Maineguide5424

Same old story, do what every other state does. If we did that we would be hunting on leases,hunting out of a friggin' tree like an owl because our lease is 4 acres. Or we could go kiss some farmers arse and help him haul his hay in for the privilege of hunting.
There is no reason that landowners, hikers, or birdwatchers can't have one day out of seven and feel safe.

Most of these people have never hunted or even own a gun, but they can all read. They read the stories of a hunter in Wisconsin shooting 7-8 people or a young man that shot his best friend here in Maine because he thought it was a deer. This scares the crap out of these people and you can't blame them especially with an influx of "out of staters" who already have a bad reputation in Maine.

ruffed-grouse

Yea, Yea, Yea.... heard all the anti-hunting fear mongering before. Even heard all the rhetorical fallacies and all the anecdotal horror stories before, with all the emotional appeals about how unsafe hunting is and why the same rules for safety that work everywhere else seven days a week won't work in PA, VA, or ME on Sundays. Get your facts right, not from PETA and the HSUS, hunting is among the safest forms of outdoor recreation.

Not much you can toss out that hasn't been said by some rabid anti-hunting on Sunday, one day a week PETA member in the past Maineguide, and the facts remain: that inclusion works seven days a week for hunters just like it does for every other legal activity, that with 40 some states treating hunting on Sunday just like every other form of recreation, no evidence exists to support your concerns. That every issue you bring up has been heard in other states that finally removed their Blue Laws, and in every single instance those issues quickly became non issues, they didn't exist in real life.

hillbillyhunter1

God forbid you should ever have to do something like that.
Hunters should pursue Sunday hunting rights adamantly. why wouldn't you guys want to increase opportunities for all hunters? Crazy

m00sedrool

Yeah....what ruffed grouse said!

If it takes a day with no hunting to feel safe in the woods....maybe I should reconsider hunting in your great state again there Maineguide. I always felt safe in the woods up there seeing that most don't get out of their vehicles...even to grouse hunt.

You may not be kissing your landowner's "arse" hauling hay, etc, but I'm pretty sure some are worried that they'll lose their hunting privileges on non-posted land if sunday hunting became a reality. Isn't arguing against it for that same reason the ultimate in arse kissing there maineguide???

Just my two cents.

Maineguide5424

Now, that would be a gift to us all.

Try to get it through your thick skull....................we don't want to hunt Sundays!!

m00sedrool

Maineguide....I lived in northern maine for 3 years and realize the sentiment towards "flatlanders", which I never quite understood the term seeing that the topography of the majority of your fine state isn't exactly vertically challenging. I'm sure the out-of-staters there to do some real hunting would only interfere with all the road hunters with maine tags on their vehicles....or "guides" that place their hunters in shooting boxes on roads in the NMW (which I was told is no longer allowed). I guess it's tough being a real guide these days. Good luck to ya.

vtbuckrulrss

i think when it comes down to it, you will find it is the vocal minority trying to push their views upon the quiet majority. just like we have down here over the issue of whether or not we will be shooting spikehorns or not this fall. but you know, here is a thought, i hope to never meet you, or your supporters, hunting in vt on a sunday. if you don't think maine is good enough to hunt on sunday, i don't want to see you doing it here, either. or for that matter any other state that offers sunday hunting. tell me something, maineguide, were you to go on a trip, say for elk or grizzly, in a state that allows sunday hunting. you arrive there on saturday, sunday is the first day of your hunt, what would you do? the same thing that the rest of us would, i am certain. hunt! but, what makes it acceptable for you to do that, if you don't find it acceptable to do in maine, why wouldn't you stay in camp while hunting elsewhere?
Pat

Portage

Commissioner Martin (IF&W) was in Fort Kent yesterday and was interviewed by the local radio (WCXU) station. He stated that IF&W was "surprised" by the huge opposition to Sunday hunting in Maine. He went on to say that they never "in a million years" would have realized the backlash of land posting from the agricultural, small woodlot owners, and forestry community. What bothers me about these comments is this is exactly what the residents of this state have been telling our legislature and IF&W for 40 years. Why the surprise.

Commissioner Martin then went on to say that VT and NH are Maine's competitors in hunting and that 1 extra day would attract up to 40,000 new nonresidents to the state. The interviewer asked the BOLD question but what about residents. He said that we would be able to hunt also but this was designed to increase revenues to the state. Hence the problem.

Maine is one of the most heavily taxed states in the nation and there is a huge outcry from landowners (and I'm one) for property tax relief. When you increase one department's revenues on the back of private landowners without any relief to those private landowners its doomed to fail.

DLuke

From a deer hunters perspective, the issue is this. Maine's annual deer kill runs about 30 to 35,000 per year, give or take. The Saturday kill in Maine is a very strong spike on the deer kill chart every week, along with the two holidays in November. Maine closely controls their deer kill and only want a certain number shot, and generally can manipulate the kill to within a couple thousand with doe permits IF the weather cooperates. There are five Saturdays in the deer season. Now throw in Sunday hunting. Now throw in the added pressure of hunters coming up from out of state because a quick weekend hunt is more doable. You've doubled the weekend days, and at least doubled the weekend deer kill. Maine isn't one of these states that doesn't care if the kill fluctuates by a huge margin like some states. They want to keep the kill within a very tight window. If they give us Sundays, they need to take away elsewhere to keep the kill right where they want it. That'll make for a short, short deer season.
If I remember correctly, the Saturday spike is 4x the weekday kill. Sunday would give the same 4x kill most likely...probably more, as weekend hunts would be more popular. That means that for every Sunday they give Maine hunters, they will have to take away four regular days of hunting to keep the kill at the current level. I can't do the math, but my guess is that the Maine season would be two weeks long if Sundays were allowed, instead of the current four week season.

Don't forget folks, Maine only kills 35,000 deer out of a population of around 250,000, give or take. We're not talking about a state that kills 250,000. They have specific numbers in mind for a kill.

--------------------
www.huntingchat.net

Maineguide5424

Now wouldn't that be just dandy?