ORIGINAL: Splitear_Leland
So Thwack, just an honest question. Do you think everyone who doesn't pay for permission to hunt should hunt public property. If it were up to you, should everyone who hunts private property either own it or pay leasing fees. Do you understand what my side of the argument is. If not, I don't know how I can be much clearer. I understand perfectly where you are coming from and I'm not going to try to stop you from doing what you are doing. I couldn't if I wanted to anyways. I just think it is a shame what hunting is coming to, and I refuse to take part in the oldidea of hunting as a pastime becoming a just that, an old idea. I think hunting is changing, and for the worse. You guys that take advantage ofor are changing with it, you are probably smarter than I am, but I still stand strong for what I believe in. And if that means that one day I will have to quithunting, well I'll do it sadly, but with pride. IMO outfitting and leasing are changing the sport for what most of us will agree is for the worse, but if that is the way it must be, well....so be it.
Thats not it all. The start of this thread was people against outfitters because the outfitters were leasing up all the good private hunting land. They were mad because they lost their free place to hunt. If they want a free place to hunt then go hunt public land if you cannot find private land to hunt. Thats why I also stated that why are they blaming the outfitter and not blaming the owner of the private land for leasing the land. The thread has gotten way to long and it has gotten of course from the original start. There was absolutely nothing I said refering to the fact that people should hunt public land if they dont pay. You have taken that way out of context. And I also never stated anything saying people should pay for private land. I did state however, that if the ones mad because the outfitters leased the land then they should go lease it if they want to hunt it that bad. It is not the outfitters fault that the owner said no to free hunting and is making income off the land. If people are so against what hunting has become, then boycott it, stop buying and paying for hunting related materials. Is it sad, sure it is, but unfortunately thats the world we live in. It is not that we are taking advantage of it, we are simply making a living doing what we love to do. There are many hunters that demand outfitters so we have to meet the demand. Why is it that hunting/outfitting is being singled out for this. We could name numerous professions in which this the case. We live in a world of inflation and everything that we do life is more expensive than it ever was. I guess the next topic will be prices of license and hunting equipment. But we still buy it. How about vehicle prices? But we still buy them. We could go on and on about things in life. We are all on the same page for the most part it just hit shome on the outfitters and I get a little defensive.
I do have one question though!
For all the Illinois residents against outfitters, are you against non-resident archery tags at almost $400??