Rich Man's Sport

[Doc Holliday]

I sctually cringe when I see people post their 9yo with big game animals and no mention of small game hunting. As a kid those small game hunts were big adventure, and for young hunters to miss out is a shame.

Absolutely.... I remember when my Dad told me I could start going out for squirrels by myself with my single shot H&R 20 ga, or my marlin semi-auto 22 LR.....I felt like I had just been knighted. IMO squirrel hunting by yourself as a youngster is where you learn the fundamentals of being a predator in the woods. Sitting in a shooting house and looking at your Iphone until something walks out/Dad taps you on the shoulder to get behind his suppressed gunwerks......not sure what lessons are getting learned there.

 

[Nick992]

Lol....and these farmers are so concerned they are letting people onto their property to hunt them for free right?

Not randos off the street, but there are connections to be made.

 

[bsnedeker]

You could be a stand up comedian...

Thanks! I'll be here all week! Don't forget to tip your waitresses!

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Thanks! I'll be here all week! Don't forget to tip your waitresses!

I give the same tip to all waiters, get a new job. I read the other day, tipping is on it's way out.

 

[Ralphie]

How is all this build a bigger pie working out for you?

How come there are no videos on how to squeeze every last available tag east of the Mississippi? Or how to find the hidden gems back east?

“There just isn’t demand for that.“ Wait I thought this was about recruitment of hunters and bigger pies. So why should it matter. East of the Mississippi hunters need to be recruited too.
I mean if you aren’t making money off it. Maybe the Influencers need some Pennsylvania game and fish money to get started.


Its about making money through clicks. Just use promo code $&#*@%.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Just saw an opening for a Whitetail lease in Central AL.
2400 acres, 12 Members, $5500.00 ea.
2 - 4 year+ old bucks per member.

 

[Thunt22]

You should see the $$ some of these land owners back east pay to have someone come and design their property with what to plant and where to hang stands

 

[Fatcamp]

Absolutely.... I remember when my Dad told me I could start going out for squirrels by myself with my single shot H&R 20 ga, or my marlin semi-auto 22 LR.....I felt like I had just been knighted. IMO squirrel hunting by yourself as a youngster is where you learn the fundamentals of being a predator in the woods. Sitting in a shooting house and looking at your Iphone until something walks out/Dad taps you on the shoulder to get behind his suppressed gunwerks......not sure what lessons are getting learned there.

Such vivid memories of a 20 gauge and being alone in the woods as a kid.

I feel like I'm making the same mistake with my kids. I'm gonna have to meditate on this. One of the benefits our kids have is we spend a lot of time in wild places with no real mission. Just being.

 

[Billy Goat]

Absolutely.... I remember when my Dad told me I could start going out for squirrels by myself with my single shot H&R 20 ga, or my marlin semi-auto 22 LR.....I felt like I had just been knighted. IMO squirrel hunting by yourself as a youngster is where you learn the fundamentals of being a predator in the woods. Sitting in a shooting house and looking at your Iphone until something walks out/Dad taps you on the shoulder to get behind his suppressed gunwerks......not sure what lessons are getting learned there.

Mine was a 12ga, and it knocked me on my ass for the first year of shooting it.


But I put so many rounds thru that Marlin 22 I could pretty well point shoot it.

I mostly shot groundhogs tho, worked on that open plains stalking.

 

[9.1]

The future of hunting is not secured by just recruiting more hunters! We don’t need more. We have plenty! Too many. That’s obvious when you look at any Western trailhead in October on public land, or when you examine the increased difficulty of drawing tags. The future of hunting is secured by hunters who care and who get involved with habitat and conservation improvements. Unfortunately, those are not the types being recruited to our ranks by the litany of jackasses on social media. We don’t need more takers just for the sake of adding hunter numbers. We don’t need more demand! What we need is more supply (wildlife). If you don’t do something to contribute to that supply, you don’t deserve to be part of the demand!

What do you mean by getting involved with habitat and conversation improvements? Are you saying hunters should have to donate a certain amount to conservation groups on top of paying a states game commission fees for licenses and tags? Do you want non-residents to fly west during the off season to log work hours?

 

[eye_zick]

The future of hunting is not secured by just recruiting more hunters! We don’t need more. We have plenty! Too many. That’s obvious when you look at any Western trailhead in October on public land, or when you examine the increased difficulty of drawing tags. The future of hunting is secured by hunters who care and who get involved with habitat and conservation improvements. Unfortunately, those are not the types being recruited to our ranks by the litany of jackasses on social media. We don’t need more takers just for the sake of adding hunter numbers. We don’t need more demand! What we need is more supply (wildlife). If you don’t do something to contribute to that supply, you don’t deserve to be part of the demand!

