This is the lamest excuse people use. If it's your land you can let the first person who asks hunt, or the 279th person who asks. If someone told me "if i let you i have to let everybody" I'd tell them they must not own the land if they can't decide who does or doesn't hunt on that property

I use to hunt a small farm back in the day for free but actually worked my ass off to hunt it. I volunteered my time to help the farmer with his farm and he took advantage of my help. I didn't mind because of the deer I was seeing and killing when I did hunt it. I also gave him generous portions of processed deer meat that he & his wife greatly appreciated. I always knew where the deer were because he would tell me what he saw in between my visits. I lost that farm when his grandsons got old enough to hunt. If one puts in the time and studies the property maps, those nuggets of hunting land can still be found.

The agreement I have with the land owner of the property I hunt is to kill a few deer and hogs for their freezer and to take care of keeping the fields and roads clean up.
Its about 300 acres and gets to be a lot of work sometimes but that only lasts for a couple weeks out of the year.
I would start hunting WMA's more if I lost this land because the thought of being in a club is not appealing at all to me.

GONE

I'm content hunting public land. Tried the door to door method, was just too much hassle and too dissapointing

That certainly may be true. However I would rather have 7% of Alabama to hunt with liberal seasons than 50% of Utah with highly restricted seasons. 7% of Alabama is still 2.3 million acres of free hunting land. And ours is much more accessible and closer to population centers than most of the land out west.

Private land hunting is big business. Deer leases in AL are still reasonable but, as one example, leasing private duck ground in a flyway state is reaching astronomical numbers. Every year I ask myself, "do I want to pay this much for this experience?" I could spend a third to half as much as go on a public land DIY hunt out west for 2 weeks.

Gary Palmer's office knows me by name cause I frequently light him up on the republican platform issue of liquidating public lands. I will never understand why the republican party has decided that positioning itself against outdoorsmen should be a key issue in their agenda.

Lack of land and high lease prices promotes piddlin

Unfortunately I'm in the category of "I don't even want you looking across my property". And don't think that the property owner doesn't keep a mental list of the guys who only call when they wanna hunt or fish. Happens every year. Without fail. You know who you are.

This is one of the two main problems. Timber companies control a huge chunk of this state's hunting land now. Sure they lease the hunting rights on a lot of it but at a premium price. A lot of lower income people who used to hunt deer primarily for the meat just can't justify paying 1200 to 1700 dollars to join a hunting club where they can shoot 3 to 5 deer tops. If they are hunting primarily for the meat and it's going to cost 4 to 5 hundred dollars per deer then they are better off just going to the meat section at Winn Dixie. LOL!



Well it's a little different. You are free to take your boat to the river or lake. You do have access. Most if not all of the major water ways in Alabama are open to the public. Now how good the fishing is once you get there is another matter. But you can go. Most land in Alabama is private on the other hand and therefore off limits.



This is the second major difference maker in Alabama. Most of the people here that still control some private land are either hunting it themselves or letting other family members hunt it. It was weird when I used to go on bow hunts with a friend up in Illinois. I was amazed at how few deer hunters we encountered in the area we were hunting. Hell, I used to see more people squirrel hunting than bow hunting for deer on the private land we were on. Down here if a farmer with deer rich land like that was as open to letting people hunt his land as that guy was, his place would look like the parking lot at a Pearl Jam concert. Also, farmers up there want deer killed off their place. A buddy and I were eating lunch at a burger joint up there in between hunts one day and a guy noticed our camo clothing. He came over to the table; struck up a conversation with us and offered to let us hunt his place. That just doesn't happen in Alabama folks. LOL!

Todd, I think the big issue with Illinois is the gun season being so short. They only give em a week. To be hardcore up there you have to bow hunt, which requires a lot more skill. Any yahoo in Alabama can tote a rifle for 3 months. But I wouldn't change our seasons. I'm one of those yahoos.

Well shoot me a pm with your number and I'll call ya every week or two and chew the fat for a few minutes if that's all it takes.

We're going the way of Europe. Where hunting of any kind has become a sport of the rich and rarely available to anyone other than upper class eliteists.
Sadly we've done it to ourselves. Dog deer hunters are the number one reason. Land owners were forced to limit access and form hunting clubs to protect themselves from criminal tresspassing dog hunters.
Then along came the Jackie Bushman and Ray Scott making hunting and fishing a fashion statement. Thus attracting the lawyer preppies and ivy league carpet baggers to our deer dense forests. This led to highest bidder hunting leases and here we are. No more free hunting.

It appears to me that there's quite a bit of butt hurt here. Lots of whining about how the rich people got us down and how it's always some other idiot's fault that I can't hunt and kill big deer like they do on TV.

Yes, the dude who has access to thousands of acres and somehow all the time and money to manage it is probably going to see/kill more deer than you. Who cares? Why do you care what he's doing? Maybe you should make friends with him and beg and plead that he takes you with him? Go vote Democrat and we can spread the wealth so you have hunting property too. Except HA! because hunting violates the animals rights and it's mean.

Finally, this hunting for meat thing... I love venison, my kids love venison, but only a fool actually think it's somehow cheaper than buying ground beef. IF (big if here) you were given a gun, with all the ammo and equipment it will need, AND have the means and method to make all the cuts yourself, AND don't ever hunt a stand AND don't ever buy hunting gear (cold weather type, boots, and all the goofy crap we buy) AND your neighbor has no problems with you hunting his property, you may find it cheaper to hunt than roll down to the grocery store. Every person I've ever met who says "I only hunt for meat" has spent a small fortune on deer hunting crap.

Let's say you've managed to find a marlin 30-30 with a decent optic for 350 bucks. The guy was super generous and threw 2 boxes of core-lokt at you. You then managed to be the first guy in the door when gander went to 50% off and you were able to somehow find a set of bibs and jacket that actually fits, with the miraculously untouched size 11.5 hunting boots with gloves, hat, and smartwool socks for an out-the-door total of an unheard of 100$. Just for grins. Throw in the Ameristep climber you got from walmart for 75$ and the 100$ in gas you spent driving to and from the 15 acres your uncle lets you hunt all season. And you got a doe and a fork horn... 120lbs of meat, that you paid 60$ per deer to have cut up for you..
grand total of 745.00...At 2.35 a lb for the cheap stuff at Walmart, you can sure get quite a bit for $745. 317 lbs actually.

I was going to apologize for ranting, but then I thought about it and decided that I shouldn't. I will say this. If you need food and actually will go hungry if it's not for deer meat, PM me so I can help put food on your table. From the grocery store, I sure as hell won't be sharing my venison .

I've never had free hunting land. And I don't mind paying better money for premium land. And I'm fine with everybody complaining about it because that's one less person to compete with. I don't wish land was so pricey to lease, but oh well. Just be glad landowners are willing to lease out rights. If it's such a big deal go buy your own land.