Road hunting

[onpoint]

So, if road hunting is outlawed Landman. Would you be willing to let people hunt your property if they ask permission?

Or will it really make little difference other than the free lance do it yourself hunters will have lost yet another spot to hunt?

I understand if you won't but I only ask that you be honest with us.

onpoint

 

[landman]

So, if road hunting is outlawed Landman. Would you be willing to let people hunt your property if they ask permission?

Or will it really make little difference other than the free lance do it yourself hunters will have lost yet another spot to hunt?

I understand if you won't but I only ask that you be honest with us.

onpoint

I stuck my neck out and purchased some land, improved it for conservation and wildlife and share it with others for free. Last year about 24 different individuals hunted with me with a total of over 90 hunter days (one hunter hunting one day = a hunter day. Some from this forum board have hunted with me. I take friends, sometimes their friends, and sometimes new aquantances hunting nearly every weekend of the season.

I do what I can for free hunting, I don't have the resources or the land to offer free hunting to everyone. Hunter behavior prevents me from letting anyone hunt on their own with just permission. I've done that and it just does not work. If I give someone permission for one day they hear it as permission for the season. If I give two guys permisson to hunt, eight hunters show up. Therefore I provide free hunting, but only with me, and only what my land can provide.

There is nothing more that I can do for free.

LM

 

[onpoint]

I understand, we have had the same thing happen to us. I let select people hunt here and only with one of our family members also. Otherwise as soon as we are out of site, many went or did what they were asked not to, like cross on to neighboring property or in a deer hunting scenario, pushed areas told to stay out of. Once they have driven out bedding areas. The deer are much more wiry to come back in there. Then they are not here on our property, they are being shot or bedding elsewhere.

onpoint

 

[Uncle Buck]

First, let me state that I am not a big road hunting fan. I did a lot of it in my younger day, but do have not for some time. Also, it was ridiculous that the law was changed to facilitate what most roadhunter's were already doing. The bird no longer has to be in the row when/if it flushes. Just ground pound the ditch parrot before it gets over or under the fence. Of course everyone knows where the 33ft row is if there is no fence. Essentially, I agree with Landman that road hunting is an excuse by a lot of hunters to abuse the row "rights".
Unlike Landman, I do not turn every thread into a diatribe on the subject and I do not lay awake at night worrying that a roadhunter legally or illegally snitched a bird off my property. Road hunting is all some have and it is legal. The issue has been going on since the Sixties, tho did not seem to be a problem prior to that. The last time the issue came up with the legislators, Landman's ilk lost ground. Casing guns is just a back door approach, kind of like outlawing ammunition if you are anti-gun.
Take a breather Landman. Pretty soon you'll be so worked up you won't be able to enjoy yourself on the ground you worked so hard for. Just advice from an old man.

 

[Thor]

Landman-

This fall I was able to hunt four days in your great state. Two of us got four birds. We walked ditches withour dogs. We only took birds legally. We did not road hunt from a truck. I am not disappointed in our results, I chalk it up to the amount of crops still in and the wet conditions. I have a ten year old son that would like to hunt pheasants some day. When we come to SD, we eat our meals at the diner, buy a couple drinks in the bar, fill our tank and buy some snacks at the Cenex.

My point to all of this is that if you ban ditch hunting, I will not come to SD, my son will not get the opportunity hunt pheasants, and the local merchants will no longer receive my business.

I can't defend the actions of the slob hunters and the aforementioned poachers. I am not one of them.

Thor

 

[tmrichardson]

Uncle Buck remember this forum applies to all states. Ditch hunting is either not legal in some or very difficult to practice legally in others.

In MN for example, IF you find a ditch that is legal to hunt in the first place (not all are), AND you shoot at AND drop your pheasant in that ROW--then it's legal. Once you start shooting at a bird that is outside of the ROW or go to retrieve a bird without permission outside of the ROW on posted or unposted Agr. land, then you are breaking the law. Which means road hunting may as well be illegal, as the stars that have to be aligned to make it legal don't come around that often!

If ditch hunting is all there is I'll stop pheasant hunting entirely! I hunt SD for the public land and WIA program. I don't pay to hunt and won't. If ditches are all there are then we've all got a lot bigger problem than the trespass laws! I've found treating landowners well can get you an invite even when you don't ask for one at times. I realize that even in areas with a lot of public land to work, without their habitat on private land it would be a lot different as well.

 

[boomer1]

One of the biggest problems with the SD road hunting laws is that it is impossible to enforce and the road hunters know it. How does a landowner prove that the bird originated outside the ROW even if he was right there to see it? The road hunter can easily violate the law when there isn't anyone around to see the violation so there isn't much risk of getting caught. So a roadhunter uses the illegal technique to walk some good habitat back to a waiting hunter on the road. The guy on the road only shoots if the roadway is clear and even if the landowner shows up and questions the situation, the road hunter can simply lie and say "I'm looking for a bird that I shot".

From the landowner's perspective the SD road hunting law is weak and certainly favors the illegal and unethical road hunter.

LM

This discussion is getting out of hand. I'm sorry Landman but your whining reminds me of that kid in school who would get mad and take his ball home because things didn't go his way. Like it or not road hunting is legal and although you and I and many others choose not to hunt this way many have adopted this method. I know of a few respectful hunters who prefer to hunt road ditches and I'm confident they would never purposely break a game regulation. As it has been said many times, the dirt bag hunter who jumps the fence without permission to take a shot at the rooster he saw from the road is going to continue to do what he does regardless of a regulation change. My point is this, not everyone is fortunate to have their own land or have access to private land to hunt and in my opinion they have just as much right to hunt as the landowner or the guy who knows every landowner in the county. We all need to remember that landowners don't own the wild animals that inhabit their land.

 

[JMBZ71]

It is my belief that more than 95% of all road hunters will shoot at a bird originating outside the ROW if they feel they won't get caught, for example.

LM

This point keeps coming up in this thread so I think it's important to reiterate that in SD, it's perfectly legal to shoot birds that originate outside the ROW if the birds are shot while flying over the ROW.

I do very little road hunting but an opportunity presented itself while I was hunting near Kennebec last year. Long story short, I shot two birds that originated from an unposted, abandoned farmstead while walking the ditch on the opposite side of the section road. Both birds were shot while flying overhead, within the ROW. One fell in the ROW and the other in an unposted Milo field on the side of the section road I was on. Both birds were shot and retrieved legally.

I hope SD pheasant hunters always have the opportunity to harvest a bird or two this way when the opportunity presents itself.

 

[kiotehntr]

This point keeps coming up in this thread so I think it's important to reiterate that in SD, it's perfectly legal to shoot birds that originate outside the ROW if the birds are shot while flying over the ROW.

I do very little road hunting but an opportunity presented itself while I was hunting near Kennebec last year. Long story short, I shot two birds that originated from an unposted, abandoned farmstead while walking the ditch on the opposite side of the section road. Both birds were shot while flying overhead, within the ROW. One fell in the ROW and the other in an unposted Milo field on the side of the section road I was on. Both birds were shot and retrieved legally.

I hope SD pheasant hunters always have the opportunity to harvest a bird or two this way when the opportunity presents itself.

I agree with you JMB. On my trip to SD my group shot 5 birds this way, out of the truck, not within at least a half mile of livestock or farmsteads. It was perfectly legal. Landmad, i'm sorry if you got burned, but, you can't shut down something due to a few hunters messing it up for the rest. I road hunt alot in Kansas, but I have permission for both sides of the road, and I'm not a slob hunter by any means. I have hunted with fellow members of this site that can attest to that....