Fee hunting...questions

[I luv herfrds]

There is huge blow up in relations between landowners and sportsman groups up here. It is getting ugly.

One thing that was mentioned was fee hunting in Texas. Now showing my ignorance, what is it and what does it intail?

 

[S&S Farms]

Hunters pay a fee to hunt on your property. What is the problem up there?

Jeff

 

[I luv herfrds]

Let's see if I can explain it.

FWP (Fish, Wildlife and Parks) had a series of meetings through out the state concerning new hunting regulations and the number of tags for game animals through out the state.
The landowners want more of say in the management of the wildlife on their property and hunters want more access to the animals.
Alot of landowners have leased out their hunting rights to outfitters because they are tired of dealing with hunters who cause problems. (I know , it happens everywhere.)
One sportsman group is attempting to get 2 initiatives on the November ballot and one state constitution amendment.
One is stated as ," Increase public access to fish and wildlife, and prohibit anybody from inhibiting hunting and fishing by buying, selling, trading, batering or offering to do that for access." In other words they want to violate the private property laws of this state.
One group of landowners has started up their own group and are attempting to have a "post out" done this fall. In other words no one is allowed to hunt on their property.

What is sad is the only winners out of this whole fight will be FWP. They get the money from the hunting and fishing tags and the hunters and landowners get nothing but bad feelings for each other.

 

[mnmtranching]

:heart: Herfs. You know? In my 40+ :shock: years of hunting and traveling in your State there's always been feuding between land owners and Sportsmen. Seems to me that the ranchers that have developed good relations with hunters and allow game harvest are the best off. To bad the fact is, there are some bad hunters. Makes it bad for all the good hunters. [the vast majority]

Truth is, there are land owners that under no circumstances let on hunters never have never will. And are the first to complain about crop damage and stuff. Makes it difficult to manage game and neighboring ranches suffer. I hope things work out for land owners, I have some good friends out there.

 

[gerardplauche]

I agree. Where we hunt, there are 2 families who do a LOT of poaching on everyone's property. Now the entire area is known as an outlaw haven. :shock:

 

[3fifty7]

This is exactly why our for-fathers intended for only land owners to have the right to vote :cowboy:

 

[I luv herfrds]

mnmt we had a severe problem with mule deer tearing our hay up and crapping all over it. We called FWP, put up a fence, tried it; when it snowed and drifted we couldn't get our hay out and the deer walked up the drifts and ate on top. :roll:
We tried everything, put a notice in the paper, only guys to show up and help us clean up the mess were a bunch of airmen from the Air Force Base and the Red Horse squadron. They can come out anytime.
Tried the web site linking hunters who want does and cows with landowners who are having trouble. Still can't believe this, about 4 guys came out and out of them all they shot a tiny 2x2 buck. :mad:
I would stop hunters on the road and offer them access to just shoot the does. Nope.

Well that was 4-5 years ago, found some really great hunters and they have hunted just does for the last few years, we went from a population ratio of 45-50 does to 1 buck to today the ratio is now 13-15 does to 1 buck. That's the high end.

Pretty sad when a landowner is begging for hunters and the hunters are not jumping at the chance to hunt.

I agree that the owners that don't allow hunting have no right to complain when the deer eat their stuff. The only thing we did was say doe hunting only.
This season there will be 5 bucks to be taken and they must be 4x4 or bigger.

 

[Jogeephus]

Here, the DNR conditioned everyone into thinking killing a doe was bad. They did this for years. This was merely political game management. Now I'm faced with the same problem you are having as I have does everywhere. People always want to hunt on my property but like you say, I can't get them to kill the does. One small solution I found has been to locate a few folks who are extremely cost conscious when it comes to their grocery bills. At the moment I have three families that I can call when I down a doe. They will come out on a moments notice and load the deer and carry it home with them. One in particular told me to get him as many as I could. I oblidged him one afternoon with three and he was as happy as a lark.

Most hunters seem to be more interested in horns than meat. I am extremely picky about who I let hunt cause I'm tired of these yahoos killing "trophy spikes and four points". :mad:

 

[I luv herfrds]

One of our guys shows up each year with 6 tags between him and his dad and they fill all of them on opening day.
we are now having trouble with antelope. Called FWP and talked their bioligist(sp?) love his response,"I don't care." Nice attitude. The antelope has tore up around 20 acres of winter wheat.
Found some hunters that work in a farm and ranch store, they are putting in for antelope and are promising to come out and thin them out for us. I keep reminding them everytime I see them. They can hardly wait.
What really stinks is FWP is cutting back on the number of non-resident tags that can be bought in the drawings and by outfitters who have alot of out of state hunters who want to come hunt. From the looks of it they are trying to put the outfitters out of business and have all land open to the public regardless if it is Federal, State or private.

They had an elk damage hunt in one area. Everybody in the area wanted the hunt, except for one guy, guess who's land the elk were on during the day?

