Hi everyone, little background about me. I live in Philadelphia, super urban area and didn't grow up with any hunters in my family.
Been pretty seriously into air rifle hunting for a few years now. That probably sounds pretty silly to the more experienced folks here, but I enjoy the small game pest hunting. And a pcp air rifle lets me hunt in more populated areas without having to worry about someone calling a swat team out on me. I want to get into bow hunting larger game.
My problem is finding places to hunt, and I was hoping you guys might have some tips, especially since I'm sure this is a problem faced by anyone looking to get into it.
I'm very personable and have no problem approaching people, in fact I took a day to drive around to every golf course within an hours radius one day and ask for permission. Tried craigslist with little result. Tried showing up and saying hi...I would love to help with your pest animal problems with little result. Tried emailing every farm in the area with terrible results.
Any ideas on more creative ways/places to find hunting locations?
When I get an answer its usually one of the following...
1: No hunting, too much liability.
2: We don't actually want to kill our pests, can't you trap and relocate them?
3: Get out of here, we're tired of a million hunters asking to come on our property.
On a more humorous note, I did get instant permission at this one place. I was stoked until the guy said I had to be out by 10:00 am or so (I usually hunt at dawn) because that's when the EPA people showed up. When I looked it up I found out the entire area had been designated as a superfund site.