Category: Hunting

Michigan’s Hunting License Revenue Continues to Drop

Steve Beyer, DNR Research and Management Section supervisor whines about not getting an increase in fees since 1996.  What he fails to mention is that fees were increased a few years ago – 50 percent to be exact – for antlerless permits.  So, how’s that working out?

The real problem is how the herd is managed:  for numbers, not quality.  People from Michigan hunt elsewhere for quality whitetails – Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Ohio, etc., because of better buck-to-doe ratios and ultimately better bucks.

Driving up the cost of licenses will eliminate more hunters from the pool, so there’s always a tradeoff.

Revenue will only have a chance of increasing if the quality of hunting gets better.

Here are three suggestions:  1)  Lower cost of antlerless permits to balance the herd and decrease car/deer accidents.  2)  Allow only one buck per season.  3)  Mandate antler restrictions state-wide to a minimum of 4 antler points per side for several years.

Maybe a bit radical but if we keep doing what we have been doing, we’ll keep getting what we have gotten.

 

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SCI Helps Ensure New Jersey Bear Hunt Will Proceed Monday

Defeat of Lawsuit Keeps Hunt on Schedule 

Washington, D.C. – Safari Club International (SCI) and the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs (Federation) have again helped successfully defend against a legal challenge aimed at stopping the New Jersey black bear hunt. Today, a State appellate court upheld the decision authorizing the hunt. Barring reversal by the New Jersey Supreme Court, the hunt is scheduled to begin on Monday, December 5, 2011. This will be the first time in recent history that the State will be able to hold a hunt for two consecutive years. SCI and the Federation applaud the efforts of the New Jersey state wildlife professionals and decision-makers. Read more

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New IQ Universal Sight Light Illuminates Your Pins When You Need It Most

 

SUPERIOR, Wisc. (November 30, 2011) – When the light is waning and the pins on your bow sight don’t seem quite bright enough to take your shot, it is time to turn on the new IQ Universal Sight Light from IQ Bowsights. With its adjustable rheostat control, pin-brightness levels are always up to you. Adjusting the IQ Universal Sight Light to changing hunting
conditions not only will significantly lower pin glare at the moments of dawn and dusk of legal shooting hours, but it will also increase your confidence in the shot. Read more

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Morning Hunt in First Snow

By Glen Wunderlich

With power off and the generator running at 5:30 am, I marched through the 6-inch deep snow to a hunting blind overlooking some low ground.  After climbing in, I soon discovered that the slide-up windows wouldn’t unlatch.  Frozen shut.

Snow glistens from morning sun

 

Finally, I got one side to cooperate, but not after alerting any game within a half mile of my presence.  The other three windows wouldn’t budge.  It didn’t take me long to realize I had to find another location to hunt the first snow of the season.

At least my early morning arrival has given me an opportunity to get set somewhere – anywhere else.  But, my plan to ambush deer along routes to their bedding area was blown up.  Being afield this day would be good enough.

My alternate blind would overlook a brassica food plot of some two acres.  It’s never been much of a morning spot; rather, it is a prime destination field. 

At first light, two antlerless deer began feeding on turnip greens and rape.

Nothing else materialized and I left the heated blind way too early, but I still have some plowing to attend to.  The afternoon shift should be interesting.

 

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