Is our current hunting practice sustainable?

[GSRetrievers]

Things like this are "point of view" not based on facts that cover a wide area of territory or thought.

Where i live there are too many deer. Vehicle strikes are higher when population is up. There are bow hunts in city limits because there are vehicle strikes in neighborhoods.

Hunters are not taking enough to slow it down.

Same here. Most counties in my area are dog counties and it still doesn't put a dent in the population.

 

[coldboremiracle]

Things like this are "point of view" not based on facts that cover a wide area of territory or thought.

Where i live there are too many deer. Vehicle strikes are higher when population is up. There are bow hunts in city limits because there are vehicle strikes in neighborhoods.

Hunters are not taking enough to slow it down.

Same here. Most counties in my area are dog counties and it still doesn't put a dent in the population.

Thats fair, like I mentioned earlier in the thread I think this is more a western problem. The urban and flat portions of the country seem to be much less effected and perhaps just the opposite situation.

 

[nksmfamjp]

Well, in Ohio, I gave up hunting. The land is so divided, especially wooded areas that you need 4 permission slips to hunt a 20 acre woods. Not always, but farmers typically own as little unfarmable land as possible. Non-farmers own land for its beauty and have a hundred reasons you cannot be on their land or they love the little pet deers. Seriously,

I also hunt Montana. The weakness there is also an access issue. There is big money buying up that land. In general, recent buyers seem like they could care less about the value of hunting. If they allow hunting, it is to sell off high dollar leases to guides or just as hunting leases. Most just seem like they bought their slice of beauty and it is theirs, not yours….period. The remaining land is over-run if access is easy. If it takes a hard hike, there is still a bunch of huntable land. All that said, Montana is still way more huntable than OH.

 

[Troutslayer2]

I already can't believe some of the old duffers who still make their annual trip to Montana just because it's tradition. They shoot the scrubbiest little bucks when they used to get good ones. They get tricked into paying trespass fees thinking it will give them some taste of a decades bygone quality of hunting. Loss of habitat, loss of access, less animals on shrinking public land with more pressure… I think we're way past the tipping point with all of it. Anyone showing up now on the social media wave has missed the party by at least 10 years.

 

[coldboremiracle]

Well, in Ohio, I gave up hunting. The land is so divided, especially wooded areas that you need 4 permission slips to hunt a 20 acre woods. Not always, but farmers typically own as little unfarmable land as possible. Non-farmers own land for its beauty and have a hundred reasons you cannot be on their land or they love the little pet deers. Seriously,

I also hunt Montana. The weakness there is also an access issue. There is big money buying up that land. In general, recent buyers seem like they could care less about the value of hunting. If they allow hunting, it is to sell off high dollar leases to guides or just as hunting leases. Most just seem like they bought their slice of beauty and it is theirs, not yours….period. The remaining land is over-run if access is easy. If it takes a hard hike, there is still a bunch of huntable land. All that said, Montana is still way more huntable than OH.

I already can't believe some of the old duffers who still make their annual trip to Montana just because it's tradition. They shoot the scrubbiest little bucks when they used to get good ones. They get tricked into paying trespass fees thinking it will give them some taste of a decades bygone quality of hunting. Loss of habitat, loss of access, less animals on shrinking public land with more pressure… I think we're way past the tipping point with all of it. Anyone showing up now on the social media wave has missed the party by at least 10 years.

^this is what I'm talking about, its a challenge we need to get ahead of.

 

[FireFlyFishing]

Imagine if folks are successful selling off OUR public land…