Hunting Pressure Rant

[Mortenson]

Yes the cost of everything is thru the roof. Like SD said, the financial nuke went off, or something like that. My sister teaches 4th grade and makes over 103K/yr. Shop rate at the local boat dealer is 175/hr. The future is now. Lock down some ground or risk being left out. Of course confiscation will snatch it away from us sooner or later anyhow.

There are permission farms around here still, but I know what you're saying. The trend.

 

[Native Hunter]

In my area, every piece of ground has someone hunting on it. And if no one is hunting it, someone will sneak in and hunt it without permission.

The pressure during gun season is high, but what bothers me even more is that I know people are shooting lots of the best bucks illegally with rifles during and before bow season. A few years ago I took a buck during gun season with my 308, and the taxidermist told me he found a 22 bullet lodged the deer’s skull that had been there a good while. This and other anecdotal evidence has convinced me that this type of poaching is a real issue around me.

Despite that, we have done fairly well with putting some good deer on the wall. I don’t like a lot of what goes on around me, but I’m just going to keep hunting and doing my best to improve the property.

PS - I appreciate H2O making this post. It gave me a chance to rant a little too.

 

[b116757]

Poaching is a real issue everywhere!!!! Many many of the best bucks fall to the poachers spotlight.

 

[Native Hunter]

Poaching is a real issue everywhere!!!! Many many of the best bucks fall to the poachers spotlight.

And even though trail cameras have helped all of us - they have helped poachers even more.

 

[Ikeman]

Poaching is a real issue everywhere!!!! Many many of the best bucks fall to the poachers spotlight.

One of the processors I have used the past few years stopped allowing self service after-hours drop-offs because poachers would just dump deer with no tags, no heads, and no intention of picking any meat up.

Now, it is 50% up front.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

View attachment 58694
Like this guy (tonight) ?? Frustrating

Is that really a poacher tonight?

 

[bwoods11]

Yes. I guess I can’t determine if he’s poaching ? Maybe I should say (trespassing)!

 

[Bill]

That guy was hunting and on his way out. That would have purple mad!

One of my neighbors still lets a guy from out of state hunt his 40 acre field with 6 acres of timber hunt for free. He's the one' a few years back, I wouldn't let look for a deer on me 36 hours after he shot it. But I suppose that to shall end some day too, and I'll have to pay for it.

It's a conundrum. I used to let a local guy, with zero ground, Trap, Doe hunt late season and run coon dogs after rifle season. He always over stepped the bounds a bit. I let him fish one of my ponds also. The rules were don't take to many fish and only you and your sons can fish. He blew that, had several friends there one day... Then I asked him not to check traps down one lane until after dark because my son was hunting the field. When he blew a field full of does off 15 minutes before shooting light ended he was done forever. Maybe I should have went Hoyt's way and made him put in some sweat equity.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Yes. I guess I can’t determine if he’s poaching ? Maybe I should say (trespassing)!

I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight cause I would be calling in a drone strike on his house. Hope he breaks his leg on the way out

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

That guy was hunting and on his way out. That would have purple mad!

One of my neighbors still lets a guy from out of state hunt his 40 acre field with 6 acres of timber hunt for free. He's the one' a few years back, I wouldn't let look for a deer on me 36 hours after he shot it. But I suppose that to shall end some day too, and I'll have to pay for it.

It's a conundrum. I used to let a local guy, with zero ground, Trap, Doe hunt late season and run coon dogs after rifle season. He always over stepped the bounds a bit. I let him fish one of my ponds also. The rules were don't take to many fish and only you and your sons can fish. He blew that, had several friends there one day... Then I asked him not to check traps down one lane until after dark because my son was hunting the field. When he blew a field full of does off 15 minutes before shooting light ended he was done forever. Maybe I should have went Hoyt's way and made him put in some sweat equity.

One of my neighbors is a good guy and he has two high school aged boys. He asked if one of his boys could fish one day for catfish only. I said sure no problem. Well lo and behold they showed on a Friday as I was coming in. It was him and 6 friends. I was already livid it was so many they also made an absolute muddy mess of my dock. I text him right then and said I’m not cool with this, it was supposed to be just your son. They need to leave. Give an inch take a mile.

 

[Mortenson]

One of my neighbors is a good guy and he has two high school aged boys. He asked if one of his boys could fish one day for catfish only. I said sure no problem. Well lo and behold they showed on a Friday as I was coming in. It was him and 6 friends. I was already livid it was so many they also made an absolute muddy mess of my dock. I text him right then and said I’m not cool with this, it was supposed to be just your son. They need to leave. Give an inch take a mile.

It's the "I only need a tree in the corner for 1 stand" sob request I've heard a million times. Answer now is always NO. I don't care what the question is.

 

[H20fwler]

$75 acre row crop
$40-45 acre pasture ground or hay
$14 acre hunting lease on top of farm rent idk why anyone would only do hunting lease idc how much it’s paying it’s on top of your farm income. It’s not a one or the other we do both these prices are my local area other areas I’m sure are different in cash rent amounts.

