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Looking for land to lease in Mn

I lived in Mn for 30 years and left a couple years ago. Now moving back for family reasons. I’m looking (for 2020 season and beyond) land to lease for the bowhunting season for deer, and if available for bow turkey as well. Am looking for a place that myself and adult son can bow hunt, just the two of us. I’ll be moving to the SW suburbs of MSP so want something SW of the twin cities, with in an hour of Chaska. Have had a lease north but the MSP traffic is so bad, going north is not worth it to me. Willing to pay good money. Thanks, if anyone know of a lease possibility, please PM me.

Traffic ain't so bad here...why just last week I was able to drive 37 miles home from work in "just" an hour and fifteen minutes!!

Everything will get better soon now that we have the hands free and move over laws. And THANK GOD for all the HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED choo choo trains Met Counsil is putting in for us to zip around in! Whoopee..

good luck on looking for a lease within a hr, so are many others for a lease unless your checkbook is large. South Farm x2, hate driving through to head north.

Not sure about SW but you can still find them in the 3rd tier communities North of TC. Neighbor is selling a home with 22 acres next to a WMA about 1/2 mile from my place. Also right next to another 400 acres of Nature Conservacy property, probably open for hunting too. Plus the lakes in the area are noted as some of the cleanest in the state. Prices are getting reduced locally cause they aren't selling...might be worth looking into..

Thanks guys. Still looking, for 2020.

Nephew leases about 80 acres around here $2400 a year split with 3 guys...

Still looking, if any one had a lead, I’d appreciate it. Thanks

Still looking. Let me know if you know of am opportunity for myself and my son. Thanks!

Well, I’m moved back to Mn. Any leads would be appreciated.

Can't help with a lease, but Louisville Swamp along the Minnesota River can be good hunting.

Thanks South Farm.

Why lease when there is so much public land available? There is more public land becoming available every year too and a lot of public land doesn't get hunted real hard until deer firearms season. Of course, then it becomes really busy. I would suggest looking at the WMAs on DNR web site. OnXhunt is also a very good app that will show you the public land. There are a lot of really good WMA's within 90 minutes of the Twin Cities. Head out northwest towards the Belgrade/Paynesville/Annandale area and you will find some really good deer hunting on WMAs. The area just west, northwest and northeast of Princeton also has a number of WMAs with excellent bow hunting opportunities. The larger WMAs are usually best as there is room to spread out and they don't get overrun as much with small game hunters. I recommend a climbing stand and looking for oak trees close to a marsh, heavy brush or fields. Find a well used trail or two coming out of the marsh and set up in range. Oak trees often have little or no branches up to 10 to 15 feet, are often in somewhat open areas or at least far enough apart to offer decent shooting lanes, and deer really like acorns. It's also best to wear some blaze orange while hunting public land so other hunters can see you and keep their distance.

Good luck.

Last time I hunted public in Mn, I had more than one person walk by my tree stand while I was in it, which pretty much ruined my chances of seeing deer. And had some equipment stolen. I have a couple hunts planned out of state. So that’s probably my future in bowhunting.

Nothing much has changed other than it's probably worse now than it was then. Save the money you'd pay to lease and buy yourself 10-20 acres somewhere...even if it's "marginal" property it'll still probably be more enjoyable than your experiences on public land.

South farm, I may do that.

Hi Dale, if you want to come north just shoot me a message.

Thanks Rookie. I have a place near Taylors falls. But the traffic going north through the cities is a disaster. Again, thank you, but I’m looking for west or south of the cities. Good luck this fall.

Don't blame the other hunters for walking up to you if you are wearing full camo. They just can't see you. One needs to wear some blaze orange when hunting public land and you have to be mobile. That means you bring everything in and take everything out on each outing. That is where climber stands are so effective. Easy to set up and easy to take out. It takes me 5-10 minutes to set up a climber stand and take it down. You also want to hunt larger public lands and walk at least a half mile away from the parking spots. A mile or more is often best. I have killed ten deer on public land in the past three years. Two of the deer I killed last year was when someone was already on my primary spot, so I went to a secondary spot and had deer come by. I find that many public lands are hunted far less than private land - especially if one puts in the effort to get back away from the crowds. Even if you own 20 or 40 acres, it doesn't help if all the land around you is heavily hunted. And what do you do once you have taken all the deer you can in that section? Once I tag out in one section, I just move on to the next. Killed four does that way last year. Used two doe tags in first section, used two tags in next section, then was hunting the third section when the bow season closed. It can take a lot of effort to effectively hunt public land. You have to scout a lot and have several spots to go to on each public parcel and you need to know several parcels. There will be other hunters and the deer change their patterns. Sometimes you may find the parking lot full at one of the parcels. Then you go to another. You can't leave your stand there and you usually have to walk a bit. A good two wheeled cart can help a lot. Its doable,but it takes effort and one has to be very mobile.

I second South Farm Louisville Swamp along the Minnesota River can be very good and you're in the unlimited antlerless zone. If you can hunt during the week do that to avoid or at least lessen the chances of an encounter with others. There can be a lot of deer if you're willing to walk far into some of those areas.

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