[derek.simmon]

I have some pheasant hunting trips coming up this fall in Iowa and South Dakota and I was wondering what advice people who have done DIY trips to other states have about getting permission for private land in another state. I will be planning the trips around land open to the public, but I have heard some stories of people having a good success rate out west knocking on doors.

I have also seen where some people have made up business cards with personal information as well.

Has anyone ever tried any unique approaches?

 

[Huntsman]

Some of the plains states have agreements in place between private land owners and the state for walk in access for hunting. I would check the DNR websites.

 

[Foxxy]

I have been pheasant and quail hunting in Kansas and Nebraska. Huntsman is right, contact the DNR websites as a start. We knocked on doors to get permission, I was the guy out of the 3 of us to knock on doors. I knocked on one door, introduced myself and was asking permission to hunt the farm It was an older couple that told me come on in. They gave me a cup of coffee and a piece of homemade pie, while I told where I was from, we talked for 1/2 hour. The guys waiting in the van were wondering what happened to me, George came to the door and knocked to get me. I thanked the couple for the coffee and pie and we left.
The next morning we stopped at a cafe for breakfast and the older couple came in, we all sat together for breakfast laughing and talking. Their property held a good amount of quail to hunt. Just saying. JMHO

 

[Marshman]

Use OnX. Without it, it can be difficult just locating the correct property owners.
In SD we get limits by hunting road commission land that hasn't been developed. They appear to be farm access road or a ditch cutting through a field but again OnX tells us it's County owned.
Be prepared to pay. They don't know you. Maybe next time you'll get a freebie

 

[derek.simmon]

Use OnX. Without it, it can be difficult just locating the correct property owners.
In SD we get limits by hunting road commission land that hasn't been developed. They appear to be farm access road or a ditch cutting through a field but again OnX tells us it's County owned.
Be prepared to pay. They don't know you. Maybe next time you'll get a freebie

Okay, I subscribe to ONX every year anyway. Thanks for the tip!

 

[km]

Havent posted here in a long time, the bird thread got me excited. I'm from iowa, it's tough to gain access on private around here. It can b done but u may spend a good portion of your time scouting and beating on doors. 1st trip is always the toughest, once you meet some nice farmers that'll let ya go, the next yr you'll know where to start. And they usually have other farmers they'll send you to that may let u go as well. We did a 3 day trip to s Dakota the last week of Jan last winter. Tried beating on doors and using onX. We got on a couple private farms that held a few birds but kilt majority on public land. Spent a lot of time scouting private, seeing who owned stuff, googling their name to get a phone #, calling, and most said they have guys that hunt or its leased to an outfitter. We did kill our 6man limit the last day pretty much all on public and road ditches. Which we were proud of for the last wk of season on public ground where u know the birds had been pushed around hard all season. 1 tip....no door slamming, no loud jabbering with your buddies, no whistling/yelling at your dogs. If you don't have your dogs tone broke to come/slow down, I'd get that done. The less noise you make the better your odds r, especially on public.

 

[derek.simmon]

Havent posted here in a long time, the bird thread got me excited. I'm from iowa, it's tough to gain access on private around here. It can b done but u may spend a good portion of your time scouting and beating on doors. 1st trip is always the toughest, once you meet some nice farmers that'll let ya go, the next yr you'll know where to start. And they usually have other farmers they'll send you to that may let u go as well. We did a 3 day trip to s Dakota the last week of Jan last winter. Tried beating on doors and using onX. We got on a couple private farms that held a few birds but kilt majority on public land. Spent a lot of time scouting private, seeing who owned stuff, googling their name to get a phone #, calling, and most said they have guys that hunt or its leased to an outfitter. We did kill our 6man limit the last day pretty much all on public and road ditches. Which we were proud of for the last wk of season on public ground where u know the birds had been pushed around hard all season. 1 tip....no door slamming, no loud jabbering with your buddies, no whistling/yelling at your dogs. If you don't have your dogs tone broke to come/slow down, I'd get that done. The less noise you make the better your odds r, especially on public.

Thank’s for the advice! It seems like a lot of people get success on smaller portions of state land. In SD I am planning a full week so I will have a little more time than the 4 day Iowa trip so hopefully I’ll be able to make some connections.

I’ve got a 4-1/2 month old Griff puppy that will be in for busy season.

 

[km]

Pup will be at a great age to get fired up on birds. I love it when I have about a 3-4month old pup at the start of season. I'll take them out most every hunt. Fun to watch them learn how it works. For quite a while they'll follow your heels just trying to keep up. They get awful fired up when older dogs bring a bird back and they can smell on it and get excited. It doesn't take too many hunts and they figure out real quick that the gun shot means there's a bird coming back and you can see their excitement after you fire the gun. As they grow through the season they start to follow the other dogs around some, but not for too long before they come looking for you and make sure they know you're still there. They learn to watch the sky at the sound of a bird flushing or gunfire. By end of the 10 wk season they'll be going for retrieves and hunting on their own for birds. I love watching the progression at a young age. Alot of guys anymore just send their dogs off to a trainer. I am a firm believer that doing it yourself, spending LOTS of time with a young dog in the field and getting it on lots of birds, turns out a better gun dog and companion for you.

 

[WTV]

Go to the rural area country stores or small town cafes/restaurants around breakfast and lunch times and strike up conversations with the local farmers and landowners who come in regularly. It’s amazing how are tickled to hook you up.
A young 20 year old and his friend from around home did this in February trying to get permission to bow hunt with great success in Ohio. They were shed hunting/scouting some public land but followed my advice and got access to some great looking private ground. Once you get access show your appreciation by paying them or doing something personable for them.
Good Luck!!

