Agree 110 percent . Look, I might of went off on a little rant earlier in the thread and exaggerated some things, I apologize, I do tend to be sarcastic at times too. Buying grounds not in my playbook anytime soon unless something drastic happens like marrying a dr or hitting the lotto . I get it - you can, I can, probably make sacrifices to afford it even on a smaller salary.... The bigger question Ive always had is what Bowtech84 just said . 40 acres or 20 acres is it worth it ? Will it even hold a decent buck or will you just blow half the farm out everytime you walk in there ? What if the neighbors seem like great people , you buy it, then they are next door dumping 100s of AK rounds at it the moment you leave town... What about all that ground I ask permission for that ive roamed for years turkey, coyote, pheasant, goose hunting, mushroom hunting, crappie fishing, ect. What happens when they've given me free roam for all these years and they want to come hunt my 40 acre timber because I kill big bucks on it and I tell them no. Guess whose names getting thrown around the coffee shop in the morning , and guess whose permission is probably getting shut down for multiple acres probably across multiple owners....
Its odd that Bowtech84 brought this up, because a similar situation happened its to me when I was young . I was taught the same thing. My extended family farms also and remember growing up dad always took me fishing instead of brown goat shooting . Id say at the time we had over 15 ponds to fish , we asked to fish a pond that was one of my dads coworkers ponds and got told no. No problem they own the land the pond, they got their reasons whatever. Go on our way, fast forward - guess who calls up and wants to hunt the family ground the following year ? Guess who got told no because we didnt get to fish the pond. Well then it was well uh ya see well uh.... - Guess who never asked again....
Another thing Ive always thought is who am I to say I might buy ground now , and when my kids are old er all the sudden they dont give 2 shits about what lives on that 40 or what they can hunt on it. Ive seen it time and time again with farm kids growing up. Grew up farming hunting, get to highschool all the sudden its not the cool thing to do , it kinda waivers a little, they go to college and soon dads retiring - they have the keys to the farm and turn it down to go live in the city. How do you know your kids no matter how much you try to mold them into deer hunters are going to want to be deer hunters ? The only thing they might care about is , when your worm chow , whats that timber worth at the local realtor so they can put into their downtown Iowa City Loft while wearing a man bun .
Food for thought.
