Why ask Why?????

[First-light]

I'll bet that most of the problems of hunting access occur because so much of rural America has been continuously chopped up into smaller and smaller parcels. If you take an area that consists primarily of 10 or 20 acre parcels and plunk a house, yard and out-buildings in the middle of it, that doesn't leave a lot of room for any safe hunting activity.

Also I believe that the rural areas are being populated by more and more anti-hunters. I do know of a couple of large parcels that are owned by people who actually hate hunting. No one hunts those anymore.

And then there are some of these places that are locked up by commercial hunting places, complete with the high fences and all. If you've got the cash you can hunt there, but for the most part they are large under-utilized chunks of good deer habitat.

There are also the pieces of leased land. Many of these are locked up because the guys are paying some pretty heavy chunks of cash for the priviledge of hunting there and free-loaders are not welcome.

And while I don't personally know of any around me, I am sure there are other properties that are heavily controlled by those who have invested time and money applying QDM efforts, and they only need enough hunters to adequately control populations to their specifications.

I look at a lot of these places that are now denied to today's hunters and I can't think of a single thing that the government could do to open them up to public hunting. Further if you look at a lot of them, they are the sort of thing that will continue to grow and make the situation worse.

You know Doc, that is one scary thought.

[nyantler]

We also have to remember that there is a huge amount of land over the years that has been eaten up by developement... many of the good hunting spots I had as a youngster are neighborhoods now... It's sad to say but it has gotten to where you really need to secure a place to hunt these days for the future... I am glad of the Adirondacks which will sustain me probably for my lifetime... never sure when the farmer I lease from will decide he wants to sell the property or just plain end the lease... these are much different times for hunters than "the good ole days"

[Geno C]

ive come home plenty of years with tags unpunched... its the thrill of the hunt, killing a deer is icing on the cake... enjoying youself in the woods is par for the coarse, like others siad killing one is a bonus. i enjoy every moment in the woods and i am never ashamed to say i did not get anything. this is the sport and this is why i love it.

[Geno C]

oh and also, do we really own anything we pay for? there seems to be a tax or fee for everything we own and if not paid you either cant use it or its taken from you...

[nyantler]

Amen to both those posts Geno

[Geno C]

thanks joe

[Dave]

I think it's a combination of many of your comments. Not many large tracks of land anymore, high taxes and anti hunters who land. If you have a small piece of land of 20 or so acres how many guys can hunt it anyway? So most people just hunt their own land and like their privacy. The past is just that the past and the days of wandering all day are long gone. Everything is posted to keep you out.

Dave

[G-Man]

Deer are sacred animal to a lot of hunters, beat into them by magazines/tv hunting shows/ect... big bucks a coveted beyond belief to the point of poaching/night hunting by some. A lot of posting wan initally done for safety of the land owners animals/family/friends.. those that post for this reason usually will give you permission usually with some restrictions. the second type of poster is trying to protect his game permission will be denied everytime. The local problem is easy to aviod..i can tell every camp around my place..there is a chain across the driveway! when its down they are out up and they are no where around. This is a huge tipp off to your tresspassers!! with out a chain up they have to think..did they just run into town?when will they be back? they locals around here joke about the people protecting their property will a chain.. you might want to have a trusted neighbor drive in your drive after a light snow just to leave tire tracks.. the deterrent of not knowing if someone is home is a lot stronger than any posted sign or chain.

[Dave]

Deer are sacred animal to a lot of hunters, beat into them by magazines/tv hunting shows/ect... big bucks a coveted beyond belief to the point of poaching/night hunting by some. A lot of posting wan initally done for safety of the land owners animals/family/friends.. those that post for this reason usually will give you permission usually with some restrictions. the second type of poster is trying to protect his game permission will be denied everytime. The local problem is easy to aviod..i can tell every camp around my place..there is a chain across the driveway! when its down they are out up and they are no where around. This is a huge tipp off to your tresspassers!! with out a chain up they have to think..did they just run into town?when will they be back? they locals around here joke about the people protecting their property will a chain.. you might want to have a trusted neighbor drive in your drive after a light snow just to leave tire tracks.. the deterrent of not knowing if someone is home is a lot stronger than any posted sign or chain.