 

[TJRANGER]

Good to see your post KM!!

 

[Foxxy]

Havent posted here in a long time, the bird thread got me excited. I'm from iowa, it's tough to gain access on private around here. It can b done but u may spend a good portion of your time scouting and beating on doors. 1st trip is always the toughest, once you meet some nice farmers that'll let ya go, the next yr you'll know where to start. And they usually have other farmers they'll send you to that may let u go as well. We did a 3 day trip to s Dakota the last week of Jan last winter. Tried beating on doors and using onX. We got on a couple private farms that held a few birds but kilt majority on public land. Spent a lot of time scouting private, seeing who owned stuff, googling their name to get a phone #, calling, and most said they have guys that hunt or its leased to an outfitter. We did kill our 6man limit the last day pretty much all on public and road ditches. Which we were proud of for the last wk of season on public ground where u know the birds had been pushed around hard all season. 1 tip....no door slamming, no loud jabbering with your buddies, no whistling/yelling at your dogs. If you don't have your dogs tone broke to come/slow down, I'd get that done. The less noise you make the better your odds r, especially on public.

Funny, have to find places to hunt, the first few years are the hardest, like you said once established it's a win-win for you. Thats' why they call it hunting. Just saying, JMHO

 

[derek.simmon]

Go to the rural area country stores or small town cafes/restaurants around breakfast and lunch times and strike up conversations with the local farmers and landowners who come in regularly. It’s amazing how are tickled to hook you up.
A young 20 year old and his friend from around home did this in February trying to get permission to bow hunt with great success in Ohio. They were shed hunting/scouting some public land but followed my advice and got access to some great looking private ground. Once you get access show your appreciation by paying them or doing something personable for them.
Good Luck!!

Will do! Thank you.

 

[km]

How ya been tj?

 

[Foxxy]

Go to the rural area country stores or small town cafes/restaurants around breakfast and lunch times and strike up conversations with the local farmers and landowners who come in regularly. It’s amazing how are tickled to hook you up.
A young 20 year old and his friend from around home did this in February trying to get permission to bow hunt with great success in Ohio. They were shed hunting/scouting some public land but followed my advice and got access to some great looking private ground. Once you get access show your appreciation by paying them or doing something personable for them.
Good Luck!!

Help them on the farm, give them a gift certificate for a nice dinner. JMHO

 

[rick Watkins]

Help them on the farm, give them a gift certificate for a nice dinner. JMHO

agreed maybe offer them dressed game

 

[WTV]

I get meat processed every year which could be deer, elk, etc and will offer that and/or fresh seafood from the NC Coast . Have even cooked some when hunting out of state and invited the landowners and local friends to join. It’s usually been a great turnout!!

 

[km]

Where u from Derek? What part of iowa and s Dakota are you planning on hunting?

 

[derek.simmon]

Where u from Derek? What part of iowa and s Dakota are you planning on hunting?

Km, I am from Toledo, Ohio.

The current Iowa plan is to head to Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area by Cedar Rapids November 4-7.

For South Dakota I plan to head to somewhere in western SD in the first week or two of December for a full week. I want to go to the western part of the state because I was listening to “The Flush” podcast and one of the guests hunts Western South Dakota because most people stop in the eastern half of the state and he was saying that the birds get less pressure in the west and the landowners don’t get as many random people on their doorstep so they are even more open to talking with you.

 

[km]

We stayed in kimball SD. Nice little town. Nice tavern with great food. It's right on i90, a bit east of the missouri river. Tried south of town 1 day and that was a bust. North and northeast we got into some decent #s. I'm just 30-40min south of Hawkeye wildlife area. Never hunted it. It's rare I hunt any public here in iowa. North central/north west iowa has been really good the last few yrs. We have buddies up there we go up once or twice a yr and hammer them pretty hard for a couple days. They have a bunch of family ground thats in CRP they take us on. They like to hunt but have no dogs, so we take r bird dogs up and help um out 😜. Not sure how much public is up that way, but numbers r definitely alot better up there than down this direction. We had a terrible winter 2 yrs ago in southeast iowa, deep snow with a rock hard crust and it got cold and stayed cold. Sat like that for around 6wks. Very hard for wildlife to get into warm cover and find grain through that. It took its toll. Up north they didnt get the freeze thaw cycle that formed our crust b4 it really got cold, so their snow stayed fluffy. Sorry for the windy posts lol

 

[derek.simmon]

We stayed in kimball SD. Nice little town. Nice tavern with great food. It's right on i90, a bit east of the missouri river. Tried south of town 1 day and that was a bust. North and northeast we got into some decent #s. I'm just 30-40min south of Hawkeye wildlife area. Never hunted it. It's rare I hunt any public here in iowa. North central/north west iowa has been really good the last few yrs. We have buddies up there we go up once or twice a yr and hammer them pretty hard for a couple days. They have a bunch of family ground thats in CRP they take us on. They like to hunt but have no dogs, so we take r bird dogs up and help um out . Not sure how much public is up that way, but numbers r definitely alot better up there than down this direction. We had a terrible winter 2 yrs ago in southeast iowa, deep snow with a rock hard crust and it got cold and stayed cold. Sat like that for around 6wks. Very hard for wildlife to get into warm cover and find grain through that. It took its toll. Up north they didnt get the freeze thaw cycle that formed our crust b4 it really got cold, so their snow stayed fluffy. Sorry for the windy posts lol

Okay, thanks for the advise!