Land Owners with Deer

[OldTimeyGoodness]

I made a few searches on here with keywords 'farm land' and 'hunting' but did not come across any posts of people networking to hunt [land owners / hunters].

I'm a life long Pennsylvania hunter, moved to MD 4 years ago. My friends with land are 4+ hours away. Does anyone know of a reliable website or options for someone new to MD who is looking for land to bow / rifle hunt?

I suppose if I was a property owner I wouldn't want a random person from a forum on my land but I am assuming there are people somewhere or another that are looking to make money off the land they have with more than enough deer.

I know public land is an option but after watching a few videos on youtube it seems [although the land is public] most hunting grounds have hunters going and posting up on the same public spots for years and me getting chased out or pissing 'a local' off is a possibility.

 

[Bertfish]

Or getting shot accidentally. From what I've read and been told the local hunting lands around here are a wee bit dangerous thanks to morons

 

[HogCommander]

OP,
I can't help with your actual question but wouldn't completely write off hunting public land. While private land is much preferred, I found that hunting public land during weekdays usually wasn't that bad overall compared to weekends and holidays. There were a few times when someone else beat me to my favorite spot or made lots of noise walking into the woods 30 min after sunrise; these were the rare exception rather than the rule. Worst experience was in western MD where another hunter arrived well after me, saw me and waved to me, then posted up about 100 yards from me overlooking the same power line clearing. That said, I still managed to harvest deer from MD public land every year I tried.

I've heard of others who have reached out to farmers successfully for permission to hunt but never tried this myself. Good luck with your search; hopefully you find a landowner who will let you hunt but success is possible on public land.

 

[jtb81100]

Finding private land this time of year is going to be difficult. Most is friends and family only or no hunting at all. If you hunt archery there is plenty of public land that doesn't get a lot of pressure early in the season. If you spend time with google maps you could probably find some out of the way land to hunt on during other seasons. Being willing to walk further then other hunters could also get you a good spot. As for the getting chased out bit, have dnr on speed dial. Public land is just that. It doesn't matter how long somebody has hunted a spot, public land is first come first serve. If somebody gives you a hard time call DNR and report it. They'll have a nice little talk to them.

 

[Biggfoot44]

1. Huntable private land is often in small chunks . The hunting can be good, and the deer large , but you could have 5ac with only 1 or 2 spots, with 1 or 2 available angles of fire . And yes , usually close friends or family members .

2. Public land isn't as impossible as you may have heard . IF you go other than the most obvious locations , and walk a meaningful distance away from the road/ parking lot .

3 . Less pressure during archery or muzzleloader than general firearms season .

What part of Maryland are you , and how close is close for you ?

 

[lazarus]

OP,
I can't help with your actual question but wouldn't completely write off hunting public land. While private land is much preferred, I found that hunting public land during weekdays usually wasn't that bad overall compared to weekends and holidays. There were a few times when someone else beat me to my favorite spot or made lots of noise walking into the woods 30 min after sunrise; these were the rare exception rather than the rule. Worst experience was in western MD where another hunter arrived well after me, saw me and waved to me, then posted up about 100 yards from me overlooking the same power line clearing. That said, I still managed to harvest deer from MD public land every year I tried.

I've heard of others who have reached out to farmers successfully for permission to hunt but never tried this myself. Good luck with your search; hopefully you find a landowner who will let you hunt but success is possible on public land.

Not far off. Summarized it for me. Vast majority of accidental hunter injuries (serious) and deaths are falls from tree stands. For accidental shootings from guns or bows injuring or killing a hunter, number one is self inflected. Number two is hunter shot by someone in their party. Unknown parties shooting someone else unknown is rare. Not unheard of, but with a few hundred thousand hunters hitting MD woods every year...

Anyway, occasionally I’ll run in to an A-hole in the woods or I am accidentally the A-hole walking by someone who has a spot staked out (unless a hunter waves at me though in a friendly seeming way I turn around and head back the way I came. If I want to head through where the hunter is, I’ll cut way around them by at least a couple hundred yards). But it’s uncommon. Gun season weekends most places are very busy unless you get off the beaten path. Week days, not a ton. Bow season, generally pretty empty. I’ve harvested at least one deer off public land every single year I’ve hunted public land since I started hunting 6 seasons ago, with the exception of last season. But I did no scouting, walked in, dawn started breaking and the woods didn’t look remotely like I had remembered them. Was hunting Patuxent and some strong wind storms had ripped through over the last year ripping down huge numbers of trees. What had been somewhat open woods with some good deer paths through was just fallen trees everywhere and the deer weren’t moving through there. Hunter most of the day, but the wind picked up to the point I couldn’t see or hear anything moving and most of the trails had multiple trees across them that hadn’t been cleared yet. Gave up by 4 and went home.

Harvested 4 deer from my house though (I moved last year to 4.4 acres I can now hunt). Only tried for that half a day on public land. I intend to hunt early muzzle loaded back on public land and spend the Monday before actually scouting (probably with my crossbow. Just in case. Been scouting in bow season before for early muzzle loaded and ran in to some decent bucks that would have been shooters and could have been shooters, but I either wasn’t bow hunting yet, or didn’t have my crossbow with me).

 

[lazarus]

To add on things not to do unless you don’t mind another hunter skunking you (but, hey, maybe they’ll push deer to you)....

Don’t set up or or right by a trail (not a deer trail, I mean one of the hiking/horse trails). Especially if it’s within half a mile of a parking area, unless the park is deserted that day, likely a hunter is going to come down or up the trail eventually.

