Trade you free labor for harvest for permission to hunt.

[OakdaleFMR]

I will trade you a week of work during harvest or whatever for permission to hunt a spot of your choice on your land. I want to take my 15 year-old out on his first trip, and he will be the only one with a gun. I will be sitting next to him enjoying my youngest son's first deer hunt instead of hunting myself for safety. I had a piece of land already lined up, but the property sold out from under me. I think it would be a fair trade if you have the need for an extra hand, and a deer you need thinned out. I am a nurse so no harvest experience but I can do a long day of work with the best of them. I am open to any chance around the metro or Eastern part of the state. We live in Oakdale as my tag suggests. Thanks and may everyone have a safe hunting season.

[Bear55]

I'm not sure you will find too many farmers that need help in here. You might want get out asap and knock on some doors, or put some ads in the local paper. Also don't be afraid to hit some public land up north. Good luck.

[lakevet]

Consider early antlerless areas where you might find a farmer with depredation and you aren't hunting "his"bucks or whoever hunts the regular season "bucks". Also consider asking about next year if this year doesn't work. Emphasize the fact that you won't be carrying a gun but are focused on the young hunter having a good experience. Also good to have your son offer to work also!

lakevet

[mrklean]

yea might be a little tough to find guys on here, like they said maybe push something in a paper, but knockin on doors is your best option

[goblueM]

the doe depredation idea is a good one... i know some of the folks in Houston County where i turkey hunt actually asked me to come shoot a few deer, i hadn't even brought up that i deer hunted

lots of guys will gladly let you shoot a few if you find the right piece of land and farmer

[OakdaleFMR]

I have it posted in some small community papers, church paper and a few small cafes. Just bummed that my plans and about 7 weekends of free fence work fell through, but my buddy got an offer he couldn't turn down. I will take him on public land, but in the past that has not been the best "sportsman" show for my older kids. Thanks for the replies. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

[psepuncher]

Our place we pick berries the farmer always asks for help.

He has depredation tags.

So I'd suggest some berrie farms.

[lakevet]

This is a little out of the box, but South Dakota has a youth antler less deer season. Runs Sept 11 2010 to Jan 31 2011. For kids ages 12-18. Up to 2 tags/licenses per kid. Resident kids pay $5 a license, non resident kids have to shell out $10 a license. I know of 2 fathers from the Grand Rapids area taking their kids to South Dakota this year to avoid the zoo Minnesota has become during regular season on public land. Can go over Christmas vacation or other time (from sept to jan) and leave the pumpkin army behind. Over 1 million acres of public land and state leased private land. Run an ad in South Dakota that you want to have your kid shoot does and you will be surprised how many responses you will get.

Personally I would gladly give up adults getting doe permits if it gave every kid in Minnesota an antlerless license who wants it. I know some adults would abuse it, but more kids would get opportunity to harvest deer.

Hope you have a great hunt with your son!

lakevet

[OakdaleFMR]

Lakevet - Thank you for the great idea. Too bad it has become a zoo. Last time I hunted public land I picked up 50 plus beer cans left in a pile at a pull off parking spot. Yes the beer cans were fresh as they dumped the cooler ice on the cans. That and the other garbage we picked up after others left a very bad taste in my two older son's ideas of public land here in Minnesota. I was up by Orr so definitely up North from the cities. It seems it has become more of a party weekend then hunting. My oldest son hunts in Colorado as he is stationed at Fort Carson, and the next oldest hunts Michigan. My Daughter hunts the WMA that backs up to her house north of Stacy so she is my only hunter still in Minnesota. It makes you think how we have taught our kids the ethics of our sport, and the examples we might choose to be. You guys have been great. I received a response to my newspaper ad from a farmer by Forest Lake heading up there this afternoon with my son to meet the farmer. I appreciate this board and it's members very much. Have a great day.

[lakevet]

We can only do our best to improve things. Standard procedure for us is to carry a few small garbage bags when hunting or fishing. So far this year grouse hunting on public land we have filled 5 Bags of trash from slobs.

Muzzleloading season used to be a great time with the kids and I would have suggested it. Quiet woods and and plenty of room to show kids what hunting originally was like for their ancestors and teach them skills of hunting big woods (tracking, navigating big woods, deer drives), rather than buy them more stuff to make it easy via technology (scouting cams, heated stands, food plots, etc.). You could track a deer two miles and not have it end in a gut pile (after 1/4 mile) from some else shooting it, because there are hunters dotting all the trees. No hunter red faced yelling at you to get out of "his" spot/stand on public land. The hunters that muzzy were low in number and very serious and non competitive. Every time we met one it was fun to compare experiences, instead of turf defending. We had several older hunters keep hunting after being disgusted with reg firearms, and the kids loved to hunt in spite of the lower success, esp with bucks. Access was very easy, with lots of land available. Landowners would say "I got my buck, so if you want to try with those muzzleloaders go ahead." It was the great quality of the experience we had as a family in the woods that was precious to us. Trade off of harder hunting/ no rut hunt was well worth the peace and quiet, no conflict, plenty of access experience.

Now muzzy season is traveling down the same path as regular firearms. Last year we had as many as 3 trucks pull up by us wanting to hunt the same spot of public. We had a guy pull up as we were starting to walk into a piece of public yelling at us"what do you think you are doing??? I have been hunting here archery, rifle and muzzleloader! It's my spot!" Turns out he owns 160 acres next to the public, and has access to all the private around the public. BUT the big buck (HIS buck) he chased all year eluded him (but not his trail cams). You could see the kids just deflate and all the anticipation and joy drain completely out of their faces. The older hunters had flashbacks of experiences why we switched to muzzy.

Take care of the farmer. The popular trend of "everyone having access to every season" is only accelerating the lack of access problem and increasing hunter conflicts. I hope that the general hunting public realizes that. Those that are of modest means will be left behind. This includes kids whose parents don't hunt or don't have the finances. Going back to some form of pick a season spreads out hunters and decreases crowding. Colorado does it with elk. You have to hunt a specific season, not all. So instead of say 100,000 hunters crowding into an area, only 25,000 at a time can hunt. Result is less crowding while Fish & Game dept still gets the license sales. We used to do it in Minnesota for deer (choose zone, choose rifle vs muzzy). Still could hunt state wide with archery so opportunity to be in woods was still there.

Time will tell where this ends up. Glad you found access. Enjoy your hunt with your son!

lakevet

[CANOPY SAM]

Terrific posts LakeVet! I couldn't agree more!

[Musky Buck]

You got it lakevet, your post is happening statewide, my dad who loves deer hunting as much as anyone told me 30 years ago it won't be like this forever, and now he no longer hunts, he quit when old zone 4 ended as well as anybody can muzzleload, that was it for him, he enjoyed the silence of muzzy season, now he's surrounded by muzzy hunters and people who "find" tags for their rifled deer, he lets bucks walk and they are quickly full of holes on the other side of the fence, that won't change anytime soon he figured so he's done. He said there's stands on every 5 acres of land, I said it has turned into ice fishing where there's a hut on every square inch of good water. I asked him is there a reason do you think the deer patterns in our area have changed so much into nocturnalism also competing with baiters, I can see when, where, and why his fun in deer hunting ended. I know there isn't an easy fix except going back to old zone 4 that we used to be in, zone 2 just gives us 7 more days to hunt deer that move between 8pm-4am. Neither of us have seen a daylight buck chasing a doe in many years now unless it's in the headlights on his paper route. All we can do is sit and hope, used to be sit and wonder what you'd see, but who knows gotta try.