Changing attitude about pay to hunt ?

Brad6260

Brad6260

New member
Curious if others like me have changed their attitude when it comes to a willingness to pay to hunt good private ground? I spend a lot of time in SD and for the most part have good success on public ground and have a few private farms to hunt as well however my approach has changed in the past season or two and it has frankly made for more enjoyable trips.
After years of saying no way I will not pay to hunt I have reached what I think is a great compromise. First let me be clear that the several hundred $$$ per day lodge set up's are not my cup of tea. I have a great place to stay, hunt with my dogs and don't want or need a guide or my birds cleaned for me. I'm quite good at pouring my own Bourbon as well ! Just ask around :cheers: Like most I just want good ground to hunt wild birds. With a little effort I have found locals with family owned farms and acreage ok with a $100.00 per gun fee to hunt excellent non pounded fields.

That said there is no doubt a great sense of accomplishment outwitting and outworking on public ground and my approach is mainly aimed toward the multitude of folks making long trips to chase birds.
My personal approach over the course of a week trip is to alternate public days with private days. This generally gives me the opportunity for limits each day and my total outlay for a week of great wild bird hunting runs around $300.00 which I think is a great deal for all concerned. The best bonus is the friends and connections I have made getting to know some terrific people out there.

Opinions welcome.
 
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I hunt in SD too and pay a gun/trespass fee for just the hunting and take care of lodging and the rest on my own. I'm not a hunting lodge/package type of hunter but there's nothing wrong with it and fits others to a T. I tried a great piece of public ground in SD one year in mid-December and I could not get close to the two hundred birds I saw. No shots fired. Plus, non-residents are barred from walk-in until sometime after the opener. Wish that were the case here in KS.
 
My approach has changed. I have never opposed it, just did fine without needing to pay. That was until this year. I don't know if it has just been bad luck or what but I have run into morons all year trying to hunt public land. I am fine with lower bird numbers and harder to hunt birds, but I have had guys park in the same lot as me fifteen minutes after I leave the lot and head into the same 40 I am in. I will come around a scrub area or over the crest of a hill and there we are, walking right toward each other. This has happened most weekends this fall. The morons usually tell me they saw me go in one way so they went in the other. Most are smaller pieces so I ask them where they thought I was going to go after I walked the 300 yards to the property line. They usually don't have an answer. When hunting public, if someone is parked in any lot of a piece of cover, my rule has always been to move onto another spot. I thought was the approach of most. I am thinking I was wrong.

Anyway, I am now paying to bird hunt. As above, I am just paying for access. And the only reason I am paying is to avoid the army of morons. If the bird numbers on the private are the same as the public I hunt in Iowa (which is a really low standard) I will be completely satisfied.
 
Yep thats what you deal with on public land. I would pay to avoid other people too. Ive tried to team up and hunt with guys too. Didnt work out. Guys were running to the dog on point. Shooting 3 times as fast as they can in whatever direction....When I was a kid, dove hunting, 2 of us would get out early before light, set up lawn chairs in various spots and put lit flashlights in them so it looked like the spots were occupied. Then right before shooting hours we would go take em all down. We could usually kill a limit before others caught wind and moved into those spots! I have run into people on accident myself in the pheasant/quail field. Usually deer hunters that I didnt know were there, or someone who parked in a weird spot and didnt see their vehicle.
 
Brad6260 I am pretty much like you on this train of thought, I don't mind paying to hunt, but I am not going to get crazy with my money either. We have to remember that the money paid is to access the property their is no guaranty that you will get your limit. Some people say your paying $30 a bird, but its hard to put the price on seeing a dog doing good work. Most of the guys I hunt with cannot afford to pay for a trip from Indiana to Kansas or South Dakota doing the out of state license, lodging and meal bit for a week, and then put out another $300 for hunting rights. ( Have you seen the price of good bourbon lately!) But I would rather take my chance and spend the extra$300 than to spend the gas, lodging, food, license, and bourbon money and just hunt public property that has been beaten to death.
 
PheasantWhisperer said:
Yep thats what you deal with on public land. I would pay to avoid other people too. Ive tried to team up and hunt with guys too. Didnt work out. Guys were running to the dog on point. Shooting 3 times as fast as they can in whatever direction....When I was a kid, dove hunting, 2 of us would get out early before light, set up lawn chairs in various spots and put lit flashlights in them so it looked like the spots were occupied. Then right before shooting hours we would go take em all down. We could usually kill a limit before others caught wind and moved into those spots! I have run into people on accident myself in the pheasant/quail field. Usually deer hunters that I didnt know were there, or someone who parked in a weird spot and didnt see their vehicle.
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Yea I have tried hunting as a group too but my experience has been the same as yours. That has not worked out for he reasons you mentioned or numerous other reasons. Part of the reason I enjoy pheasant hunting is solitude and quiet. That has gone out the window. I finally had enough of it and bit the bullett.
 
We have not payed for any of our access to private......yet. A lot of the trips to ND and KS have been saved by the few pieces of private we get access to. If any of those landowners ever asked for access money , Id pay up.
 
