Mr. green jeans experience while hunting.

[Lionheart]

States in Midwest like Kansas has gotten millions in federal dollars to set aside farmland as CRP ground. This land was planted in native grasses, not plowed and the weedy cover caused pheasant and quail populations to explode.

Southeasten states took federal crp money and planted pine trees. No birds.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Look, I agree there are slob hunters out there who break game laws. I just take issue with the 90%+ comment and then labeling that percentage of hunters disgusting. Exactly which laws are you talking about them breaking...my experience is that when the government has stupid laws then they tend to get ignored. Like an orange this or that on private land. Or people quickly learn the difference between the enforced law and written law.
I am a disgusting lawbreaker everyday because I usually drive 5-7 mikes an hour over posted speed limits. Especially when the limits are arbitrarily low for political reasons like “save the planet” emissions.

Maybe we just hang around a different type of hunter. My buddies plant food plots, burn pine forests and try to help game survive.

I guess I’m just gonna have to move out West where folks think more like I do about the right of government, any government, to enter a man’s private property withour permission for any reason - much less to see how many shells are in his shotgun hunting game that he has worked to provide habitat for...

If the shoe doesn't fit I have no idea why you'd be offended. (I assume it does NOT fit by the way.) Game limits, legal hours, baiting, trespassing are the most common. I don't remember exactly how many different clubs I tried, all in different counties (some in multiple) and every single one I had the same exact conversation with the president before joining. Every single one assured me law breakers were not tolerated and non existent. I hunt to relax and don't need to worry about what some idiot is doing a few acres away. Rarely made it beyond opening day before they were all to happy to self identify. Same thing has happened around every campfire or lunch table I've shared with self professed 'hunters'. Many will get indignant and say "Well do you ______ (fill in the blank) while hunting?" in an ironic effort to prove that law breaking is OK. I just want to say "here's your sign."
While I always wear orange, even on my own property, that's for MY sake and has zero to do with "game management". Driving laws are completely irrelevant. If you speed, and no one is harmed, there is no harm (no I'm not advocating speeding). If you shoot over the limit, or outside of legal hours, you have stolen a public resource from someone else. If it is done en masse (which it is) you have materially affected the hunting reality for everyone else. Different seasons for different weapons I understand for the sake of opportunity but also have nothing to do with game management. I'd be fine if they were eliminated, but I'm not going to take my centerfire rifle out during archery season out of some sense of entitlement or civil protest. I personally am against "doe days" and won't type again why I think they are idiotic, so I'm not trying to say all game laws are defensible. They are never-the-less the law so I follow them, since if I'm going to be a steward of our wildlife resources it would be beyond hypocritical to selectively follow the laws protecting them. So no, I don't break game laws and have no respect for those that do and I'm confident that includes, unfortunately, the vast majority of hunters. I don't say that lightly or gladly believe me. I spend far too much time defending hunters and hunting to non hunters. Hunters make that job more difficult than it should ever be.

 

[Bear44]

If the shoe doesn't fit I have no idea why you'd be offended. (I assume it does NOT fit by the way.) Game limits, legal hours, baiting, trespassing are the most common. I don't remember exactly how many different clubs I tried, all in different counties (some in multiple) and every single one I had the same exact conversation with the president before joining. Every single one assured me law breakers were not tolerated and non existent. I hunt to relax and don't need to worry about what some idiot is doing a few acres away. Rarely made it beyond opening day before they were all to happy to self identify. Same thing has happened around every campfire or lunch table I've shared with self professed 'hunters'. Many will get indignant and say "Well do you ______ (fill in the blank) while hunting?" in an ironic effort to prove that law breaking is OK. I just want to say "here's your sign."
While I always wear orange, even on my own property, that's for MY sake and has zero to do with "game management". Driving laws are completely irrelevant. If you speed, and no one is harmed, there is no harm (no I'm not advocating speeding). If you shoot over the limit, or outside of legal hours, you have stolen a public resource from someone else. If it is done en masse (which it is) you have materially affected the hunting reality for everyone else. Different seasons for different weapons I understand for the sake of opportunity but also have nothing to do with game management. I'd be fine if they were eliminated, but I'm not going to take my centerfire rifle out during archery season out of some sense of entitlement or civil protest. I personally am against "doe days" and won't type again why I think they are idiotic, so I'm not trying to say all game laws are defensible. They are never-the-less the law so I follow them, since if I'm going to be a steward of our wildlife resources it would be beyond hypocritical to selectively follow the laws protecting them. So no, I don't break game laws and have no respect for those that do and I'm confident that includes, unfortunately, the vast majority of hunters. I don't say that lightly or gladly believe me. I spend far too much time defending hunters and hunting to non hunters. Hunters make that job more difficult than it should ever be.