If you do decide to, don’t be a D to that hunter. Only time I ran in to a serious A-hole was a guy who’d setup his stand 20yds from one of the major trails through patuxent maybe 200yds from a major parking area. He got REAL upset when I was relocating for an evening sit and walked under him at 3pm. Like cursing and spitting mad. No real way to back track and take a side trail without going REALLY far out of my way with where the trail was and as narrow as the park is there.

Pretty sure he did more to scare away any deer than I did walking by his stand.

I’ve scored deer fairly close to parking areas, but most of my success has been reasonably far in. Like a good half mile or so if not a lot more. Have a good drag in your pack and/or invest in a sled or deer cart.

A couple of the public land spots in western MD and eastern shore I am often well over a mile from the closest parking area.

Again weekends and holiday during gun season are the busiest. I’d say about 3x busier than a weekday in gun season with weekends for late ML season about as busy as a weekday gun season day. Early ML season on Thursday is pretty empty. Friday is a bit busy and Saturday is very busy. Though I’ve only hunted a couple spots in early muzzleloader (I hunt a lot more spots normally during gun and late Ml season). Weekday ML and any archery times I rarely encounter more than one or two vehicles in a parking area. If any. Might not ever see any hunters in the park.

 

[Bboarder]

You can always solicit land owners.

But I would advise against getting overzealous. I.e, there are a bunch of us and we want to hunt everything that moves. We just received one, guy had a list of family and desire to hunt all seasons deer, waterfowl and turkey. Automatic no.

That being said, I live on Liberty Reservoir and plenty of guys bow hunt successfully, just requires a bit of walking and a cart to tote out your harvest.

 

[GutPile]

I have never run into another hunter at Hanover watershed and Loch raven is really dead/empty of hunters mid week early season. Only issue with Hanover is going to be during gun season and its poacher town. Every time Im up there I find at least one dead deer that someone was too lazy to track and apparently the law about leaving tree stands on public is just a suggestion.

 

[kingfish]

Where’s The closest public land for rifle hunting by Howard county?

 

[george g.]

Go to the DNR website, there's a full listing.

 

[OldTimeyGoodness]

Rifle hunting public land is hard from the research I’ve done. I don’t have a truck so I think best bet based on everyone’s posts is to pick a place, scope it out during the around 2pm when hopefully no one is around, and pick a place deeper in that’s not too deep to drag a deer out.

Last tune I reviewed state lands I think rifle hunting is pretty scarce in MD.

Would be cool to get the sharp shooter permit and do managed hunts for pest control in communities but I think there’s a long line to get in with that crew. Just mow me down and let em lay and someone else goes and picks it up. Like a hog hunt in TX.

 

[lazarus]

I have never run into another hunter at Hanover watershed and Loch raven is really dead/empty of hunters mid week early season. Only issue with Hanover is going to be during gun season and its poacher town. Every time Im up there I find at least one dead deer that someone was too lazy to track and apparently the law about leaving tree stands on public is just a suggestion.

The tree stand thing I’ve been noticing a lot more of.

Several public lands I’ve seen ladder stands up. And in some cases I’ve seen the same ladder stand a few weeks later in the spot. Reasonably sure it’s a land owner squatting as in most of the cases it’s been about 30-60yds inside the park from private land (with obvious signs marking the park boundary). The private land is more over grown than the park land.

So...

Might not be the landowner near by. Either way, annoying as heck. Never run in to anyone actually in those stands. Kinda of tempted to call DNR about them as some of them I’ve seen them up all season long and then back the next year in the same spot.

 

[lazarus]

Where’s The closest public land for rifle hunting by Howard county?

Rifle or straight wall? Closest rifle public land is either Monacacy state park or Frederick City Watershed. But all shotgun areas now allow straight wall cartridges.

 

[Melnic]

public land out on the eastern shore is all I'd do again with a gun. And the ones not so close to major areas.

For private, you have to beat the bushes. There are others doing the same too.

 

[Biggfoot44]

Traditionally the largest cause of hunting mortality was falling from tree stands . Most recently was heart attacks . Not sure if that's an increase in cardiac events , increase of tree safety , or random fluctuations .

 

[OldTimeyGoodness]

Maybe it’s the adrenaline rush. Maybe it’s too much Budweiser

 

[Muleskinner]

As someone who has hunted other people's private land exclusively for decades I can tell you this much...land in Maryland where the land owner will allow hunting is at a premium and can be very expensive. Hunting on public land during the 2 week firearms season can be sketchy due to the large number of hunters versus the available private leases. If you're going to hunt public land you might want to focus on archery or black powder seasons. Many times though you can find out the names of local hunting clubs with existing private leases by asking your local FFL. I can tell you this, don't expect it to be cheap OR close to home.

 

[Biggfoot44]

I actually bought a Md Hunting License this year in anticipation of hunting a specific ( undisclosed ) area of public land .

I actually know it well , and it is prime area with deer, turkey, bear, etc . If it works out for me to do ( other than at home hunting) at all , I'll see of it's over run during season .

 

[lemmdus]

I have hunted both private and public land. Public land I find it best not to go out on opening day, go during a weekday, evening if possible, and move as far away from a parking area as possible. People are lazy and ususally only go in about 200 to 300 yards.

As for private land, ask. Some of these little road side stands might be looking for someone to clear some deer from their property. The worst you will get is a "no"