Bottom line is that private land is great, if your a hunter and have access to it. Almost universally, the people I know, including myself, inherited the farmground they own. Maybe used the equity to add acres to the holdings. Largely a happy accident of birth, not some accquisition scheme, to own the world. Those "own the world guys", are out there, no doubt. My point is without land to hunt, people stop hunting. It's a true misfortune to be a hunter who has no land, and no access. Even those of us on the forum, who own land, either don't own enough to keep us busy, or travel for other species and hunt on public ground, WIHA, etc. Without public ground, there is no universal ability to hunt, irregardless if it's legality or the participants desire. How can there be such a thing as to much? If hunting is limited to the landholders, or the rich to buy access, it will vanish. Do you want to put your faith in the generousity of private landowners to allow access? Let's examine that, in South Dakota, a rural state with a larger than normal public land percentage, limits access to the public land for 10 days or 2 weeks or something like that, so the locals, who live there, and would interact with the landowners on a daily basis, can have a place to hunt because their neighbors don't allow it, or reserve it for sale to the highest bidder. If Joe who works on cars down at the garage in Huron, and known to be a reliable and likeable life long resident can't get access and relies on public hunting, what chance do you have?
