The atrociously cold (but disconcertingly sunny) weather here in Cambridge has kind of laid siege to my scouting and general turkey-hunting related plans so I’ve been in a bit of a funk.  It has also put the brakes on almost all the burgeoning turkey movement I had recently observed.  And then to top it off, so far in 2011 I have had 100% of all private landowners in this area that I’ve asked permission of reject my requests to hunt on their properties.  That aligns with last year’s 100% in the Tri-City area.

Counting 2010, four have told me they don’t approve of hunting (I’m not quoting directly since none of those four were polite about it), three have already granted permission to others or are hunting themselves, two did not respond to my phone call and/or friendly letter, and five just said no and either hung-up or closed the door.  And in all, out of the fourteen different landowners I’ve asked over the last two years, only two said it would be okay if I asked again at a later date.  Mind you, some didn’t even give me the opportunity to get to that question.

Somewhat frustrating, but not overly surprising.  Landowner permission (especially near a suburban area) has always seemed to me to be a ‘several lines, few bites’ kind of endeavour and I’ll just let everyone know right now that rampant telemarketing has basically ruined the phone call angle for everyone (one more thing we can blame telemarketers for…when interrupting dinner or waking your kids up just isn’t enough!). 

I guess I’ll just continue to be exceedingly polite and periodically check in with those two who left me a lifeline.  I’ve offered to carry out several chores which I have no idea of how to perform in exchange for permission, but the landowners must be savvy…I guess I don’t look like the kind of guy who can mend an electric fence or hang drywall in a workshop…damn my white-collar aptitudes!  But I can run a turkey call pretty well and I don’t make much noise otherwise so if anyone needs a partner for a hunt, and you live between Burlington in the south, Mount Forest in the North, Strathroy in the west, and Georgetown in the east….I’m your huckleberry.

In the meantime there is a lot of county forest in the area that is now open to hunting (thank you Wellington County and Halton Region Forests!) that I’ll start scouting.

As soon as it gets back above freezing.