Let's talk about those 'dirty words'...

[Wudstix]

Closest PHL to me is 2 1/2 drive; door to gate.  Doesn't make it very convenient.  Plus, for deer you have to get drawn.  Pigs are year round but drive makes that a challenge.

[Captain*Kirk]

Closest PHL to me is 2 1/2 drive door to gate.  Doesn't make it very convenient.  Plus for deer you have to get drawn.  Pigs are year round but drive makes that a challenge.

So where do you hunt? Do you have to make the drive or do you have private land closer?
Pretty soon public hunting is gonna be no less convenient than an African safari.

[Petrichor]

Closest PHL to me is 2 1/2 drive door to gate.  Doesn't make it very convenient.  Plus for deer you have to get drawn.  Pigs are year round but drive makes that a challenge.

So where do you hunt? Do you have to make the drive or do you have private land closer?
Pretty soon public hunting is gonna be no less convenient than an African safari.

This....

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Public land everywhere has its challenges.  Just like hunting, it's a puzzle you have to figure out but when you do bvb the rewards are great.

[Captain*Kirk]

Public land everywhere has its challenges.  Just like hunting, it's a puzzle you have to figure out but when you do bvb the rewards are great.

"Figuring out the puzzle" is chasing new hunters away, and discouraging old hunters like me. We shouldn't have to work so hard just to get boots on the ground. Some states are worse than others; my home state (Illinois) is one of the least PHL-friendly states around. My hat is off to any Illinois hunter who takes a deer on PHL because I know he had to work hard for it.

[Sam McMichael]

It has been a long, long time since I depended on public access land. I always hunted from the ground in those days, so the limitations on hunting stands wasn't a problem. Overcrowding sometimes was, though. This thread really makes me thankful that I now own a small hunting tract, on which I am the only hunter.

[GCook]

It also reminds me that in the future hunting here will be like it is in Europe.   Only for the well off. 
We keep putting more people in but less ground and animals are available.
I'll die knowing the land I've worked hard to purchase for hunting will be sold to the next one in line for them to enjoy for a few brief years before time consumes them as well.
Keep preaching about getting more folks into hunting and see how that helps the over crowding and game availability.

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[Bchunter1]

Hunters are there own worst enemies when it comes to protecting public land . Go to any meeting and it's 2-3 hunters  and 10 times that opposing hunting .


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[GCook]

Hunters are there own worst enemies when it comes to protecting public land . Go to any meeting and it's 2-3 hunters  and 10 times that opposing hunting .


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That's not due to lacking numbers of hunters but due to apathy on our part.  Btw color me guilty on that.

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[Dave Lay]

Wow. There is NO way I could deal with that.
    We are lucky here with very few special restrictions. We have WMA,,s all over the state and a couple million acres of national forest that include several wilderness areas.. if you can't get away from people your not trying.
    Several WMA,s have very limited gun hunts of just a few days and the states 5 months of bowseason . But the public national forests have the regular gun season
But as a state, we have a lot of bowhunters

[Captain*Kirk]

Unfortunately, by providing public hunting with retarded rules like the one I mentioned, it allows the DNR to wash their hands of not providing access...while making it increasingly difficult and undesirable for the bowhunter. I mean, who really wants to go through all that nonsense and jump through the hoops to sit up a tree or next to one, for a day?
Not to mention the fact that game wardens are not shy about handing out violations...intended or not...if you get something wrong. I personally know someone who bowhunted a PHL downstate with a friend...they slept in their truck overnight and left the tree stand up overnight. In the am they found the stand had been confiscated and the hunter that was assigned to the spot was written a violation and fined several hundred dollars. When he did not show up for his hearing a month later, a warrant was issued for his arrest. It took a lot of backpedaling, time off from work and money to get out of that one, but he finally managed to get the charges dropped. Really? Just to go deer hunting?
A coworker I used to know told the story of bowhunting in another state on PHL with his brother in law. They had quite a long walk in to stands, and by law were allowed to hunt 30 minutes after sunset. They walked out empty handed (no deer seen) to the lot to find a DNR guy sitting on the tailgate of the truck. Since the were both carrying strung recurves with broadheads in the bow quivers, he proceeded to write them each a $300.00 ticket, incorrectly interpreting a law of the state that required bows to be cased after legal hunting hours...he had seen their bow cases in the back of the truck and knew if he waited he'd get them either for that, or for busting the half hour mark (he wrote that violation also). Was this entrapment? I would say so. But they both paid the fines in order not to lose their hunting privileges.
We have enough anti/tree-hugger enemies already without government infringement though over-regulation. Some of our more highbrow local communities have taken to hiring sharpshooters to keep the deer out of their gardens, yet get all up in arms at the average Joe that just wants to go bow hunting.

[Wudstix]

Just be glad you have public land, to hunt.  Nearest PHL to me is 2 1/2 hour drive, door to gate.  Then if I haven't put in for the drawing on deer, its hogs only.  Don't get me wrong I like pork.  But the drive requires camping and time away.  Enjoy that too, but it cuts down on kitchen passes.  Also, got drawn for government land this year; Archery season, Friday - Sunday hunting only.  Carry out whatever you carry in, daily.  Haven't made it out yet!  Rules there have changed drastically from last year as well.  So be glad with what you have, adapt and overcome.     

[Captain*Kirk]

Just be glad you have public land, to hunt.  Nearest PHL to me is 2 1/2 hour drive, door to gate.  Then if I haven't put in for the drawing on deer, its hogs only.  Don't get me wrong I like pork.  But the drive requires camping and time away.  Enjoy that too, but it cuts down on kitchen passes.  Also, got drawn for government land this year; Archery season, Friday - Sunday hunting only.  Carry out whatever you carry in, daily.  Haven't made it out yet!  Rules there have changed drastically from last year as well.  So be glad with what you have, adapt and overcome.     

Yes indeed...if it sounds like I was dissing the DNR, I wasn't...it's changed, is all, and we have to adapt to it. But that means really thorough reading of the regs and rules, early pre-season scouting, applying for permits, and as I mentioned, for me that meant adapting from stand hunter to mobile ground hunter. But it's no longer something you can just take for granted, grab your bow, and go hunting any longer. I suspect it may take less densely populated states longer for these changes to take affect, but they will...eventually.