hobbydog wrote:I don't buy those numbers. .
Buy them or not that's what they are... It's not opinion its base line data..... think about it. 10% of roughly 440,000 hunters is 44,000. So those people are accounting for 88,000 deer, now factor that on a good year we were shooting somewhere in the neighborhood of 270,000 deer those 44,000 are accounting for roughly 1/3 of the overall harvest.
hobbydog wrote:When they went to 5 deer they basically said shoot all you want. Do you think that those who shot 5 registered all of them?
Nope I don't but I don't believe that so many were being shot and unregistered that it would drastically change the statistics. Generously speaking you might gain 1% overall.
hobbydog wrote: I am talking about the locals. They used to have to buy full priced tags for all the women and children and then be sneaky.
I'm a "local" in the 100 series area. I can tell you our largest enforcement/poaching/party hunting/Baiting/trespass issues come not from other locals. Sure we have a few local guys that are well known poachers but every area does and once again, what they kill wouldn't change the overall number a great deal.
Go ahead and talk with any MN game warden about this. I have and regarding ours specifically almost every call he takes during rifle season deals with some maggot from the concrete wasteland to the south. I've lived in all 4 corners of the state and this is almost always the case. During our intensive harvest, the most deer I ever shot in a season, in MN was 3. Most years I shot 2, a couple years I shot 1. Most of my "local" friends, family and co-workers have been in the same ballpark and self governed themselves during those years and stopped when they deemed they had enough...... And keep in mind, for every person out there that was shooting 2 or more deer there were still many people eating tag soup. I know my grandfather did for the last 10 years of his life, of course it's tough to kill them off the deck but he bought a tag regardless.
hobbydog wrote:Your naive if you think party hunting doesn't bring a lot of abuse. It was like legal poaching for them.
You're spot on there... MN Is in the stone ages in regards to party hunting. It's disgusting really.
hobbydog wrote:The same ones who now blame the wolves for lack of deer.
If you don't think they're playing a part in it, you should live up here.
hobbydog wrote:Everyone forgets about the QDM aspect. They pushed hard for the doe harvest to get "buck doe ratio" in line. They lobbied hard...especially in NW and SW MN. They got what they wanted but are silent now.
We're not silent. I'm a strong advocate of QDM, and Manage my farm for it. The hardest lobby from them came in the SE part of the state and we pretty much had to settle for a comprimise with the APR. Minnesota is hands down the worst managed state for whitetails in the entire mid-west, maybe even the country. If you're used to being the worst it's not so bad but remember, at one point we were both the number 1 B&C producing state in the nation and had the #1 B&C producing county in the nation. Both of those have been lost to states that are managing better and more effectively. While other neighboring states are either flourishing or maintaining, we continue to decline. Yes the winters in MN can suck but southern Iowa has bouts of EHD and other disease, and still continues to be a 3 year wait to archery hunt, for 700$ by the time you're done with pref. points. I could go on and on for days regarding QDM. The economics (millions and longterm, billions) were losing as a state but to summarize: MN needs to push their gun season out of the rut and I doubt this kid will do it. I have a feeling our deer season structure comes from the commisioner, or possibly even higher with politcal ties. Most big game managers (ours are not an exception) will agree that QDM works. However we have 1/2 million uneducated pumpkins that head out of the cities on Friday night before opener, stop at Gander to pick up some slugs and a bottle of doe pee, and go out to shoot da' turdy pointer, that unfortunately have a voice.
Meanwhile No other state with a prize big game animal, let alone the largest revenue-producing big game animal in the world, would continue to hunt a VERY stressed deer herd during their most vulnerable time (rut) with the most amount of hunters (can push 1/2 million) with the most effective weapon (centerfire rifle). It is purely stupid.