No Check Stations????
05-16-2005, 08:14 PM
#21
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Camden County, Missouri
Posts: 1,019
RE: No Check Stations????
Check stations only operate during the seasons, poachers hunt all year round. I am from missouri and own my own property. There has always been poachers (criminals). My cabin is back in the woods and I stay down there most every weekend. all year long at night I hear poachers. I think the call in checking would work if they make the penalties alot stronger for violating the laws and make it legal for landowners to drop anyone trespassing and poaching.
05-17-2005, 06:01 AM
#22
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,358
RE: No Check Stations????
This will have zero effect on poachers, they are poachers for a reason. What will now go uncaught are "mistakes", honest ones.
I worked in an archery shop that was a check station, it costs the shop a good deal of money on weekends such as the opener. We would have trucks backed up in the parking lot 5-6 deep for 4-5 hours in the morning. This takes the shop techs away from customers, bow repairs, arrow making etc. Heck I was a JOAD instructor and my classes were pretty much cancelled those mornings cause I was needed in the check in area to help lift deer onto scales. We treated it as part of the class and with the kids interested in hunting would talk about shot placement etc.
Additionally the COs had to make the rounds to the stations every couple of days to pick up the check in paper work.
I do like the atomosphere of the check in station and it is great bringing one of my sons in with his deer or turkey, but they take the willingness of local shops to front the cost, they take time and money for the COs to make the rounds.
--Bob
I worked in an archery shop that was a check station, it costs the shop a good deal of money on weekends such as the opener. We would have trucks backed up in the parking lot 5-6 deep for 4-5 hours in the morning. This takes the shop techs away from customers, bow repairs, arrow making etc. Heck I was a JOAD instructor and my classes were pretty much cancelled those mornings cause I was needed in the check in area to help lift deer onto scales. We treated it as part of the class and with the kids interested in hunting would talk about shot placement etc.
Additionally the COs had to make the rounds to the stations every couple of days to pick up the check in paper work.
I do like the atomosphere of the check in station and it is great bringing one of my sons in with his deer or turkey, but they take the willingness of local shops to front the cost, they take time and money for the COs to make the rounds.
--Bob
05-17-2005, 08:15 AM
#23
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Bureau County Illinois
Posts: 605
RE: No Check Stations????
Again, it might be different in other locations around the country or State but I talked to the local shop owner and they would get maybe 5-10 deer on a busy day during early season and than it would often be only every other day. After second shotgun season it really, really slowed down because all the deer were really doing different patterns. Granted I had something like 8 archery checks stations within 30 minutes of here that I could have gone to so that could have had an impact on short waits to check one in but...They had a lot of fun with it at the local shop, did a big buck and big doe contest and I know the owner was disappointed that they are not going to be doing it anymore.
Yes, A CPO or someone employed by the state would have to go and pick them up. Unfortunatly they were often a year behind. And by the way, this would be a great program to intern college students in that are doing Wildlife Biology. Call it busy work but for 3 months of the year the only cost would be the cost of the state vehicles for them to drive around picking up the records and dropping them atregional DNR offices (Heck, use the US postal service) Before people start saying than what was the point of the stations it is pretty simple. It doesn't stop true poaching. A lot of people do out of season poaching and tons poach on posted land and some poach on preserve land too. Tags or no tags that isn't going to stop people. I think it will have impact on people shooting a buck that turns out smaller than they wanted and calling it a doe. The state is saying they will do spot checks but if they can't get to check stations except once every 6-18 months than what are the chances that one of the very few CPO's is going to stop by? I have lived on this farm for 5 hunting seasons now and have seen a CPO twice drive by. This 2 buck limit in Illinois has had a great deal to do with the growth of the big bucks taken in this state. To be honest, that is not a big deal to me but to others who hunt for horns it is.
Yes, A CPO or someone employed by the state would have to go and pick them up. Unfortunatly they were often a year behind. And by the way, this would be a great program to intern college students in that are doing Wildlife Biology. Call it busy work but for 3 months of the year the only cost would be the cost of the state vehicles for them to drive around picking up the records and dropping them atregional DNR offices (Heck, use the US postal service) Before people start saying than what was the point of the stations it is pretty simple. It doesn't stop true poaching. A lot of people do out of season poaching and tons poach on posted land and some poach on preserve land too. Tags or no tags that isn't going to stop people. I think it will have impact on people shooting a buck that turns out smaller than they wanted and calling it a doe. The state is saying they will do spot checks but if they can't get to check stations except once every 6-18 months than what are the chances that one of the very few CPO's is going to stop by? I have lived on this farm for 5 hunting seasons now and have seen a CPO twice drive by. This 2 buck limit in Illinois has had a great deal to do with the growth of the big bucks taken in this state. To be honest, that is not a big deal to me but to others who hunt for horns it is.
05-17-2005, 12:17 PM
#24
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: land of the Lilliputians, In the state of insanity
Posts: 26,274
RE: No Check Stations????
I dont think the check stations do anything but employ people not needed. The same thing can be accomplished by requireing a tag on an animal, and I.D. before it can be processed. As for poacher, if they do keep the meat it wont make a difference if a processer does the checking or a game warden. But most poachers dont use a processor, they process the deer themselves or simply lop of the antlers and leave the carcuse. Other than for information on herds, I have always thought the idea of check stations was simply a waste of needed resources.
05-17-2005, 04:28 PM
#25
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 638
RE: No Check Stations????
I have always thought the idea of check stations was simply a waste of needed resources.
For the most part they are. The only reason that checks stations are still around is because its a tradition. There is no "real" scientific research or data that is collect at state wide check stations. There mainly just a place for hunters to shoot the bull and see what everybody else killed. Which is fine, but I dont think the states need to pay for such things........
