About this directory & methodology
Public Hunt Land Finder is an independent, free directory of public land in the United States that may be open to hunting. It lists 9,924 named areas in 50 states. It is not affiliated with USGS or any state or federal agency.
Data source
All area boundaries, names, managers, designations and access codes come from the Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), version 4.1, published by the U.S. Geological Survey Gap Analysis Project (ScienceBase publication date 2025-03-31). USGS lists PAD-US as public domain. Citation:
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project (GAP), 2024, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) 4.1: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P96WBCHS.
Records were retrieved on 2026-09-25 from the official USGS PAD-US 4.1 map service (https://edits.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/PAD-US/PAD_US_gaz_combined/MapServer/0), which serves the same PAD-US 4.1 combined feature classes as the ScienceBase download. County names come from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 cartographic boundary file.
How areas were selected
- Only the PAD-US Fee feature class (land owned in fee by the agency), in the 50 states. Easements, marine areas and proclamation boundaries are excluded, so inholdings of private land inside a national forest boundary are not counted.
- Only records whose PAD-US public access value is Open or Restricted. Closed and unknown-access land is excluded.
- Federal: national forests and grasslands (Forest Service); BLM public lands, conservation areas and BLM/Forest Service national monuments; national wildlife refuges and waterfowl production areas (Fish and Wildlife Service; hatcheries and administrative sites excluded); Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and TVA project lands; National Park Service national recreation areas only (most other NPS units prohibit hunting).
- State: state resource management areas, conservation areas and wilderness (wildlife management areas, game lands, state forests, trust lands and similar), plus other land held by state fish and wildlife, natural resources, conservation or land agencies. State parks, historic sites, nature preserves, sanctuaries, research reserves, submerged lands and similar names are excluded.
- Records with the same name in the same state were merged into one listing (PAD-US often splits one area into many parcels or managers). Listings smaller than about 40 acres after merging, and records without a usable name, were dropped.
| Land type | Listings |
|---|---|
| State wildlife & game areas | 6,601 |
| Forests & grasslands | 1,287 |
| Wildlife refuges & WPAs | 713 |
| BLM public land | 161 |
| Lake & reservoir project land | 323 |
| State trust land | 164 |
| Other public land | 675 |
What was calculated
- Acreage: area of the merged boundary on the ellipsoid, using boundaries generalized by the USGS service (about 50 m tolerance; about 200 m in Alaska). It is approximate and may differ from official agency figures.
- Counties: Census counties that overlap at least 1% of the area (or one square mile).
- Reference point: a point guaranteed to fall inside the boundary. It is not an access point, road or parking area.
- Nearby public land: other listings whose reference point is within 30 miles, straight line.
What this site does not do
PAD-US has no field that says whether hunting is allowed, so this site never says an area is open to hunting. It does not list seasons, bag limits, license or permit rules, weapon restrictions or closures. Those change often. Every area page links to the state wildlife agency and, where available, the managing agency.
Known limitations
- PAD-US completeness varies by state. Some state wildlife areas are missing or appear under a different name, and a few states submit little state-land data.
- The access field is supplied by the managing agencies and is not always current. “Open access” does not mean open to hunting, and “restricted” often only means a permit, registration or seasonal closure applies.
- Names are shown as they appear in PAD-US and may differ slightly from the agency’s current name.
Updates
USGS releases PAD-US updates roughly every one to two years. When a new version is published, the build scripts are rerun and this page is updated. Current build: 2026-09-25.