Posted: 9/26/2010 5:47:33 AM EDT
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It''s really depressing for me to watch those shows on Sunday mornings.
All these guys are dressed up in the latest fashion cammies, toting all the newest gear, out in places like Montana where the whitetails look as big as horses with antlers like a moose. They get to pick their trophy out of two dozen big bucks running around under their stand. And in the end, they let you know what a great job the outfitter did. But of course, you know it's way to expensive for the average guy who is working at WalMart or too much for you to afford unless you take out a second mortgage or sell body parts off of one of your kids. I'm in my late 50s and it sure has changed since I was in high school. I remember we'd knock on a farmer's door and ask if we could quail hunt. Almost always got a yes. We'd kill birds, clean them at the side of the road and take some to the farmer. Several times we got asked to come back - meaning they enjoyed our company. Once the farmer knew what our truck or car was, we'd just park at the side of the road and jump the fence. I once had an old farmer get mad because we didn't come by and visit him. I made it a point to go see him after that simply because he was a good friend. I didn't realize it until I hurt his feelings. Now, you aren't getting on most land unless you shell out a chunk of cash, own it, or are good friends with the owner. I'm lucky, I've got lots of places to hunt, a place of my own that is fantastic for whitetail, and the time to do it. But it's not the same as it was when I was younger. People can't find places to hunt like they used and can't afford to pay the chunk of lease money some farmers want. If a place is open to hunt for free, it gets mobbed with Joe Bob bringing Billy Ray and Billy Ray bringing Ricky John, etc. And it ends up you have someone you don't know on your place trying to run you off because they say you are trespassing on their good friend's property. 
I saw it changing in my late 20s and it left a bad taste in my mouth back then. It got into the big time money i.e. the Grand National Quail Hunt back in the 70s and clear up into the 90s. I guess it was the oil money or something. Guys paid people like Delmar Smith BIG MONEY to train their pointers for quail hunting. While we were in Vermont a few years ago, I got in a conversation with an older couple. We are still friends and contact each other all the time. The husband is 85 and still deer hunts. He has told me all the farms they use to hunt have been bought up by New Yorkers who come a few times a year and pay a local to keep everybody off their farm with NO HUNTING allowed. I don't know what the outcome will be for the future of hunting in this country, but I do know these Sunday morning hunting shows are a joke and unreal. The simple truth is the guys who pay the license fees and taxes to see that wildlife conservation is carried out can't afford to do the very things they are supporting. It sucks. |
| How funny, the wife and I were just having this converstation this am. Ok, let me confess, I was ranting, she was stuck listening. I started deer hunting in wisconsin, the southwest corner to be exact. There was some public land that you took your own life into, otherwise there was plenty of private land to hunt. You either were friends with someone, or asked someone in case you didnt own some land. Now, its all leased up by crazy chicago-ites. They shell out the big money for the leases, and keeps all the locals without land out. What was a commoners game animal has turned into a rich mans sport. The irony to all the fashion and popularity is, there is a shortage of real deer hunters to take deer for food, not trophies. I dont know about others, but I refuse to be involved in the $500-1000 racket for leases. One of these days, there will be an absence of true hunters, as they have been all alienated by the greed, and deer numbers will go out of control. |
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yeah, that Goddamned Don Wallace ruined fishing for me.
Oklahoma has lots of wma's with plenty of public land available for hunting, but on some of them you'd better be decked out head to toe in blaze orange and have a huge life insurance policy. some of that public land surrounds private land, and that causes problems on it's own, as a result of those problems leases have become the rule on private land because the owner's (ranchers/farmers etc) don't have the time to patrol (the majority of hunters don't mean harm, but a few will shoot livestock whether by accident or purpose doesn't matter), when it cost the land owner money to let people hunt, they're not going to do it, hence the leases, because a leasee will pay to protect the lessor's property, and that's a win/win in land owners eyes. an example of this is the ranch we used to go shoot parrie dogs, we didn't even have to call first, just stop by the house and let him know, he'd let us know where problem spots were, sometimes come out and watch/shoot. but the last time we went up there, he told us it was all lease now, he knew it wasn't us, but somebody had shot one of his cows and didn't fess up. ruined a great shooting spot, cause nobodies going to pay a high dollar lease to shoot prarrie dogs. |
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.... One of these days, there will be an absence of true hunters, as they have been all alienated by the greed, and deer numbers will go out of control. It's that bad already in many places like Chicago and Texas. Sometimes the goofers have to run the deer off the greens so they can putt. Quoted:[/span]
yeah, that Goddamned Don Wallace ruined fishing for me.... I quit paying attention to him when I was in my late teens. He had some show on with some fabulous bass fishing "within easy driving distance of Oklahoma City". After he had ever really listening close, he promoted some resort in the southern part of Old Mexico, damn near Guatemala. 
