Texas Hunting Legislation
02-23-2005, 09:37 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location:
Posts: 4
Texas Hunting Legislation
Greetings to you all. I just wanted to raise your attention to a bill in the Texas State Legislature concerning feeders and hunting blinds.
Rep. Scott Campbell (R) from the San Angelo/Scurry area has written a bill about the placement of feeders and blinds within a lease or property. It proposes a ban on placing a blind of feeder within 150 yards of an adjacent property. The only way you could do this is if you get written permission from the owner of the other property. If you lease or own a piece of land, you will have to get permission from the owner of the property next to you if you want to (or in some cases need to) place a blind or feeder within medium gunshot range of the property line. This bill could also effect the placement of duck/goose blinds. It applies to all permanent and temporary blinds.
The bill is HB 185 and has been submitted to the House Committee on Culture, Recreation & Tourism. If it passes the committee's vote, it will go to the House and eventually could move on to a law that would come into effect next season (September 1, 2005).
I am sure there are already plenty of different opinions out there by now. We would all hate it if someone put a feeder right up
against our lease and shot all of the deer that would come over from the land we are paying for. However, for those of us that cannot
afford huge pieces of land to hunt on, setting a blind near the edge of the property line is a geographic neccesity. If you have a small
plot in the West Texas canyons or the East Texas woods, you have limited opinions for setup. You may have to place your blind
near the property line to hunt the interior of your land. Either way, there are already laws that prevent people from harvesting deer
from other properties. Do we need more laws telling us what we can and cannot do with land that we either lease or own?
Visit the Texas State Legislature's website at
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/
I strongly suggest that whatever your feelings, please take a few minutes and write a letter to the members of this committee to
expess your veiws. I realize how easy an email would be but members of government do not place as much weight on an email as they do a mailed letter or phone call. I have, from time to time, written my U.S. Representative and Senators and have gotten mailed responses for every letter I have mailed.
Well, that's about it. No matter your views (hopefully you share mine), take part in this piece of legislation. Contact the committee
and let them know how this will effect the sport and culture we all enjoy.
Regards,
Don VanDeLinder
Rep. Scott Campbell (R) from the San Angelo/Scurry area has written a bill about the placement of feeders and blinds within a lease or property. It proposes a ban on placing a blind of feeder within 150 yards of an adjacent property. The only way you could do this is if you get written permission from the owner of the other property. If you lease or own a piece of land, you will have to get permission from the owner of the property next to you if you want to (or in some cases need to) place a blind or feeder within medium gunshot range of the property line. This bill could also effect the placement of duck/goose blinds. It applies to all permanent and temporary blinds.
The bill is HB 185 and has been submitted to the House Committee on Culture, Recreation & Tourism. If it passes the committee's vote, it will go to the House and eventually could move on to a law that would come into effect next season (September 1, 2005).
I am sure there are already plenty of different opinions out there by now. We would all hate it if someone put a feeder right up
against our lease and shot all of the deer that would come over from the land we are paying for. However, for those of us that cannot
afford huge pieces of land to hunt on, setting a blind near the edge of the property line is a geographic neccesity. If you have a small
plot in the West Texas canyons or the East Texas woods, you have limited opinions for setup. You may have to place your blind
near the property line to hunt the interior of your land. Either way, there are already laws that prevent people from harvesting deer
from other properties. Do we need more laws telling us what we can and cannot do with land that we either lease or own?
Visit the Texas State Legislature's website at
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/
I strongly suggest that whatever your feelings, please take a few minutes and write a letter to the members of this committee to
expess your veiws. I realize how easy an email would be but members of government do not place as much weight on an email as they do a mailed letter or phone call. I have, from time to time, written my U.S. Representative and Senators and have gotten mailed responses for every letter I have mailed.
Well, that's about it. No matter your views (hopefully you share mine), take part in this piece of legislation. Contact the committee
and let them know how this will effect the sport and culture we all enjoy.
Regards,
Don VanDeLinder
02-23-2005, 09:54 PM
#2
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: a van down by the river
Posts: 8,939
RE: Texas Hunting Legislation
I'm not a big fan of placing feeders and stands right on the fenceline, but a 150 yard perimeter all the way around takes a pretty sizeable chunk out of smaller pieces of property. Thanks for the head's up.
02-24-2005, 07:31 AM
#3
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Georgetown, Texas
Posts: 528
RE: Texas Hunting Legislation
It can be tough on the guys with the smaller acreage places. But due to the bad judgment of a few the lawmakers may have to step in and help them do the right things. We had a guy on the next ranch with lots of land place one of his feeders not 20 feet from the fence line last season. His blind was up on a rise looking down on it so when he shoots the round will land on our place. The sad part is we had a blind set up, long before his, not 40 yards inside the fence facing inwards. The term watch your back has never been more important. So I guess we will move ours and he will move his and we will all get to better know or nieghbors if we need to discuss feeder placement.
02-24-2005, 10:01 AM
#4
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Port Neches, Texas
Posts: 5,514
RE: Texas Hunting Legislation
I think that it is a pretty good proposal, and I hope that it passes into law!
There have been too many large pieces of property that have been cut up into 10 and 20 acre tracts, by greedy people, and sold to people as "hunting property!"
