Time to really fall hunt?

[ticklishtompro]

Eggshell, that was an excellent post. All to often people jump all over the biologists and blame them for everything. If nothing else you gave some good insight from the other side which is a great thing. I work closely with one of our local biologists here with the Learn To Hunt I run. He tells me a lot of the same things you mentioned. Everyone blames him for no deer. Yet I see deer everywhere! It isn't an easy job cause no matter what you do you will never make evryone happy.

As far as shooting poults in fall I think it is more of a personal decision. We all know not all those will make it through the winter and it will not make a huge impact on the population. There are lots of them around this year and I will not hesitate to take one as after Charlie and Treerooster have been making me hungry for a nice tender young hen. I truly believe most people don't or won't shoot a hen just because that was the way they were taught to hunt. What I mean is that it is less of an accomplishment to shoot a hen than a mature tom. It is the same with some of the older deer hunters that refuse to shoot anything but a buck. Yet they will shoot the small forks and spikes, and then complain they don't see any big bucks around. In all you just have to manage your hunting. Of course if you have 5 tags and you shoot 5 hens in a small area, yeah it may affect the next year. Just like in managing deer you have to shoot some does. Do you want to shoot all of them, of course not. I am starting to babble now so I will wrap this up. In the end you have to make the choice you are comfortable with cause it makes it much more enjoyable, and if you loose that enjoyment, than you may as well give it up all together. And sometimes I think it is more of a challenge to shoot a big old doe or hen cause they are more cautious than the males. Just my oppinion!

[Treerooster]

Excellent post Dana and a great perpespective.

When I volunteered with the eagle banding in Colo my wife and I got to travel all over the state and we met quite a few CDOW employees. We did it for 12 years and I got to know some of them very well. As with all professions some were very competent ond very dedicated and some were not. I would say the vast majority are dedicated to their work, probably more so than most professions as the pay ain't the best and the people are in the wildlife field because that is what they want to do.

[charlie elk]

Great points brought up here while I was off the "grid" checking out some new to me hunting areas in central WI. Most of the time I defend our wildlife biologists and believe in an ideal world they should be the ones to set seasons and limits based on the big picture. Most hunters extrapolate the view from their stand or setup as the way things are in the entire state. We all have a tendency to do this. eggshell is right on about how hunters need to communicate with the biologists.

The view from my 3 day scouting expedition indicates there are a lot of poults on the landscape in the Necedah area. Vic and I covered as much as we could; there were poults ranging from quail sized to fully grown birds of the year. We found several gangs of jakes out on their own. Early on Saturday morning we heard some chain gobbling at sunrise. There were about a dozen roadkill turkeys of varying sizes. In all we covered about 65,000 acres of public property by hiking, driving or glassing where it was open enough. Also secured permission to hunt some private parcels as long it is not during or close to deer season.