Poaching a Likely Scenario

[elkyinzer]

Harder economic times definitely correlate with more jacklighting here in appalachia but it won't be anything catastrophic at a population level. There is absolutely no way hunting season is going to be shut down.

 

[kda082]

Coming home from vac and seeing empty store shelves was shocking and an eye opener. I’m hopeful things get back on track soon, but thankful I live rural with game in my backyard.

 

[rcb2000]

Peoples savings will run out before stores run out of food IMO.
I think either way, yeah, you might see some meat hunting going on.

 

[mt100gr.]

With the change to "print your own tags" this year in MT I already have a deer, bear, turkey and elk tag printed. Hopefully the website is still working when OTC antlerless tags are available. I usually put a few yard does in the freezer every year, anyway.

The regs are out for the year and say when the season is to take place. As long as I have my legal tag, I can make meat during those specified calendar periods. How is that poaching?

Right now, the closing of hunting season isn't a concern.

 

[brsnow]

It will seem they are not concerned with revenue, closing skiing prior to spring break. If this behaves like Spanish flu, it will start back up in fall. I believe the 2nd wave was most deadly for them.

 

[Carr5vols]

Here in Georgia, the state is on semi lockdown but all draw turkey hunts are still a go as well as regular turkey seasons. My son has a youth draw hunt this weekend 3 hours away and we are going. Called the state DNR and they acted like in was stupid for even calling and asking.

 

[Elk97]

WA state fish and wildlife just closed all fishing in the state. Freshwater and saltwater, supposedly because people were too close together on the banks of some rivers (highly unlikely). Saltwater fishing is almost completely from boats but it's closed too. Not happy about it, but makes me worry about what other crazy stuff will happen if this continues into fall.

 

[Trevor73402]

It’s getting to the point that I cringe everytime some one throws out the word “lock down”. What do you all think that even means? This isn’t a communist country and martial law has not and won’t be enacted. People say we are going to be on “total lockdown”. Do you think there are going to be troops running thru the woods arresting/shooting defiant hunters?? Who is it that you think is going to be “locking” you down? The local donut eaters? The national guard? The Marines? Come on people.....

I’m a land owner. If the store runs out of meat, I’ll be harvesting my own. In or out of season. On my own property. Does that make it legal? Certainly not, but I’ll be happy to show you how much I don’t care. If I’m out having to shoot game to survive day to day, times will be bad enough that I’ll have to consider pretty much any unknown human a possible threat and treated accordingly until proven otherwise.

Let’s all relax and get some sunshine and stop fretting our daily lives away.

 

[Okhotnik]

The most likely effect that I can see at this point is that every states number of out of state hunters will decrease as will the number of hunters—resident or non-resident—that hunt during the week.

People’s savings accounts and vacation balances are going to be gutted. A lot of people don’t have extra vacation or savings to absorb something like this.

Why don't people have at least 3 months emergency living expenses instead of vacation expenses? Little money into retirement and college education accounts. Plenty of money to eat out and kids eat out every day, new trucks, atv's , boats, new phones for the family, cars, vacations every year but no savings to survive a few months if laid off. Should be a wake up call but won't be.

 

[Okhotnik]

It’s getting to the point that I cringe everytime some one throws out the word “lock down”. What do you all think that even means? This isn’t a communist country and martial law has not and won’t be enacted. People say we are going to be on “total lockdown”. Do you think there are going to be troops running thru the woods arresting/shooting defiant hunters?? Who is it that you think is going to be “locking” you down? The local donut eaters? The national guard? The Marines? Come on people.....

I’m a land owner. If the store runs out of meat, I’ll be harvesting my own. In or out of season. On my own property. Does that make it legal? Certainly not, but I’ll be happy to show you how much I don’t care. If I’m out having to shoot game to survive day to day, times will be bad enough that I’ll have to consider pretty much any unknown human a possible threat and treated accordingly until proven otherwise.

Let’s all relax and get some sunshine and stop fretting our daily lives away.

Or you can buy a freezer and prepare for emergencies and not poach

 

[Trevor73402]

Or you can buy a freezer and prepare for emergencies and not poach

I have a freezer. 2 deer in it as we speak. Stop being so obsessed with the word “poach”. If your local stores had no meat and your freezer broke/stopped working and you lost your current stock of meat, you’d be “poaching” as well before you let your family starve. Get off your high horse Larry Law. We aren’t talking about normal daily life. This is in regards to “seriously hard times”.

