Howard Vincent retiring from PF

A5 Sweet 16 said:
Yet I manage to shoot pheasants on those spots all season long, & I'm not working terribly hard to do it.
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I think its safe to say that ducks, bucks, and wild turkeys are all probably smarter than pheasants. Not to say that roosters are dumb, because once they start getting hunted heavily, they definitely aren't. MN does not have a youth pheasant season, and I would prefer to keep it that way. Ducks and wild turkeys get pressured once the calling starts, and bucks bail when there's scent in the woods.

You will never see a sizable buck again once you start leaving scent around.

I probably sent this thread off track when I started my complaining about the special youth seasons. My apologies, you can go back to talking about Howard Vincent and PF now.
 
For many days now it’s been about the validity of PF and whether they are worth $35 to join, basically; these threads allow people to show who they are, what they’re motivated by, basically…kind of their true colors. Surprising, to be honest. But I’m probably reading into things wrong…
 
I love the idea of PF but putting money in places like Wisconsin that has very little in the way of wild pheasant hunting left is a waste! I say put the the money in the strongholds that still remain , guys that love ringnecks will travel to find them.
 
Moonster man said:
I love the idea of PF but putting money in places like Wisconsin that has very little in the way of wild pheasant hunting left is a waste! I say put the the money in the strongholds that still remain , guys that love ringnecks will travel to find them.
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I believe lots of $ that goes to a particular area is raised locally/regionally through banquets and the like; I believe PF facilitates habitat creation/preservation through its efforts at working with wildlife agencies at the state and federal levels. Again, $35…why is it more compelling to find the chinks in the armor? I don’t get it. Nobody’s asking for hundreds or thousands of $…or a day or three of your time. Again, I’m a bit incredulous that it’s so hard to get 95% support at the thought that $35 is a good deal for the basic privilege of joining, not to mention the magazine, cap, gaiter or whatever swag they’re offering at the time. My personal observation that very few guys offer any $ or help to hunt on a friend’s private ground to help with taxes, food plots, and general expenses I incur to stay in the good graces of several farmers who let us hunt. I think many/most must think they deserve some special treatment despite doing virtually nothing to deserve it. Buying a license doesn’t count, IMO! Just my anecdotal, empirical observations after 29 seasons of hunting some pretty stellar private ground in SD. I could be reading things all wrong…
 
I think youth days are a good idea that get ruin in the planning stage by grownups who don't consider how the kids feel about hunting. Kids want to "rub" elbows, tell stories, and be accepted by their dad, and the local hunting heroes. But mostly, I think dad and the kid go out alone and hunt, then the rest of the season the dad goes out and hunts with his "crew", and the kids is left to either go hunting with a neighbor kid...if there is a place to hunt within walking distance or goes back to playing computer game.

Youth hunts shouldn't be separated from the regular season...make youth hunts the first weekend of the season. Local PF chapters could put on mini game fairs that are focused on the youth. Start them 1-2 P.M. serve/sell hotdogs and pop, have games and prizes, drawing for free gear....the kids might even meet up with their friends and tell each other about the hunts they had with "dad's crew".

The goal should be to get the kids feeling accepted by the hunting community.
 
Moonster man said:
I love the idea of PF but putting money in places like Wisconsin that has very little in the way of wild pheasant hunting left is a waste! I say put the the money in the strongholds that still remain , guys that love ringnecks will travel to find them.
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Specifically, I think the work PF does is to assist USDA, FSA, NRCS write the specs for CRP, CREP, etc, but it’s up to landowners to enroll in the programs. PF does have around 100 field biologists that also work right in those NRCS offices within the footprint of where there are pheasants. I hope some resources are directed to marginal
areas, it’s hard to say how
much of your $35 would be siphoned off for that… a dime? Not sure. Irrelevant. I’d rather hear someone explain why a different habitat group is better, like DU, just being hypothetical…vs. reasons not to support PF. Hope people who I habitat this place support at least one habitat group…if we don’t, hard to imagine the average guy who goes once per year who’s never heard of this forum supports any habitat group. If it was free would there be pushback? Trying to discern the issues…some can’t get past the fact that executives make lots of $ (not nearly what for-profit leaders make), some can’t get past that some landowners have had bad experiences with PF staff members at local levels, or didn’t get done what they had hoped; some are evidently suspect of large enterprises, who must be corrupt; not sure. Interesting, for sure…will leave it there.
 
