New MN Bowhunters Association Group

[Wind Gypsy]

Saw this article in outdoor news this week.

New group forms to advocate for Minnesota bowhunters - Outdoor News

Minnesota’s archery community has a new support and advocacy group: the Minnesota Bowhunters Association.

www.outdoornews.com

I was initially excited. When I hear state bowhunting org, I think of the ones in IA, CO, and MT. All of which are adamantly against crossbows for all during archery season because doing so is not only a negative to hunting quality but a negative to people's engagement in the sport of archery. Then I got to the part that basically indicated this is an offshoot of MDHA, who does some good things but mostly is in the "we should remove every obstacle in the way of peoples ability to kill deer" camp.

We want to be the voice and advocate of the bowhunting community in Minnesota,” said director Jim Cochran, who is a full-time employee of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. MNBOW has two other directors who work for MDHA, including MDHA Executive Director Jared Mazurek.

So their board of directors is made up of MDHA employees. MDHA is our only real deer hunting advocacy org in the state and can be thanked for the change to crossbows in archery season last year. Upon going to their website, the below were listed on "why you should join". So a "Bow Hunting" org is saying you get access to their lobbyist, the one who got crossbows in archery season, to advocate for you as a bow hunter.




On the crossbows issue they are saying they'll put it up to vote. I emailed them to ask what they'll do if membership votes against crossbows in archery season, since their board of directors is made up of people whose paychecks come from MDHA (who is to blame for xbows in archery season) i've got a sneaking suspicion they aren't going to do anything about it but i'm sure they'll happily take actual bowhunters $. The below suggests to me their mind is made up and they wont let a vote go the other way but I'd like to be wrong.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Their line about inclusion and crossbows checks the “woke” box twice with the inclusion buzzword. I’m guessing this group thinks Walz is a true sportsman. Nice work
And btw I’ve yet to see any bowhunter advocate against the physically unable being able to use one in archery season.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Their line about inclusion and crossbows checks the “woke” box twice with the inclusion buzzword. I’m guessing this group thinks Walz is a true sportsman. Nice work
And btw I’ve yet to see any bowhunter advocate against the physically unable being able to use one in archery season.

It's a unique org. Hints of woke but they also walked away from the annual "governors deer camp" deal with Walz due to his anti gun stances and they are big on pushing wolf hunting seasons.

Like I said, they do some good things but i have a hard time with their takes on basically never opposing any increase in opportunity or ease in harvest.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

If you strive maximum inclusion at the expense of morphing archery, rename guns BangBows. I mean if the intent is making sure no one is left out let’s not be hypocrites here.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

If you strive maximum inclusion at the expense of morphing archery, rename guns BangBows. I mean if the intent is making sure no one is left out let’s not be hypocrites here.

Yep. That's what I always ask, if we cant stomach anyone going through minor inconvenience to hunt any season, why not just make it rifle season Sept-Jan? Some would be happy to do so. YoU cAN onLy sHoOt OnE dEEr AnYwaY. I'm sure if the deer hunting went further to shit in turn there would be something else to blame than their need for access to kill any deer easily as possible.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I don't care so much about the use of crossbows for all or not. I can see the arguments in favor of and against. I only archery hunt in MN.

I would be an extremely supportive member of a group like this if they advocated for moving the firearm season later and started lobbying for that effort. I feel like that would have a much more dramatic impact on deer hunting quality in Minnesota.

Another thing I would definitely support if there was enough interest in it, would be to move the squirrel opener a week or two later than the archery deer. I feel like you can squirrel hunt at any point in the fall and it won't really change anything. But the squirrel opener being on the same day as archery just adds that much more pressure to deer on the opening weekend on public ground.

 

[SD51555]

Oh my. Do we have to go back to the beginning of the story of the push for change? That goes all the way back to the end of QDMA, the advent of this site, MDDI, the deer audit, the deer plan group, and where MDHA fit into all of it, ensuring actual deer hunters never got a single seat at the table.

MDHA advocating on behalf of deer is like planned parenthood advocating for the unborn.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Oh my. Do we have to go back to the beginning of the story of the push for change? That goes all the way back to the end of QDMA, the advent of this site, MDDI, the deer audit, the deer plan group, and where MDHA fit into all of it, ensuring actual deer hunters never got a single seat at the table.

MDHA advocating on behalf of deer is like planned parenthood advocating for the unborn.

I’d love a summary as I was only paying attention to dakotas waterfowl and Rockies elk in those days!

 

[SD51555]

A lot of the original members here (now gone) were really starting trouble at the QDMA forum for their brass not getting involved with the problems going on in MN (orchestrated herd slaughter). They had done all the leg work of exposing the problem, but Q basically told them they were not going to rock the boat because their relationship with government and sponsors was more important than the members and the resource.

Ultimately a ton of them got banned off the Q, and Big Rock John started this place as a refuge for those kicked off. Soon, the migration was on after the Q had to self destruct because people were getting too smart and not buying all the sponsors' bullshit about magic beans and food plot seeds. The movement to take on MN continued here. We organized, went to meetings, got the legislature to approve having the auditor dig into deer mgmt in MN. The auditor did a good job and also declared that it was in fact a shit show with no direction and ordered them to come up with a deer plan.