I agree with the sentiment, but it doesn't hit home.

The basis of public goods is to allow equal access to all regardless of wealth/social status. i.e. - I can go to the local park/library etc and have equal access as the Mayor or the billionaires.

If we only allowed people to hunt if they contribute to supply (ie conservation) you may as well privatize hunting fully. Ultimately you would end up with a system that only rewarded the top contributors with the limited tags.

Regarding habitat conservation - how do we overcome the challenges of public land grazing? why should it be the hunters responsibility to correct the overgrazing via habitat conservation? why arent we holding those offenders with the responsibility to correct? Same could be said for the urbanization of wintering habitat and migration corridors.

 

[bsnedeker]

Do you want non-residents to fly west during the off season to log work hours?

The fact that you are clearly saying this with a sense of incredulity highlights the issue: You only expect to take from the resource, not give back in any real way other than your dollars.

To answer your question though: We wouldn't hate it if you did!

 

[SDHNTR]

What do you mean by getting involved with habitat and conversation improvements? Are you saying hunters should have to donate a certain amount to conservation groups on top of paying a states game commission fees for licenses and tags? Do you want non-residents to fly west during the off season to log work hours?

Yes

 

[southLA]

Lol....and these farmers are so concerned they are letting people onto their property to hunt them for free right?

Down here in Louisiana many I know certainly do.

 

[CorbLand]

Absolutely.... I remember when my Dad told me I could start going out for squirrels by myself with my single shot H&R 20 ga, or my marlin semi-auto 22 LR.....I felt like I had just been knighted. IMO squirrel hunting by yourself as a youngster is where you learn the fundamentals of being a predator in the woods. Sitting in a shooting house and looking at your Iphone until something walks out/Dad taps you on the shoulder to get behind his suppressed gunwerks......not sure what lessons are getting learned there.

Don’t you take away from the dads that want to vicariously live through their kids.

Kind of like all the dads in Utah saying that the only reason they used trail cameras is because their kids enjoyed seeing the pictures. Heaven forbid you would take your kid with you to do some scouting. No, leave them home and just show them pictures.

 

[Reburn]

Wait, are the western guys telling the eastern guys to grow some grapes and move out west, and then also complaining about all the new people moving to their state?

si senor

 

[Customweld]

What do you mean by getting involved with habitat and conversation improvements? Are you saying hunters should have to donate a certain amount to conservation groups on top of paying a states game commission fees for licenses and tags? Do you want non-residents to fly west during the off season to log work hours?

I'll roll up a few extra strands of barbed wire drift fence and plant a few extra bitterbrush seedlings for ya!

 

[MattB]

WY gets 77% of its license revenue from nr. Total dept revenue was just over 50%.

NR license fees account for about half of the Dept's total revenue, but it doesn't stop there. Almost a quarter of their funding was from PR and DJ funds which are federal dollars. Given WY's tiny population as a % of the US total, virtually all of those tax dollars were generated from non-residents as well. That puts the NR % over 70%. I would bet that if you looked more deeply into to sources of grants, "other", and where the funds were derived that WY is generating interest income on, the majority of that would be non-resident generated as well. NR's could effectively be funding 80% or more of perhaps?

We know that WY R's fund ~11% of total revenue through license fees. I wonder just how much else?

 

[Newtosavage]

Absolutely.... I remember when my Dad told me I could start going out for squirrels by myself with my single shot H&R 20 ga, or my marlin semi-auto 22 LR.....I felt like I had just been knighted. IMO squirrel hunting by yourself as a youngster is where you learn the fundamentals of being a predator in the woods. Sitting in a shooting house and looking at your Iphone until something walks out/Dad taps you on the shoulder to get behind his suppressed gunwerks......not sure what lessons are getting learned there.

But you're a loser if your kid is only killing squirrels. If they don't kill a trophy buck or hell, a dall sheep by the age of 12, what kind of a parent are you really?

 

[MuleyFever]

But you're a loser if your kid is only killing squirrels. If they don't kill a trophy buck or hell, a dall sheep by the age of 12, what kind of a parent are you really?

Just bucks and dall sheep? They need to be killing dangerous game on two continents or what are you really teaching them?