My response was more directed to Vito in the fact that being on Mathews TV for 6 minutes, working in an IT office and hosting a webisode, really does jack **** for you in regards to hunting properties. The perception that many people have of individuals in the so-called hunting industry, is ridiculous... you know that as well as I do, if not better. I don't know but I'm pretty sure you haven't been receiving classified emails and texts about special pieces of ground that are available for lease... and you were even on the DVD and the flier this year!!!! If there isn't ground available then there isn't, plain and simple. I was talking about the financial side of leasing, you don't have to lease giant chunks of land or spend a ton of money for a decent lease... even in Illinois. I know far more people that don't want to make a slight lifestyle change financially to gain ground than I do people that have outright exhausted every single resource they can find to get a place to hunt. And I guarantee I could find a bikini model in Northern Wisconsin, so that argument holds as much water as my Rut Junkie mesh back hat.
If there is a will there is a way... for now. Depends on how much you want to put into it whether it is time, distance, money or a combination of them. Things are not equal and never will be from one area to the next. It is getting harder to find access to private. Sadly in ND it is more due to the other states that gripe the most about how tough they got it. With the steady increase of outer staters flocking to ND to hunt waterfoul, pheasants, coyotes , deer, and now trapping coyotes/muskrats.... seems hunting is very much alive. I see more Minnesota plates during our hunting season then I do ND plates. I am seeing a lot of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinios, Ohio, Tennesse, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Arkansa. Did I mention Minnesota ??? :p I see fewer ND plates every year due to the paragraph above. Seems money isn't a probem for the non residents that come here. They have fists full of it and aren't afraid to throw it around. They have pushed the local waterfoulers out across the state on private land. They have pushed the local pheasant hunters out off private land. Distance isn't a problem for them nor is time. You guys have screwed up your state and now have moved on to mine. While it won't hurt me since I am older and did get a lot of access when the going was good... it is making it tough for the locals to get their kids started in hunting now that weren't so fortunate. That is a fact !! Leasing isn't too much of a problem other then a few guides/outfitters scattered around. The land owners are making more taking the money from the non-residents then leasing it out for the most part. Now someone will say... the locals have nothing to complain about and should just pull out their wallets too. The only problem with that... the locals usually can only hunt weekends with their jobs. The non-residents are here for a week with twice to 3 times as many guys then the locals. 2 - 3 guys verses 5 - 10 guys. 2 days verses 5 - 7. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which group is going to shell out more money. The non-residents will win every time. When they are done hunting, the next big group of non-residents rolls in for the next 5 - 7 days. The local hunters are screwed. Fact !! There is quite a bit of tension over it and a lot of griping across the state. Now the tension between the local hunters and the landowners over waterfoul does effect them getting access for deer hunting. So now we have more tension and fewer locals getting to hunt private land for deer. That puts more pressure on public land. Who the hell wants to start their kids out on heavy pressured public land during rifle season. There are no trees here to stop the stray bullets from desperate hunters should a deer get up and run the gauntlet. The goverment nor the antis will kill hunting for us here.... non-residents and pay hunting will be the death of it if anything can end it. No don't take this that I am complaining or bitter. You asked... I answered. :p Tim
I believe there are so many people that feel that hunting is a part of their heritage, to ever let it go away. Numbers may fall with all of the different options people have today for entertainment, but I dont think it will be drastic. Helping to get Children involved in hunting should be our number one concern, if we are truly worried about passing on our passion for hunting from generation to generation. Fighting over leases, and what type of weapon some one wants to harvest their animal with, and how big of a buck some one wants to shoot doesnt have anything to do with taking a child hunting. There are many areas people can go about this, but it takes sacrifice, not always finacially but time. Christine does more to help get children involved in archery than any one I know. I also know that people like Pat, Trevor, and a number of others went out of their way to mentor during the WI youth turkey season, even though it was Easter weekend. If more people volunteered some time to involve children and teach them to hunt, not only would we gain more youth into hunting, I believe alot of their parents that never hunted before would get involved as well.
Hunting out here in Cal is suffering because of all the pot farmers growing their dope in our hunting grounds, killing the deer off because they want to eat the pot, this is serious! The last thing I want to do is get shot and killed lookin for game by some cartel punks growin weed up from Mexico. And if they get busted growing they just bail out and go back to Mexico and never face charges. The Humbolt area here is some of the best blacktail hunting in the state but not many will chance hunting there for fear of stumbling across a pot farm because the farmers dont want you to report them so their only option is to silence you! It SUCKS!
