doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hunters Gone

Hunting and guns come later in life for most, good thing, it gives us getting older farts something to do.

Can't agree that owning land is the future of hunting. If it is, we're looking at a sport of the wealthy, and that's never been the tradition in the US of A. Example: The farm on which I live (I own only the farmstead) was just auctioned off. Let's suppose Brown wanted to convert it from growing row crops to growing pheasants. How much would I have paid for the nearly 160 acres? Final sale price: $5630/acre. You do the math. I could've bought the farm across the road a couple years back. About 100 acres, about half CRP, lots of pheasants, deer, pond with waterfowl. That would've only set me back something shy of $300,000--a real bargain. And in fact, the individual who bought it did so primarily for hunting purposes. He also owns a half section, again with some good habitat, directly adjacent to that farm. But he has the means to make those kinds of deals. I don't. So I hunt on land adjacent to his, thanks to the generosity of my other neighbors that own and farm it, and I reap the spillover bounty. No one tells those pheasants they can't go across a property line to eat a little corn if they wish.

Private land is one answer to the hunting issue. However, consider this: Due to the price of corn (fueled mainly by the boom in ethanol), projections are that 1.3 million acres of CRP ground--mostly excellent bird hunting habitat--will be put back into row crop production by 2010, just in the states of IA and the Dakotas. That's something on the order of 15% of the total CRP enrollment for those 3 states. And that's all on PRIVATE land.

So sure, if you can afford to buy CRP ground, or ground that qualifies for CRP, go ahead and do it. Save every acre you can. On the other hand, you can also travel to states with both excellent bird hunting AND a lot of public land. I'm fortunate enough to live within a day's drive of a bunch of those states, even though IA--although we have pretty good pheasant hunting--has little public land. So every year, I load up the dogs, jump in the pickup, and head to Michigan's UP to hunt grouse and woodcock, and to ND to hunt sharptails. I could also go to northern WI or MN, or to SD. I sure wouldn't want to blow my hunting budget by buying 50 acres of land in Iowa, if that meant I'd no longer be able to afford to travel other places and hunt other birds.

Just wondering, how come you're not "fond" of trophy hunting? A lot of sportsmen graduate to that in later life. Me? I hunt for B&C class whitetails, it's a passion. This year in Saskatchewan I turned down 21 different bucks and came home without a deer. Same last year with 24 different bucks seen. With one week to hunt and a one deer limit, if you shoot a 150 class buck on Wednesday, you're never going to see a 180 on Friday.

One of the basics tenets I adopted when I became a hunter is I wouldn't kill something I didn't intend to eat.

When I said I wasn't fond of trophy hunting I should have been more specific. I meant shooting an animal just to have a trophy, big cats and brown bears come to mind. I realize that when one goes to Africa most plains game gets utilized by the locals not by the hunter. Seems backwards to me, but as long as it's getting used I'm OK with it. Not so big cats I imagine, perhaps I'm wrong. I know cougar is great meat here in the states, actually had some this year at a game dinner, quite good.

From what I understand black bear meat gets utilized sometimes, brown bear, never.

Silvers, I didn't mean to include the trophy whitetail hunting that's your passion, I'm sure the animal gets put to good use. In fact I have nothing but admiration for guys that can pass up a 150, probably because I'm such a lousy deer hunter myself. I'm happy to put a nice fat doe in the freezer which I haven't done yet this year.

Just curious, are you allowed only one deer/year in Saskatchewan?

Bob, yes of course the entire deer gets put to use. Saskatchewan only allow non-residents one deer per year. I've hunted in the Province for 8 years now and I've heard there was a time before that when N/R hunters could take two deer, but was prior to year 2000. Right now I have three whitetails that are in the high 160's net score, really don't need a 150 or so. Been there done that. Like I said you can't shoot a 150 if you want to see a Booner later in the week. Silvers

Have been involved with Hunter Safety in Wis. since 1968. The changes that I have seen are: an urban rather than a rural population shift, more single parent families, more weekend sports programs, computers, lack of places to hunt and I could go on and on. I was born and raised in a rural county, we could basically hunt where ever, with a population of less than 6000 then, everyone knew each other. Land was divided in to 40s and 80s in the 60s and sold to others. Very little public land in the county even back then, now it is mostly all posted. I don't object to a land owner controlling thier own land. The state has failed to stay abreast of changing times and provide hunter opurtunities for hunting. Have done a better job in the northern part of the state, but of course the population is in a strip accross the bottom and up the east side. Lot of problems to overcome, but some of our State hunting organizations are trying. Hopefully we will succeed or at least make progress.

Larry, I think a reason not mentioned for the decline in waterfowl hunting in Canada is that the countryside is being hollowed out, there are no longer people living in many of the wide spaces. Buying land for $5000/acre doesn't appear to be a good investment with lots of birds and accessible land up here.

As for the snafus and unreasonable security at the border, it cuts both ways. In those places where medical facilities are traditionally used on your side of the border, guards are stopping Canadian ambulances with flashing-light police escorts. Cooler heads should prevail over time.

Keeping a heritage, the only answer is taking a kid and making it the experience described in earlier posts. I had no luck with my children or grandsons but hit the jackpot with my granddaughters. You may find, as I did, that girls are more interesting and fun in camp. I think we tend to be harder on boys.

I innoculated all 3 of my sons with hunting fever from as early as I could pry them away from their mothers' arms and carry them off to the woods, and I am proud to say that they are all men now that you'd enjoy spending a day with in the field or on the marsh. I am lucky enough to own land for them the enjoy, but I do worry that I may not have done them any great favor when I consider that they may not be able to hold onto the properties I have accumulated.

Larry is absolutely right that buying land at todays prices for hunting is not cost effective. Neither, probably, is holding on to it in the face of esculating taxes and rising prices.

Georgia has a fair amount of public land, and the State has done the best job I think it could have to acquire public access properties. But personally, I believe the future of that public access is going to follow the needs of the greater number of Georgians, and ultimately, hunting will be curtailed or eliminated in favor of bird-watching, hiking etc.

I'm glad I grew up when i did...Geo

You're very close. It will ultimately follow the beliefs of the greater # of voters in Georgia.

If recruiting hunters is first on the list of what we need to be doing to preserve the heritage, educating the non-hunting public on the positive aspects of hunting and its corresponding need for quality habitat, is a strong second.

Non-restricted real rural land one hour or so out of the metro St.Louis area is going for twice that Larry. If I only knew, I would have taken a pass on retirement plans and investments and put every penny into land. It is the best bang for the buck.
Before I start to think about selling off some of my property, I'll hunt deer, turkeys and ducks into old age.
Maybe my children will want it?
But!
Americans are supposed to be self-reliant - don't count on the gov't for hunting.