Jbow, the hunt for the pheasant was on a private hunting preserve. The guy had about 450 acres of wooded and a number of cleared/overgrown fields. Some were planted with soybeans and others were chest high weeds and briars.
 
He provided the birds and the dogs.  He was quite proud, and rightly so, of both the birds, and how they reacted to the dogs as well as the dog's ability to find those birds in those overgrown fields and flush them.
 
As we walked the woods between the fields, he was pointing out his deer stands and told us about the deer he had taken at each of the stands. I don't know if he offers deer hunting or not.
 
One of the big kick in the pants here in NC is the rules for hunting on land you don't own.  Back in the past, you could simply pull off the road and if the land was not posted or fenced, you could walk into the woods and hunt freely.  Knocking on a farmer's door and getting is OK to hunt his land was all that was needed. Now, you are required to have written permission specifying the dates you are allowed on the land and that document must be with you at all times along with  your license. There are public game lands in the state, but each of them is subject to have their own restrictions and rules. In addition, none of them are close by to me. But as far as deer hunting, if I get no permissions from the farmers to hunt, I will only have the public game lands as my option.  I still have a few farmers yet to contact. I've gotten one "no" and some "let me get back to you" replies so far. Maybe next year I'll start thinking about it further back in the year before everyone gets dibs on the land.
 
There is a preserve here that offers deer hunting, but the costs are over $1000 to harvest a deer on that preserve. Yikes....!!!  People obviously pay it because they have lots of pictures on their web site...... but I'll set home before I pay that cost to hunt.
 
So, I know I have the bird hunt coming in December.....and if I care to, my brother always invites me to another hunt he takes..... last year was wild boar in Tennessee, I think it's Deep Sea Gulf of Mexico fishing...... I'll have to think about that one a bit.

Nice Herb. Georgia did that sort of thing with metal detecting, written permission, verbal will not do... most people ignore it and I know of one case where a judge threw it out of court because the landowner had given verbal permission... frankly we are getting what we deserve. I'll say no more on that.
 
I am going to KY to deer hunt also. Not sure when, I just found out today. I don't know what our rules are on private land deer hunting. I'd think you would just need permission, I'd think it proper to at least ask for permission unless you're talking about 1000+ tracts of land owned by corporations or out of state people.
 
Where I grew up everyone and anyone would stop at any bridge on any road and fish... up here in N GA, you'll get run off by landowners. I will do it anyway if I take a notion to. I just don't think anyone has a right to stop someone from fishing a creek by a bridge, maybe I am just old fashioned. About 20 years ago I did a 30 gallon long aquraium all from a local creek, gravel, plants, and fish... it was cool, at least I thought it was. I had a small bass and some blue spotted sunfish... and frankly, if I took a notion to do it I would catch and keep local finches. Who has the right to decide that I cannot use the natural resources around here. I wouldn't knowingly hurt a songbird but we should be able to raise and enjoy a couple of them if we want to. We have too many laws that make no sense.
 
Oh well... I am sure some will disagree.
 
Julien