Buying hunting land

[eye1000us]

I am in the process of looking for deer gun/bow hunting land and am looking for some input on where to buy. What I'm looking for is a minimum of 80 acres and prefer that its in an area where people practice QDM. That said, money is somewhat of an issue as I really can't afford a chunk of prime land in SE MN. My budget is around 200k or less, less would be better :-). Also I'm thinking that something connected to public land would be nice so I have some room to roam but I'm worried that too much "brown its down" mentality and pressure generated on public land would hurt the quality of the bucks in general.I would also prefer to be within 3 hours or so of the Twin Cities. Anyone have any opinions on where to look or if its even possible to find what I'm looking for? How about opinions on the proximity of public land? If it were you where would you be looking? Any input or experiences would be appreciated. I am not a rich guy and this will be a major lifetime purchase for me and I want to make sure I get it right.

Thanks guys

[FISHINGFARMER]

Just a few thoughts when narrowing your options for land that is available.

One that has a creek or some type of drainage ditch on it would be helpfull for year round water source,that way birds or deer would not need to travel outside of the area.

Have the land fairly close to row crops and alfalfa or clover fields.

Ground close to public hunting areas might not be a wise choice, yes I can see where you could hunt also on that giving you more area but just the opposite to that is others might find it very tempting to stroll on to your land that is bordering it also.

Land that is 50% tillable would be a piece to look hard at. For one you can rent out the tillable ground, have money coming in to atleast pay property taxes each year for the land and not have it costing you every year to keep it .

Set it up that years when corn is on it that it stays for a reasonable amount of time to hunt in it, is a option to.

Land that is not all tillable will sell for alot less in any area, giving you a chance to atleast put a bid in for it.

Just things to consider.

Farmer

[jbtwins24]

here my two cents.....honestly it would be nice to have land by a public area but from what i saw from my buddies lands arond here i would tell you not to. no matter how many no hunting signs or you tell people you cant hunt there, they will still come on your land to hunt just coming in from the public land. you would deal with alot of people coming on your land. unless your going to put signs on every place that says no tresspassing or you might be shot. good luck, if i know anybody around here selling some cheep good hunting land i will let you know. good luck!

[Beeber]

eye1000us, if you are willing to drive a little further North I have a few suggestions for you.

Drop me a note at [email protected]

[archerystud]

I could write a book on the topic so I'll try to keep it short. You can find what you are looking for in that price range. My dad and I bought a 120 for under 100K and we are within an hour of the TC. However, we got really lucky to find it. If I found out something nearby I'd love to have more people who practice QDM in the area.

We also have a 43 (dad bought in 88) and we have taken some nice deer off of it but it's hard to get them to grow up. Personally, I'd stay away from public land anywhere close to the TC. Too many hunters if you want to do some QDM. I'd look to either be near a protected area OR make sure there is a lot of heavy cover in the area (i.e swamps, willow patches, etc). Our 120 used to be fields of which most are now willow that are in CRP. There are also huge willow patches to the N, S, and E of our property. I think your cover can give them a better chance to grow up.

Also, any high ground will cost more and it could get developed around you. Low ground is pretty much recreational and you have less chance of development pushing you out.

my $.02 worth

[eye1000us]

Thanks for the input.All valid points.I'm leaning towards no public land nearby if I'm anywhere near the cities (or any other city for that matter) but maybe near public should I end up somewhere in northern St.Louis cty or something like that.Should be a fun process but it is a bit nerve wracking.

[eye1000us]

Beeber ,thanks. Right now I'm hoping to not go quite that far north (Cook) but depending on what I come up with closer I may consider going further north.

[PerchJerker]

I have 40 acres in northern Itasca county that I bought in 2000. We are surrounded by National Forest, State, County, and Potlatch (by surrounded I mean I share property lines with them). The only private land near me (other than Potlatch) is a 40 where my NE corner touches his SW corner). Since I bought the place some of the Potlatch land has come up for lease so I lease 80 of that also but haven't posted it to keep others out. It's a great area but there are a lot of hunters on the road on opening weekend of gun season, but if you go back in the woods a ways you'll leave 99% of the hunters behind. For most of hunting season and the rest of the year there's a lot of space and not many other people around.

One thing I'll warn you on, hunting the big woods like we have at our place is not like hunting transition areas or farm country. We have miles upon miles upon miles of mostly unbroken woods, with few openings and little agriculture. The deer have huge home ranges and are difficult to see and pattern. Most of what you read in the hunting magazines and see on the hunting shows about finding bedding areas and food sources and setting up between them doesn't apply very well in the big woods (although we've put in food plots and that helps a lot).

Good luck with your search and purchase.

[bigbucks]

In most of MN at this point I'd say the opposite is true. Wooded land will sell for 2-4 times more than tillable land. In the same respect that may make land that's partly tillable, which is what I did, it's cheaper & you can set it up more the way you want. If you're planting trees though, you're going to have to wait a while. I'm 4 or 5 years into the tree planting & they're starting to grow pretty nicely, 5 more years...

[Powerstroke]

I think I agree with bigbucks. Tillable acres only factor into the price of a piece of property if someone already has a leasee for their property. Wooded acres can always be logged at any time and the price of that is pretty objective. That is usually built into the price because that is value a person could extract the first day they own their proprty.

[archerystud]

I think it depends on the wooded land. Some of ours is river bottom and it floods in the Spring. This is nice because we didn't have to compete with builders in purchasing the land. However, from a deer hunting standpoint it is rarely wet in the Fall.

My dad and I had made an offer on an 80 up in Ottertail Co. I have a cabin up there so we figured we could use the cabin as our hunting shack. The guy wouldn't except our offer so we kept looking. Ended up buying a 120 in my dad's backyard for $35K less.

[hookset]

It was harder for me to "find" hunting land than it was to find our last home. When the land we had been hunting on was sold for $3000.00 an acre, we were left"homeless". I have 2 close freinds I hunt with and getting the three of us together to look at land, much less buy some was not working. So I just bought some by my self. It is like having a second mortgage buy I enjoy the hell out of it. Look for somthing like and old farm or not 100% woods you will save a mint but still have great hunting on it. My wife was sold by the fact that we can build on it someday. A added bonus was the ease of planting and maintaining food plots. Keep looking at websites daily for new land in the area you want to hunt, leave your name with different realtors. the best kept secret on finding land will be kept a secret by me unless you want to e-mail me.

Good luck

joe

[eye1000us]

Our plan is to build someday as well ,main selling point.However if I can't get decent land for building then I have to get really cheap swamp land and then find her a lake lot somewhere.I'd rather get it all in one.

As much as I'd like to find out that "best kept secret" I can't seem to find your email address. If you would like it share it my address is my user name at yahoo.

Thanks

[Powerstroke]

hookset I am also in the market and would be interested in any secrets to help the search. Lay it on me. [email protected]

[BLACKJACK]

Some good points made. My choice would be some land that is partially ag so you can get at least some rental income coming in, having leftover corn fields and alfalfa fields will help your deer hunting. You didn't say, do you want to do some duck and pheasant hunting too? Then you need ponds and wetlands and for pheasants, some crop land nearby.

If you're interested in QDM, stay away from public lands because if its brown its down on public land!!

Best advice I can give you, and what I did when I was looking for land, is once you pick an area, keep looking at every available piece of hunting land that comes up for sale, get an idea on the amount of acres, dollars per acre, whether its woods, cropland, etc. so when a piece of land does come up for sale, you know whether its a good deal, so you can jump on it ASAP. Also, contact realtors in that area and tell them what you're looking for. Thats how I found my land. Good luck!!!