ETHICAL HUNTER

[mark hay]

ETHICAL HUNTER                  Thought I might touch on a subject that really makes me HOT!  Litter ! In my way of thinking , which may be wrong ,  most if not all people that use the public hunting areas and ranges that I use are a sorry lot of so-called hunters. Last spring for example 2 of my sons and myself went into a new part of the wildlife area to scout and later to hunt and found very little trash or sign that anyone had been in there . By seasons end there were pop bottles and cans and food wrappers scattered all over the area. I would guess that the reason they hunt ther us because they don't have any private land to go to.One would also think that any man or woman strong enough to carry all those containers into the woods with them could carry the empties out .ENOUGH SAID,,,TURNS MY STOMACH .    ''OLDSCHOOLTURKEYTACTICS''

[grizzly]

as a land owner i'm finding it harder to allow people on. in the last 5 years hunters have thrown trash all over, drove across hay feilds, left gates open. the thing that really pisses me off is when they act like it's their land like when one person asks to hunt and three or four so up or when a person trys to throw another hunter off. i'm not saying all hunters act that way but there's to many that do and it makes it very hard to say yes.

[allaboutshooting]

Hey Wayne,

First of all, thank you for allowing folks to hunt on your land. Without private landowner cooperation in allowing hunters access to their land, many would not have a place to hunt. I appreciate what you do.

When we as hunters are allowed access to private or public land, we should act responsibly and carry out anything that we take in, including empty shotshells. I also believe that we should try to leave things better than we found them. Picking up a few items of trash takes just a little time and there's a certain satisfaction in making things look just a little better.

There are folks out there who would like to make all hunters look like slobs. Whenever we don't act responsibly, in any way, from throwing out trash to rude or crude behavior, we give them one more tool to use against us.

Ethical hunters not only shoot only legal game, in season but also take care of or improve upon the entire resource.

Thanks again,
Clark

[trkyklr]

i agree with all of the above ethical hunters are getting harder & harder to find every day especialy with todays youth , one way that i have found to access more private land is to help a land owner clean up his property for instance one of the gracious men that lets me hunt his property lives on a backroad behind a beer store so when all the alkies leave the beer store they drive by his chunk of land & toss out beer cans & trash i mean bad they dump dead deer on it & everything so every fall when the green starts to fall off the trees & grass starts to die i go & pick up the trash for him in return he lets me hunt his property

[allaboutshooting]

That's a great example of how we can help landowners and help to improve our image as stewards of the land.

Thanks,
Clark

[Pressured Gobblers]

EVERY spring I pick up bags of trash out of the woods and off along side of the public dirt roads that run threw the state forest that I hunt... Sometime I find my self stopping my scouting to pick up trash... I'll be riding down the road and stop my truck to pick up trash and it's really starting to get on my nerves!!!! People are lazy worthless pieces of you know what... We destroy everything we touch!!!!

[ljmelea]

I too find it hard to fathom why people feel the public land is their dumping ground.whenever i'm scouting or driving through public areas,i stop and pick up the trash on the roadways,just looks so much better when i head back out.i wonder if these are the same people that leave their grocery carts in the lot or park in handicap with no sticker?merry christmas to all, larry

[Gobblerman]

Whew, Boy!....you don't want to get me started on the subject of ethics and hunters!  The littering issue is just the tip of the iceberg.  The list goes on and on....irresponsible ATV use, road hunting, disrespect for landowners, wanton waste, trespassing, general disrespect for game laws, ignorance of regulations, disrespect for the game being hunted....we could fill up the page here.  These are all a blight on responsible, ethical hunters. 
 
In fact, those that go afield and do any or all of these things are not "hunters" at all.  They are criminals....ethical and social misfits...that really don't care a whit about rules and regulations, much less "ethics".  They are trying to take what they can get, and get away with whatever they think they can, without regard for anything or anybody else.  
 
Unfortunately, many in the general public lump them and us together as "hunters", rather than recognizing and acknowledging that the percentage of our ranks that participate in such behavior is small.  That problem is compounded by the fact that anti-hunters do their best to try to portray us all in that negative light. 
 
Several of you have stated that you try to counterbalance the harm done by these misfits by your good deeds.  There are many who do the same, and we must continue to do so, and we should be doing all we can to let the general public know that we condemn these abusers.   We must also keep pressing for stiffer penalties against those that are caught abusing our lands, wildlife, and the rules and regulations that are in place to protect them. 
 
Jim
 
 

[turkeytracks]

me my dad and my dads friend went woodcock hunting(at an undisclosed location). it being public land you would expect some signs of litter. well the place was crawling with old shells and litter.
 

[greyghost]

Mark Hay and others, great post. It is very sad. I always come out with others trash on public land, in fact when hunting where I do, I have taken a small trash bag with me and filled it up. Whenever scouting I always carry a trash bag. Call it a petty pet pev, but trash left laying burns me up.
 
Earl