Just curious as to where this is.

wNY
Row crop $60-100 avg (regions vary vastly wiht the size of the farms there...if they need sileage for their cattle or are beans&corn rotation, etc)
Hay- $40
Hunting $20-40 (the smaller piece that still offer an opportunity are the 40, 25-30 is the norm for 40-120ac farm)
* this is just deer hunting too- waterfowl may be a different lease

Average here;
$300 an acre row crop
$40 an acre hunting lease and rising
We don't have have pasture ground here any more, most livestock is raised in confinement large scale.

Key words there being a few years ago. It is about impossible to get free permission access in most Midwestern states now. Five years ago leasing wasn't all that common. Now, the price per acre to lease is increasing rapidly, along with the cost of ownership. Technology for finding leases is speeding up adoption of renting hunting ground. It is pretty obvious what is in store for the future.

Agree, I was just thinking about that the other day, 40 years ago I could knock on a door and 90% of the time get permission to hunt. Now it's either leased up, family hunts or the owner looks at you like you just asked them for a kidney.

 

[Bill Loser]

View attachment 58694
Like this guy (tonight) ?? Frustrating

It's absolutely crazy how brazen people are about it. When I catch people here without fail they aren't trying to hide ,few try to get away and almost all act like they have a right to be there somehow.

 

[gjs4]

. Give an inch take a mile.

Thats it. If people dont work for it....its disposable. It says most everything needed on our society and hunting specifically

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

$200/acre tillable is pretty normal around

$40/acre hunting lease

not sure what pasture rate is but there is a fair amount around here yet

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Threads like these make me count my blessings. There is a lot I despise about living in Massachusetts. The gun laws, the politics, etc. But here in western, MA where I live we have an exceedingly low hunter density and a TON of untouched public land. I have seen maybe 2 or 3 hunters in the woods over the course of a 2.5 month deer season over the past decade. Maybe 3 hunters. And when the snow flies I'm covering a lot of territory tracking.

Yeah...I have some of the poorest soil in the US, no ag, very little mast, low deer densities, brutal winters, oaks and apples take forever to grow, etc. But I can walk for 6 hours on a buck track and never see another boot print in the snow and I have never had a trespassing problem or even a bad neighbor. I do feel bad for those of you dealing with trespassing, neighbors sitting on the fence, and crowds of deer hunters at every parking lot and public land. I wouldn't enjoy that.

 

[Tree Spud]

I tried the "being a good guy approach", it didn't work.

Had a older neighbor who used to hunt the property I bought asked me if he could still go out with his beagle and hunt rabbits in the winter. I thought what could it hurt and said yes.

Well the following fall I discovered he had given permission to several locals to "squirrel" hunt my woods. Then I found out he was letting his 4 sons come out and hunt. They were driving my trails in my property with their trucks to jump shoot pheasants. Then they would go to the 3 ponds i had and jump shoot ducks before they went to work in the morning. So they were diving the main roads & trails 2-3 times a week while I was not there.

In short, I found that I had 7-8 people hunting my property while I was not there.

When i put a stop to that one of the sons (they were all ages 35-45 yo) came and wanted to ask for permission to hunt my back 80 acres where they used to deer hunt. I said I would consider leasing it to them for $800. The look on his face was priceless. He said why do we have to pay to hunt? I said that I had to pay to buy the property and pay the property taxes. Once again a priceless look. Made sure they understood if i caught them again, i would call the Sherriff, that ended their ventures onto my property.

I dispise people who trespass and then have the balls to ask for permission to hunt. never again will I give permission. if they break the trust they can screw up your property for several years.

 

[AtomApple]

My 2 cents:
yes , hunting is over crowded.

no, we don’t need more hunters.

the feds and the DNR don’t give a rats ass about what hunters think about wolves. We’ve been bitching about it for years. How
many more hunters do we need to leverage their opinion???

hunting will not go away with declining numbers. The DNR wants as many deer killed as possible, the auto insurance and farm lobbies see to that. Crossbows, youth seasons, early seasons, extended seasons, etc. all prove that.

 

[Bill Loser]

My 2 cents:
yes , hunting is over crowded.

no, we don’t need more hunters.

the feds and the DNR don’t give a rats ass about what hunters think about wolves. We’ve been bitching about it for years. How
many more hunters do we need to leverage their opinion???

hunting will not go away with declining numbers. The DNR wants as many deer killed as possible, the auto insurance and farm lobbies see to that. Crossbows, youth seasons, early seasons, extended seasons, etc. all prove that.

You say that now, but as the older generations tap out and fewer and fewer of the younger generations want to learn how to hunti bet you'll change your tune. As numbers dwindle so will support of policiams, as that support dwindles hunters rights, public land to hunt, opportunities to hunt will all start to go away. Like it or not we live in a society where the loudest mouths get fed, as the hunters mouths get quieter we will get fed less and less. I don't like it but it's a fact.
I will agree that there is over crowding, not due to lack of access or acreage but lack of effort. Most of the weekend warriors will just find where everyone else goes and go there to,that must be where all the game is after all..
It's not a numbers problem, it's lack of effort or knowledge.

 

[Robert86]

Crop land around here is $300-$350 an acre, hunting lease land is $40-$50 an acre. Glad I own my land wish my neighbors would pass a few bucks up. Problem we have is just plain to many hunters for the land. Every wood lot has a gun tower in. I'm in wisconsin.