In most of these cases, people are obviously trying to hunt the other surrounding properties! Unethical, to say the least! Not to mention, dangerous!
There have been too many large pieces of property that have been cut up into 10 and 20 acre tracts, by greedy people, and sold to people as "hunting property!"
In most of these cases, people are obviously trying to hunt the other surrounding properties! Unethical, to say the least! Not to mention, dangerous!
02-24-2005, 01:31 PM
#5
Dominant Buck
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Ramsey , Indiana
Posts: 22,545
RE: Texas Hunting Legislation
Don't feel too bad ,
over here we have some ratbag state representative trying to get a bill passed that would make it illegal to discharge a firearm within 200 yards of any dwelling . This would nearly wipe out all hunting in Indiana , so I don't really think it will pass , but this idiot broad submits something like it every year hoping to slide one past . [:@]
over here we have some ratbag state representative trying to get a bill passed that would make it illegal to discharge a firearm within 200 yards of any dwelling . This would nearly wipe out all hunting in Indiana , so I don't really think it will pass , but this idiot broad submits something like it every year hoping to slide one past . [:@]
02-26-2005, 04:38 PM
#8
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location:
Posts: 4
RE: Texas Hunting Legislation
As I said before, I know it can be annoying if someone was to set up a feeder or stand on a property line. But there are laws already that will stop them from killing an animal on your property. I can't seem to dismiss that this is just another way that the big deer farms/ranches are pushing out the average hunter that cannot afford more than a hundred acres. Also, if you look at it, unless you were to put your feeders (I heard you 1950KID and BowHuntingFool) right under your stand, you will need an even wider track than 400 yards.
BowHuntingFool, this bill defines a blind as anything permanent or temporary. If you sit on the ground and put palm branches around you, that is considered a blind. If you climb a tree, you are in a blind. If you are a stick and string man (no offence), unless you look like a sage brush, you won't get anywhere near a deer walking on your side of the barbed wire.
Yes, I am a new hunter. I've only been at it for a year but even I can see the limitations that the government wants to put on land that I own. It is bad enough that the Home Owner's Association can fine me if my driveway has a stain and won't let me park my boat in it either. The government won't let me fill in a low spot in my yard because they consider it a wetland. So, I have to do my part in keeping the mosquito population at healthy levels. Now I am going to be told that I can't hunt my land like I should be able to do while a corporation puts up a game-proof fence next to me that effectively stops the migration of wild deer.
Thanks for all of the comments. I appreciate them all, for or against.
BowHuntingFool, this bill defines a blind as anything permanent or temporary. If you sit on the ground and put palm branches around you, that is considered a blind. If you climb a tree, you are in a blind. If you are a stick and string man (no offence), unless you look like a sage brush, you won't get anywhere near a deer walking on your side of the barbed wire.
Yes, I am a new hunter. I've only been at it for a year but even I can see the limitations that the government wants to put on land that I own. It is bad enough that the Home Owner's Association can fine me if my driveway has a stain and won't let me park my boat in it either. The government won't let me fill in a low spot in my yard because they consider it a wetland. So, I have to do my part in keeping the mosquito population at healthy levels. Now I am going to be told that I can't hunt my land like I should be able to do while a corporation puts up a game-proof fence next to me that effectively stops the migration of wild deer.
Thanks for all of the comments. I appreciate them all, for or against.
02-27-2005, 02:18 PM
#9
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location:
Posts: 2,052
RE: Texas Hunting Legislation
Now THIS is progressive politics in the greatest state of TX.
In 99 I hunted on The Encinitos twice. The owner of the place (actually it was a husband whose wife's family owned the place) took me too one side of the place and showed me a stretch that ran for over 1/2 mile on his border. RIGHT ALONG the fence were shooting houses sat up on the line and leased too idiots by the landowner. They had no food plots, shooting lanes or anything else set up. They were simply looking over this famed ranch. The sight was sickening. And we took great pride in driving around and parking practically under these "hunters" as we went on our way. They were looking over the ranch and waiting with anticipation of a giant walking over the border so they could pop them. I honestly wonder how many shot deer over the fence with no one else around?
The owners of the Encinitos had a pretty good retaliation plan in place for them tho. They plowed up the ground in front of the stands for a couple hundred yards. A mature buck will seldom cross such open terrain in broad daylight!!!
If I were a Texan I would give my 900,000,000% support too this piece of legislation!!!
RA
In 99 I hunted on The Encinitos twice. The owner of the place (actually it was a husband whose wife's family owned the place) took me too one side of the place and showed me a stretch that ran for over 1/2 mile on his border. RIGHT ALONG the fence were shooting houses sat up on the line and leased too idiots by the landowner. They had no food plots, shooting lanes or anything else set up. They were simply looking over this famed ranch. The sight was sickening. And we took great pride in driving around and parking practically under these "hunters" as we went on our way. They were looking over the ranch and waiting with anticipation of a giant walking over the border so they could pop them. I honestly wonder how many shot deer over the fence with no one else around?
The owners of the Encinitos had a pretty good retaliation plan in place for them tho. They plowed up the ground in front of the stands for a couple hundred yards. A mature buck will seldom cross such open terrain in broad daylight!!!
If I were a Texan I would give my 900,000,000% support too this piece of legislation!!!
RA
