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Letters

On the subject of finding new spots (ie in permission towns): my wife asked me to stop knocking on doors because she thought I was making people uncomfortable. Particularly because I’m not exactly easy on the eyes, although she was too polite to say this. So instead, I started writing letters. And it turns out she may have been right—I am having better success with the letters. This is a typed letter, send via mail (as in...with a stamp, in an envelope). I am batting nearly 100% responses, and while most of them are still a “no,” it is not as bad as with the knocking-on-doors approach. So I recommend giving it a try. I think the value in this is because, today with all the electronic communication, getting an actual letter in the mail is unusual—it’s a novelty—and so people pay attention.

Jeb, most people now adays are put off by anyone knocking on their door, much less someone with rugged good looks like yourself. I never tried getting private land access yet, but many people use letters. Do you have a template you used, or did you write your own? Did you send them with a self addressed return envelope, postage attached? What was your actual success rate? Any tree-hugging hippies insult or preach at you via snail mail?

Knock on 100 doors, you'll get one yes.. kind of the same tactic I use on the girls up here at school.....,.. Lol!

Atta' boy Moon's!

The guys from Meateater had a great template up on their website a few months ago.

It was just something I made up. I just gave my contact info and, one way or another, they’ve all responded. Really not a big enough sample size to make a detailed comparison, but I would guess in the neighborhood of 2 percent for knocking on doors and 10 percent for the letters. Including both methods, everyone has been polite except one guy, a bit of a jerk. Many of the people who’ve told me “no,” to my face, I’ve even enjoyed talking with them. Nice folks overall.

I've knocked on this one door probably 10x, and the elderly lady who lived there never came or was not home. It looks like she's been moved out, and I suspect her family own it now... I was debating a letter... and I think I just may do that. It's a sweet 27 acre bit adjacent to a piece of DCR land I like to hunt... Thanks for the push Jeb.

works for me too..i have been doing letters for the past 7 or 8 years now...works very well, again responses are good.....I often get complimented on the letter but then get shut down for hunting for another reason.....

works for me too..i have been doing letters for the past 7 or 8 years now...works very well, again responses are good.....I often get complimented on the letter but then get shut down for hunting for another reason.....

I think I spoke too soon on this, and was overly influenced by a small sample size. Sent out a bunch more of these letters, and now I’m getting quite a number of apparent non-responses.

Bigcountry I just got one of those responses on the phone tonight: “Great note you wrote but...nope!” Oh well. I guess it beats the no-response-at-all.

I've used emails to land owners at out of state locations where my buddies and I wanted to hunt. Always worked at getting us on some private land... the best one being 1,000 acres in north central PA we've been going to since 2004 that's loaded with critters.

In the past I've run ads in local newspapers with fairly good results. There are many homeowners who would love to reduce deer numbers but they don't know any bowhunters or they have never considered this option. A small ad can catch their attention. Just a warning, who may get some crank calls as well.

I always add some fine print down in the corner that reads something like, " If I do not hear back from you I will assume hunting permission is granted" 100% response rate.

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