Obtaining Hunting Permission in SW ON: A Comprehensive Study.

[Ata83]

well I always make sure to offer something. specially something that would make me known to the owner. noone wants a stranger with a gun on their property.

but in general, my return has been very very low as well, except for cases where we know the ppl / owners through other means.

[longpointer]

Sad but true. I'm lucky enough to live/rent the property ( 100 acres total) of a family friend that I've hunted on all my life and posted it as Private/No Trespassing to keep the locals from going through it. The owner has given me carte blanche. I do have a deal where the nieghbour can hunt mine in December and I can hunt his in the November Controlled Deer Hunt and a fellow down the road had an existing deal to Bow hunt the 50 acres behind the house in lieu of favours as he owns a landscaping business. I have turned people away because of these reasons and have had to ask people to leave because I've caught them trespassing. I get a kick out of some of the excuses they come up with. LoL ! Unfortunately there are a lot of people from the big urban areas that will buy up land and think by leaving it alone they are doing Mother Nature a good turn but they have been fed too much of a Disney diet and are out of touch with good farming/woodlot practices . Those are the good ones , the worst are the glassy eyed , tree hugging, squirrel kissing , leaf lickers ! There are still a lot of conservation areas to hunt and the NCC ( Nature Conservancy Canada) has purchased huge tracts of land in the area and allow hunting on at least half of it.

[Sam Menard]

I admire your tenacity! It difficult putting yourself out there to the extent that you did. I’m discouraged by your results and I would be interested in learning more about the responses that you received e.g. reasons for denial.

If I may suggest, contact Ray Blades (editor of Ontario Out of Doors) and share your story. He might be interested to publish your story.

[Mauro]

I gave up asking for permission. I’ve offered my services but with no luck. One farmer asked if I knew how to build decks and when I told him I did it for a living he agreed and later changed his mind. I found unless you really know someone or have someone in the family then it’s next to impossible.
I just stick to crown land now and only have limited success but that’s why it’s called hunting.


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[Bowjob]

Sad but true. I'm lucky enough to live/rent the property ( 100 acres total) of a family friend that I've hunted on all my life and posted it as Private/No Trespassing to keep the locals from going through it. The owner has given me carte blanche. I do have a deal where the nieghbour can hunt mine in December and I can hunt his in the November Controlled Deer Hunt and a fellow down the road had an existing deal to Bow hunt the 50 acres behind the house in lieu of favours as he owns a landscaping business. I have turned people away because of these reasons and have had to ask people to leave because I've caught them trespassing. I get a kick out of some of the excuses they come up with. LoL ! Unfortunately there are a lot of people from the big urban areas that will buy up land and think by leaving it alone they are doing Mother Nature a good turn but they have been fed too much of a Disney diet and are out of touch with good farming/woodlot practices . Those are the good ones , the worst are the glassy eyed , tree hugging, squirrel kissing , leaf lickers ! There are still a lot of conservation areas to hunt and the NCC ( Nature Conservancy Canada) has purchased huge tracts of land in the area and allow hunting on at least half of it.

well said, i stay at a airbnb when we go for the controlled hunt. just some older ladies basement, when she realized we were there for hunting the first year, she was a little skeptical. we got to the airbnb to see she was a wild life LOVER, pictures of wildlife everywhere duck coasters bird feeders everywhere etc. i ended up talking to her for a hour or so just about the wild life around, how beautiful her property is and why we hunt and we seem to have a great understanding now of where we both come from. ill say we have become good friends over the past few years and she books us automatically for the hunt every year now, she even texts me when she sees turkeys walking through her hardwoods now and she seems to enjoy when we come for the November hunt and smell her house up at 4am with bacon LOL , she did come check out the deer in the back of the truck when we were leaving she was struck by how big one of the bucks were hahah.

[410001661]

This issue comes up every year. It has taken me literally decades to develop the places I hunt - building relationships, caring for the land, food plots and cameras. All it takes is ONE goof to screw it up and upset a landowner and have him stop hunting for his lifetime. Have heard of guys rutting up laneways with trucks or ATV's, target shooting, leaving garbage, and generally not treating the land like it was your own.

