Originally Posted by
PJ1012
So by your theory, we could shoot them over bait with a rifle as long as we all get a certain limit and a certain timeframe?
They allow rifles in Wyoming. At first, I thought it was really a regional decision based on the difficulty of getting a bird within 40 yards that can see 2 miles and just concluded I’d not hunt with decoys. This last turkey I killed was 15 yards from me and up the side of the hill, and I realized about the time I squeezed the trigger that anyone hunting that area from that side’s access would have been up that hill shooting right at me…probably with a rifle. Then I realized that turkeys are the only animals we are allowed to hunt on public land with rifles without blaze orange and they are the most likely of all quarry to concentrate multiple hunters in one area. So now I’m against hunting turkeys with rifles.
If it’s your private land…why not? Maybe hunter A hunts for three years and learns to call masterfully without much effort. He’s a natural. Within five years, hunter A can talk a 5 yo gobbler into leaving 10 hens and walking 300 yards across an open field to 20 yards from the bead.
Hunter B is tonedeaf and just can’t call for sh!t after three years of blowing on 100 different diaphragms daily. Poor dood puts more effort into it than 98% of the population, but he can’t get it figured out. He decides to fill his tags using a 22mag after still hunting them from a ground blind for hours each time he goes out.
What’s the difference? A had x tags and filled them. B had x tags and filled them. Laws shouldn’t be counting on a certain percentage of hunters failing to fill their tags. Fair chase is important, but where does that line get drawn? Should we limit deer hunting to shotguns with buckshot? Why is it different for deer and turkeys?
Baiting is a whole mother ball of wax. People hunt for different reasons.
Hunter C enjoys the sport involved in hunting, owns 1000 acres, and enjoys the challenge of killing animals with stick and string. He makes good money, he bought the land ten years ago, and he’s invested a ton of time and money into clearing and planting food plots that produce food for the game year round. In harvested corn and beans in the fall with winter wheat and a variety of name brand food plot mixes producing well into winter. Chufa really draws the turkeys in the spring. He fills his deer tags in the fall, kills ducks over flooded corn in January, and lops the heads off gobblers from one of his strategically placed double bull blinds filling all his tags and the tags of a friend ou two and maybe a couple of kids tags to-boot.
Hunter D owns 50 acres down the road that his family has owned and passed down over the years. They used to kill deer and turkeys Every year on tin bucket ridge when it was a good year for acorns. They even scratched out a few ducks that would hit the bottom on a good wet year when the creek backed up and flooded some low spots. Hunter C’s primary concern is having his kids enjoy hunting by giving them a touch of success every now and again while also supplementing their diet with venison, wild Turkey, ducks, and squirrels. He has two corn feeders out. He and his kids shoot a couple of basket racks and a couple of does, fill three turkey tags, and pass shoot a few woodies heading to the flooded corn up the road.
You telling me Hunter C is a problem here? Of course not. The baiting thing ain’t black and white. Dumping a bag of corn and planting 10 5acre chufa patches are both baiting. Unless there is ZERO manipulation of the land beyond what Mother Nature does all by her lonesome, then it’s baiting. Funny that the most expensive, most effective baiting practices are the ones that are legal.
So…I’m saying the DNR should make bag limits and seasons based upon the premise that everyone that buys a license will be successful and should not make any laws with the intent of making it more difficult for someone to fill their tags. I’m all for laws being written that limit or manipulate all sorts of variables/methods that may result in it being more difficult for hunters to fill their tags. Those laws should only be written and go Into effect after thorough and vigorous public debate, and the reason for them should not be for the purpose of limiting harvest.
Good reason for banning baiting….reduce spread of disease that is showing risk to the area.
Bad reason…we only want 10k animals killed. If you only want 10k animals killed, do not issue any more than 10k permits and adjust annually after analyzing true harvest numbers.
“I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!
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