Accessing Private land

[Hollowpoint]

I'm curious, how difficult is it for you guys in Texas to get permission to hunt private property? When I lived on the east coast, I couldn't hardly get permission to hunt private property at all. It can be frustrating, I ended up joining a hunt club which was a big help.
Now that was for deer hunting and I know that can be apples to oranges. Hogs are a destructive pain in the back side for these ranchers, (or so I'm lead to believe). Do you find ranchers in Texas more willing to let you guys on their property to keep the big population in check?
I was stationed in Texas twice in the 80's and nobody could tell me anything about hogs, where they were, where they could be hunted etc.

Thanks for any input.

[Shotgun66]

I have been a Texas resident all 39 years of my life. It has been my experience that you or someone you know must have a pre existing acquaintance or relationship with a landowner in order to gain access to private land. I have knocked on numerous doors, left cards in numerous mailboxes, etc. I have yet to gain access to property where the landowner is not familiar with me in some way.
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Gaining access to good places to hunt is by far the most difficult aspect of this game. Even in the land poor Lone Star state where folks are pretty down to earth for the most part.
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My dogs sure seem to perform better on land with abundant hog sign !
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Happy New Year.

[Shotgun wg]

First impression is everything. A simple high here's my card this is what I do. References. Both personal and landowners. One way to access land that most overlook is farm hands. They can help u gain access where u can't.


Shotgun
Arkansas

[T-Bob Parker]

That's the crummy part, every farm hand in ten counties has their own dogs. Lol

[Shotgun66]

Good point T Bob. If they don't have dogs, they have  rifles, traps and a hog trailer. A lot of folks like to hunt hogs in this state.
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Shotgun WG,
I appreciate your point about first impressions. I think Mother Teresa could request permission to hunt some ranches in Texas and be respectfully denied permission. Most landowners are simply not open to having strange people ( who consider wrestling feral hogs fun) on their place. I completely understand their point if view and respect them as property owners.

[KevinN]

Yessir..a good first impression helps. Then doing EVERYTHING you can to keep them happy.

Took me a while to get the place I have right now and I'm doing everything I can to keep it.

I keep the communication lines open with my landowners. Call them every time before I hunt, let them know what I'm seeing after the hunts, keep a watchful eye on the properties, respectful of the properties....the list goes on.

The game warden rolled up on us last weekend. Apparently someone was firing rounds off somewhere around there. The "meeting" went well...I'd been wanting to talk to him anyway. Now I have his phone number and I'll stay in contact with HIM as well.

[Shotgun wg]

Oh yeah. Some places are like Fort Knox. It's very hard to gain access. U still have to start off on the right foot. It takes a long time to get open access. I always start by offering to help and that they or there people join me. Running when no one else wood has helped get a toe in. Other times I have done everything I could and after years I only got limited access. What sucks is when u do the work make the contacts and get close to 30k acres u can run anytime u want short of deer season and then have to move across the state and start from scratch. I am back to scratch. This will probly be a tough tough year for me.


Shotgun
Arkansas

[cantexduck]

  Hardest place to get is the first one. If you do what's right , the others start coming in.

[Hollowpoint]

Thanks for the responses guys, for some reason I thought it might be easier in Texas than it was where I used to live on the east coast. It took me years to crack into the first farm. It doesn't matter if I was a clean cut family man, landowners don't give permission that easy.
Honestly I'd probably be the same way, so I can understand where they're coming from. There are a lot of people that are capable of committing acts of stupidity.
Once again thanks guys.

[hogmantx1979]

Also you have to look at the owners reasons. That is a big risk for insurance purposes because if something happens while on the land they are held responsible unless a waiver is signed and also the possibility of the dogs attacking cows horses or whatever may be on that land.

[Shotgun wg]

I have often wondered if it would be worth getting a million dollar liability policy. I know I can get one for the farm for 800 to 1000 a year. Then with that it may lessen the risk to them.


Shotgun
Arkansas

[Hollowpoint]

Both good points Maniac and Shotgun.

[Gun Bullety]

The east texas hog dog forum community should all contribute and buy some monster chunk of land to hunt in, in texas. Then have like a time share situation or something, lol. Honestly I've given up trying to get permission, it's a pain in the butt. All I'm focused on now is getting my own piece of land.

[YELLOWBLACKMASK]

  Hardest place to get is the first one. If you do what's right , the others start coming in.

Here is your answer ladies and gents.

Sad part is the amount of folks that will never understand it.