G man you have a point when you watch all all the deer hunting shows those guys don't hunt for free. And every inch of their property is probably posted and patrolled. If you went up to the door and asked to hunt the answer would be NO.

Dave

[Pygmy]

I think it's a combination of many of your comments. Not many large tracks of land anymore, high taxes and anti hunters who land. If you have a small piece of land of 20 or so acres how many guys can hunt it anyway? So most people just hunt their own land and like their privacy. The past is just that the past and the days of wandering all day are long gone. Everything is posted to keep you out.

Dave

You hit the nail right on the head, Dave. It's all sad, but true.  I'm glad I'm an old fart.

I can deal with things the way they are . Actually, I am very fortunate, because I still have a significant amount of land owned by friends, inlaws, etc. that I can hunt...  I don't cover the amount of ground that I did 20 years ago, anyway...

[Doc]

If some hunters are hypnotized by what they see on TV and they decide to try to increase their odds of bagging one of those monsters by excluding other hunters, or doing anything else within the law to attract and hold deer, that is indeed their right as property owners or lease holders. We may not like it, but there is no choice but to get used to it as more and more hunters put their money and labor where their mouth is. I really hate to see hunting go that way, but the TV shows have really had their influence. Hunters dreaming of monster bucks have taken to pursuing the biggest bucks that money can buy. Deer farming techniques, fencing, and the best hunting technology that money can buy, along with any other things that the law allows are all being gobbled up by antler crazed hunters/landowners. It's just the way hunting is going.

It is all spurred on by the selling of deer hunting by TV programming, all subsidized by the sporting equipment manufacturers through advertising. And it's all legal and increasingly accepted and even expected. Hey, things change ..... not always for the better but evolution happens even in our traditional and cultural activities.

So we can complain about it all we want, but in the end, anyone who believes in the rights of private ownership of property (as limited as that term really is), and the right of free enterprise, has to accept all this as just a natural way for hunting to go.

I am only glad that I can say that I enjoyed hunting before commercialization grabbed the sport with its strangle hold. I truly treasure those early years when hunting was just hunting, and the science that drove the sport was limited to that which was imparted directly from parents, other relatives and aquaintances and ones own observations and conclusions. The whole activity seemed a whole lot more personal and self directed. But like I said, all things change whether we like it or not. And if people now find it necessary to complicate their hunting, and exclude others to get those TV bucks, well thats all part of the changes too. It's a harsh thing to say but, "get used to it!" It isn't going to change back.

[wdswtr]

Deer are sacred animal to a lot of hunters, beat into them by magazines/tv hunting shows/ect... big bucks a coveted beyond belief to the point of poaching/night hunting by some. A lot of posting wan initally done for safety of the land owners animals/family/friends.. those that post for this reason usually will give you permission usually with some restrictions. the second type of poster is trying to protect his game permission will be denied everytime. The local problem is easy to aviod..i can tell every camp around my place..there is a chain across the driveway! when its down they are out up and they are no where around. This is a huge tipp off to your tresspassers!! with out a chain up they have to think..did they just run into town?when will they be back? they locals around here joke about the people protecting their property will a chain.. you might want to have a trusted neighbor drive in your drive after a light snow just to leave tire tracks.. the deterrent of not knowing if someone is home is a lot stronger than any posted sign or chain.

OUr camp chain or I should say chains are up always.  If we are there or not.  Except for day after all season have ended till spring there isnt anyone there much.  Seasonal road but we do take the snowmobiles in a few times in the winter for an overnighter.  Lucky for us we have a few camps around us as well and we all keep an eye out of each others property.  It even confuses them with the chain up cause many times they have said to us,  your driveway is always full of truck tracks but the gate is always up when the heck do you guys hunt. lol  We allow no access for 1 basic reason,  to keep the guys out who hunt one weekend a year and blast every round they can at a running deer with no regard to other hunters or the respect for what they are shooting at.  It ruins it for the guys that are ethical but I dont have the time to weed through the yahoos and the ethical hunters.  Tried it and wont go down that road ever again.  When your sitting 20 feet up a tree and a bullet hits about 2 feet above your head you kind of have second thoughts about who you want on your land.