This is where they got us. The DNR got to oversee it's own overhaul and handpick those that would make the plan. This was akin to letting the inmates pick the warden, the guards, and the oversight committee. They managed to organize a wide array of interested parties to help form the deer plan, and amazingly enough there wasn't a single deer advocacy group on the plan (that is if you understand that MDHA is not a deer advocacy org). Minnesota Bowhunters weren't on it. Bluffland Whitetails wasn't on it. Minnesota Deer Density Initiative wasn't on it. I think there was even a MN Whitetail Alliance at the time, and they also, were not on it.

But they went out and recruited every interest group that hated deer (commerce, forestry, insurance, cops, travel, ag) and a representative from "women hunting and fishing in the outdoors." I tracked down the lady that was on it from that group and asked her why she wanted to be on the plan committee. And she told me:

"I didn't ask. They asked me."

Anyway, I want to be clear and say that local MDHA chapters do good work. I don't want to take anything away from them. But their leadership is nothing but a stopover for juiced in retired DNR stooges looking for extra money in exchange for ensuring MDHA never makes progress towards any of their stated goals. Their job is to keep the uniformed docile, thinking the outfit is gonna stand up for them so they don't have to. So long as they keep sending out stickers and posting fluffy photos on facebook, their members require no more.

 

[SD51555]

So if you really want to do some good, don't send corporate MDHA another dollar, then find another 5 people and encourage them to quit. If you are active in a local chapter, disband your chapter and reorganize under an independent name and continue your work.

Then those 5 people you got to quit, encourage each of them to find 5 people to quit and hope that domino goes. I'd love to see every MDHA chapter disband and reform under independent groups that answer to no crooked mothership.

You may be surprised to find lots of new members when they realize all the dollars stay local and the entity can actually focus on outcomes based activities that are visibly good for the resource, and not have to spend countless hours fighting corporate votes that degrade the resource, fight crooked leadership, and whatever else those crooks push on the local volunteers.

When you're acting local, what happens in St. Paul becomes smaller and smaller.

 

[bwoods11]

I’ll have to watch this group to see what they advocate for ?

If Minnesota moved the gun season back it would be a really good deer hunting state ! I’m not a fan of crossbows, but I doubt they can be nixed in Minnesota now that they are approved.

I’d also love to see a one buck max limit.. once you shoot a buck—seasons over for buck hunting.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I’ll have to watch this group to see what they advocate for ?

If Minnesota moved the gun season back it would be a really good deer hunting state ! I’m not a fan of crossbows, but I doubt they can be nixed in Minnesota now that they are approved.

I’d also love to see a one buck max limit.. once you shoot a buck—seasons over for buck hunting.

Man, it seems like they don’t even know what they are going to advocate for. “Give us membership money and then we’ll ask you what you want” is the shorthand way that I read it. But if it’s led by all the people who already work for MDHA who already advocate against what most state bowhunting groups advocate for it leaves me in a state of WTF until someone explains it to me differently. Really feels like a grift to get more money into the MDHA coffers. Again, hope I’m wrong. Would love to see how much $ the crossgun lobby has or hasn’t given MDHA.

Now that I read @SD51555 history summary, I recall MDHA shit talking QDMA from when it was actually a thing in MN.

 

[Brian662]

Originally was excited to see this post hoping for the best.

They won't get a dime from me.

 

[Brian662]

If you strive maximum inclusion at the expense of morphing archery, rename guns BangBows. I mean if the intent is making sure no one is left out let’s not be hypocrites here.

Bangbows literally made me laugh out loud.

I thought the same thing about their mission statement about inclusion, WTF?!?

 

[SD51555]

Man, it seems like they don’t even know what they are going to advocate for. “Give us membership money and then we’ll ask you what you want” is the shorthand way that I read it. But if it’s led by all the people who already work for MDHA who already advocate against what most state bowhunting groups advocate for it leaves me in a state of WTF until someone explains it to me differently. Really feels like a grift to get more money into the MDHA coffers. Again, hope I’m wrong. Would love to see how much $ the crossgun lobby has or hasn’t given MDHA.

Now that I read @SD51555 history summary, I recall MDHA shit talking QDMA from when it was actually a thing in MN.

 

[Brian662]

These clowns don't even know 4th or 5th grade use of the word their.

 

[bwoods11]

No offense to anyone from Grand Rapids, but my past experience “says” …hunters from Grand Rapids do not share the same management philosophy as much of the bottom 2/3 of the state !

 

[SD51555]

No offense to anyone from Grand Rapids, but my past experience “says” …hunters from Grand Rapids do not share the same management philosophy as much of the bottom 2/3 of the state !

We have a proud heritage of going to the bar in our blaze orange at noon, after giving up for the season, on opening day after 25 of us saw no deer on opening morning or heard a gun shot.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

No offense to anyone from Grand Rapids, but my past experience “says” …hunters from Grand Rapids do not share the same management philosophy as much of the bottom 2/3 of the state !

Not the same world up there as places that have deer for sure.

I kind of doubt the guys that work there for mdha are from there though either.

 

[Angus 1895]

Where can one harvest more than one buck in Minnesota?