 

[hillrancher]

Most hunters seem to be more interested in horns than meat. I am extremely picky about who I let hunt cause I'm tired of these yahoos killing "trophy spikes and four points". "Those who make their living from the land are the best Stewards of the land" President Bush
Jogeephus
GURU

Jogeephus: That is what the hunters want to do here. I live not far from the little town they move out form there every time there is space for one here.
Here is what I think I will do next year when hunters come to hunt I will make each person put up $200 If they kill a deer, coyote, mountain lion, bear or wolf they get their $200 back. I did this on a couple that came to hunt last fall. They put up the cash were gone about 45 minutes and each came collect their $200. They said would be back this fall with their friends.

 

[mnmtranching]

I have to admit, NR's hunting big game in MT do like to go home with a trophy.
The license I apply for every year is the Non Resident Big Game Combination License. By the time I get all the attachments on it, the cost is over $800. The same stuff for a resident I believe is around $25. We have tons of deer at home in MN, so I'm hardly going for the meat. I have a old friend down by the breaks that I help in putting a couple fat does in their freezer. :D

 

[ND Angus]

The landower/ hunter relations here in ND have been getting worse every year. In North Dakota ALL land is open for hunting UNLESS posted NO HUNTING by the landowner. The hunters of ND don't realize what they have . If you go to their web sites such as NoDak Outdoors and Fishingbuddy you can read what they post about landowners. We landowners are hated in ND. There is a group of hunters that have started a petition to get rid of elk and deer ranches. They have admitted that after this is passed they will then " take out" the hogging operations. This is the thanks we landowners get for letting them hunt anywhere they want. We have about 3000 acres that has never been posted . It is now posted and so are my neighbors , all together there is a 30 miles stretch of land containing thousands of acres that is now posted. We sure wish we had a "posted " law. Leasing is becoming a huge deal here also . I'm all for it because I think it is the landowners right but the same group of hunters are trying to out law leasing and guiding all together here.

 

[I luv herfrds]

ND had a state law passed that completely destroyed the game farm here in Montana. The only thing the "public" heard was that it would ban "Canned Hunts", what they didn't read was that it banned ALL game farms no matter if they allowed hunting or raised the animals for breeding or horns or hides and meat.
Met one really nice guy, until you brought that subject up. He lost his whole business because of it.

Deer and antelope have tore up around 10 acres more of winter wheat. We had just put down $500 a ton fertilizer. We are suppose to get compensated for damages. We were just informed because we limit the hunting on our place we are not eliagable(sp?)
What are we suppose to do when you count 100 does and fawns within a half section?

 

[mwj]

I luv herfords does your state sell antlerless only tags? Some special hunt areas in my state require the harvest of a doe before they let you take a buck! Also they have special doe only hunts in some counties after regular gun season. Even as much hunter presure as we have, there are still areas with to many does. If you shoot a doe you are removing three deer if you shoot a buck you only remove one. Just curious are antelope twinners like the whitetails are? I sure hope you can get something worked out.

 

[Jogeephus]

I know some folks here in Georgia that would never dream of trespassing or damaging someone's property but these same people would have little if any problem shooting some antelope or whatever else needed killing without a license if they knew it was in the interest of game management and the landowner would not mind them hunting on their property for a day or two. ;-)

 

[I luv herfrds]

mwj they do sell the tags over the counter, but you have to apply for the inital tag for the area you want to hunt on.
Yes antelope will have twins. Rarely I see doe with a single fawn. I have seen some with triplets too.

Found out that if we want a damage hunt we have to apply for it the year before, now that is just :roll:
They sure don't like the fact that we are does only. Have some neighbors that are the same, but they close down the southern half of their land and there is no hunting allowed there period.
Problem there is the deer stay on their place, then move onto our cousins place later and are tearing up his place.
Had a hunter tell us a few years ago that they could kill 100 deer between our place and the town and not make a dent. That is 17 miles.
Told FWP that we want a damage hunt, but doubt that they will do anything.

 

[mnmtranching]

:heart: herfs, I was looking through the 08 MT hunting regs. I so far only looked at the 600 areas.
For instance area 670 has 1000 NR permits for Mule deer does, and 5000 White tail for multi 600 areas. This is up from 0 mule deer does some years. and 250 from last year. WOW :shock: And for Residents there is no limit. They really want does killed. :o I wonder if your area is going to open up more. I checked the antelope in the 600's also, and looks to be about the same as last year.

 

[I luv herfrds]

I'm in the 400 area.
Tried to get a damage control hunt done last year, but was told that we needed to apply for that the year before. :roll:
I gotta grab the new hunting regs and see what is going on here. It wasn't too many years ago where the number of tags was 25 for antelope in our area.

 

[mnmtranching]

481 has 1200 either sex and 1400 doe antelope. Numbers are up quite a bit there. 480 has the same numbers. That is really a lot of licenses for single areas. Must be goats everywhere. :shock: