10 Ways to Keep Your Hunting Privileges

1. Ask first.  Seek permission from landowners before hunting on private property.  (Avoid ringing the farmer’s doorbell at 5:30 am on Sunday to ask permission to hunt. Make your arrangements well in advance.)
2. Help police your fellow hunters and report problems to the owners and proper authorities.
3. Park away from gates and field entrances so owners can access their property.
4. Don’t argue with the farmer’s wife about the “no hunting zone” around the house and farm buildings, even if there is a deer or turkey in plain sight!
5. An unlocked gate does not mean it is okay to drive in the pasture. Keep vehicles out of fields and pastures unless permission is received.
6. Don’t throw beer cans or other garbage out the windows on the way to and from “the hunt.”
7. Avoid driving down the road at a snails pace road hunting. If driving slowly, be courteous of local residents and allow others to pass.
8. Don’t shoot animals in the middle of a crop field, leaving the gut pile, head and legs to be swallowed by the farmer’s combine.
9. Refrain from intentionally looking for places to coat your 4-wheel drive pickup with mud…then parking it for all to see.  All you accomplish is road destruction, soil erosion, and degradation of water quality for the fish…and fewer hunting areas.
10. Don’t speed on gravel roads, especially past houses and farmsteads. The big buck will still be there for those driving slowly, courteously and attentively.

Thank you for considering these important steps to keeping your hunting privileges!