend and he was going to get them the money after the holiday. With the cost per acre and the area I was fairly convinced it was what we were looking for. I told him we wanted the property and asked what we needed to do to put it on paper. We had cash in hand and put a $1,000 down payment under the terms of getting it back if something turned up we didn't like that same day. We had to sacrifice the weekend and drive 2 1/2 hours to get to his office. Did some snooping and found out the 2 guys have been in the realtor business for a long time with no problems. Was very pleased with the process and doing business with them. Turns out the property was priced to sell and the current owner was in the nursing home and had given it to his kids. They wanted a quick sale and told the realtor to price it to sell quick. It was 40 acres for $32,000. We have a 20 acre piece for sale south an 1/8th of a mile I'd love to buy but the guy is asking $30,000 for what is half swamp. Lesson learned from the realtor if you find a piece be ready to buy it. The realtor told us he has guys around hunting season that are always looking but have no idea what they can spend or what anything is worth. He's been in the business a long time and said it amazes him how much people spend without doing any research into cost per acre and what the surrounding properties are worth. His words of advise do your home work and be ready to buy when you find the right property because the good ones don't last long! The other guy could have put money down on it but elected not too. With all that said be mindful if it's to good of deal it just might be. Be patient, cautious yet ready to buy.

After we purchased the property I contacted the USFWS on hopes of getting help putting in a couple small ponds. Well I got contacted by a Fed guy and he contacted a MN DNR private land specialist. She got back to me with in minutes. The DNR has helped us with the WHIP program from the NRCS. The private land specialist and the area wildlife tech have been very helpful and have done a great job. Have been very impressed with them. They've helped not only turn our 40 into a wildlife haven but increased the value of the property with a lot less time and effort than if we would have tried to do it all on our own. So contacting a DNR person in the area you're looking into might be a good idea to get a gist of things the property is capable of or if there are programs available that could help you develop a piece of property and help out with some cost sharing as well as knowledge.

Just an FYI food plots are very addicting. I have severely enjoyed working on trying to help steer the property in the right direction for the benefit of wildlife habitat.

This site is a great place to start some shallow research on areas and cost per acre for specific regions of the state. Nothing beats talking to locals and spending some time in the area pocking around and seeing what's going on in the area.

Hope it helps and good luck with it.

[DoubleLunger]

Cambridge to Mora area.

[slabbin@thecabin]

Northwest MN, Lancaster to be exact.