House Approves Proposal To Crack Down On Wild Hogs | LEX18.com
March 9, 2012
FRANKFORT. (AP) – People caught releasing wild hogs in Kentucky would face up to a year in jail under legislation approved by the House on Thursday.
The measure, which passed without opposition, is intended to help reduce the growing population of feral pigs that are destroying corn and other crops in rural parts of the state.
Republican state Rep. Steven Rudy of Paducah said the problem hogs have been turned loose in the state and have been getting fat at the expense of Kentucky farmers.
“As soon as the corn crop starts coming up, they’ll just go right down the row rooting it up, destroying hundreds of acres in a night,” Rudy said.
Besides receiving jail time, people caught releasing hogs could lose their hunting licenses for 10 years. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via House Approves Proposal To Crack Down On Wild Hogs | LEX18.com | Lexington, Kentucky.
Richards under fire for hunting – San Bernardino County Sun
March 2, 2012
Jim Matthews, Outdoors
Posted: 03/01/2012 09:57:49 PM PST
Dan Richards, the president of the California Fish and Game Commission, is being assaulted by animal rights activists and liberal state legislators. They are asking for Richards to resign his unpaid position on the Commission because he legally hunted mountain lions in Idaho earlier this year.
They are saying that since mountain lion hunting is illegal in California, Richards should resign or be removed from his post on the Commission for something he did in Idaho, following all that state’s laws.
Their prejudicial rhetoric reeks of hypocrisy – none worse than those holding elected office in California.
Gavin Newsom, the Lt. Governor, wrote to Richards: “While not in California at the time, your actions call into question whether you can live up to the calling of your office. I do appreciate that you did nothing illegal in Idaho, but it is clear that your actions do not reflect the values of the people of California,” said Newsom asking for him to resign. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Richards under fire for hunting – San Bernardino County Sun.
Hunters in Kentucky can chase bears with dogs | postcrescent.com
March 2, 2012
FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTW) — Hunters will be allowed to chase black bears with dogs in Kentucky for a week late this year but they can’t shoot them when they get them cornered.
The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission rejected a proposal Friday to allow the hunters, known as houndsmen, to kill bears when their dogs chase them up trees or bay them on the ground. Hunters are allowed to shoot bears during a three-day season in December if they are not using dogs.
The commissioners will allow houndsmen to chase bears with their dogs from Dec. 17-23. This compromise lets the hunters train their dogs so they can take them to neighboring states to hunt bears. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Hunters in Ky. can chase bears with dogs | Appleton Post Crescent | postcrescent.com.
Coyote Tactics: How to Hunt the Coyote Rut | Outdoor Life
February 20, 2012
In February and March the main thing driving coyote activity is the need to breed. We explain coyote behavior and give you hunting tips from the pros.
The coyote of the winter months of February and March isn’t exactly the same animal it was just a few months earlier. Yes, it’s still smart, opportunistic, and stealthy. But the coyote experiences a number of drastic behavioral changes through the course of the winter, a reality well understood by the seasoned coyote stalker.
Around the first of the year, coyotes are getting themselves territorially established, says Dr. Julie Young, who heads the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Predator Ecology and Behavior Project in Logan, Utah. At that time they are looking for a 7- to 10-square-mile territory where they can set up shop.
“By early to mid-January, the young of last year have pretty much dispersed,” says Young. These youngsters can roam for the next few weeks, often getting pushed around by established adults until they find their own niche in the landscape. But the larger reality driving coyotes and their behaviors in February and March is procreation.
Here’s how an in-depth look at that behavioral change and tips from the pros on how to capitalize on it. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Coyote Tactics: How to Hunt the Coyote Rut | Outdoor Life.
