AJ,
These tips have worked for me for 40 years. I grew up in rural Minnesota. Just far enough from Minneapolis/ Saint Paul area that we, and fellow neighbors, would get hammered with requests to hunt our property and our neighbors property every season. All most without exception guys were allowed to hunt if......
1. Be polite. You are about to talk to a fellow who has never laid eyes upon you. He has No idea who you are, or what you’re about. Life is 95% first impressions. Offer your hand for a hand shake. Please and Thank you go a long way. Remember the correct response to “ Thank you” is Not “No problem”! It’s you’re Welcome.
2. Try to meet the land owner well before you’d like to hunt. Showing up the day of puts a guy on the spot. He may have others hunting his land. He might not have the time at that moment to show you around. Try for future permission. This has worked for me for years.
3. One day while I was away in the Army, a fellow rolled up on my father, and asked to hunt grouse along our lake. The guy was *censored* faced drunk. When my father said no, the guy just turned away walked down the driveway to his truck and puked all over the driveway. He was later arrested shooting a rooster out of my uncles front yard. My uncle was a deputy sheriff. This is obvious, but it happens. Don’t walk up to the owner filling your face with a cheese burger, high, drunk, or flicking your cigarette butt out of your hand.
4. Always go back to the land owner and Thank him after hunting that day. Tell him about your success and or failure. Mention downed fences or other issues that you may have seen while out hunting. Offer some game to him. I did this in North Dakota one afternoon. Turns out the woman that gave me permission to hunt her property was so struck by my actions, she invited me into her home and we had pheasant dinner together. I hunted her property for 22 years before she passed.
5. Offer to help the guy out. I’ve split wood, bucked bails, shot a coyote, and helped fix a mailbox post. There’s always something that needs to be done.
6. Always clean up after yourself. Nothing worse than picking up after someone else. Treat the property like its a National Park. Drive / park where your told. Pick up your empty hulls. Pick up your trash. Pick up someone else’s trash, he may think its yours.
7. Send a Christmas card to them or a Thank You card after the season ends. You wont beleive how fast that will put you to the top of the list for next year.
These few simple things have worked for me, and I suspect that they will work for you. Remember you will get a fair share of “No’s”. When you do. Thank them for their time. Look them in their eyes when you do, Smile and hit the next place. My mom would always call down to our neighbors to let them know a hunter was probably going to be knocking. You would’nt believe how many guys hunted at the next place because of my mother’s favorable call. Good Luck!