My main farm is a 300 acres (poultry farmer) who I have been friends with for close to 20 years (we met working for the same company). I help him out whenever I can (electrical work, or when building something) but that is because he is a good friend. He had locals that used to hunt coyote on his farm and the last couple of years this group of guys started taking liberties because they are locals and have been hunting this area for the last 15years. The farmer finally had enough and 3 years ago told them he does not want to see them on his property ever again - for ANYTHING.

My other 3 farms were obtained by knocking on doors and by just being polite, respectful and thankful. It is a small tight community so when I had permission at one farm I leveraged that relationship with a guy down the road a couple of years later and obtained permission there as well. The 3rd farmer I met while at a Niagara charity dinner for the local Greek Church and we exchanged information and he gave me permission to hunt his farm as well.

I know they all get asked every year by other hunters, and some guys even offer money but they do not allow it because it is not worth the risk. If you have land in Niagara it is quite valuable and most farmers out that way with larger tracts of land are doing pretty well so offering them $2-$3k for hunting rights is almost laughable - especially for a dairy or poultry farmer.

Do not give up and keep knocking on doors.

[greatwhite]

Maybe it has to do with the area in Eastern Ontario where I am I have a near perfect success rate.

[Deer Hunter]

ABSTRACT
In this study three methods were used over the course of 3 years. Letter by mailbox, door-to-door, and by phone. The results? Nada, zero, zip. Don't even try it. You'll have more luck winning the lottery and buying a property.

METHODS
All properties were pre-selected by surveying property lines using the iHunter app. Admission criteria included properties that housed >3 acres of bush and/or an agriculture field neighbouring a favourable bush. Properties selected were in WMUs 94A, 94B, 93B, and 92B, but mostly in 94A. Permissions asked were mostly for Archery Spring Turkey but also Archery Deer.
Attachment 41642

By letter. The Letter method consisted of a typed out one page letter that gave contact information, address, my reasons for hunting, what I can offer in exchange, photo identification, and a promise to respect their property (picture below).
Attachment 41641
By phone. The phone method consisted of locating phone numbers available for properties using reverse-address search via Yellow Pages. And double checking the property on iHunter. In the conversation, I mentioned my reason for calling, my method for hunting, and what I can offer.
Door-to-door. Door to door methods were executed before the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2019. Methods for door-to-door were similar to conversation by phone.

RESULTS
By Letter. A total of 100 letters were handed out. Responses totalled at 15, permission was denied in all responses. 0/100, 0% success rate.

By phone. A total of 212 properties were called. All properties that did not answer the phone, a voicemail was left. A total of 124 properties answered the phone or responded to a voicemail. A total of 1 property owners granted permission. 1/212, 0.47% success rate.

Door-to-door. A total of 61 properties were approached. Out of these 61 properties, a total of 40 answered the door or were present on the property. Out of those 40, no permission was granted. 0/40, 0% success rate.

CONCLUSION
In total, 342 property owners were inquired about permission to archery hunt, a total of 1 property owner provided permission to hunt. This leaves a considerably low success rate at 0.29%. It appears the statistical chances of obtaining permission to hunt are either 0% or negligible at best. In the chances you do obtain hunting permission, there is an extreme likelyhood that there are several other hunters already utilizing the property as well.

Impressive, you would do well in sales, most salesman hate cold calls. lol.
I think personally knowing farmers or their family goes a long way.
I own a few properties and except for family, I don’t want nobody on my properties.
You seem to have done something right after a successful hunting season like last fall. Haha.

[diverduck]

You don’t get access by phone or by letter. You need to door knock, and you need to speak farmer. I average 40-50% success. But I live and speak country and have the gift of the gab. Your mileage may vary!

[oaknut]

I don't see any issues with a property owner denying access, yes, it sucks however given the human track record it easier to say no.

Land isn't about to get any cheaper without an economic crash of unbelievable proportion.

There's one way to guarantee yourself land to hunt, buy it. The problem comes when you then have to work 7 days a week to pay for it.....

This was my issue as my hunting access was actually part of my work contract, given that I won't be hunting that area much longer I had to take on a rather expensive opportunity this year.

Land is rarely a bad investment, the world is only getting smaller.

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