How to get hunting permission on private land FREE

A couple of years ago, I moved my family to a new town. There’s a lot to like about moving, a change of pace, a new house, meeting new people. All that was great.

What’s not great is that I had no access to hunting land!

I can’t go camping every weekend to hunt remote public land and I don’t know anyone in my new town who will let me hunt.

I knew that I needed to roll up my sleeves and find some private land. The rest of this article is what I do to reliably get access to new hunting land.

The Current State of Private Land

Most of the land in The U.S. is privately owned. It’s great that our government still recognizes individual property rights, but it can make finding land to hunt difficult.

I live in Ohio. Roughly 95% of all the land in Ohio is privately owned. Many states, particularly in the East are in the same situation. Click here to lookup your state

Even though there’s a lot more public land available in Western states, having access to private land could mean the difference between success or failure.

Whether you’re an established hunter looking to expand your available acres to hunt, or you’re a new hunter just looking to get started, learning to find and get permission is a critical skill that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Finding Land

In the modern internet age, having access to maps online is a HUGE time saver. Tools like Google Maps/Earth and the digitized county auditor plat maps have completely changed the way that scouting is done.

There’s an even better tool out there called “OnX Hunt,” but we’ll get to that later.

First we’ll start with what’s free.

Start by opening Google Maps and clicking on the “Layers” button, which should take you to the satellite view.

Now I start with a 20 mile radius around my house.

(I just use the map scale and eyeball what looks like 20 miles)

I live in a rural town so 20 miles is plenty big enough for me to find land in the country that might hold deer. If you live in a bigger city, you may need to expand your search.

Now you should be looking at something like this.

Living in central Ohio, I we have a lot of large agriculture fields. Sometimes, all together, they become a monotonous landscape of beans and corn for miles and miles. There are likely still deer in those areas but I prefer to hunt in places where the fields are broken up by connected stretches of woods.

With most game animals, in addition to food and water, “cover” is a basic necessity for life. The underbrush in the woods is a perfect place for that need to be met.

You may not have large tracts of agriculture fields or wooded areas where you live but the principle is the same.

Find areas where the landscape is broken up by multiple, differing, land features and you will very likely find deer there.

Who Owns It?

Now you should have several spots picked out on your map.

The next step is to find out who owns the properties you’re looking at. For this you can use your county auditor’s property search site.

Simply do a Google search for “[YOUR COUNTY] county auditor property search.”

The first result was what I was looking for.

You may need to do some digging to find the plat map for your county but you should be able to find it online.

This map will tell you all of the property owners, their property boundaries, and their tax addresses in your county.

After selecting areas if interest in Google Maps, I can now use the auditor’s plat map to find specific properties within those areas.

Pick a variety of properties, both large and small. Usually larger properties for your area receive a lot of interest from other hunters. Likely these landowners already have hunters on their property or get asked regularly to hunt.

Smaller properties usually receive much less interest and thus, less competition.

Once you have a few places selected, write down the landowner’s name and address so you can begin crafting your letter.

OnX Hunt App

At the time of writing this article, we are not affiliates or get paid in any way to recommend OnX, it’s just a great product.

A small plug for OnX Hunt. OnX Hunt is a paid app that combines the plat map with Google Maps and makes finding new properties really easy. Besides these, there are a TON more, hunting specific, features that makes OnX 100% worth it’s price.

I use OnX Hunt almost exclusively and, if you can swing it, I would highly consider purchasing.

You can start the free trial and find out if it’s right for you. I started with the trial and was wholeheartedly convinced after about an hour of playing around with it.

Click here to check out OnX.

Asking for Permission

Now there are a couple of ways to ask strangers for hunting permission, door knocking and letter writing. Both are fairly low percentage but one is clearly better than the other.

I’m going to say it here and it applies to every encounter with a landowner you have.

Be professional and kind.

You’re representing hunters everywhere. If you get rejected or the landowner is a sourpuss, don’t get angry, just thank them for their time and move on. Don’t do anything to give yourself or the rest of us a bad name.

Knocking on Doors

This is exactly as it sounds. On one of your target parcels, get the address and head up to the door unannounced.

If their home, you have about 10 seconds to say who you are and what you want. It’s a tough pitch and works maybe 1% of the time. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t do it, just know that going into it.

I usually say something like:

Hi my name is Andre South and I’m a bowhunter. I’m here to ask if you’d be willing to start a conversation about the possibility of me hunting on your property this year?

Sometimes it’s a flat “no” and other times it a bit of chit-chat before I get sent packing.

It’s understandable for a landowner to be leery of a stranger wanting to bring a weapon on their land and shoot at things. If they’re open to talking with you, try and show them that you’re a reasonable and responsible person. You can talk about your family, your job, or that you’re involved in the community in some way.

Aim to get to know them and take this as an entry point into a small relationship with them. They may tell you “no” today but you can try again next year; and now they recognize you. Sometimes it takes a few years before you get permission.

It is possible for this to work. Even though it’s a low percentage tactic, it does work sometimes. Give it a try and, who knows, maybe you’ll receive a gift of that precious “yes.”

Writing Letters

Now, on to writing letters.

This is a much higher percentage tactic, I’d say somewhere between 3-5% success in my personal experience.

Letters are great and there are a few key benefits to writing them.

1. You get to introduce yourself concisely and the landowner doesn’t have any of the pressure of a face-to-face meeting with a stranger.
2. You give them a way to contact you and a way for them to opt-out before going to their house.
3. If they don’t opt-out you have a much higher likelihood of getting hunting permission. It’s like getting qualified leads in the business world. You know that they are expecting you, they know what you want, and they’re open to you coming by to talk more about it. Win. Win. Win.

The anatomy of a letter should be simple, straight to the point, and SHORT. There are a couple of things that you need to include however.

The most important part is the opt-out. This is where you give them your phone number and tell them to call or text you if they don’t want you coming by.

Next is a specific date and time that you’ll be visiting to talk about hunting their property. Make it a short lead time, a day or two. I used to make mine for the following week. By the time I came by they either had procrastinated calling me or forgot about me altogether.

I’ve put together a template for you to download that has the important parts pre-written. You can add the specifics for your situation and some details specific to you.

This template is exactly what I personally send landowners, with a couple tweaks to make it personal.

Important Things to Remember

It’s important to remember that THIS IS NOT YOUR LAND! Do not assume that you can bring other people on this property. This permission is for you and you ONLY.

I have had several encounters with landowners, who would otherwise be open to giving me permission but, who have been burned by hunters in the past.

Please do not bring your wife, your kid, or your buddies with you hunting.

Next, remember that you’re representing a whole hunting community to that landowner. I know I mentioned it before but it’s worth repeating.

Honesty is the best policy. If you damage something or break a rule, be open about it, offer to pay to have it fixed. The worst thing you can do is hide your mistake for the landowner to find later. Like the story in the video, most of the time landowners are just glad you were honest with them. It builds the relationship.

There you have it, that is how I find hunting land and get my hunting permission. Thanks for reading and get out there and hunt!