Originally Posted by
rockport
There was once a time when a guy could pretty much hunt wherever he wanted in my area outside of deer hunting.
Back then mules made a lots of sense. We used them to coon hunt back when hides actually brought enough money to justify housing a mule. It worked great for chasing dogs all over. They jump fences so that alone was a big advantage.
Now days with people coming from all over and paying big money to hunt it just doesn't make sense anymore. Everything is private owned and most fences are either property lines or have gates. The biggest farm I have permission on is 500 acres and it has 2 roads running through it then I have 2 other farms that are about 300 acres each and 70% of that is crop fields.
It just doesn't make sense to use a mule here unless of course its simply because you want to.
I can certainly appreciate it. I do some things the old fashioned way because I like it and if I lived in the mountains and/or had vast expanses of land to use I'd probably use a mule but Ive been around and worked with live stock most of my life from farms to vet work to a slaughter house and to be honest I don't want any part of taking care of a mule I don't need at this point.
Rock, I spent the fist half of my hunting life with out the aid of livestock, or machines to assist us while deer hunting. I was born in 62, and didn't buy my first wheeler until the late 80's. I'm not exactly a stranger to hunting big woods on foot, and dragging our animals out of the woods with manual labor alone.
That said, this is 2014, and adapting to the times is what it is. I'm now 51 years old, and can't drag a deer like I could at 25 years old. The conditions of hunting areas are changing all across this nation. If someone wants to stick with the way they did it 50, 40 or 30 years ago, more power to them.
I for one have chosen to adapt to the times I'm dealing with today, and for now will continue to do so. Which for me deals with new, and old methods of hunting. No horses or mules for me, but am keeping a 31 year old wheeler running to suit my needs
