S
stinkystomper
Guest
I grew up hunting in those big family deer camps at the age of 2. Thats what got me hooked on hunting. As the years progressed the landowners started conducting land swaps in order to surround massive tracts of public land with their private. This allowed them to charge people to basically hunt private land. I began to severly despise these greedy land grabbers and vowed never to support them in any way. As the years progressed it appeared as if the only way you were going to hunt was to pay the all mighty dollar to gain access to any public hunting grounds (these landowners basically perform the function of wildlife conservationists no matter how your opinion about them is formed). My family couldn't afford to travel more than an hour from our house to hunt and one deer hunt a year strained the budget enough. Needless to say buying tags was out of the question. Well time progressed and now in NM landowners are given tons of tags. These tags can be sold for any price. In my twenties I still refused to buy these tags and help the enemy out. Well my mid twenties roll around and I still hadn't hunted antelope and had only drawn one late season tag in a unit that had hardly any elk in it. I began to realize that if I was going to hunt I would have to buy a tag somewhere. I put my hard feelings aside and bought a unit wide landowner tag in the gila for elk and had a great time. I figured as long as it wasn't a ranch only tag and I was hunting public ground that at least I wasn't totally depending on the private ranches. Now Utah sells tags to the general public areas in acutions. I'm with you guys in despising that only the rich can hunt and like it or not its only going to get worse. Look at South Africa. In the 60's the plains game were almost gone. Then big money started rolling in to hunt these animals and instantly people started managing the animals to profit from them. Now SA has more plains game than they ever have in their history.
The other side is Europe. Only the most elite can hunt. Hunting priveleges have been taken away so long that fewer and fewer people have been able to participate and now hunting is no longer an acceptable practice in Europe.
My ponderance here is where is the common ground. South Africa only caters to the wealthy but the herds are strong. Europe only caters to the elite and hunting is considered barbaric and noone agrees with the practice. We face declining herds, fierce competition, and are now leaning towards the European model of hunting. Common sense tells me we need a very limited number of conservation tags. I say sell so few that the ones that are sold bring hundreds of thousands of dollars getting the biggest bang for the buck. Then target hunting future with all the other tags and form some sort of system that will recruit hunters on an anual basis in order to keep the sport going. The big problem is how to do that. Populations will continue to increase and animals will continue to be impacted more and more by them. My days in the family deer camp are gone and things are not looking any better. What's in store for us and where do we go? We all gripe about sfw but truth is sfw blows mdf, rmef, sci, nra, du, and all other organizations out of the water. Bottom line is still the same and I say the future of hunting doesn't look good unless some one has a major apiffany and enacts some geinous plan to save us all.
Am I wrong in my thinking? Whats to be expected for the futre? 1 quality elk hunt per lifetime seems to be the course of hunting I would say in the next 20 years.
Long story short is we need wealth tags, we need hunter recruitement and we also need healthy herds. Thats a tall order and to put a percentage on any of those is pure speculation. Where will hunting wind up at?
In the mean time I'm gonna hunt till I die or go broke. I live to hunt and pray to god every single person who loves to hunt can some day experince the hunt the way they see fits them best.
Let me now clarify my statement that caused so much hate mail to be sent my way. In short I said anyone against sfw was stupid. This statement was only pointed at coyoteslayer aka justin in order to bring him out and fight with him a little online. I love jabbing at justin and find him entertaining. Believe it or not I like that guy a lot. However I forget how many people read this forum and must apologize to all that were offended. Funny thing is that everyone but justin was offended. I'm glad to see your dogmatic childish comebacks still around justin You make me laugh every time I see someone take your bait.
The other side is Europe. Only the most elite can hunt. Hunting priveleges have been taken away so long that fewer and fewer people have been able to participate and now hunting is no longer an acceptable practice in Europe.
My ponderance here is where is the common ground. South Africa only caters to the wealthy but the herds are strong. Europe only caters to the elite and hunting is considered barbaric and noone agrees with the practice. We face declining herds, fierce competition, and are now leaning towards the European model of hunting. Common sense tells me we need a very limited number of conservation tags. I say sell so few that the ones that are sold bring hundreds of thousands of dollars getting the biggest bang for the buck. Then target hunting future with all the other tags and form some sort of system that will recruit hunters on an anual basis in order to keep the sport going. The big problem is how to do that. Populations will continue to increase and animals will continue to be impacted more and more by them. My days in the family deer camp are gone and things are not looking any better. What's in store for us and where do we go? We all gripe about sfw but truth is sfw blows mdf, rmef, sci, nra, du, and all other organizations out of the water. Bottom line is still the same and I say the future of hunting doesn't look good unless some one has a major apiffany and enacts some geinous plan to save us all.
Am I wrong in my thinking? Whats to be expected for the futre? 1 quality elk hunt per lifetime seems to be the course of hunting I would say in the next 20 years.
Long story short is we need wealth tags, we need hunter recruitement and we also need healthy herds. Thats a tall order and to put a percentage on any of those is pure speculation. Where will hunting wind up at?
In the mean time I'm gonna hunt till I die or go broke. I live to hunt and pray to god every single person who loves to hunt can some day experince the hunt the way they see fits them best.
Let me now clarify my statement that caused so much hate mail to be sent my way. In short I said anyone against sfw was stupid. This statement was only pointed at coyoteslayer aka justin in order to bring him out and fight with him a little online. I love jabbing at justin and find him entertaining. Believe it or not I like that guy a lot. However I forget how many people read this forum and must apologize to all that were offended. Funny thing is that everyone but justin was offended. I'm glad to see your dogmatic childish comebacks still around justin You make me laugh every time I see someone take your bait.