Zink Avian-X Lifelike Collapsible Turkey Decoys
February 16, 2012
Another turkey decoy? Are you serious? What can you do differently to a turkey decoy? Well, by the looks of the Zink Avian-X Lifelike Turkey Decoys, alot! Realism is where it’s at when it comes to turkey decoys. Up until now realism as it relates to turkey decoys comes at a steep price. High end decoys range from$290 to $489 dollars. That’s a lot of shells and maybe even a decent shotgun for that price.
Zink Avian-X has introduced some of the most realistic and effective decoys on the market today. Crafted of Dura-Rubber with durable no-flake paint, true body postures and amazing feather details you will be asking yourself, “Are those real?”
These decoys fold up nicely for easy transport in a vest or you can keep inflated and transport them in the olive-drab drawstring bag that is included. The special one-piece collapsible staking system allows for natural movement without that unnatural spinning motion seen in other decoys. True body postures available in Feeder, High-Profile Looker, Breeder Hen and Jake models. Prices from $79.99 to $99.99. Zink Avian-X has now made “realism” affordable. To purchase these decoys click here!
Hunters Are People Too – Tovar Cerulli – The Atlantic
February 15, 2012
By Tovar Cerulli
Watching hunters headed to the woods each autumn, I used to shake my head. As a vegan who abhorred violence and suffering, I wondered what possessed such people. That they ate flesh was bad enough. That they spent time and money in pursuit of the chance to deal death to fellow creatures was incomprehensible.
From where I stood in our organic vegetable garden, I saw hunting as a barbaric relic of humanity’s pre-agricultural past, the antithesis of our gentle efforts to coax sustenance from the soil. I couldn’t possibly have pictured myself a decade later, mapping deer trails all summer in hopes of dragging home venison come November.
Like many vegans and vegetarians, I abstained from animal-derived foods because I cared about the consequences of my eating, for the planet and for the beings who inhabit it. I sought a kind of responsible dietary citizenship, a respectful, holistic way of living as a member of the larger-than-human world. My turn toward hunting was an unexpected extension of that same search.
By the time my fiancée and I returned to eating eggs and dairy due to health concerns, I had realized that everything I ate took a toll on animals. I knew that clearing crop land wipes out wildlife habitat, that grain harvesters mince birds and mammals (PDF), and that farmers kill to protect virtually every crop grown in North America. Even local, organic greens and strawberries came to us courtesy of missing forests, smoke-bombed woodchucks, and rifle-shot deer. If farmers had had their way in the late 19th century, deer populations here in the Northeast would have remained at the near-extinction levels to which they had been driven by overhunting and the clearing of forests for agriculture.
Our return to eating local chicken and wild fish was even more unsettling. These creatures had not died as a side effect of agriculture. They had been killed specifically so I could eat them.
So I took up hunting. I needed to take responsibility for at least a few of the deaths that sustained me, to confront that emotional and moral difficulty. I needed to look directly at living, breathing creatures. I couldn’t have all the killing done by proxy. Click Link Below For Full Story!
Tovar Cerulli – Tovar Cerulli is the author of The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian’s Hunt for Sustenance. He is also a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts, where his research focuses on food, hunting, and human relationships with nature.
via Hunters Are People Too – Tovar Cerulli – Health – The Atlantic.
Sunday hunting dies another death | HamptonRoads.com
February 15, 2012
By Lee Tolliver
A House subcommittee Wednesday morning held a meeting to discuss a crossover bill on Sunday hunting from the Virginia Senate.
The crossover bill had just arrived in the House and Wednesday’s meeting was put on the agenda late Monday, effectively giving pro-Sunday hunting lobbyists just one day to get their ducks – ‘er, deer – in a row.
With this being a seriously busy General Assembly when it comes to outdoors issues, the chair for the Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources – R.L. Ware – knew there wasn’t enough time to line everybody up.
Ware is against Sunday hunting and everybody knows it. By calling this meeting to quick-kick SB464 into the grave, he basically proved it. His subcommittee, after voting down an amendment by a vote of 4-3, voted to kill SB464 by the same tally. The quickness of the meeting prevented discussion in the full House committee, where many on the Hill say the bill was gaining some momentum.
