change.

[LODI QUACKER]

If they take the scatters away where in the Hell are we going to hunt man?


If a mans got to work for a living and cant hunt during the week he is screwed, I will not really matter what happens if they do this. For me I think this will be the straw that broke the camels back. WTF? If you dont see it your not looking very hard man, before long people will just quit.

If this happens I am done.

I sure was looking forward to taking my kids hunting in these places when they got older. But it just doesnt look like its going to happen.

2 years ago was the beggining of the end!!!!!!!

[Seymore]

When I am able to duck hunt, it is all public land. Sorry, the implication that I am some privileged private land hunter doesn't wash. I have a disability and certainly don't hunt like the majority on this board. In fact, I didn't go at all this year due to medical issues.

So the next argument will be that I don't have a dog in this race and to shut up. Wrong, I believe there should be more handicapped friendly areas to hunt. However, that would take away from the freedoms some are complaining about I guess.

The past few years I have seen more confrontations on public land than I care to. I come hobbling in on my crutch and the idiots just railroad me. A duck is not worth getting shot or beat up over. The suggestion of "just turn them in" doesn't work because the officers are stretched to thin and unless some altercation actually happens they aren't coming.

Eventually, someone will be seriously hurt either in a boating accident or some altercation. Freedoms are meant to be protected only to the extent they do not infringe on someone else's freedoms. So while one may have the impression that they are free to hunt public land without any rules or restrictions others have the same freedom to expect a safe and orderly hunting experience on public land. My tax dollars are paying for the same plot of ground. The current environment on public land is unsafe because of the every increasing pressure. It's a fact that as the space gets more crowded and people forget or simply choose not to exercise good sportsmanship then things will just get worse.

[quackheadbp]

Look. The draw sucks either way you slice it. It will not help in the matter at all. All its gonna do is piss off folks and there just gonna give up all together cause they cant afford a big pricey lease and in return there gonna stop giving there money to organizations like DW DU that produce duck numbers for the public and private hunter.

[BR549]

What is really causing this is folks don't have respect for there fellow man. Fighting about spots, no mufflers, skybusting, leaving out decoys, sleeping in your boat all night and other stupid crap is what brings this on. The state will not allow the wma's to continue to be a zoo each morning. IF folks would regulate themselves it probably would not come to this.

I don't like the draw system b/c you might not get picked for a season and be stuck at home. I also think the draw system will cut back on hunters in general. Some will say that is a two edge sword and that it will increase quality hunts. I don't know. I do not that draw system sucks for hunting weather patterns.[/quote]

Amen! I don't like the draw system or what it implies either, but I do understand it's purpose and it's ethics! And Lodi for the record I do hold an Arkie liscense and a LA. Have for about 30 years!

[DUCK-HUNT]

If they take the scatters away where in the Hell are we going to hunt man?


If a mans got to work for a living and cant hunt during the week he is screwed, I will not really matter what happens if they do this. For me I think this will be the straw that broke the camels back. WTF? If you dont see it your not looking very hard man, before long people will just quit.

If this happens I am done.

I sure was looking forward to taking my kids hunting in these places when they got older. But it just doesnt look like its going to happen.

2 years ago was the beggining of the end!!!!!!!

You can get drawn for a weekend when its 65 outside spitting rain and no wind and go out there and sit in your boat and stare at an empty sky with no one around you.... This way you will have a Quality hunt and no skybusters or kazoo blowers messing you up......

The Dept is a freakin JOKE when it comes to management of a resource.... they have some terrible people in the decision making positions making the rest of em look really bad....

[LODI QUACKER]

You hunt the river, I know, I have an Ark lic myself always do. Some will just move to the next closest spot. One day it will be you public hunting spots that are getting the overflow crowds. I will just get pushed out but some will get pushed over. Get ready for the numbers on the big river boys yall think this doesnt affect you. Hell it effects everybody!!!!

[BR549]

If they take the scatters away where in the Hell are we going to hunt man?


If a mans got to work for a living and cant hunt during the week he is screwed, I will not really matter what happens if they do this. For me I think this will be the straw that broke the camels back. WTF? If you dont see it your not looking very hard man, before long people will just quit.

If this happens I am done.

I sure was looking forward to taking my kids hunting in these places when they got older. But it just doesnt look like its going to happen.

2 years ago was the beggining of the end!!!!!!!

You can get drawn for a weekend when its 65 outside spitting rain and no wind and go out there and sit in your boat and stare at an empty sky with no one around you.... This way you will have a Quality hunt and no skybusters or kazoo blowers messing you up......

