Post
by averageguy » Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:22 pm
Birds, I observe some disturbing behavior as well. I don't create it or have any affiliation with it.
But I have been lumped in with the same because I sometimes shoot a limit of birds and posted some photos (which cannot be reasonably claimed to be distasteful). I am not going to let it pass without comment, attempts to spin it different do not erase it and it does nothing but tear down our sport.
I help moderate a public site which has over 20K and growing members dedicated to Hunting Wild Birds. Numerous comments posted in this thread would be met with a huge swell of opposition. As it should be.
As far as shooting birds I am well versed in Biology, but it is apparent several here are not. The Iowa DNR released a public statement this week regarding the severe winter ice, snow accumulations, low temperatures and wind taking a severe toll on the pheasant and quail numbers as we speak. Once again demonstrating how legal hunting mortality has a near zero impact on wild bird numbers year over year. Habitat and Weather are the determining factors not legal Sport hunting.
As for "Texas", I started hunting over 50 years ago, rode the free permission as far and as long as it would take me. Still do. But I also experienced the decline in free access all the way.
I hunt public lands more days a season than any other form of access, some private permission spots, some paid trespass fees onto private land, and I hunt on my own property which I manage for Wildlife.
I did not wish for our current state of affairs nor did I create it, but I will be darned if I ever stop hunting because of it. I am not some born into it well heeled gentry but rather a guy who loves to hunt so much that I have managed my life such that I am able to do a lot of it.
Ill feelings towards fellow hunters utilizing some pay to play options accomplishes nothing but more ill feelings between hunters, who should instead be working against a common enemy to our Sport.
And it misses a critical reality, which is those payments to landowners provide necessary and critical incentives to balance their land use practices in ways that benefit wildlife.
The ranch I hunted in Texas serves as an excellent example as the owner/operator struggles to keep his ranch intact and running in the black vs the red. It is only through income streams from the Deer and Quail hunts he sells that he is able to keep the stocking rates for cattle on his ranch at a lower level than you can easily see on the adjoining ranches. The adjoining ranches are much more heavily grazed and in turn do not support anywhere near the same volume of wildlife.
I am familiar with the Hunt Club leasing in Kansas that was referenced in a post above including its annual dues. It is within the financial reach of a great many fellow Sportsman if they choose to utilize it. The club has existed since at least the 80s when I first became aware of it and yet the State of Kansas is still providing 1.3 million acres of public land opportunities this past season. That club is not the enemy several posts make it out to be, but rather these approaches to continuing access to private lands are an inevitable outcome of the economics of landowners seeking some return on investments. No amount of complaining or attacks on fellow hunters from those who have no financial stake in those properties will ever overcome these economic realities.
There are all sorts of private lands that I will never hunt on, but I would much rather see them supporting wildlife and providing some Sportsman hunting opportunities than not.
Divisiveness within our ranks is not a solution nor a defense against our common enemy.
Last edited by
averageguy on Wed Feb 27, 2019 8:58 am, edited 3 times in total.