I’d be surprised to hear that your situation is Unique. I’ve been known to say, IF I have permission, it appears that every Tom, Dick and well, that covers it, also has… or just hunts.

Seems land owners are afraid to get after trespassers for fear of property damage in retaliation… rough on both sides of the fence!

I’m so disgusted where I have been hunting, that I spent a week in 2 other states to seek out better hunting. Found it, but it’s going t o cost way more to live in that sort of country and I don’t have the money now retired, so the search continues…

Nothing to loose but some time knocking on doors… some folks appreciate a good steward out there keeping an eye on their land and back 40…

Now that we here in michigan have to share the bow season with the hordes for crossbow hunters the pressure here is getting crazy as well. I hunt both private and state land. I dont deal with too much pressure on the private land and i also dont hunt it much. But on the state land the pressure is getting insane. Yes i can go way deeper to avoid it and i often do. But there are alot of times i want to hunt for a couple hours closer to home before or after i work. My pressure is different than yours is but massive pressure no the less.

I did a podcast recently that talks about how i deal with the pressures i have and also tips to deal with a variety of hunting pressures. its episode 23 if you click my link in my signature if you want to listen to it.

Pressure is a bummer. But i personally feel with all the gun hunters now invading the bow season with crossbows its only going to continue to get worse.

i feel your pain.

Jason and fellow Michigander:D,

I do my best to enjoy the early bow season (all I have access to is State Land), but after about now, I throw in the towel with all the looming pressure from the upcoming gun season. I haven’t had any real problems with X-bow hunters yet, and given the EHD that hit our area, we’re all in the same boat anyway. I have to get out of here, plain and simple, to really enjoy what I consider a quality hunt. It’s either the UP, or for the last few years now, I head back to western New England and hunt the hills of home. Relatively low deer #’s keep the crowds down to next to nothing and most of the fat arses can’t get up the steep ridges anyway, never mind pull anything out. That’s what keeps me in the game, knowing I can leave here. So, to sum it up, I feel your pain!

While we’re airing grievances, Penna also adopted the Xbow or string gun as we call it. Always had it for those with physical issues, which many were “buds” with their doc and got it on the sly. Even though our regs said that archery equipment had to be “hand drawn and hand-held in the presence of game”…now we have string guns…

But wait! There is more. Several years ago, they decided that we needed to drastically reduce the deer herd, so they instituted a MZ doe season for a week starting like the 3rd week in archery!!!

And they can be scoped in-line MZ, not the Flintlock season after Christmas as it’d been for many years… In-lines.

The hordes come forth. We get about a solid 2 weeks of undisturbed deer movement, if there are not too many out pounding the brush with bows actually “scouting” for gun season. Then the week of MZ and old and young can use regular rifles while we’re perched in trees! Wearing orange or an orange band around our tree.

Then small game ensues. Then Turkey. Then…oh, well…

I’ll be up there but having to wear orange to and from, 100 sq in around my stand tree, and then God knows what will come by.

Public or private, where i get to hunt, so do others. Takes a lot of the anticipation and fun right out of it all. As for “getting back in”…our state lands are often small enough tracts that there are access roads most anywhere around the perimeter.

while I don’t consider myself a fat arse (chubby maybe) my knees won’t hold up for long hikes and then as you say, getting a critter back out? Oh, my… :0

Game and Fish depts have come to appease the maddening crowds, not enhance the quality of special seasons.

I think I sounded crabby up there:? Too many people visiting this weekend and crowding my space.. so I kinda am. Apologies!

Not at all, Scott!

Circumstances impact us all. I just spent 7 days, lots of money I don’t have driving all over MO and AR checking out areas that folks coached me were “way cheaper to live” but in reality, property to buy was, but nothing to rent and other costs made it more than where I am. Outdoor stuff would be GREAT! But not if I can’t afford to get there!

And some of the areas were pretty remote and at my age, my own physical limitation were brought into focus… I don’t want to be an hour or more from medical attention where one would spend their days driving to a doc for this or that, which occurs more these last few years — so your comment about people unwilling to hump “back in” hit home.

No offense…just that stark awareness this past week or so still 6″ off the end of my nose!

And what I related about dear ole PA, is the reason I made that trip! Quality of hunting, along with quantity of game, is what the expenditure of time and energy is all about. Mostly the first and bumpin into a dozen other guys who have ruined that whole “wild experience” ruins it for me. It appears that many states are trying to please everyone, not provide a quality experience for ANY ONE!

Makes me glad to live in Az with all of it’s National Forests, but there still are problems with that also, cant leave stands over-night, road shooters, etc… But if willing/able to get off the beaten trails there is some prime country to explore…

Our land in Ny is different, trespassing, night/road shooting, cost… But we make it work…

Here in southern Ohio things are much the same I suppose as anywhere else . Out of state hunters flock into Ohio in search of that BIG whitetail . Locals ride their 4 wheelers and sometimes trucks into the public land and think it’s their right to cut up the place with ruts . Plus the lazy arses that carry their drinks and snacks into the woods and leave their trash behind . The boneheads that couldn’t find their own butt if the seat of their DESIGNER CAMO was on fire , that have to trash up the woods with their bright orange or pink trail markers . Makes me wonder how some of these so called hunters make it to work or even get themselves dressed ,,,,maybe they don’t.

Around here ,if you are not driving a supersize 4×4 with a really loud exhaust and a 4 wheeler tucked into the bed ,,and everthing including the poop tickets is camo ,,,well ,,, you ain’t really hunting .

Venting ???

I realize that the state maintains public land and salaries for Wildlife Officers and more from the money received for license and tags , and Ohio is bringing in a lot of it .

It’s a shame to say but it”s kinda refreshing to hear that I’m not the only one who has faced these challenges while trying to enjoy my accepted method of hunting. What is truly unfortunate here is that we are on one end of a very wide spectrum. Yes, we go to the woods to enjoy the woods but we also have taken things to a further level. There is a respect for the wild places that we carry with ourselves that others do not and that hurts us. Not only because it “ruins” the way we choose to hunt but because it is disrespectful to the land and the animals. The “any means necessary” crowd grows with every passing year and as the old saying goes, there is saftey in numbers. The larger their group grows the more pressure they can put on game agencies and states to manipulate the laws into their favor. In Wisconsin, X-Bows will become part of the permanent archery landscape next year. and, coupled with legal baiting, I fear that I will be hard-pressed to find a deer in its late summer pattern come September. So what are we to do? IMO, we do what we should do. We go hunting. We continue to be positive representatives of our sport and hope beyond hope that we can make the slightest impact on the preservation of this great sport! If not us… Who?