Think You Don’t Need It?

As a hunting outfitter, you have a lot on your plate. You constantly need to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening on your property so you know how to put clients on the wild game animals they are looking for. You also need to maintain your property and your hunting gear so it’s all in good working order. Not to mention the ever-important aspect of retaining existing clients and finding new ones. But in the midst of all that, do you really have time to pursue hunting liability insurance? That depends…

Do you want to protect your family’s assets and the company you’ve built through maybe years of grueling work?
Do you want to shield your clients and give them the best and safest experience they can have?
Are you OK with using a simple online process and getting next day coverage for your business?

If you answered yes to any of those, you definitely have time! In the post below, we’ll talk about why it’s important for a guide or outfitter to have this insurance in place, whether you own prime hunting land in Illinois, are leasing a hunting property from another landowner, or guide strictly on public lands. We’ll also discuss the benefits of having it and the kinds of activities that are covered

 

Why Have Hunting Insurance?

First off, most people automatically think of hunting lease liability insurance when the hunting insurance topic comes up. Hunting liability insurance is similar, but a little different. Whenever you allow someone onto your property (a small portion of land, accommodations, transportation like a vehicle or boat, or the hunting property) you assume some level of legal risk.

When you’re also letting them hunt, even with some kind of hunting agreement in place, you take on a bigger chance of something going wrong (and you being liable for it). There’s a lengthy list of things that could happen, including lodging or property damage, equipment damage, or God forbid, a hunting accident (e.g., falling out of a tree stand, accidentally shooting themselves, etc.). Another important piece to consider are your employees (e.g., cooks, guides, maintenance, etc.). They are also exposed to these same risks, and you need to protect them.

The RIGHT coverage

With the right kind of guide and outfitter liability insurance in place, you are protected from those risks in a way you weren’t before. And since a single accident could jeopardize your outfitting business and possibly personal assets, it should be a no-brainer as to why you need hunting liability insurance.

As another perk of getting hunting insurance, you can add the insurance piece to your website’s features and benefits to ease clients’ minds. Clients may take on liability risk for damages they cause as well, so this protects them from that angle and they will know there is insurance in place in case something goes south. It’s likely that this could help attract more customers in the long run.

 

Same Thing for Different Situations

As mentioned in the beginning of this post, your guiding or outfitting business may operate on your own private land, leased land, or public land. Let’s run through a few examples to show you the range of scenarios that this applies to.

Maybe you own a private ranch and run an outfitting company strictly on your own land. In this case, you probably have significant structures (e.g., lodges, cabins, outbuildings, etc.) and equipment to protect. Additionally, anyone who gets hurt while on your property could threaten to file a lawsuit against you.

Similarly, maybe you bought a hunting lease and have an agreement in place with the landowner to guide on it. To protect the landowner, client, and yourself, you would need some kind of liability insurance.

Many outfitters and guides hunt 100% public or federal land. You may need special permits to do so depending on who owns the land, but it is certainly an option. In this case, you could be liable for clients or employees hurt while in your service.
Finally, maybe you hunt public land, but in a landlocked area where you need to access it through a private landowner. It is going to be a lot easier to convince a landowner to let you use their property if you can prove you have hunting liability insurance coverage in place. That policy removes the risk for them and opens the door for them to safely sell a hunting lease to you.

 

AHLA Hunting Liability Insurance Coverage

So if you understand why you need the liability coverage for hunting, how do you begin the process of getting it? Most people envision a painful, expensive, and drawn-out process, which is probably why they avoid it in the first place. But you’ll be pleasantly surprised with outfitter coverage from the American Hunting Lease Association. Using a simple online process with affordable rates, you can get next day coverage for your outfitting. You can also get an instant quote on your policy here.

So what exactly do you get with the Guides and Outfitters hunting liability insurance policy? First, you’ll receive comprehensive liability coverage for products/operations, personal injury, advertising liability, bodily injury, property damage, and medical pay (see more details about the specific limits below).

General Liability Policy Limits:

$2,000,000 General Aggregate
$1,000,000 Products / Completed Operations (Aggregate)
$1,000,000 (Each Offense) Personal Injury and Advertising Liability
$1,000,000 (Each Occurrence) Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability
$100,000 (Any One Fire) Damage To Rented Premises
$5,000 Medical Pay

You will also get a custom hunting lease agreement with the policy, with another agreement for each additional insured person listed. This adds another layer of security and safety for lands you lease. Additionally, you will receive an AHLA membership and a listing in our hunting and fishing Guides and Outfitter directory. And as a bonus, you can also have the opportunity to write guest blogs for our newsletter (which is sent to 35 thousand members each month). To receive more exposure for your outfitting company. As you can see, you get a lot of bang for your buck since you can potentially attract more clients and protect your people and assets better.

If you don’t have hunting liability insurance in place for your favorite hunting properties or company in general, hopefully you can now see why it is so critical to get it. Using our simple online process, you can fix that problem very quickly. Whenever you can stay safe and continue your favorite passion, it’s a win-win situation.