The Dept is a freakin JOKE when it comes to management of a resource.... they have some terrible people in the decision making positions making the rest of em look really bad....

AGAIN I SAY JOHN Q. PUBLIC BROUGHT ALL THIS ON THEIRSELVES!

[DUCK-HUNT]

The reason all these areas are going to draw is because of spill over from other areas.... WHY? cause those other areas went to a DRAW.... this is the exact reason I was against the Brake going to a draw last year. Look what happened now the closest WMA to the Brake is now going to a draw...

What do suggest people dp BR549? ...... not go hunting anymore? What if the State came to your lease/land and told you that you can only hunt your place on tuesday and thursday before 12 noon because you are putting too much strain on the resource....

Seymore...
those people bullying and what not you speak of should be turned into the proper authorities... we have done it and those people will be kicked off the place....

We are hunting migratory birds people.... plant some food for them and let people get after em. They will be here when they are here and not when they are not.....

It is all a crock of *!@#@* just like the new deer laws they are trying to pass on us...... it all boils down to money and they dont have as much as what they would like so they have to come up with some way to get it...





OH yeah Seymore..... How many days in the last 5 years have you spent hunting public ground in ANY state????

Hey I'm smarter than that anyhow! Im not going to hunt it anymore than the resourse allows me to hunt it! If that's one day a week or 3 times a week or once every 2 weeks! Id rather have a few great hunts than just going to be going and then screwing up any chance of ever having anything! That's what's wrong now, our resourses are being way over abused!

So you are telling me when the ducks are on your place on a friday, saturday, sunday, and leave on monday and you didnt get to hunt them cause the Dept wouldnt let you hunt except on tuesday and thursday, you would be all for that....

I THINK NOT!!!!

BR549 what cha say... ????

[BR549]

What do suggest people dp BR549? ...... not go hunting anymore? What if the State came to your lease/land and told you that you can only hunt your place on tuesday and thursday before 12 noon because you are putting too much strain on the resource....





OH yeah Seymore..... How many days in the last 5 years have you spent hunting public ground in ANY state????[/quote]

Hey I'm smarter than that anyhow! Im not going to hunt it anymore than the resourse allows me to hunt it! If that's one day a week or 3 times a week or once every 2 weeks! Id rather have a few great hunts than just going to be going and then screwing up any chance of ever having anything! That's what's wrong now, our resourses are being way over abused![/quote]


So you are telling me when the ducks are on your place on a friday, saturday, sunday, and leave on monday and you didnt get to hunt them cause the Dept wouldnt let you hunt except on tuesday and thursday, you would be all for that....

I THINK NOT!!!![/quote]


BR549 what cha say... ????[/quote]

THAT'S NOT THE ISSUE HERE AND FIRST OF ALL IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. BUT I HAVE BEEN A VICTEM OF THE STATE TAKING OVER A PLACE AND TURNING IT INTO PUBLIC HUNTING. But you know what I still hunt it today! Put in for the draw and got drawn. Just like everyone else has to. Doesn't bother me one bit! And if I catch someone violating the rules and destroying the resources there I will do my dead level best to see that they are not only removed from the premises but are brought to justice too!

[BR549]

You hunt the river, I know, I have an Ark lic myself always do. Some will just move to the next closest spot. One day it will be you public hunting spots that are getting the overflow crowds. I will just get pushed out but some will get pushed over. Get ready for the numbers on the big river boys yall think this doesnt affect you. Hell it effects everybody!!!!

No because Im going to avoid the crowd! I'll simply go when you aren't there but the ducks are! I'll go during the week when all you other panzies are either working or in school! But even if it means quitting then so be it! I've killed enough in my lifetime!

[LawDawg]

As long as crossgates lake doesn't go to a draw, I am a happy man.

[JDgator]

Now, I'm no math wizard by any means, but could someone explain how overcrowding is the issue? Every year the department complains about the number of hunters going down and looking for ideas to get people back invovled in hunting. I have neither the time nor the resources to look it up, but I'd like to know the number of hunters and public hunting acres today versus what they were 20 years ago. I'd bet a dollar to donuts that we have fewer hunters and more acres today than we did 20 years ago.

I was always under the impression that hunters were in decline.

I think the rapidly increasingly number of out-of-state hunters offsets any decline in number of Mississippi hunters.

