Volunteering predator (yote) control?

[Deleted member 107666]

Would like to start predator hunting more to hone some shooting skills and do my part to help the deer/elk/waterfowl/etc. Have only ever shot a few coyotes of opportunity during big game season. Living on the front range now, there is some great land within a short drive I could hunt often, even weeknight evenings without having to make an entire day of driving west over an hour to find public land (could go east too, but public land on the prairie is tough to come by, or boxed in by private)

I'm sure it would help to build a relationship with some landowners, to first demonstrate that one is a responsible, ethical, trustworthy type. Juat not sure where to get started. If I owned a ranch, I wouldnt look to kindly on some stranger just walking up on my porch to ask to hunt my land. Is there anywhere landowners would lost such a want add?

Has anyone ever had luck volunteering somehow to hunt yotes/shoot prairie dogs on farmers/ranchers land? Figure some would jump at the offer, but no idea how to reach out to folks. I can see that craigslist add being reported in about 5 minutes.

Any ideas? Dumb idea? Good idea?

 

[26Reload]

A lot of ranchers allow traplines for totes and such...some ranches lease their properties for use of vermin shooting...
Some of those costs for shooting vermin are pretty high..
Good luck....

 

[Deleted member 107666]

Ah, I should have known most everything was a lease nowadays. Not worth the money to me for a few pelts and the meat I wont eat. Public land it is.

 

[TRnCO]

I know this thread is old, but I thought I'd share some thoughts, maybe give a gentle push to Vandy321, and energize you to get out there.
In general, landowners out east are pretty easy to approach. Sure enough some can be grumpy and not give a guy the time of day, on any given day. BUT most of them, it just takes a hand shake and some curtesy and when it comes to letting a guy hunt coyotes, they will let some guys on.
I've been going back to the same ranches for years, and it's taken time, but I now have a bit of a reputation with several, enough so that they give me names and numbers of other ranchers and tell me to tell them when I call, that they sent me. With years of simply doing everything right, I have many open gates to me now.
When I say "doing everything right", that includes closing gates that I found closed, never leaving a bit of trash any where, abiding by the ranch rules no matter what they are, including never leaving the two track with my truck, not going down muddy two tracks, etc.
One other thing that I do too is take each rancher some kind of "goodie" around Christmas time. A couple ranchers have requested a bottle of Crown Royal, or beer, etc., and I have shared other goodies suck as chocolate covered peanuts, or summer sausage, etc.
I recommend knocking on some doors. The worse that can happen is you're told "no". Avoid the high traffic ranches that have the better big game hunting, because you're right, those ranches are often leased for big game and many of them won't let a piddly coyote hunter on for nuthin'
Good luck