doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ah nature, warning shots!

Lowell...We are some further west than you in flyover country and far less populated. We still have the same problems with trespassers and illegal trash dumpers.

In the past we could call our local LEO's and they were more than happy to help. In recent years they seem to have higher priorities.

We are considering adopting the motto of the 1st Infantry Division when we were defending out country against the rising tides of communist aggression in Vietnam...to wit "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."

I feel blessed to live where I do. If one examines a map of the areas in Minnesota that are open to public hunting, not just WMAs, but non private state forest land, school trust land, tax forfeited land, federal reserve land, one quickly realizes that a truly huge part of the state is literally their's for the asking. Contrary to Jack's experience, I live about ten minutes from an area known as Carlos Avery WMA, which, is heavily used, but, is a vast area, just north of the cities. If you do your homework (legwork) you can expect to move grouse, pheasants and woodcock, all in the same trip. It is not premiere habitat for any of the above, but, they can be found, if you do your part. My brother has taken world class deer from the area. When he was able, my Dad hunted ducks there, after work, before coming home for dinner, and on weekends, leaving before sunrise, and coming home around noon, to finish his weekend yardwork.
The people who bitch the loudest about nothing being left there to hunt can't tell you the names of the roads around and through the place, in my experience.
I also have access to a bit of private land for grouse hunting in the northern part of the state. It isn't bad, but, it isn't usually managed for anything in particular. Tax forfeited state land will be harvested of any pulp wood almost the day it is forfeited, in an attempt to get a return out of it, creating wonderful grouse and woodcock hunting areas in about 5-10 seasons. Some of my best hunting areas are just tax forfeited areas in poor counties that someone gave up on about ten to fifteen years ago.
Anytime someone here tells me they quit hunting because they didn't have a place to go, I'm quitely suspicious. To me, that is like someone saying they couldn't find a place to fish in Minnesota. Yes, you have to do a little bit of homework, but, there is plenty out there. I'll bet some of the areas I hunt for free compare quite favorably with paid leases or private land someplace else, like Lowell's. I made great part-time money guiding people bird hunting on public land in the mid to late 1980s. They didn't need me. All they had to do was buy a much cheaper map.
Best,
Ted

it's "barbed" wire jimmy.

Ted: I said good grouse cover and good pheasant hunting - sorry, but Carlos Avery WMA doesn't quite meet that standard for me. Still, like you, I feel fortunate to have Minnesota's millions of acres of open public hunting land, and I've learned a few things about how to use it over the past half century. But as a fellow Gopher Stater, you should know (and keep telling the world) that there are no grouse in Minnesota.

Jack, how good do you need? I had two cockbirds in pocket, 20 minutes after leaving the homestead one wednesday last fall. Thats ten minutes of hunting. The limit is still two, I think.

I'll give you a tip-hunt the slew/lowland area, north of the cemetary, for grouse, after the first snow, in years when the Vikings are doing well. You can tell when you are in the right spot, 'cause you can see their little feetprints. The area looks a little bit mature for grouse, but, the edges of the islands, near the cattails, hold enough birds for a great 2-4 hour weekday-after-work hunt. Stay away from the place early season. It's full of amatuers.
Best,
Ted

Can you remember that far back, Ted? If Iowayan, NoSoDakan, Wiskian and other furrin hunters stay out until the Vikes have a good season, we locals will have MN coverts all to ourselves. Thanks for the tip!

Ted, selling that private land(like Lowell's) could have a bonus of a fine piece in the makings. Altho', the land isn't for sale to date - it could be, if the right offer comes in.
No public land can make you that deal!
No matter what's going on in the world, land is far better than gold. A perfect place for a bunker, when "Takin'it to the streets" time comes.

They don't have to be doing great, Jack-just better than KC or Da Bears!

Lowell, "Country folk can survive" and they don't need the title for anything to do it. The ability to run a trot line will do far more for you than any title will when that time comes. I guess I'm not too worried about it, however.

However, thanks for keeping the taxes up to date. I feel your pain, but, forget it when a nice, fat, public land bird goes into the bag.
Best,
Ted

I know fnb25. But it is so much easier to say bobbed than barbed. Except when I say, barbed white quail. Besides, it made the story so much funnier. Don't you think?

It seems the same pressures exist on the other side of the world, too.
The season on stubble quail (coturnix pectoralis) opened here on the first Saturday of April. I have been out both weekends since. I am very fortunate to have access to thousands of acres of usually prime habitat held privately both in the family and by friends and neighbours.
The first day out we encountered no fewer than three car loads of other hunters who had all done poorly and were desperate to find a good patch. The weekend after (the one just gone) I was within seconds of taking number plate details and calling police on two car loads of trespassers who were entering one of my own family paddocks until we worked out that they had gained permission from the wife of someone agisting sheep in the paddock. Tenuous permission, but permission none the less, and they had certainly tried to do the right thing.
Landowner's permission (or denial) trumps agister's wife's any day, but therein is a hint at some of the pressures:
The land is being worked harder. Most crops have had the stubbles cut short for their straw, so now provide virtually no cover (they used to be left long for sheep to graze, and then be burned off). The land often has several financially interested stakeholders (owner, lessee, sharefarmer, agister etc), who may or may not be rightly able to grant permission to hunt. Drought has dried up most of the quail friendly dams and soaks, and so with little cover, little water, and little feed, there are few quail in worthwhile numbers, with numbers of now "landless" hunters desperate to get on to a good patch as once good patches are now poor. Our good patch is one of the few left with cover, feed and water, but even then it took us all day to find where the numbers of birds were.
RG