Just wondering if there is any other public land that will hold birds around south central MN besides the WMAs. I am guessing these WMAs will have many people waiting to get on them. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks
Sam

I have good or better luck hunting waterfoul production areas compared to heavily hunted WMA's. Also, railroad ditches are public land, and can offer some really good shooting. A MN atlas is a good investment that shows all types of public including WMA, WPA, and forrest land that could have cleared fields.

Are you sure railroad ditches are public land? I've been told by a warden they are not public and are owned by the railroad.

Due to lawsuits being filed, I am pretty sure railroad ditches have been "off limits" for several years.

Yes, railroad ditches are private.

There is state land that is not WMA, there is county land, there is township lands, there is Federal WPAs. Its all out there. You need to buy a prim map or the sportmans atlas or if you really want to find all the little gems, you need to buy the plat book for that county.

Powerstroke, where do you get county plat books and the sportsmans atlas? Send me a email at jessemerson "at" mailcan dot com.

I don't want to highjack this thread but it says private messages are deactivated??!?

Well, it looks like I got some misinformation. I'll try to email the DNR for clarification.

Sportsmans Atlases can be found at sporting goods stores like Gander and Cabelas. I'm sure some of the local shops are starting to find them.

The county plat maps can be purchased from the individual county or I like to order them from the Minnesota Bookstore. Do a search. I'll see if I can post the link.

Check out the maps section. I ordered a couple of the plats for turkey hunting. I got them and some PRIM maps and they shipped to me in less than a week.

Prim maps are great and went through a revision a two or three years back.

There are also SNA's which are not huntable, but look inviting.

Railroads own the right of way, but they have a hard time enforcing any trespassing due to the absentee land owner aspect.

Good luck with the hunts.

Great way to check out public hunting areas in Minnesota

1. get google earth

2. Go to http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wmas/index.html and go to the bottom of the page and download the google earth application

3. Unzip the file and then double click on it when you have google earth open and it should load into it.

Another great resource: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/airphotos/index.html

The question of RR being private or public was discussed before and I believe the concensus was that it is private land and quite likely illegal to hunt, although it is rarely enforced as evidenced by the number of hunters tresspassing on my property off the old RR right-of-way, which is now a bicycle, hiking, trail.

Bob