Door knocking

B

Bob Peters

Well-known member
I'm wondering this year with the china virus going around, will you guys still try door knocking? I've had good luck with it in the past for many other outdoor pursuits. And no, this won't be in the SD golden triangle where $$$ talks. I couldn't afford those hunts and it wouldn't feel right to me anyways. This is more for MN and IA.
 
McFarmer,

"as a farmer", what is the style of request that gets a positive response from you?

My father (with 2 sons along) would always identify himself and offer to lend a hand (or three pairs of hands) for a project. It frequently worked and we sometimes actually helped the farmer. However, that was late 60s and early 70s when things were a little different.
 
I know some will relate stories to the contrary, and good for them developing a long term relationship, but I can’t think of any job I’d let someone do that just drove in the yard. I’ve never heard of any situation with my neighbors where that was the case either.

Be polite and to the point. Don’t go on about how nice the place looks or how much rain we must have had. Don’t ask how the crops are yielding, how the prices are or god forbid how much I farm.

Just state your name and ask if there is anywhere you can hunt. If I say I‘m saving it for when my son comes next weekend say you understand and go ahead and ask if I could point you towards any neighbors.

If I say yes ask me if I want to go along or make sure you know the boundaries. When you’re done stop and thank me. Offer a bird if you got one but don’t push it. It makes me think you are trying to circumvent the daily limits.

Don’t let your dog out.
 
McFarmer said:
I know some will relate stories to the contrary, and good for them developing a long term relationship, but I can’t think of any job I’d let someone do that just drove in the yard. I’ve never heard of any situation with my neighbors where that was the case either.

Be polite and to the point. Don’t go on about how nice the place looks or how much rain we must have had. Don’t ask how the crops are yielding, how the prices are or god forbid how much I farm.

Just state your name and ask if there is anywhere you can hunt. If I say I‘m saving it for when my son comes next weekend say you understand and go ahead and ask if I could point you towards any neighbors.

If I say yes ask me if I want to go along or make sure you know the boundaries. When you’re done stop and thank me. Offer a bird if you got one but don’t push it. It makes me think you are trying to circumvent the daily limits.

Don’t let your dog out.
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Thanks for the insight.
 
McFarmer, thanks for all of the good advice. I especially liked the one about asking him to go out with you and define his boundaries. (If you are not a person that even asks about boundaries, then you are probably not a person that respects boundaries!)

I also liked your explanation about offering birds. I had a landowner seemingly shift his demeanor when we offered him lots of doves. I thought we were being thoughtful, since he previously said he liked to eat them. I see now he may have thought we shot over our limit! (Of course, I also understand now why he may have thought that. Our number of shots fired versus number of birds taken was embarrassingly high.)

P.S. On my "job offers" comment, these were not real jobs, but things you could trust teens to do. One time we helped a farmer back a chisel plow(?) into the corner of his barn by hand. Another time a farmer said we could fish in his nice watershed pond if we picked up some trash. He gave each of us a bucket. We came back with two full buckets and he said he didn't know there was that much trash out there. We said we still had a big pile, but could probably finish with 1 or 2 more trips. He said thanks, and that we could come back and fish any time we wanted!

P.P.S. If I ran into you at a party, and you said you were a farmer in XYZ County, then I would probably ask you all of the questions you said NOT TO ASK. If putting your foot in your mouth is a special skill - then I am a skilled and flexible man!
 
Asking a farmer how much ground they farm is like asking them how much money they have in the bank.

That's a quote, from a producer I was trying to buy beans from, when I first started trading grain 39 years ago.
 
They all farm at least 6 sections. You can't make it as a farmer, without 6 sections at least.Thats my opinion.
 
Fishin'Rod said:
(If you are not a person that even asks about boundaries, then you are probably not a person that respects boundaries!)
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I think this is less accurate now then it used to be. Maybe if you're randomly asking if the farmer has any land you could hunt that you don't know about. But when I ask I am usually asking about a specific piece of land, and with a plat book and OnX, I already know the boundaries before I ask. I do mention the piece I'm asking about but if someone does not ask about boundaries that does necessarily mean they don't care about them.

One thing I do ask about is livestock if they're around and where I can/can't drive
 
SwMn112 said:
I think this is less accurate now then it used to be. Maybe if you're randomly asking if the farmer has any land you could hunt that you don't know about. But when I ask I am usually asking about a specific piece of land, and with a plat book and OnX, I already know the boundaries before I ask. I do mention the piece I'm asking about but if someone does not ask about boundaries that does necessarily mean they don't care about them.

One thing I do ask about is livestock if they're around and where I can/can't drive
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What I do, is leave a 6 pack of pbr, if I hunt.Im apt to walk, unless they tell me I can drive.This one farmer told me I could drive anywhere off road.That was a blast, it was all frozen, as Montana tends to be.I have helped them a few times, but generally they dont want help.
 
McFarmer said:
I know some will relate stories to the contrary, and good for them developing a long term relationship, but I can’t think of any job I’d let someone do that just drove in the yard. I’ve never heard of any situation with my neighbors where that was the case either.

Be polite and to the point. Don’t go on about how nice the place looks or how much rain we must have had. Don’t ask how the crops are yielding, how the prices are or god forbid how much I farm.

Just state your name and ask if there is anywhere you can hunt. If I say I‘m saving it for when my son comes next weekend say you understand and go ahead and ask if I could point you towards any neighbors.

If I say yes ask me if I want to go along or make sure you know the boundaries. When you’re done stop and thank me. Offer a bird if you got one but don’t push it. It makes me think you are trying to circumvent the daily limits.

Don’t let your dog out.
Click to expand...
That is a good point.Ask if they would like to go.I've never done that pheasant hunting, but had a farmer let me stay on the farm, in Saskatchewan. He hunted with me, it was spectacular.
 
McFarmer said:
Don’t let your dog out.
Click to expand...

Once, I had borrowed my dad’s pickup, which had some rust showing (and a lot that wasn’t), to do some hunting one weekend. While asking permission, the man says: “that your dog?” I answered “my dog is in the tru...” I turned and saw my vizsla sitting behind me. He had an epic case of separation anxiety and had dug at the floor mat and found a rust spot so thin and so big, he was able to get out through the floor and stay with me. That’s the only time my dog was out while knocking on doors.
 
I got lucky. On Christmas day a farmer pulled over when I was walking down a strange (to me) snowy road with my gun. He jovially asked if I was lost. Turned out he had a quarter of cornstalks just down the road. I got permission and got a motel room. Saw him the next day. Met his brother, an avid bird hunter. Took the farmer and his wife to dinner the last weekend of the season. He had randomly mentioned his dislike of trespassers - I had told him about a big out-of-state group on one his farms - and difficulty finding harvest hands. I decided to offer to help with wheat harvest if he would let me post his land. I didn't get a chance to make the offer. Over dinner the farmer said, "Why don't you post my land next season?" I fessed up that I was going to offer harvest help in exchange for posting his land. That was 26 years ago. I was his OTJ-trained grain cart man for 12 wheat harvests and I've hunted thousands of acres of his posted land every season. I'll be heading to the happy hunting grounds again this November. I think I'm the luckiest bird hunter in the world.
 
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