Paid Hunting

Paid hunting is a resource we have in the East, but it is much less likely to be utilized than in the West. For one thing, is a bit more complicated here. Our farms are smaller and the population density is higher. Control is more likely to be a problem, since you have so many neighbors.

It can pay well, however. Fellows that buy a large four-wheel drive truck, a four wheeler, fancy clothes and an expensive rifle can be tapped for a little more for a good hunting experience. Paid hunting is not an entirely a profit making proposition, however. You have to have put something into it, too.

First, how to size up your prospects. The larger your tract, the better. The more remote the better. The better terms you are on with your neighbors, the better paid hunting will work. If you have a rocked road to the interior (coal striping road or well access road), that is good. If you have people coming to you asking to hunt, that is good. If you keep livestock, you need to keep them off the best hunting grounds. It is possible to hunt in the midst of cattle, but the hunters are inhibited by them, and you run a risk of getting one shot.

On the other hand, if you have a trailer court next door, or have a really determined neighbor who has no other place to hunt, you will have to become a policeman for trespassers, whether you have any talent for the job or not. Tracts near a busy highway or noisy industrial installation are not considered a good place to hunt. Think about your situation. Maybe you want to keep it for yourself or not bother.

How much should you charge? This varies widely, but remember the quality of the experience you provide for your hunters counts. Also the rules must be simple and clear. Some will pay substantial amounts for a good hunting experience

What is a good experience? Basically it means the hunter has a good chance of getting his game and there aren't any interferences. How do you manage that? You can encourage the game on your place. Round bales placed to hide behind will help the hunting. Allow your hunters to put up stands, feed the animals beforehand and put out mineral blocks. They might want to put up cameras, and they surely won't want to carry deer any great distance. Let them use four wheelers. You may have to pull hunters out if they get stuck. If they come from some distance, they might want to store the game in one of your buildings overnight if it is cool enough. They might want to camp, too, but that will command more money for you.

The most important thing though, is to be a good communicator. Talk to them when you see them. If they do something that you consider not fair, be kind to them by talking about it gently. Don't boss or talk down to them.

I have been impressed over the years how looking at the same scene, my hunters and I will see different things. They will see trails, openings in the woods, "sign" and foot prints, while I see the quality of timber, the height of the grass, cow manure, weeds that need to be sprayed, and so on. Unless you are an avid hunter yourself, you don't live in the same world with them.

What they pay helps reduce your bills. At the present time about one-seventh of my farm income is from hunting.

You will be unhappy with the tracks hunters leave when it rains. But avoiding most things that those of us complain about with paid hunters depends on maintaining good relations, which makes them want to close gates, not go through fences, not litter, and such like.

You need insurance. The duty you owe (1) trespassers, (2) permittees (those you allow to come on your property but make no money from) and (3) licencees ( those you make money from) are different. In West Virginia you owe tresspassers and permittees (for hunting only) just one thing. You can not rig up something to hurt them. Licencees are owed considerably more, including pointing out where there are hazards on the farm. The long and the short of it is that you need insurance. Not having it is a good way to lose the farm. But it is not expensive.

The insurance agent should be able to provide you with the mechanics of how to set up your procedure to satisfy his/her company. What follows is how I do it.

There are six different papers. These set up a hunting club with hunters as members along with the landowner, with no formal officers.

The first is an "application to hunt" form. It has the rules on the top of the page and the lower part is the application which each hunter must cut off and submit. This includes name, address, phone number, age (to verify no children) and a detailed description of each vehicle the hunter might drive. I allow one or two boys or girls over twelve but less than eighteen, and each must hunt with a mature hunter, someone old enough to be the father.

The second paper, the bylaws, is effectively a contract and talks specifically about a hunting club. It includes a statement of purpose and how many hunter members will be allowed. It lists duties of the farmer member (landowner). In my case, the most important of these are to transfer hunting rights, to discourage trespassing, to keep cattle confined. It includes a statement the farmer member will not support those who trespass on adjacent land knowingly or accidentally.

The duties of all members are to keep gates closed, to avoid littering and to travel on roads as much as possible.

The duties of hunter members are to obey all applicable laws, report dead animals, both domestic and unsalvageable game, to report accidents or injuries to civil authority and to the farmer member, and a few economic items such as put tree stands in least valuable trees and preserve farm resources. This paper stays the same from year to year.

The third paper is an annual list of details and members. It describes the area to be hunted, the payment, and the term, which runs from the beginning of the buck season of one year to the beginning of buck season the next. You could sell the right to each type of game separately, but that is not advantageous in my situation. The signatures of the hunters are on the left side below these items and the signature of the farmer member is on the right.

The fourth is a permission slip, which is to be carried in the hunter's billfold. This satisfies the game warden if he comes on the farm. It has the hunter's name and the name of the landowner - me. It says something to the effect "so-an-so has permission to hunt on my land in Lewis County," followed by my signature.

The fifth and sixth are optional, but I think a good idea. The fifth is a list of all hunters by name with address and phone number. Below this is a list of all vehicles, by color, that might be used hunting, which comes from the "application to hunt," followed by the owner hunter's name, address and phone number. Copies are given to natural leaders in the group and one is retained for the farm office.

The sixth is a map of the farm with boundaries, streams and some contour lines. It is a blown up tracing of a topo map with the farm boundaries drawn in. In actual usage this has pretty much fallen by the wayside, since much the same hunters come year after year. This kind of map might be useful with a new group or one where the hunters vary a lot from year to year.

It is important to impress on hunters that, according to the laws of West Virginia, they may pursue a deer on another person's property if it is wounded, but in no other circumstances should they walk on, or shoot an animal on, adjoining property. It is important to you to get along with your neighbors. And a stray bullet might find it's way into the hunter trespassing on the adjacent land.

All these can be set up to be used year after year and xeroxed, except the fifth.

This author is not a lawyer, and this article is not to be taken as legal advice. It is a series of observations and explanation of how it worked out for me. Many Appalachian farms should be able to ad a few thousand dollars a year income in return for several hours researching and setting up the program and a few hours work administering it annually.