Title says it all. I have 200 acres in western MN, good hunting for whitetails, decent bucks, cheap out of state tags. I've always wanted to trade hunts but I've heard it's illegal in some states or all states. I don't see why it would be I guess.

I'm sure people do it all the time.

In MO it is fine. I believe in some western states and Alaska if any money at all is exchanged you have to have a guide license. Ex. Pay for the gas fill up.

What do you mean by "trade hunts?" It is illegal to hunt without a valid license/tag in every state regulation I've ever read. Allowing someone to hunt your property and you to do the same on their property would be legal providing each had the proper license/tags.

That's what I mean. Say a guy had a spot with some antelope and let me hunt and in exchange he came out and hunted whitetails. No money exchanged, just a deal to hunt eachothers places.

That's what makes good friends

In my mind, there is absolutely no reason that arrangement should be illegal or require a guide license or any other nonsense.

As long as YOU have the tag for the antelope (OTC, draw, landowner transferable etc) then I would think it was legal.

Exception would be if one of the states has a law against it

Used to trade hog hunts for midwest deer hunts every year.
Catch was we had to draw tags for the deer in the state we were hunting.
At the time it was pretty much a guarantee that if you applied you would get drawn

On a side note, I figure if I have a tag then it is no concern of any state whether I am hunting for free or paying someone to guide me

My question.. how would anyone know what you have traded.. unless you publicly announced your affairs

I don't see any illegal actions with that. If you have a tag and he has a tag to hunt yours would be a good deal and legal. If you would have any questions though I would call you DNR office and talk to someone.

That would be an excellent arrangement. No way a state can have a law against that if each hunter has the proper license and tags.

Sounds to me that you are trading access to private property. To provide a hunt is different IMO.

If you can get a legal tag and have permission to hunt there or it’s legal to hunt public land I don’t think it any year problem. If you use a tag of others that’s not transferable or violate the guide laws of that state you have a problem.

I think the trips to be on a guided traplines in remote Canada as an American seems ripe for legal challenges if they wanted to make an issue out of it. I don’t think I’d pay the big bucks for one to not make some sets and make a catch personally. With the increase of permit draws for certain species be it furbearer or game animals the nonresident chances are reduced greatly then.

This^^
It should be legal as long as you get your own license and tags but you need to check the laws of the state you are going to, because some of them a pretty picky about what they consider an exchange for a service. As TurkeyTime says, in Idaho if you give me gas money, or buy me something it becomes "guiding" and I need a guide license.

I was thinking the same way.

Therein lies the problem, I wanted to try and trading the access online. I've shot enough whitetail bucks out of a tree stand and ide love to experience something else. I don't want to set myself or someone else up for a stupid game violation so trying to get it all figured out.

If a lottery is involved its probably illegal unless the state has a legal way to transfer tag/permit.

I think draw tags would over complicate the whole thing. Ide be happy with a fishing trip or shooting a bunch of does for damage permits, hound hunt for bobcat, whatever like that.

I was imagining you swapping access with a friend or aquantance. I was thinking that just sounds like being a friend - how could that be illegal?

But contracting access online with strangers does start to look more like guide activities (I don't know the laws, just my personal perception).


So what if you approached this from a different direction: Find a guide who has access to antelope or whatever you want to hunt. Call them and ask if they'd let you shoot an antelope in exchange for access to your deer. If you're thinking of dealing with a stranger anyway, just pick a guide. Then you are a private landowner contracting with a licensed guide. Isn't that what the guide does every day?

Lots of laws out there that can mess folks up like here anybody can hunt public lands obviously but they can’t be guided on public lands for commercial hunts. I’m sure the guides know the law but a client probably would not have a clue.