Cougar Mag

I would say the biggest problem in my state is hunters carrying and filling permits in other people' s names. In that way, the 2 buck per season limit is void. Its illegal, but I know of many people who do it although they won' t say so. There is really not a good way to control this. In reality its another form of poaching. I have no problem with hunters taking game and giving the meat to someone else who will use it. I do have a problem with hunters carrying a permit in another' s name!

Rangeball

I agree. I also think we need a weapon proficiency test of some kind. I know of one kid who shot and " lost" two bucks from the same stand one evening, and was rewarded 3 weeks later with a B&C bow that he almost didn' t recover...

Proff

I guess that my answer isn' t something that is a statewide problem but is a very bad regional problem. It would be the way that the majority of the people shotgun hunt in our section of the state of Ohio. Please notice that I said the majority, but not all of slug hunters. I live in Van Wert County in NW Ohio. Any true sportsmen that would come here and witness what we see for the 7 days of slug law would want to puke and be infuriated. Our area is very flat and consists of small scattered woodlots, fence rows and creeks. I have no problem with the guys who go out with a shotgun, sit in woods that they have permission to hunt, and actually hunt. I do not even mind two or 3 guys making a small push to get deer moving as long as they are in fact in the woods on foot. But what I can' t stand and makes me ( and many others believe me) are these idiots that hunt from their vehicles in groups of 10-30 guys in 6 , 7, 8 or more vehicles and just spend all day chasing deer from section to section till the deer are so exhausted that their tounges ae hanging out , then they run out and shoot them , or shoot them from the vehicle, or off the road, or from their 4 wheelers and then brag about how great of hunters they are. Also, to these guys, permission slips and No Hunting signs mean nothing. It happens every year. It is going right now as I speak. I talked to the local game warden saturday evening . He is new in the area. I told him that I wanted to give him a name of a guy who is the ringleader of probably the worst bunch of outlaws in our area. He laughed and said I am sure that it is the same name that I have already heard so let me have it. I said the guys name ( and believe me if I knew that the moderators wouldn' t pull my post I would be glad to list his name right here, but I won' t for that reason), and he said you know, I wish I had a dollar for every complaint I have had about this guy in the past month so I could retire right now. This guy, his son and his whole gang have been doing this crap for years. The real hunters around here can' t stand him and his bunch. I know one guy who hunted with them for two days a few years ago and said never again. He said that he saw more laws broken in one day that it made my head spin. He said ( and the warden said that they know that this group does this) that the would call in a bogus complaint over on one side of the county, then listen to their scanner so when the officer responded they would know exactly where he was so they could push the section they were in. Great guys huh? And believe me they aren' t the only ones that do it. I am not exagerating one bit. I know there are guys ( and a few of my friends do ) who do go out with a gun and hunt the right way. Again that is fine with me. But they always have guys running the woods that they are the only ones with permission to hunt in. I could tell you story after story. A few years ago a guy that lives farther south in Ohio thought I was exagerating and making alot more out of it than how it really is. I told him to come up and drive around one day and then give me his honest opinion. well he drove around for about 4 hours on the second day of slug law and he was so mad at what he saw. He said that the deer here don' t have a chance. He said I didn' t even do it justice at how bad it was.
My video camera is going everywhere I go this week. I will record anything illegal I see. The warden said that a video of them is as good as gold. So I will be trying to get anything I can.
Sorry to rant and rave but as a guy who loves bowhunting, and hunting in general, and the challenge of matching wits with a deer and hunting them one on one, I am just so sick of the garbage these guys get away with. If you are from thsi part of the state and you shotgun hunt by being out in the woods doing it by fair pursuit, this isn' t meant towards you in any way. You are one of the good guys. If you are one of the road warrriors I talked about, I hope you get busted and lose every piece of gear you have and lose your privaledges for a long time because you don' t deserve them in the first place. I just can' t wait for dark on sunday evening when it is over with for another year. If I offended any law abiding, true sportsmen out there by my post, I offer my sincere apologies, that wasn' t my intent. If I offended some road warrior, trespassing slob, GREAT because you offend me in every way!! Take a look in the mirror, hopefully someday you will be disgusted at what you see the way that alot of the true hunters are when they look at you.

Donald Fry

I agree with rangeball, we need a shooting proficiency course along with the hunter safety course. I teach school and hang around a outdoors shop, i hear so many stories about shooting at, knocking down, hail marry shots,brush shots, you name it. If half the stories are true we have a lot of wounded deer that are never recovered or dead deer that no one bothered to recover. Makes you wonder about how many deer are really killed in the state.

lobi

I hate being up in my tree as night falls on the last day of bow/day before gun season and hearing a shot gun or two go off. The guys are so afraid somone else will get their buck on opening morning that they have to shoot it the night before the season opens. How can they look everyone in the eye and say they got this buck without saying that they poached it? I' ll bet even if the game warden never catches them, someone higher up is watching

Arthur P

Poachers. Sky high lease fees. Shortage of public hunting areas.

Take your pick.

AKDoug

I am blessed.... I have...

The worlds largest bowhunting only area is in Alaska and it has fairly liberal seasons.

Millions of acres of public land to hunt.

More biggame species than any state...

Yet we are covered in inconsiderate hunters that think nothing of tearing crap up with their ATV' s, 4x4 trucks and sometimes their jet boats.

Don' t get me wrong..I use all three during certain parts of hunting seasons. It' s just the inconsiderate jerks that tear up the wilderness that bugs me.

This state needs a week long class on offroad wilderness ethics and behavior AND a mandatory hunter ed course.

PAhunter86

Biggest problem... hunting on sundays is illegal[:@]

Belle Island

The biggest problem is that human beings are a part of hunting. And just like in every other group of humans, you have the good with the bad. Laws will be broken, ethics will not be followed, the good will look bad, etc etc. It will never change. There will always be poachers, tresspassers, un-ethical hunters, SOBs, etc.
Do what you can in your hunting circles to give us a good name.

dpv

Let me toss this out guys....just for perspective. I usually hunt alone either stillhunting or from a tree stand. Often dogs annoy me. Drives annoy me. it' s just the noise and the nawing feeling that I will never see a deer with people makins so much noise. BUT....Saturday I set up on the edge of a draw because I knew there would be people running dogs on the other side. Sure enough those dogs pushed some deer my way. I killed one. There were two other deer killed during this drive. They guys who came out there as a group and ran the dogs(which by the way were amazingly well trained.) were congratulatory. They even gave me a hand tracking when I was having trouble picking up the blood trail. They didn' t have a problem with me taking advantage of their drive. They even told me to come back next weekend. With all the horror stories I have heard of people having groups of hunters take deer from them and intimidate them I have to say it was really refreshing to experience this. Most of these guys were what you might call " country" . They were true gentlemen and it opened my eyes a little to a different way of hunting.

David