ORIGINAL: JohnnyLonghorns
First of all, there is public land you can hunt. Second, the only person you should be calling lazy is yourself. If you don't like it, then buy your own land which you shouldn't have any trouble doing if you are working 12 hours a day 6 days a week. If you're working that much and still can't afford to buy ground then you are a total dumbsh*t.
Outfitters may take "your" land away, but they pay huge dividends to the area. 1. The tourism they bring to West Central IL is huge. Without their business, local restaurants, hotels, and others couldn't survive. Just look at the Archery Shop in Pittsfield. A beautiful 3,000 sq. ft. building that would never be there if it weren't for outfitters coming into the area. 2. Without outfitters, the land management for deer would be terrible. Areas where deer were once starving now have food available year round. It also helps decrease the amount of crop damage deer cause to a farmer'scrop. 3.Farmers who once had little to no income from the timber areas on their farm are now seeing increased revenue.
Rather than complaining about "The Lazy People", maybeyou should think twice about what exactly outfitters do for this region and not what they do for you.
This is exactly the attitude that promotes the type of sentiment expressed by the first post!
I've seen outfitters alter government policy for their financial advantage, close off vast blocks of hunting acreage to the real hunters, and, turn hunting into an industry where the profit is worth the cost, as long as the cost is payed by everyone else.
Don't spewthis self-righteous message and expect me to agree. You insultall sportsmenwith these short-sighted arguments. Thank goodness for outfitters lest the entire economy may collapse! Thank goodness for outfitters because they are saving the state's already burgeoning trophy whitetail herd! Thank goodness for outfitters because they are saving thosepoor farmers who couldn't make it without them! Those arguments don't float!
The greedy attract the greedyand beget more greedys. If outfitters don't start regulating themselves to balance the benefits for hunters who don't or can't use their services, then, maybe it's time the rest of us toconsider regulations for them. After all, the dollar may be powerful, but so is the vote, and I'm guessing there's more disgruntled hunters than there are outfitters.