 

[justin davis]

I don’t see grocery stores shutting down and people having to poach to survive. I think things will be back to normal soon. If grocery stores are shut down we have bigger problems than poaching

 

[trophyhill]

I'm skeptical this would happen but who knows at this point. You have think that local economies would be the hardest hit as well in those cases. If it happens I could definitely see people poaching for meat. Especially if there is a small chance of beef shortages or stores continue to struggle to stock shelves. There is already rumors in Minnesota of canceling the Walleye opener in May, that's a HUGE deal. I'd be lying if I said I haven't already been eyeing up the local whitetail herds up here in Northern MN too. Let's just call it the doomsday scenario and hope it doesn't happen, but if it does, I'll be well prepared to sustain my family!

The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that hunting could be shut down. Particularly where we live in states with very liberal governors who have been wielding mucho power and authority lately. The hoarding of food/meat and lack of in the local grocers, could force the issue imo. I started a thread on Bowsite when the virus started making headlines regarding the OP's subject matter, and the thread mysteriously disappeared.....

 

[Trevor73402]

When situations reach a certain level, it’s simply not poaching anymore. Rather just hunting for survival. At what point you as an individual feel your survival is in question is purely subjective to you and only you. That is not to be judged by someone else. I don’t “think” times will get that hard for us, but I certainly won’t be shamed by some self righteous Dudley Doo-right if I feel the need to shoot a deer when I have no meat on hand and the grocery store shelves are empty during a national crisis.

 

[Zeke6951]

I don't know about everyone else, but the venison (deer and elk) is the most expensive meat my family has ever eaten. I certainly hope my wife never figures out the true cost of game meat. Fish are the same. For the money I have spent on hunting and fishing in my lifetime (I am 68), I think I could have bought lots of beef. At this point I don't regret it one bit.

 

[Cedarsavage]

I think we’ll be hunting this year. Everything here in Michigan is shutdown except essential, in the order from the governor it allows exercise and recreation outdoors in compliance with social distancing. Dnr sent out an email reminding people they could still fish etc. Any dnr guys on here in a shutdown state? If so what are you doing work related right now? I’m a mechanical maintenance worker for a public institution and I’m still working as I’m considered “essential to infrastructure” people who don’t fit that description are working remotely, I’d imagine drawing related people will be doing the same. I wouldn’t bet the farm on traveling just yet though.

I’m sure dnr Leo guys are still working. With so many people not working I think Michigan is gonna want/need revenue from 700,000 deer hunters spending $30-100+ On licensing

 

[rodney482]

Groceries .. but I would have to be pretty desperate to take one out of season. My freezer is packed!! Living off grid is awesome

 

[Tenstrike]

I believe it is unlikely the state of Minnesota would shut down hunting or fishing during this pandemic, in his shutdown announcement yesterday, the governor encouraged outdoor activities. It is likely that specific events, such as the Governor's Walleye Opener, a publicity event, would be cancelled. A county on the Canadian border has closed six boat ramps on the Rainy River to spring fishing, this is to discourage fisherman from all over the state from flooding the local area with out of town folks. Hunt, Fish and stay safe everybody!

 

[np307]

1) Most of the "stay home" orders specifically exempt outdoor activities. They recognize that time outdoors is healthy and will help people combat this virus and other health problems that could arise. I haven't seen anyone even suggesting that hunting seasons be shut down except for conspiratorial types. This also coincides with the fact that most of the "stay home" orders are being given in more metro areas, where there's not much hunting to be done anyways.

2) If people feel desperate enough to start poaching for meat, the game populations would suffer greatly. We have a carefully balanced system right now and mixing chaos into the equation certainly won't increase populations.

3) People need to begin learning that meat isn't an essential component of every meal. The abundance of meat in America is due to our great wealth, but it wasn't always that way. I love deer meat or a nice steak as much as anyone else, but there's a ton of produce at the store for much cheaper than meat. It's also a lot easier to augment your food supply with a garden than it is to raise a hog or kill game in a time of heavy hunting.

 

[MallardSX2]

I have enough meat to last for over a year in my freezer. So no need for me to pop one of my little darlings that come to my feeder in my back yard daily. I dont think I could ever shoot one of them. They watch me grill their relatives from about 30 feet away about every other day. lol