GOOD LINK there nopardaid
ORIGINAL: JeremiahJohnson
I've been on a bison "hunt" as you described. It was a place outside Gold Creek Montana. The fenced area was 800 acres, but it might as well been a corral. It was not much fun and I didn't consider it a hunt, rather just going to the grocery store.
I think I know the one you're talking about. Right along I-90 east of Missoula, big sign on the barn and lots of buff gently grazing by the interstate. If that's not it then it has to be another just down the road.
The owner misrepresented himself by implying we'd be hunting 42000 acres. He indeed has 42000 acres, but that was multiple times more than the price quoted - I was NOT a happy camper.
All you would have to have done was ask some of the locals. Most all Buffalo hunts are this way. My wife and I even commented that we may start "holstein hunt" on the family farm b/c of that idea
. Still, that is not really the typical canned shoot that I believe is the cause for much concern.
Part of the problem with Bellar and the rest of the canned hunt crowd in Indiana was they would not bargain or even discuss minimum acreage requirements. Drugging must be OUT - that was non-negotiable. The canned hunt crowd in Indiana couldn't even agree on a minimum acreage of 40 acres.
Obviously not very admirable mentality there. I'd like toput all those individuals behind the real "high-fence"
So, Kyle Hupfer, the head of the Indiana DNR played hardball and said that's the end of it. The court battles continue, but their days are numbered in Indiana and I'm part of that battle as a proud member of the Indiana Bow Hunters Association.
Glad to hear it.
I detest canned hunts for able bodied hunters especially the marketing of cervids across state lines which increase the likelihood of spreading CWD. However, there is a placed for fenced hunting - with the right mixture of terrain, space, herd sustainability, etc. - for a controlled experience different from that available on other private and public ground.
Your statement seems a little contradictory here. I believe that even a disabled hunter in a wheel chair would have a real chance at tagging something on many different places--no high fence needed, it's just a matter of access to quality stands and waiting like the rest of us, which can easily be done.
I do agree that a high fence can be used---for exotics only, and even then I think that the landowner should have to pay the state for the native or estimated native animals that get caught behind the fence during construction and that these places should be highly and continually scrutinized by the DNR at the landowners expense and if that expense is cost-prohibitive to the entire operation........then open up Starbuck's coffe house instead.
If you haven't tried it, then you really should. My first experience was the aforementioned bison hunt and I was dead against it based on my experience. Huck changed my mind and I gave it another try in another facility that catered to bow hunters and difficult hunting. I'm so glad he did because I now have something to do in the off season that's truly a challenge and just plain fun.
you could always hunt pigs w/o the fence for fun.
or better yet, use your off season time to campiagn and organize against canned hunting
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