Rogue Hunter said:
I think youth days are a good idea that get ruin in the planning stage by grownups who don't consider how the kids feel about hunting. Kids want to "rub" elbows, tell stories, and be accepted by their dad, and the local hunting heroes. But mostly, I think dad and the kid go out alone and hunt, then the rest of the season the dad goes out and hunts with his "crew", and the kids is left to either go hunting with a neighbor kid...if there is a place to hunt within walking distance or goes back to playing computer game.

Youth hunts shouldn't be separated from the regular season...make youth hunts the first weekend of the season. Local PF chapters could put on mini game fairs that are focused on the youth. Start them 1-2 P.M. serve/sell hotdogs and pop, have games and prizes, drawing for free gear....the kids might even meet up with their friends and tell each other about the hunts they had with "dad's crew".

The goal should be to get the kids feeling accepted by the hunting community.
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I think lots of dad’s continue to bring kids out throughout the season, don’t think 100% of youth hunting is just during the youth season. Or, they may do more hunting back home…grouse, ducks, deer, whatever. I think promoting youth to hunt is great…more ways are better than fewer ways. I began at about age 10 back in the ‘70’s…no youth season, but had there been, that would have been great! More experiences are better than fewer, IMO. Just like getting a pup to hunt…more exposure vs less exposure, IMO.
 
BTW, putting young kids in grass that adults think is easy walking may not be for them at age 12…expecting them to keep up with
a group, even 2-3 adults, is difficult for lots of kids. Catering just to them, with no adult hunting alongside them, is smart…slow things down to whatever level
needed…teach them to observe the dogs, understand the wind, the cover, etc. it’s called education, and gearing it to their physical limitations. Duck or deer or turkey hunting could be very different if done in a sedentary fashion. Take 10 kids out, maybe 2,3,4 want to keep going with dad…or more, or less. I’ve taken about 10 kids out, they’re all different…painting with a broad brush doesn’t work. Thank God!!! I’ll let each family decide how to approach this, and not involve the state or the country to decide how I bring my kids up. Give me the option, or many options. I’ll choose as I see fit for my kids, based on their abilities, feelings, desires, etc. Make it easier vs harder, give me more options vs fewer…yada, yada, yada.
 
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I didn’t support PF for years because what I saw was a lot of funds going to private land that was nothing more than a deer hunting paradise with about 1% being pheasant habitat. I always saw the orange PF and the No Hunting sign on the same posts. It was much of a positive look. It looked like only the private land own got all the funds raised. It seemed like a couple of the owners of these properties didn’t do anything but harass the crap out of you if you so much as slowed down while driving past to look at the deer.
I keep a membership now and attend banquets when possible, but it took a while to get the bad taste out of my mouth.
 
PF is "The Habitat Oaganization". It is going to be hard to keep the deer out and they are fine with ducks to bucks and any other wildlife that wants to take refuge in the habitat created. Just curious, what habitat was created that held deer and not pheasants? Where I am, if PF wasn't improving private land habitat, they wouldn't have much to do, very little state owned land here. If they create some cover, the birds will find it and propagate. They will spread to any other suitable cover available, maybe even to somewhere where you can hunt them. B-B can express PF's mission much better than myself, so...what B-B said goes double for me!
 
I am from a family that is quite religious, and $ is given weekly to support that denomination, despite decades of of heinous transgressions perpetrated against kids! I was personally targeted! This whole discussion borders on absurd, IMO! 🤪 People are much more myopic, provincial, and selfish than I would have guessed. But, I’m affected by pheasant hunting more profoundly than dang near anything, so I’m pretty subjective in my views! 😝😝😝
 
I know guys who hunt seriously hard hunted pubic ground and can still kill a buck a duck or a gobbler about any day of the season they want. I seen it time and time again. Them same guys can't necessarily do it with phesants though just cause they ain't as experienced. But they don't go around blaming little kids and yuoth seasons just because they can't find no birds.
 
