Before finding a place to hunt, you need to decide where you would like to hunt. Will you be comfortable if you are hunting in a place nearby, or would you like to go to some place situated far from home? This is important for deciding how often you want to hunt. Will it be a one time thing or are you going to hunt several times? Normally the closer it is to home, the more often you can go.
First things first
There are two things to know. You have guided hunts and then you have hunting leases.
A guided hunt is where you have someone take you out to hunt for a specific kind of animal and they normally offer other services such as meals, accommodation, game cleaning, and etc. These are normally more expensive, but have some major benefits. They take you to the best places and can make the experience much more enjoyable immediately. The downside is going to be cost and it’s normally a short-term deal such as a week or weekend. These are going to get their own page later on.
A hunting lease is where you get rights to use a property for the purpose of hunting. These are great for long-term and multiple time hunters. You normally get access to the land for a long time, such as 6 months to a year. You get to create your hunting areas or do your own management. The downside is that you have to do most things yourself. Most of these leases let you bring friends with you or you can buy a lease as a group.
How to find hunting land
Talk to people
After you have decided on an area, you can talk to your neighbors or friends who have gone hunting before and see what they have to say about the area you have chosen. Keep in mind people can get really opinionated on this subject so I find the best approach to be completely open and honest. I started out with, “I’m new in this area and have no clue where to go or who to talk to, could you give me some advice or tell me who to go talk to?” Ask for help, don’t ask them to give you their hunting lease.
Check online
You can also look for some hunting leases on the web. Here are a few hunting leases to help point you in the right direction. This is not all-inclusive at all, just an idea to get you started. These are not normally free, that’s why they are here in their own section.
Check with the hunting department in your area
You can talk to the people in the state department of fishing and hunting for your state. In Texas, it’s the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and it’s at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/ . Their whole purpose is to control, guide, and help people who want to go hunting and fishing. They have lots of information and can also point you in the right direction.
The other thing about the state department is that many states have public hunting lands. This means you can go for free or for low-cost. There is a catch though, most will only let a certain amount of people onto the land so you should check them out early for your best chance.
Online hunting forums can help
After that, you can get more opinions from visiting online forums. By visiting websites such as, www.huntingnet.com or Texas Bowhunter, you will get a chance to post your question about a good place to hunt and receive answers from people who have had personal experiences with hunting in different areas.
Check magazines and hunting shops.
This might be old school, but check out hunting and fishing magazines. It’s double prizes!!! you get a cool magazine that makes you drool like a dog staring at food AND you will find an ad section in the back that will probably have guided hunts and hunting leases available.
Go to the local hunting or fishing shops. You’ll normally see a board up somewhere of local hunts or hunting trophies.
If you have no idea where to go after reading this article, then here’s what you do. Go home, go into your bedroom, lay on your bed and take a nap. After you wake up, go shoot your bow and have fun. finding hunting leases can be a challenge, but if you take the time to tell everyone that you’re looking, then someone will help you out.
Good Luck!