Wisconsin's public hunting land resource!
To ask your own question, eMail "support" at FreeHuntingLand.com
It all started with the persuit of a few Tom turkeys. Our best wild turkey hunting place was going to be leased next season. The price of land hit an all-time high, and the realization that none of us could afford the quantity of land where we could hunt deer, turkeys, ducks, and grouse was starting to hit home. We did some research and found out the land where we were seeing some nice Toms was private land but open to public hunting. After a lot of hard work, six months later FreeHuntingLand.com was up and running.
We aren't giving away any "free" land. This site is about land that is free to hunt. No leases and no taxes! We charge a small amount (about the cost of gas for a scouting trip) for two reasons. Obviously we would like to make a little money to pay for all the work we have done and do each year to update the maps. Secondly, there are around 1 million licensed hunters that hunt in Wisconsin. As private land gets more expensive and hunting leases consume other private access, the demand for public land rises. We decided at the beginning that by charging a small fee we would limit the membership and provided those paying members with a valuable tool that only a few others have access to.
Not really. The online maps they do have, are hard to find, hard to use, and located in different places. We feel, by providing all huntable lands viewable at once, overlayed on detailed satellite land imagery, you can better access the quality of potential hunting spots. Your time is valuable and FreeHuntingLand.com is an effective tool to save you time and make your quest to find the prefect hunting spot more enjoyable.
Your membership gives you instant access to Google Earth compatible map files of Wisconsin hunting lands. These detailed files are downloaded from your membership page and displayed in Google Earth. Each time you use Google Earth to view the huntable land parcels, your computer gets new files from our server. This ensures the data is the latest available. The current membership last for 9-months. We update the data once a year in the summer, so our membership gets you through the fall hunting season and the spring turkey season. We are not selling Google Earth (its free anyway). We are not selling the satellite imagery, paper maps, or the data. Your membership entitiles you a license to view the data. See our product info page for more information.
Only if you never viewed the maps. Because hunting is seasonal and the data can be printed, the full value of our product could be realized in just a few hours. It wouldn't be fair if a person purchased instant access, printed the maps of the areas they wanted to hunt, and then cancelled.
Yes. NEW for 2013. When you click on a parcel of Managed Forest Law or Forest Crop Law land, a pop-up balloon appears. Inside the pop-up, the number of "open" acres, owner name and address, the tax program, and when the enrollment for this parcel expires.
FreeHuntingLand.com is the name of the website. Rack 'N Fin, LLC is just the name of the business (a Wisconsin registered Limited Liability Company) we operate under. You will see the name Rack 'N Fin, LLC if you checkout at PayPal. You may also see it on other copyrighted information.
A membership site is the easiest way for somebody to sign-up and get instant access to the information they are looking for. Because of the amount of data and the detailed 3D graphics involved with displaying the imagery in Google Earth™, a new computer with a fast broadband internet connection (cable or DSL) is required. We strongly recommend you download Google Earth if you don't already have it. Then click on the sample map files to make sure you are satisfied with your systems performance before you purchase.
Absolutely not. When your membership expires, we will let you know. If you don't renew your membership, you will not be able to access the "for pay" areas of this site. We will NEVER automatically bill your credit card for a renewal.
One of the benefits of membership is participating in our referral program. You can earn up to $7.00 for each person you refer to FreeHuntingLand.com if they complete registration for a paid membership. It's easy. Get some friends to sign-up and its like getting your membership for free! There is no limit to how much you can earn. Please see the membership info page for more details.
A general rule of thumb is a computer not more than 4 years old and a hi-speed internet connection like DSL or cable. See Google recommended system requirements.
Since October 1st 2009, we are required to charge WI sales tax of 5.5%. Our map files are considered a digital download which is taxable in Wisconsin.
The original source for all data is either the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) or USDA Forest Service, or BCPL. We here at FreeHuntingLand.com have done significant data entry, transformation, reprojecting, and manipulation (intellectual property) of the original data, to make them available online and in a format compatible with Google Earth™. Therefore we own the copyright to all hunting land overlays found on this site or on the data CD/DVD. Each file contains our copyright information. Each files also contains a unique "data fingerprint" only known to us and will be used to protect and enforce our copyright.
Don't trust anybody with that information. That is why we chose PayPal as our checkout/shopping cart solution. Your finacial information is between you and PayPal and we will never know it. PayPal only sends us an email with your name and email address once a purchase transaction is completed.
Yes. You will never receive spam from us or anybody else as a result of signing up for our membership. Please read our Privacy Policy via the link at the bottom of this page.
Google Earth™ has taken maps, satellite imagery, and geographic information and made them 3D. I can't say enough about GE, it rocks! If you ever needed an excuse to buy a faster computer or and excuse to get a faster internet connection, GE is it. We needed a medium to display our hunting land data online and GE was the best choice. You must have GE to view our hunting land maps. Download Google Earth if you don't already have it.
The satellite imagery is between 1-3 years old. New imagery is being made available all the time. The imagery is being served from the Google Earth™ Server, therefore you need a fast internet connection for all this to work. It is not "live" or "real-time" imagery like you see in the movies. That technology doesn't exist today, or at least nobody is admitting that it does ;)
Yes. We have done significant data entry, transformation, reprojecting, and manipulation (some methods include intellectual property) of the original data, to make them available online and in a format compatible with Google Earth™. Therefore we own the copyright to all hunting land overlays found on this site or on the data CD/DVD. Each file contains our copyright information. Each files also contains a unique "data fingerprint" only known to us and will be used to protect and enforce our copyright.
Yes, for your own personal use. The satellite imagery has a copyright watermark on it. You are not allowed to remove any copyright information.
Every year, thousands of acres are moved into or out of these programs. If land changes ownership, the new owner has the option to move the land out of the program (fees, penalties, stumpage, and back taxes may apply). In addition, owners enrolled in the Managed Forest Law (MFL) program have the option of twice changing the status of the land from "open" to "closed" or "closed" to "open'. Owners must complete the status change process by March of each year. FreeHuntingLand.com will update its map data with each years changes by July of that year. When you buy a map or printed list, it is usually outdated by the time the ink drys. What could be worse than planning a hunting trip with an old map, just to find out, after driving 4 hours, that the land was sold, taken out of MFL/FCL and posted "No Trespassing"? Stay current with our online data.
All land in the MFL program that is designated "open" must have public access. There is most likely an adjacent parcel of "closed" MFL land with road access. The owner must provide marked access across the "closed" parcel to the "open" parcel. This will be obvious to you after your turn on the "Closed MLF" layer in GE. The list you get from the DNR is only of "open" land and will leave you guessing how to access landlocked parcels.