Ignore habitat organizations, find someone who owns land and understand what goes on to just putting food plots in each year…not to mention trees, prairie grass, Canadian thistle mitigation (and other noxious weeds), periodic burns, etc. it’s especially hard when you’re 425 miles away. Separately, I’ve seen some really great stuff DU has done in the past 5 years for pheasants! Incredible!!!!
 
I view the $35 bucks as a magazine subscription. I personally know a couple of the couple of the current and former habitat specialists and biologists here in IL. I can tell you a lot of what they do with local farmers is amazing. I've seen many of the habitat projects they have been involved in with local farmers, and the results can be unbelievable. These folks are great advocates for habitat and wildlife. I think as hunters where this falls apart a little is most of these projects are done on private land and are not open to the public. I think many people assume the projects they do are for public access. I choose to support my local chapter. My dad was heavily involved, before he passed, and he used to pull a drill around that our local chapter had bought to assist with the planting of the habitat projects. Just my 2 cents.
 
Well stated. Again, I hope there aren’t too many guys out there that think their $35 is much more than a hat and a subscription. But through that, hope that you get involved and meet people and do something greater with your time, $, and talents. This isn’t an entitlement, it’s a privilege that we have some ability to influence and grow….if we care and we work
at in some fashion. I’ve been mesmerized with these birds since a little kid, still am 50 years later!
 
benelli-banger said:
For many days now it’s been about the validity of PF and whether they are worth $35 to join, basically; these threads allow people to show who they are, what they’re motivated by, basically…kind of their true colors. Surprising, to be honest. But I’m probably reading into things wrong…
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benelli-banger said:
People are much more myopic, provincial, and selfish than I would have guessed.
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benelli-banger said:
, they’re all different…painting with a broad brush doesn’t work.
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A VERY small number of people on this site have said 100% negative things about PF. A slightly larger number think PF "walks on water" and can do no wrong. A majority of Ultimatepheasanthunting.com forum members support the mission and idea behind PF*, wish it success, but at the same time some have called out issues with the organization. Are we allowed to recount stories where a chapters land acquisition idea was turned down by the regional rep because it was "small potatoes" (50acres) and wouldn't cover corporate overhead? Can we bring up instances of sales ideas to raise money for wildlife habitat were turned down because the money was raised by Pro Pheasants and not Pheasants Forever? A board provides oversight of a business, members of a nonprofit have a a right to oversight over everything(in my opinion). Can't we still support an organization and its core mission while calling to light things it does that we disagree with? Don't be thin skinned, learn to take constructive criticism. We can support an organization and at the same time discuss its flaws in order to make it better and keep it honest.

I do think more forum members might see things your way BB, if they weren't....lacking the polish of urban society: unsophisticated...ah yes, provincial, that's the word I'm looking for. But I don't want to paint them with a broad brush....

*my personal opinion
 
My reaction(s) are from the perspective that it’s a $35 membership that provides enough “stuff” that it’s almost free and yet a good % of people who chime in here complain in some way, shape or form. PF and other similar charities know what they’re up against, evidently, and that they have to offer a “happy meal” of merch to get our attention and get the requisite response needed. No one organization can be all things to all people, obviously, but it seems like PF has a pretty compelling platform that’s fairly easy to support. Maybe I’m too easily satisfied…maybe I should expect more? Dunno. I’m satisfied with what PF is doing, especially in relation to the very minimal requirements to join.
 
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KsHusker said:
I dont think it's the kids the ruin it -- it's typically the adults taking advantage of it. In KS it sure seems that way -- you should see the photos of bucks posted on the KS hunting and fishing FB page after "Youth" deer season opens. 7-10 yr olds on that page have shot some once in a lifetime deer -- extremely suspect - and have heard many stories of what goes on during youth pheasant season opener. So I see GimRuis point.
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Yep in my state in magazines you never see a kid with a doe its always a Big buck.
 
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