big money taking your hunting ground?
 

i am putting this out there just to see what it is like in other states where i am we are just starting to really see this. i guess here in MO we are fortunate to be somewhat of a sleeper state and havent been effected much yet. i know its discouraging to have hunted your neighbors land all your life and then have it stripped by big money. i completely understand the landowners view i mean if he doesnt hunt and need money. Hey times are tough. with all the land being bought up by outfitters and corporate hunting and out- of-staters paying to hunt these places it leaves a sour tatse in the locals mouth. i love going to hunt in Illinois but cant afford an outfitter so i hunt public ground and its absolutely fantastic. but when i go to town with my MO plates i get treated as though i had the plague by other hunters. dont get me wrong i've met alot of great people to. i know this is a touchy situation in some states i just want to know your point of view on this. i dont really have an opinion either way i guess. i do thind however that someday there wont be good land to hunt unless you've bought it or spend money to lease it or pay an outfitter to hunt it. if that does happen are sportsmen will diminish for lack of hunting opportunities. i wish we could go back to the simple times.

RE: big money taking your hunting ground?
 

It looks like the future and I cant afford it either. So I will have to quit if it gets out of control. Aint nothing I can do about it. Starting to happen slowly here in pa. Farmers just cant make a living.So they are leasing the property for hunting and I get kicked off.

RE: big money taking your hunting ground?
 

I hear you, Cardeer.... It is a sad thing to see. [:'(]:( I know I'm a "late bloomer" to hunting and stuff, but I remember my dad and uncles and some of their friends talk about hunting back in the 50's and 60's and the way things used to be. You could just walk out your back door, anywhere you wanted to go, and hunt undisturbed for anything you wanted 24/7 (yes, even SUNDAYS {still a sore topic with me [:@]} ).

Hunt clubs are all over the place nowadays. And it's to the point where if you are NOT in a club, then you have to fend for yourself on the public lands (WMA's, game management areas, and/or whatever each state calls them), and deal with 9000 other hunters!

Butch A.

RE: big money taking your hunting ground?
 

No other state is as bad as Montana. All your high profile people have bought huge chunks of land here and are posting it. Most don't have kid's and are only here for a few summer months. They have caretakers for their property the rest of the year. Most don't hunt and don't allow hunting on their property. Which makes their land a safe haven for animals. Hunting is a way of life here and we even voted it a Right here in Montana. Not just hunting. Go to most lakes in the state in the summer and all the lakefront property has been bought up by out of staters with their fancy SUV's and boats. With them come the bad habits of littering,speeding and the general big city attitude that just isn't wanted or welcomed here.

RE: big money taking your hunting ground?
 

I have pondered this situation and it seems to me that with prices on ranches or leases going upwards of 3000-5000 to take a nice buck and some way higher, the percentage of hunters that can really afford that is pretty small. I would venture to say that 70- 80% of the hunting population is your average blue collar guy making a medium income. I think though that there is a large market of that average Joe population that is saving for a couple of years or spending small windfalls ie.. tax returns, new credit cards or various settlements such as the case of Joe and the Nebraska outfitter episode. If the average hunter would boycot these canned hunts maybe we would see a decrease in price and or hogged land in 5 or so years? Just a thought.

Metro

RE: big money taking your hunting ground?
 

lot of the same here in ga. leased land as high as $20 an acre i give up a lease this last year because it just wasn't producing $11 an acre and you were lucky to see 10 deer a year on it.

RE: big money taking your hunting ground?
 

We got hit hard here in Va. We had some IP (International Paper) land that has been in our huntclub for 100 years that was bought for a huge price. We put in a bid that was above what the land was worth to keep it and they out bid us. It took our old club house and the skinning shed that we just rebuilt. I hope it is all for a while because it has been a little every year.

RE: big money taking your hunting ground?
 

I moved to ga from ny. it was a real wake up call for me. In Ny I could hunt lots of places. state land local farms etc. When i moved to ga it was a totally different ball game. every piece of land is leased, private, or a wma. There is hardly any "open public land" to hunt on where I live. Well I met a few people and made some friends. Then I save a little money and joined a friends hunting club. They have had the club for over 30 years as of 2004. I joined in 2002. well the land was wherhauser timber property. I twas sold this year and now we have no place to hunt in 2005. Some of the guys have friends and family, but myself and my friend have no place to hunt this year. It cost us 365.00 a year and we had 500 acres. It was worht the money,but now we are having a hard time finding a place to hunt. there are some openings in clubs but they are like $500-$1000 a year. That is just to much for me. I am not sure what I am going to do this year. So I know wehre youa re coming from.

RE: big money taking your hunting ground?
 

they built a wal mart in one of the places i used to hunt

RE: big money taking your hunting ground?
 

It hasn't gotten bad here yet ,
but leasing is growing here . I own land now so that I'd always have somewhere to hunt , but before that I mostly hunted public land . I guess all the talk of crowds scares people away from public land before they check it out for themselves because I rarely see another hunter .