back door

Share your tales (tall or otherwise) of hunting adventures.

Moderators: Kirk, Lucinda

Brent
Posts: 6190
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 9:40 am
Location: Fly-over Country
Contact:

Post by Brent »

Rick, it doesn't work like that. If they could, they would sell those rifle tags in addition to the muzzleloading and shotgun and pistol and bow tags, and folks would buy them. But they can't. and it is really truly about safety. You would be amazed and what counts for deer hunting in Iowa, where there is no real tradition of deer hunting to draw upon.

Brent
Just straddling the hard line between "the arrogance of dogmatism and the despair of skepticism"
User avatar
Don McDowell
Posts: 7633
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:04 pm
Location: Ft. Laramie Wy
Contact:

Post by Don McDowell »

We need to keep in mind also that hunting seasons are about population control of the critter being hunted. In those places that don't allow "rifles" but do allow other means of harvest like muzzleloaders (including the plasticstocked scope sighted abominations) and handguns. They can keep the nongun non hunting populace from throwing a hissy fit by allowing those type weapons , and still disallowing regular highpowered rifles. After all most folks thing of a "muzzleloader" as being short ranged and ineffective. If those non gunny foks actually caught on to what is going on with muzzleloaders today they'ld get that season shut off real quick. So the DNR's stay quiet and let them run so they stand a better chance of getting the number of animals harvested they need to.

A friend of mine from southern Illinois was throwing a hissy fit about the handguns being legalized for the shotgun season. His arquement against them was that he wouldn't want to have someone shoot him with a 357 by god that'ld just tear a man in two. I asked him "David you shoot a 357 for fun, and you've shot stuff with the 12ga slug gun, which do you think you stand a better chance of surviving a center mass hit from?" His face turned sort a blank and that's the last we heard about not letting handguns in the shotgun season.
AKA Donny Ray Rockslinger :?
dm3280
Posts: 550
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 6:11 pm

Post by dm3280 »

Have to agree about the statement about the DNR. In the St. Louis area there is a park that the deer population is pretty bad. The DNR decided to let "sharp shooters" in. Not the rile but a person that somehow has the title of a sharp shooter. A friend of mine asked why not open it up to archery hunters. The response was, believe it or not,

"Archery! that is just too dangerous. Do you realize how far a person can shoot an arrow?"

Last tim I tried for distance with a bow was about 450 yards shooting at 45 degree angle. I think a deflected bullet can go a wee bit further than that. I just cannot figure out the DNR's response to archery. I still cannot find out how to be come a sharp shooter either. Looked in the Yellow pages and still nothing so where they found these sharp shooters is a puzzle.
User avatar
Don McDowell
Posts: 7633
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:04 pm
Location: Ft. Laramie Wy
Contact:

Post by Don McDowell »

I would imagine that the local DNR office can tell you how to be a sharpshooter.
Probably something similar to the elk shoot on the refuge at Jackson, if you get drawn to go in they deputize you as a rangerforaday.
AKA Donny Ray Rockslinger :?
Bad Bill
Posts: 1300
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 9:44 pm
Location: SW of NE ND

Post by Bad Bill »

I've been unhappy about the sharpshooter thing too. I got the idea that it is the game guys and their buddies that get paid to shoot the animals. Seen it happen in a couple of places - just as easily they could have sold tickets/slots/licenses to sportsman hunters, but, no, they won't do that. Instead they hire guns supposibly to have better control over the cull. In one case over 300 game animals were killed that way. I think it is both stupid and a shame. :o
Kurt
Posts: 8428
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:28 pm
Location: Not Far enough NW in Illinois

Post by Kurt »

We have bunch of them at our range every fall with all sorts of rifles from .22-250's to 300 win mags with a green pick up full of all sorts of ammo and a guy giving them shooting lessons.
It's very obvious from there hits down range at 100 yards that some I would doubt they have shot a rifle much at all.
I asked the head who are these guys? and he said there biologists getting ready for thinning out Deer near a residential area.
I asked the same thing, why not give some hunters archery tags to let them thin down the heard and they will take care of the meat and not take it to the glue factory. And He said cant let them hunt close to population.
I said I sure wouldn't want some of these guys with in 3 miles from me the way there shooting in day lite not alone in low light.

Kurt
The reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery"Winston Churchill
Brent
Posts: 6190
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 9:40 am
Location: Fly-over Country
Contact:

Post by Brent »

The one thing about sharpshooter programs for managing urban deer is that they actually work more often than not. One of the better examples, btw, is at Gettysburg National Monument (or is that Park?). By and large, sharpshooting is expensive, causes lots of heart burn, but can and often does, get the job done.

Archery deer management has not, in any case of which I'm aware, actually managed the deer populations. It does make some groups of people happy (while making others unhappy), so it too induces heartburn, but on average, it just doesn't kill enough of scare enough deer to matter.

Brent
Just straddling the hard line between "the arrogance of dogmatism and the despair of skepticism"
bobw
Posts: 3841
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:52 pm

Post by bobw »

The city where I live next to kills 200 deer every winter with their sharpshooters . The sharpshooters are all city employees of proven shooting ability and are allready on the cities liability insurance. No they don't shoot next to someones house either. Meat all goes to a local processor and distributed to homeless shelters and soup kitchens for the indigdent. bobw
ironramrod
Posts: 1364
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2003 1:12 pm
Location: Dakota Territory

Post by ironramrod »

Actually, the special archery only deer hunt in southwest Bismarck along the Missouri River has apparently lowered deer numbers and the resulting deer damage to a much more tolerable level than existed earlier. The deer numbers did not dramatically decline, but rather declined over a period of several years. Unfortunately, no one at G&F gathered any real data re: numbers of deer present, deer taken, wounding loss, etc.; the only measure used was numbers of deer complaints went down "considerably." However, based on complaints the season was a success, and it is now a permanent part of deer management in the area. There were no injuries or accidents that I was ever aware of resulting from the archers. The only problem was that occasionally a deer would fall over dead in someone's back yard; more of an inconvenience in retrieving the carcass than a real problem. The concept is also now being used in parts of Fargo, ND where similar problems exist, and to my knowledge the results so far are similar to the Bismarck experiment.

Also, part of northwest Bismarck along the River and above the I-94 bridge is ml rifles, shotgun slugs and archer only and that has also worked out well. Deer are being taken and the landowners seem to accept it ok; whereas, they were dead set against a centerfire modern rifle season.

Re: hunting units, the main reason many states have hunting units is to manage the harvest pressure and resulting population levels of the species in question. Here some units have excessive deer numbers and more permits are issued there to reduce deer numbers to meet management objectives, and vice versa. This can be further streamlined to genders and species (WT or mule deer) to put more harvest pressure on does than bucks, for example. Without the hunting units it would be next to impossible for G&F to manage population levels to meet management objectives.

Regards
Bad Bill
Posts: 1300
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 9:44 pm
Location: SW of NE ND

Post by Bad Bill »

Ironramrod, thanks for the update. Sounds like some of those good ol' boys have their act together. Funny how hard it is sometimes to find where what they do makes common sense.
Why not let the public sportsmen take care of the problem and enjoy the hunt at the same time. :idea: Of course safety issues should be utmost in mind and so I can see special open dates with screening of who goes in and out with what and the biologists can contribute by manning those stations. I don't think there would be any lack of hunters needed to do the job needing to be done. 8) Just my humble opinion, BB
Post Reply