Restrictions on hunting are usually related to "what's enough" (the establishment of limits, both daily and possession)
Ben, we know you haven't been reading the links you've been posting. That's well established, since you keep throwing up crap about preserve chukar in southern Ontario ingesting lead, which has absolutely nothing to do with wild pheasants in Montana. Now we also know you're not even reading the (much shorter) posts to which you're responding. But I boiled it down to the key sentence fragment concerning limits, since you missed it last time. As for seasons . . . why not shoot rooster pheasants, right up through April? Well Ben, maybe a real smart guy like you could do that, because I'm sure you'd be able to go out and hunt ONLY roosters--without disturbing the hens, which may already have been stressed by a hard winter. I'm positive you wouldn't flush those stressed hens out of their good winter cover and into the open, where they're much more likely to fall victim to predators in a weakened state . . . now would you, Ben? You're not far off track on roosters being excess baggage, but it appears you never considered what the impact of hunting pheasants into late winter/early spring would be on hens. And if you've read the same studies I have, and hunted pheasants as long as I have, then you also know that some hens get shot accidentally, due to misidentification. Straight from the Iowa DNR "The Ring-Necked Pheasant in Iowa": "Examination of pheasants killed by non-hunting (vehicles and blizzards) means after the close of the season showed that about 24% of the cocks and 3% of the hens carried lead shot. Using these data, it was calculated that 9% of the fall hen population was killed during the hunting season." So, just so you can shoot a few more roosters, you want to make the season longer--which means more hens (and you can't deny that they're critical to the long-term population!) will be wounded or killed. Actually, I think the stress of pushing them out of good winter cover, more so than is already happening due to other predators, would be even worse on them. But that's a really bad idea, Ben. Thought you studied wildlife management. I'm beginning to think maybe . . . art history? Underwater basket weaving?
Nope, much better idea to let them alone--both roosters and hens--when the season ends in January. Shooting only roosters, unfortunately, does not mean that you're KILLING only roosters--when you're talking about hunting pheasants in late winter/early spring. How long does the season have to be, anyhow? Another question of "what's enough"--settled by the game biologists. Just like 3 pheasants a day is also "enough"--everywhere, I think, except KS where they let you shoot 4. Not so much a "fair chase" issue as an "enough" issue.
"Patsy for PETA" . . . Ben, that's rich. You've been looking in the mirror, for sure. Let's see . . . a guy who wants to get rid of all lead shot, which would mean some people would no longer own a shotgun with which they could hunt--without paying $2-$3/shell. Ben, you get rid of enough hunters that way, and you won't have to worry about hunting pheasants in November and December, let alone in Feb/Mar. The antis will walk all over what's left of us after you're done.
Last edited by L. Brown; 01/19/10 08:35 PM.
