Public land hunting question

[cpc1027]

Came for the hunting question, stayed for your thumbnail. Go Hokies.

Go Hokies!

 

[cpc1027]

I don't know about Baltimore County parks but I can tell you that Harford County WILL NOT allow you to hunt on County owned parkland. Even when there is a hundred acres or more of undeveloped open space it is posted no hunting. I hope for your sake Baltimore County doesn't play by the same rules.

I think you're probably right, but I'm holding out hope until I lose interest or find out definitively one way or the other.

 

[lazarus]

In general, at least central maryland counties, aren’t going to let you hunt on their lands. There of course could be exceptions. But yes, unfortunately you’ll need to figure out who is responsible for any given parcel and try to figure out who to contact to ask. I’d just know you aren’t likely to get it. At least not from the county. You’d be better off looking at any state lands or federal lands and ask those land managers. You could try contact any universities about their lands, but that’ll probably be a no in Maryland also.

As others have said, archery is your friend. I have two crossbows. One cost just shy of $200. The other I got a year later for a stupid black Friday deal (that I am sure was a mistake) from Amazon for $67 for what is normally about a $350 crossbow.

As much as I prefer gun hunting, in 6 years of hunting, I’ve harvested 14 deer. Of those, 3 have been by muzzleloader, 1 by shotgun, 2 by rifle. 8 from a crossbow. Access is easier. You get 5 months vs 2 weeks. I can bow hunt my backyard on the 4 1/2 acres I live on. There is 340 acres about 4 miles from my house I can ML and straight wall hunt, that takes 6 (7?) reservations a day that I’ve never once had success in making during gun or ML season. A few thousand acres with a few hundred of it in the state park a mile from me I can bow hunt, that’s all that is allowed.

The closest place I can hunt with a muzzleloader or shotgun (now also straight wall rifle) is about 20 miles away. The closest place I can hunt with a bottleneck cartridge is about 35 miles away (and shitty. Let’s all be honest here if you’ve ever hunted Frederick city watershed, it’s overrun constantly. By guys in orange).

And with all your searching, even if you do get permission, I’d bet $20 if it is Baltimore county you’ll only be allowed to use a bow anyway.

The counties prefer to pay cops overtime pay or hire “specialists” to come in to their parks a few days a year and kill a bunch of deer to keep the population in check rather than allow any hunters access. Same with some of the feds (like the battlefields).

The state generally allows access on most parcels that are reasonably huntable (the answer is probably going to be no on anything less
Than 40 acres no matter what weapon you are proposing), but DNR has almost all of that linked on their website for reasonable state lands.

 

[BurkeM]

I just moved to Baltimore County after spending a few years in Northern VA, and I'm looking to get back into hunting this fall. I don't have access to any private land at the moment, so I have been pouring over property records looking for government owned lands that I might be able to hunt on. I have identified a few parcels for investigation, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I have been searching the laws for the relevant government body, but they seem to only address specific things like hunting or discharge of a firearm inside town boundaries or metropolitan region boundaries. If these properties do not fall into an excluded area, and if there is no law generally prohibiting hunting on government owned lands, and the property itself is not posted, does that mean I can hunt there? Or are we MD residents limited to only the public lands listed on the DNR website? I've thought about trying to find someone to contact at each government level but, I would be concerned about just cold-contacting someone and either getting a person who just doesn't want to be bothered or someone who doesn't want people hunting, and they just say no, even if the correct answer might be yes.

So in short, my question is: how do I determine if state/county/town owned property can be hunted on?

TIA for any advice!

Baltimore County police- each precinct has a hunting MAP showing some of the answers you seek.

 

[GutPile]

Balco has some good public spots but they do get crowded near peak/rut. Go early season and scout over summer. standard public hunting tactics apply. go early/deep. Loch Raven still holds a lot of deer but they do get pushed around quite a bit. Better to find some private land that borders public so you can get them pushed to you. For a quick drop in small property with a high density of deer Gwynbrook is actually pretty decent if you are just looking for meat. You just need to be on your best behavior because that is also the local DNR Wildlife Heritage office. Might be why I almost never see anyone else there the few times I've hunted it. But county properties themselves will be off limits and there are tons of them scattered everywhere. For example in the middle of my neighborhood there is a drainage pond - owned by the county. Surrounded by other properties. Would never hunt it. Would not have issues recovering from it though. Not like I'm going to call Johny O up in the middle of the night "I need to drag a deer out bro".