Greatful and Sad

[gst]

g, as a landowner, if a guy or two were approach you sometime in say February, maybe when you're out feeding cows or something, and asks if he and maybe his kid were to come help you out with branding calves, fixing fence, weaning, hauling hay/grain, etc. a couple weekends a year, would you open to letting that person access your land?

I think this is the type of situation we need to push more in ND. Lot of values to be learned on all sides. Especially if kids get involved.

In the past I the couple times it has happened I have told them ot get back in touch. One did, one did not. The fella and his kid that did shot a doe in the youth doe season and their smiles/ excitment and conversation after were pretty cool.

I really wouldn;t require someone "help" but definately would appreciate the offer and if things worked out maybe the help(know anything about night duty calving cows??) . Honestly it would depend on when, what, who ect... We do have a number of people hunting and with family .......it just all depends. We have a couple areas we have put a pretty good bit of work into to build habitat and attract wildlife that the family likes to hunt and we sometimes bring others into that but honestly we kinda use that as our little piece of hunting heaven.

In our area there is still a fair bit of unposted land (get more each year) and I know for a fact areas that if people ask that are posted they can hunt (might not want to flash your DU membership sticker) . Some years we only post maybe half of what we could.

Other lands we have alot of times people just stopping in that are decent people end up hunting. I guess my point in the post is things have changed and when I travel somewhere hunting I don;t expect the same response as I got 30 years ago. But I still seem ot be able to find places to hunt thru friends and aquaintances that offer invitations and sometimes just by stopping in with a little courteousy and a visit.

Things have change and are perhaps not as easy, but I guess to me hunting is still worth the effort.

 

[Account Deleted]

Haha. Yes, I know how to pull a calf but no, I will not be coming to help you. Way to far away to be of any assistance. In any case, I think your attitude towards it represents most landowner's attitudes. A person is far more likely to gain access if they put in a little effort and show gratitude.

 

[gst]

When you ask if they have any doe tags cause you have a couple stands they could sit in and fill them, they get pissed you won;t let them shoot that buck. oh my, you even ask questions in real life! they asked about a buck right? yea, i'd maybe be annoyed at your 'doe redirect' dependent on how you presented the question

It was years they gave out multiple doe tags and we had a deer problem. So if someone was not willing or able to help out by shooting a few does in that situation would you let them shoot the "big buck" your kid had been watching all summer?

If you are "annoyed" when a land owner offers to let you sit in one of their stands and shoot a doe...............maybe there is a reason access is difficult.

Doing chores, hear a gunshot right behind the place, me and the 6 year old kid drive out to see and heres a guy with a buck with a double main beam my 77 year old Dad was after laying along the road dead. Guy says he shot it on the road .....forgot about the foot of snow on the ground that showed the deer running off our land bleeding for 150 yards. mightve been wounded prior to crossing the road or your land it takes A LOT of evidence for me to label someone a liar


I too do not banter about the accusation lightly. Didn;t take Daniel Boone like abilities to read the story in the snow. Been tracking animals enough to know what happened. ( Tracks led back ot a bed in a slough 200 yards further on our land where he and the doe he was with had been bedded. the foot prints with the empty brass to the right of them kinda told what direction he was shooting. At least one of the three shots was in the direction of where the kid and I were doing chores 600 yards away.

Maybe they may not have a spot for a party of 12 guys with 10 buck tags that pull in the yard in three pickups opening weekend but stop in during July, a Dad and kid stop out looking for a spot ............. huh?

You stop in with your kid looking for a place to shoot a doe in the early youth deal, I'll get you covered.

 

[Hookin8easy]

I myself love to hunt and at least caught the tail end of the good ol nodak but in the last 5 years I find myself fishing soft water right up to freeze up. Never even used to pick up the long rods after September 1st, enjoyed the hunting season as much as I could on weekends with my dad and family, we had shared our harvests with the farmers whose unposted land we'd end up on, more and more orange and frankly I'm tired of the run around of trying to even find or locate the owners of unmarked land and the endless no's, so it's off to the ever decreasing, over raped WPA's and such. Wish my son would have had the enjoyment of this once greater state that I had.

 

[PrairieGhost]

Haha. Yes, I know how to pull a calf but no, I will not be coming to help you. Way to far away to be of any assistance. In any case, I think your attitude towards it represents most landowner's attitudes. A person is far more likely to gain access if they put in a little effort and show gratitude.

Ya when dad worked off the farm and I was to little to pull a calf I would drive the new 1949 Nash Rambler out to the middle of the pasture and carefully pull them with that.

 

[SDMF]

(know anything about night duty calving cows??) .

Board, strap, handyman jack. Or, in cases of true pissedoffedness I've witnessed the squeeze chute, chain, tractor method. Seems that nighttime is the right time for both of these methods.

 

[Account Deleted]

When I was in high school, I got an extra hour of curfew time as long as I checked cows when I got home (2am ish). If dad ever noticed that I was three sheets to the wind while trying to work the ratchet, he never mentioned anything. God bless him.