[gator]

i hate wading in to this, b/c it's not gonna matter. no one's minds are gonna be changed, particularly at the level it has to be. it will also come off as "i told you so".......considering that, let me get it out of the way, I TOLD YOU SO......again, and again, AND AGAIN.

in a time when hunters rights (and sportsmen's rights alike) are becoming ever more increasingly taken away, hindered, restricted, etc etc, i find it strange, curious and not the least bit sad that the apathy a few show toward this issue. often the "haves" shrug their collective shoulders at the "have nots" (read, public hunters may or may not be able to afford their own land to lease/own) and say basically "i don't hunt there, get over it".

i'm convinced the argument is too late, but here goes.....again.

do we really REALLY want to say we live in a state where the only available way to hunt land THAT WE PAY FOR as a citizen to be dictated via "being lucky"? joe/mudsucker said it best when he stated it'd be nice to be able to KNOW the few days he gets to hunt, he GETS TO HUNT.

now, looking deeper...what are some of the by products of draws? is it better hunting, both in numbers and quality??? if you think, for one second, it's gonna bring numbers to an area...please, go take a cold shower and have a stiff drink, or at the very least, go make your wife miserable and bow out of this. so far as "better quality" - maybe, but just as like maybe not. as i move through life, i have come to realize you can't legislate stupid.....you can't keep it out, you can't stop it. stupid WILL find you.

you're just as likely to prohibit the 30 yr salt that'd just as soon hunt by himself w/ his dog, totes a few decoys in and had rather shoot 4 in the lips w/ their feet down as 6 over the trees, than you are to exclude the idiot w/ the spinner, a belt of ammo, and a breaking dog he hollars at the whole time. eventually, STUPID WILL FIND YOU.

so, then, we get the draw.....let's just randomly pic a number - say 20 spots for simplicity. 50 hunters show up that day. let's get out of thinking "4 to a group", let's make the argument simple. so, that's 30 folks that at 5 a.m. do NOT HAVE A SPOT. where will they go???? answer - a tree near you........right at shooting time. i've been hunting in Misery at these fabled "parks", and and you didn't go to teh draw w/out a boat for the river and directions to the next area closest. ya'll want to see lease prices go up further? watch the land that surrounds these areas. it may not be next year, or 5 years, but eventually, it is gonna happen.

thus, you've lost public ground and indirectly, you get outbid on lease ground....what are you going to do then? honestly, i don't know either.

these are but a few - i'm at work, you'll forgive me if i don't feel like getting too involved AGAIN.

somebody mentioned those concerned should basically stop whining and come up w/ solutions....my question is, why am i constantly having to do someone else' job? my solution would be to clean house of everyone up at that office, starting at the TOP. but, b/c i can think of some that may help, i'll try.

there are many MANY areas that should total eliminate ATV traffic. i can think of a few right now nearby. you take them away, you decrease noise, ease at which it affords those from getting in on you, and the destruction of already unstable environments. limit shells to 15 (and, at least periodically, get out of your truck and enforce it). doesn't make much sense to sky bust at birds you know in the back of your head, you can't hit anyhow. again, stupid people will try, and by simple enforcement efforts, you'll eventually get to them.

i look at public ground as basically a lease....a BIG lease. i'm a citizen, i pay taxes, etc, so directly and indirectly i'm paying for it's use. increase the cost of utilizing said public ground across the board. get congress on it (they like playing law officers and scientist anyway) and pass a bill that funnels ALL of this money to the department for upgrades and improvements. and, i'm not talking about 5 bucks....i'm talking real money. and, if it can't operate under that influx, well, it's called a budget, you missed it, you're fired.

and, lastly, a percentage of this new money should be set aside to BUY POLLES OUT. a one time check, paid for by the sportsmen of mississippi that both live here and use it's land, who's only stipulation is he LEAVE OFFICE.

this ain't misery or kalifornia, and quite frankly, we're just better than them...wouldn't it be nice for someone to be there that thought the same?

-justin

[BR549]

Now, I'm no math wizard by any means, but could someone explain how overcrowding is the issue? Every year the department complains about the number of hunters going down and looking for ideas to get people back invovled in hunting. I have neither the time nor the resources to look it up, but I'd like to know the number of hunters and public hunting acres today versus what they were 20 years ago. I'd bet a dollar to donuts that we have fewer hunters and more acres today than we did 20 years ago.

I was always under the impression that hunters were in decline.

I think the rapidly increasingly number of out-of-state hunters offsets any decline in number of Mississippi hunters.

I wonder just how many MS resident's hunt in other states? Not just duck hunting either! I bet the numbers would suprise you! We have no room to talk about OOS'es coming in here to hunt either!

[Faithful Retrievers]

Talked to the state, their comment was that a petition to ban loud pipes was the straw that broke the camels back.
They also verified that the Homochito National Forest was next on the list. That will be the end of great waterfowling in MS.