Dear Fudds...

willtill said:

44man said:

I'm not splitting a payment on a lease for my share ($2,000.00 for example) just to drive umpteem miles to kill a deer or two for all year.

Hunting is not supposed to be cost prohibitive for the average Joe - American.

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I can agree with this. Who wants to pay into something over the top just to have some goons show up and do dumb stuff. Muddy the lane up, dump frickin corn all over the place then do a four wheeler rodeo.

All that time, effort, money and somebody shows up blows a nice one away and they're out of there.

I watch this same circus go down every year and just laugh about it anymore. This is Americana at its best. The line at the Cambridge Royal Farms going out the door like a Who concert.
Trucks with trailers stuck in the ditch, everybody in Preston walking their property line to make sure it's still at where it was last year, the Amish killing a "cheap stag" and then getting breakfast with them at Millie's.

Next thing you know,John Bolton's evil twin is practicing Soviet style land re-distribution tactics and Chesapeake lease reparations just to take guns away and let up roader's ride some horses when the killing should be going on down at the branch stand.

What the hell is going on? Kind of takes the fun out of some of it I think.

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Doco Overboard said:

willtill said:

I can agree with this. Who wants to pay into something over the top just to have some goons show up and do dumb stuff. Muddy the lane up, dump frickin corn all over the place then do a four wheeler rodeo.

All that time, effort, money and somebody shows up blows a nice one away and they're out of there.

I watch this same circus go down every year and just laugh about it anymore. This is Americana at its best. The line at the Cambridge Royal Farms going out the door like a Who concert.
Trucks with trailers stuck in the ditch, everybody in Preston walking their property line to make sure it's still at where it was last year, the Amish killing a "cheap stag" and then getting breakfast with them at Millie's.

Next thing you know,John Bolton's evil twin is practicing Soviet style land re-distribution tactics and Chesapeake lease reparations just to take guns away and let up roader's ride some horses when the killing should be going on down at the branch stand.

What the hell is going on? Kind of takes the fun out of some of it I think.

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I don’t disagree. However, that’s where the public vs private comes in. Don’t want to deal with a lot of that, then it’s buy private land or lease private land.

Unfortunately if it is public land, you have to deal with the other people using it. Now if they are misusing it, report them. Hopefully DNR will take care of it. We know plenty of times they won’t. If an ecosystem is too fragile to deal with some of the hunters and fishermen being uncouth louts and not taking care of it properly then it shouldn’t be open to hunting and fishing, period. Not only open to those who can pay enough.

I bought the house I just moved in to in part because I can bow hunt on the property. A couple of friendly neighbors to it, but some of it is good to go with safety zones even if they weren’t okay with it (4.4 acres). I absolutely still plan to hunt public land if someone is willing to invite me (and I am happy to give back however I can) hunt on other private land also.

Hell, I’ll probably get the central MD permit again and go hunt over in Potapsco state park because it’s less than a mile from my house even though it means dealing with my horse folk neighbors who drive me up a damn wall.

If it wasn’t my house, I can’t afford to buy access to hunt. I certainly can’t justify the expense to my wife or to myself right now. And I just don’t have a lot of time usually. My wife’s pissed last year I took off work for the early and late gun season to hunt greenridge and the eastern shore respectively. More time and money than she was happy with me putting in to it and I stayed in dirt cheap motels. Driving an hour each way instead of 30 minutes is a huge difference in my ability to get out in hunt. Hell, 5 minutes vs 20 makes a big difference (Potapsco vs Patuxent).

Access doesn’t just mean is it available at all. It also means how convenient it is. Increasing access increases the likelihood people will remain or become hunters. It also increases how often they are going to hunt. It also dilutes those idiots (and the good ones too) over more land so you are less likely to have orange walking through your line of sight at every turn if you are hunting public land.

I’ve got no issue with public land being by else or lottery where it makes sense. But again, if access and size aren’t an issue, it shouldn’t be by lease or lottery, it should be open to the general public either open, or at worse daily check-in quotas. If something changes about a tract, then it’s status as lease or lottery land should also be examined.

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Bisleyfan44 said:

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WillB said:

...Interesting that some of you side with a gun grabbing Attorney General.

...Frosh is as anti hunting as they come. Enjoy supporting him!

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Doctortoxic said:

When you start the discussion by insulting your audience, you have lost the battle. My friend. Maybe call us hunters, outdoorsmen, waterfowlers, etc. But starting off with “hey Fudds” all I see is another person making the discussion more polarized and less effective.

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Doctortoxic said:

When you start the discussion by insulting your audience, you have lost the battle. My friend. Maybe call us hunters, outdoorsmen, waterfowlers, etc. But starting off with “hey Fudds” all I see is another person making the discussion more polarized and less effective.

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Doctortoxic said:

When you start the discussion by insulting your audience, you have lost the battle. My friend. Maybe call us hunters, outdoorsmen, waterfowlers, etc. But starting off with “hey Fudds” all I see is another person making the discussion more polarized and less effective.

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K-43 said:

This is no different than applying to use a state maintained waterfowl blind.
Public forest land should never have been closed to the public in order to lease it to the highest bidder. Period!
OP thinks it is unfair to him that his participation in a system that denies use of public lands to the public is coming to an end.
Uhh, Dude. It's PUBLIC land not yours.
If one invests money in maintaining leased land it is a gamble and there is no guarantee that it will be there beyond the the contract date. The case could be made leasing public land to clubs is denying the public of their rights.
Of course, I'm not special like some, I'm just a FUDD who shoots ARs, FALs, M14s, Garands, 19 century Military Antiques, Trap, Sporting Clays, and pistols so numerous it is too tedious to list. But hey, I'm just a deplorable FUDD because I want Public land to be open to the PUBLIC, not an entitled few.

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Biggfoot44 said:

Just to be clarifying the original topic ; Are any leases being * Terminated * , ie the State unilaterally ending a lease before the contracted end dates ? Or simply expressing that the State will not renew existing leases upon their conclusions ?

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