Regardless of whether a game law makes sense, which I think most do, most of the animals we hunt are called "game" for a reason. This is a sport and I consider breaking game laws the same as cheating at any sport. If you are breaking the rules, "winning" simply isn't as satisfying for me.

One major change in the laws I would like to see is all the restrictions coming off hunting invasive species (yotes and hogs) on public land. Night hunting, electronic calls and a 12 month season should be in place. Any weapon any time. I wouldn't even mind seeing a bounty system put in place. Pay for it with a slight increase in license fees. I saw the effect that yotes have on the Turkey population first hand on a small club I used to belong to. There were Turkey all over the place for several years, then we heard our first yotes on the property. Within a year or two the Turkey population was a small fraction of what it had been.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Regardless of whether a game law makes sense, which I think most do, most of the animals we hunt are called "game" for a reason. This is a sport and I consider breaking game laws the same as cheating at any sport. If you are breaking the rules, "winning" simply isn't as satisfying for me.

One major change in the laws I would like to see is all the restrictions coming off hunting invasive species (yotes and hogs) on public land. Night hunting, electronic calls and a 12 month season should be in place. Any weapon any time. I wouldn't even mind seeing a bounty system put in place. Pay for it with a slight increase in license fees. I saw the effect that yotes have on the Turkey population first hand on a small club I used to belong to. There were Turkey all over the place for several years, then we heard our first yotes on the property. Within a year or two the Turkey population was a small fraction of what it had been.

I agree with the sentiment, but seeing how hard it is to manage hunters on a private club where supposedly everyone is of the same mind, imagine unmitigated access 24/7/365 to public lands.....
At the very least they ought to allow centerfire rifles from the end of deer season to say July for both of the above instead of only during deer season (or the very few special hunts).

 

[Bear44]

I agree with the sentiment, but seeing how hard it is to manage hunters on a private club where supposedly everyone is of the same mind, imagine unmitigated access 24/7/365 to public lands.....
At the very least they ought to allow centerfire rifles from the end of deer season to say July for both of the above instead of only during deer season (or the very few special hunts).

Yeah, management of the hunters is why the laws are as they are now. But I think the trade off of better management of invasive species would be worth it.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Yeah, management of the hunters is why the laws are as they are now. But I think the trade off of better management of invasive species would be worth it.

We've likely reached saturation with coyotes. Hogs are only going to get worse. Some fairly drastic measure are going to have to be taken.

 

[Comanche]

Pass a quail....drag a deer.

 

[Lionheart]

I agree with you guys about obeying game laws.

In general.

However, I will say that some game laws that are passed to protect idiots on public land make no sense on private land.

So will I leave my orange on during bow season if I’m in a tree stand in the middle of thousands of acres of private land....?

Of course, it’s the Law.

I submit to only one set of laws blindly and completely. They come from above, not from men. In deciding which laws made by men I will follow I use the wise advice...”Render unto Caesar’s what is Caesar’s”...

I have broken some laws before...and probably will again. Given the current world we live in I may break a lot in the future.
But ultimately, we all have to make choices we can sleep at night with...and some of the game laws we have currently...well let’s just say they can be bent a little and not keep me awake at night.

And I would argue that speeding in the wrong place puts human life at risk, not a dumb animal.

 

[GeauxLSU]

I have broken some laws before...and probably will again. Given the current world we live in I may break a lot in the future.
But ultimately, we all have to make choices we can sleep at night with...and some of the game laws we have currently...well let’s just say they can be bent a little and not keep me awake at night.

And you took offense at my 90% estimate? I honestly think it's higher than that.

 

[Lionheart]

I would love to be with you folks on a Western trophy hunt where you had an outfitter...hunting on private land...and at one minute before legal shooting hours a buck of a lifetime walks out where you have 10 seconds to shoot or not shoot.

And let’s say you have 10k invested in the hunt and hundreds of hours of preparation.

And let’s say the outfitter gets a $1000 bonus if you take a trophy buck.

That’s when most folks get off the high horse and fish.

You know, like the story about the game warden who suspected one of his buddies of using a telephone in the river to take fish illegally? So, as the story goes, the gw asks to go with his buddy fishing the next morning and his buddy cheerfully agrees.

After a few minutes of drifting down the river, the buddy pulls out a stick of dynamite, and starts to light it while the GW starts threatening him with arrest and explaining why it’s illegal to do that.

The buddy replies as he hands the lit stick of dynamite to the GW...”You gonna sit there and jaw all morning or are you gonna fish?”