Proponents of Sunday hunting know this move was legal, but can’t help but wonder what happened to true Democracy. This, they say, was pure politics – something Americans are growing ever more tired of. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Sunday hunting dies another death | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com.
Is Wisconsin the Best State for Trophy Deer Hunting? | Outdoor Life
February 15, 2012
Sorry Iowa, Texas and Kansas, Wisconsin is now the best state for trophy deer hunting, at least according to the Boone & Crockett club. The club recently issued a press release stating that the number of trophy deer taken in the Badger State has risen by 857 percent over the last 30 years. And during the last five years (excluding 2011) Wisconsin hunters entered 383 bucks into the book. That’s higher than any other state. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Is Wisconsin the Best State for Trophy Deer Hunting? | Outdoor Life.
Caution in the hunt – The Sun Chronicle Online – News
February 14, 2012
BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Hunters say incidents give sport a bad name
When Sportsmens Alliance President David Schutz heard about the accidental shooting of a Norton woman by a hunter last December, he wrote police and Gov. Deval Patrick calling for action to revoke the man’s license.
It wasn’t a desire for retribution against the off-duty state trooper, who reportedly mistook the tail of one of the woman’s dogs for a deer, said Schutz, a Hingham resident.
Schutz said what he wants is for state officials to enforce safety laws. But he’s also making a point about the integrity of sport hunting.
“Usually, the only time people hear about hunters is when there’s an incident,” Schutz said.
Hunters, by and large, are careful, well-trained and respectful of the environment, he said, but they have gotten an undeserved black eye as a result of the Norton shooting and a few other unfortunate cases.
Mark Stopa, here with stuffed zebra and gemsbok heads, says without hunting overpopulation of game might become a serious problem. (Staff photo by Mike George)
In Norton Cheryl Blair, 66, was shot in the abdomen by the hunter while walking her two dogs on her own property. She remains hospitalized. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Caution in the hunt – The Sun Chronicle Online – News.
Hunting Africa on a Budget- americanhunter.org
February 9, 2012
With some imagination, flexibility and patience a hunter may be able to save a few bucks when planning an African hunt of a lifetime.
By Bryce Towsley
It’s been said that man’s ability to dominate the large predators due to the invention of tools, or more specifically weapons, is what finally started our species down the road to civilization. Once the large predators learned to fear man instead of considering humans as food, we became the dominant species.
From there we progressed to farming, building cities, hospitals, the Internet and I suppose ultimately “Occupy Wall Street.”
Clearly every plan has its flaws. But for those of us grounded in reality there is a residual effect. Buried deep in our reptilian brain, probably as a result of being prey for so many years, is an instinctive desire to hunt the critters that can stomp, gore or chew us into a bloody puddle.
Hunting dangerous game is far removed from hunting prey species. It’s an entirely different mindset and a much different set of emotions before, during and after the hunt. Dangerous-game hunting and its motivation are often called into question in today’s emasculated society, but it remains the ultimate challenge for those true to their genetic calling to be hunters.
There is one big problem for most of us on that front. Our expanding civilization has made it all but impossible for average hunters to go to where the dangerous animals live and hunt them on their own.
Modern dangerous-game hunting will usually require that you travel to exotic places, primarily Africa, and pay for a professional hunter to take you hunting. The opportunities are limited and the demand is very high. So, with the simple economic concept of the law of supply and demand, the price to hunt dangerous game today is extremely steep.
There is no getting around a lot of the costs. Things like airplane tickets to Africa, charter flights into the wilderness and the cost of operating a camp are pretty much fixed. But with some imagination, flexibility and patience a hunter may be able to save a few bucks. This is particularly true if your goal is the experience more than a huge trophy to hang on the wall.
I contacted booking agent Keith Atcheson about some of the possibilities. Here is some of what he emailed from his elk camp. It’s good advice on how to get started. Click link below for full story!
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