Brad, I want to ask your age. I used to not pay for hunting access because I couldn't afford it. Now as I have gotten older I am willing to pay a little to get the experience of a good hunt, good dog work, opportunities to shoot birds, etc. You will always find guys on both sides of the spectrum but as I get older, obligations get bigger, and my opportunities become less and less I choose to fish or hunt where I have a reasonable opportunity to harvest some game. Just my .02!

Brad6260 said:
Curious if other like me have changed their attitude when it comes to a willingness to pay to hunt good private ground? I spend a lot of time in SD and for the most part have good success on public ground and have a few private farms to hunt as well however my approach has changed in the past season or two and it has frankly made for more enjoyable trips.
After years of saying no way I will not pay to hunt I have reached what I think is a great compromise. First let me be clear that the several hundred $$$ per day lodge set up's are not my cup of tea. I have a great place to stay, hunt with my dogs and don't want or need a guide or my birds cleaned for me. I'm quite good at pouring my own Bourbon as well ! Just ask around :cheers: Like most I just want good ground to hunt wild birds. With a little effort I have found locals with family owned farms and acreage ok with a $100.00 per gun fee to hunt excellent non pounded fields.

That said there is no doubt a great sense of accomplishment outwitting and outworking on public ground and my approach is mainly aimed toward the multitude of folks making long trips to chase birds.
My personal approach over the course of a week trip is to alternate public days with private days. This generally gives me the opportunity for limits each day and my total outlay for a week of great wild bird hunting runs around $300.00 which I think is a great deal for all concerned. The best bonus is the friends and connections I have made getting to know some terrific people out there.

Opinions welcome.
Click to expand...
 
Goldenboy I'm sure your thoughts echo most of us who's priorities have changed as we get older. I remember back in my twenties when we thought it was a great idea to make a base camp of tents in Nebraska Novembers.
At age 56 I don't see that happening again anytime soon.
 
BritChaser said:
Plus, non-residents are barred from walk-in until sometime after the opener.
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Just a point of clarification, in South Dakota, Walk-in Areas, CREP, and other public land ARE open to non-residents the entire regular season. There are, however, 2 short "seasons" prior to the regular opener on the 3rd Saturday in October. 1 is the 5-day season for kids which starts the 1st Sat. in Oct. The other is the 3-day "residents only" season starting the 2nd Sat. Private land is not open for the resident's season.
 
I'm in the camp of not paying to hunt private lands my main objection is not how others spend there $ but I fear the future when we will have to pay $ to even see birds worth hunting like down south in Bob white quail country...

I feel guys are paying to either just kill birds & or take hero pics or to control the amount of hunters on a peace of land like mentioned earlier that's what you should pay for knowing the land ur hunting has not just been hunted or over hunted & birds are void...

Had the worst trip I. Could imagine November in SD not shots fired 3 days out of 5 I still can't imagine paying for my 3 pheasants...
 
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small munsterlander owner said:
I'm in the camp of not paying to hunt private lands my main objection is not how others spend there $ but I fear the future when we will have to pay $ to even see birds worth hunting like down south in Bob white quail country...

I feel guys are paying to either just kill birds & or take hero pics or to control the amount of hunters on a peace of land like mentioned earlier that's what you should pay for knowing the land ur hunting has not just been hunted or over hunted & birds are void...

Had the worst trip I. Could imagine November in SD not shots fired 3 days out of 5 I still can't imagine paying for my 3 pheasants...
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure more people pay to play up north in pheasant country than down here in bobwhite country. I dont know of anyone who pays to hunt quail.
 
I haven't paid to play on private land yet, but I have gladly done chores and work around the farm for a family friend in between morning and afternoon hunts. Granted, that's a friend not just knocking on doors.

What do you do when you pay $50-$100 to hunt a property and don't see many birds or as many as you would see on the nearby public? Do you just take that as a loss and live and learn? This has been my main concern for paying for access to a random farm.

I'm not against this for a good hunt, but i want to know it's going to be a good hunt.
 
The thing nobody seems to think about is what do you think propagates the pheasant hunting in SD and parts of ND? The public lands that are pounded day after day by many more hunters than birds? Or the countless commercial operations that farm for pheasants? It costs me nearly 700.00 to drive to SD every time I go. Why would I balk at a few hundred more for some private property where the farmer has spent a couple thousand in fuel and time to put some food plots in. And forgoes additional income by leaving grass in waterways and other areas that could be income producing? Those of you that don't pay should be thanking those that do. I know in the area I hunt, he supports all the birds in a several square mile area with food and shelter.
 
The reason these fancy loges exist, is because people will pay to hunt.Thats the reason these outfitters lease out huge tracks of land. Pay hunting, is the reason public ground gets hammered.I will never pay to hunt.I will not feed money into the mouth of commercial hunting.
 
I hunt public because I don't want to deal with the formalities of hunting family private. If I was a resident and public land ,Wiha here were to suddenly disappear I wouldn't want to have to pay 12 or 15 days a year to hunt.
 
I happily pay the farmer. He has cover, shelterbelts, slews, etc... I've done the public walk for hours and see nothing. If I ever lost my farm in SD I would never come out to hunt just public, waste of time.
 
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