 

[espringers]

posting land has its place for everyone imho. some folks post cause they and others they know hunt regularly. some post cause they want to know who is on their land so they can hold someone accountable when they do something stupid. some post just cause they don't like people on their land.

i'm gonna share my experience with posting from this year. i've got a buddy with about 15-18 quarters. this guy couldn't give two shits who hunts his land and would rather see every duck and goose and deer in the tri-state area dead. however, he has some empathy for his buddies who hunt and want/need a place to kill a duck or deer every so often. so, he has let us post his land in the past. some years we don't bother. some years we do. but, he has always requested we put our number on the poster cause he hated fielding calls. we've never put out number on them in the past because it just didn't feel right and we figured how bad can it be right?
well... this year i finally broke down and put my number on the posters with his last name. mind you... there are a lot of ducks in the area. but, the phone literally rings off the hook. not counting people who i know by name, i've fielded phone calls from 42 different duck hunting groups in the last 3.5 weeks. people from all over the damn country. florida, arkansas, maryland, vermont, california, texas, tennessee, etc.. and of course the dreaded sconis and sotans. i'm not the only one who has input... the landowner does if he happens to know them and i keep the other "friends" with permission in on the conversation. but, on average, i would say we've let 1 group hunt every day. i'm getting long winded. but, the purpose of the story is this:

if that land wasn't posted, by the end of week #2, that land would be practically useless to anyone by this point. this is one of the best duck producing spots in the county. but, based on the number of calls i've had, it would literally be overrun with field and slough hunters every day and the ducks would've left the area long ago. lots of people are more than willing to let you hunt if you call. not everyone. but, more than you think. we are the perfect example. we've got a pretty big group of hunting friends who would love to just say "no" to every phone call. but, saying "no" isn't as easy as one might think when you are approached in a respectful manner by someone who just wants to jump a slough or sit in a field for a morning. so, we've got no problem letting people hunt the land we have posted as long as we won't be out there ourselves that day or the next. so, next time you see a poster, don't be afraid to call. and remember... its probably no coincidence the birds are on a posted field or slough. more than likely, they are there because every tom dick and harry hasn't been able to shoot them 24/7 for the last month. posters and proper management can be beneficial to all.

 

[Account Deleted]

42 different groups in 3.5 weeks?! Holy crap. We need to look at this NR situation more carefully.

 

[Enslow]

This is why i rarely waterfowl hunt anymore. I live in the country by some good waterfowl area and people stop everyday to ask to hunt. I tell them i dont own any land. I try to help them out As much as possible if they At least introduce themselves. I went bowhunting last night and there were sconis on every corner spotting birds. It was nuts.

 

[espringers]

42 different groups in 3.5 weeks?! Holy crap. We need to look at this NR situation more carefully.

ya. that's just the people i don't know or get names for. it may sound flippant or whatever. but, i actually have them stored like this "duck hunter #1", "duck hunter #35", etc... figure i am never gonna meet them and wouldn't remember their darn name next year anyways. i can't remember most names 5 minutes later unless i employ a name recognition technique. its also an easy way to keep track of how many different people have called. keep in mind, we didn't post it until 6 days into the season. i can see why he hated posting his land.

 

[You]

42 different groups in 3.5 weeks?! Holy crap. We need to look at this NR situation more carefully.

understatement of the year. expect quite a bit of pushback from the g&f though as they're a revenue run agency, and non-res license fees are a big chunk of their operating budget. (no way for me to substantiate this comment, but it sounds good Thumbs Up)

during non-res pheasant opener i ran into 3 sconi trucks, 2 minnesota, and 1 nd

the sconis and sotans were all pounding plots.........proly for the 3rd time that day...

this was all in a relatively small area, not known for its pheasant population

plots should be for residents only, as they're paid for with our tax dollars. right ??!? (they'll proly argue that the non-res fees pay the plots 'rent')

non residents should be able to hunt federal land and private, non-plots-enrolled land

 

[johnr]

My farm friend out in western ND put hundreds of acres back into the CRP program just this fall. It is out there and some guys are enrolling acres.
Just an fyi

 

[WormWiggler]

My farm friend out in western ND put hundreds of acres back into the CRP program just this fall. It is out there and some guys are enrolling acres.
Just an fyi

Interesting, are they ahead of the curve in regards to crop prices?

 

[fnznfwl]

understatement of the year. expect quite a bit of pushback from the g&f though as they're a revenue run agency, and non-res license fees are a big chunk of their operating budget. (no way for me to substantiate this comment, but it sounds good Thumbs Up)

during non-res pheasant opener i ran into 3 sconi trucks, 2 minnesota, and 1 nd

the sconis and sotans were all pounding plots.........proly for the 3rd time that day...

this was all in a relatively small area, not known for its pheasant population

plots should be for residents only, as they're paid for with our tax dollars. right ??!? (they'll proly argue that the non-res fees pay the plots 'rent')

non residents should be able to hunt federal land and private, non-plots-enrolled land

It has nothing to do with the G & F wants. Years back it was the G & F who actually came up with the "hunter-pressure concept" to potentially limit NR license sales. They WANTED to limit the # of NR's. It was your legislators, Hoeven and Kyle Blanchfields lobbying buddies who shot that down in a ball of flames. Apparently according to them the NR's were saving our small towns by spending $20 in the bar and filling up a couple tanks of gas at the local Cenex.

Also, PLOTS is paid for with license $$ Resident and nonresidents alike. Not tax dollars. So they do have the right to hunt it. We are lucky to get an extra week on it is all.

 

[You]

Noted. Thanks.

 

[Account Deleted]

42 different groups in 3.5 weeks?! Holy crap. We need to look at this NR situation more carefully.

So, I have done some preliminary research and it is very eye opening. Things are going to need to change.

 

[guywhofishes]

So, I have done some preliminary research and it is very eye opening. Things are going to need to change.

- - - Updated - - -

i.e I would like more information/discussion

 

[Account Deleted]

I need to compile/sort through it and establish trends but so far it looks like residents are outnumbered by non-residents at 2:1 or greater.

 

[Enslow]

Fishing and hunting both.

- - - Updated - - -

Non residents can still buy bow tags over the counter too.