As far as hunting, it's damn sure changed in the last two decades. |
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Don Wallace:
my mother worked for Bob Brown, the owner of Fishmaster ,making fishing floats for 25 years. Bob and Don went tube fishing in "a undislosed location". The cameraman slipped, and for a nanosecond you could tell where they were. Bob confirmed it. They were in the cooling pond for the WKY radio transmitter on Britton road. Don routinely stopped the film, hooked a fish, threw it back, then "landed a lunker". Ah, TV. |
There's still quail in OK? 
I'm 31 and I have a lot of the same memories Dan has about hunting birds. About the time I got out of high school it seemed like the quail just disappeared and most place in Payne & Pawnee counties were putting up "Leased Hunting" signs. I still chase whitetail, but now I pack a Redhawk in .44Mag cuz it's hard to carry a little boy and a rifle. I still don't have a lease, and probably never will. I'm planning my 4th elk hunt next fall. We've never paid a guide and hunt public land. I've filled tags on 2 out of the previous 3 trips. My first trip was a huge learning experience. There's no way you could get that from any outfitter. We work our asses off to find elk, but there's a sense of pride in doing it yourself. I guess I'd rather wear out boot leather than write a check. |
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There's still quail in OK?
I'm 31 and I have a lot of the same memories Dan has about hunting birds. About the time I got out of high school it seemed like the quail just disappeared and most place in Payne & Pawnee counties were putting up "Leased Hunting" signs. I still chase whitetail, but now I pack a Redhawk in .44Mag cuz it's hard to carry a little boy and a rifle. I still don't have a lease, and probably never will. I'm planning my 4th elk hunt next fall. We've never paid a guide and hunt public land. I've filled tags on 2 out of the previous 3 trips. My first trip was a huge learning experience. There's no way you could get that from any outfitter. We work our asses off to find elk, but there's a sense of pride in doing it yourself. I guess I'd rather wear out boot leather than write a check. It doesn't hurt that you can buy half a lifetime to an entire lifetime's worth of boots for some of those guided hunts.
I'll be going out my first time for deer this fall. Dad hasn't hunted since the 60's, and that was on his parent's place (which I'm not about to buy an out-of-state hunting license), and I sure as hell am not about to pay someone to teach me how to find what can be killed by a van doing 40 mph with the headlights on and the horn blaring. I'm trying to keep my pride from getting too excited about anything.
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Texans are buying up land up here now........................... I've got quite a few friends in Texas, and some have huge lots of lands, some just lease, some are buying property in Oklahoma for hunting only because it cost them so much to hunt in Texas. Land down in SE Oklahoma that is so steep you can't stand on is being bought up for $1500 an acre. Personally, I think hunting is gonna be done for the average guy in this country in the next couple of decades. There is even a ranger in Logan County, now a Lieutenant with ODWC, that acts as a lease agent for a lot of politicians and wealthy people in Oklahoma County. This country is changing radically in just one generation. |
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There's still quail in OK?
I'm 31 and I have a lot of the same memories Dan has about hunting birds. About the time I got out of high school it seemed like the quail just disappeared and most place in Payne & Pawnee counties were putting up "Leased Hunting" signs. I still chase whitetail, but now I pack a Redhawk in .44Mag cuz it's hard to carry a little boy and a rifle. I still don't have a lease, and probably never will. I'm planning my 4th elk hunt next fall. We've never paid a guide and hunt public land. I've filled tags on 2 out of the previous 3 trips. My first trip was a huge learning experience. There's no way you could get that from any outfitter. We work our asses off to find elk, but there's a sense of pride in doing it yourself. I guess I'd rather wear out boot leather than write a check. that's no shit about the quail, they've done a reversal with turkey in my area, used to never see turkey, now they're all over the place and quail are no where to be found. |
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that's no shit about the quail, they've done a reversal with turkey in my area, used to never see turkey, now they're all over the place and quail are no where to be found. About 15 years ago I took my son and Joe Carter, Sr. quail hunting on my cousins property. The guy that had it leased came charging down on us and cussed me for killing his quail. I told him to fuck off. We flushed up 4 coveys, took 14 or 15 birds, then went on to another spot. The next time we went, there wasn't a bird on the place. But I found lots of fresh shotgun hulls. I looked that SOB up and told him if he killed any more birds on that place I was going to beat him to a pulp. Or if I ever caught him hunting on it again. That SOB owned over 1100 acres of his own. The spiteful prick had went in there with several buddies and cleaned out the birds. My cousin didn't renew his lease on the property a month or two later because it pissed her off so bad. Turkey are funny about being on one place one day, then someplace else the next. Everybody thinks the turkeys belong to them when they can roam 10 miles or so in one day. I used to like hunting turkeys but just ain't go into again since I got the knees replaced. |
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that's no shit about the quail, they've done a reversal with turkey in my area, used to never see turkey, now they're all over the place and quail are no where to be found. About 15 years ago I took my son and Joe Carter, Sr. quail hunting on my cousins property. The guy that had it leased came charging down on us and cussed me for killing his quail. I told him to fuck off. We flushed up 4 coveys, took 14 or 15 birds, then went on to another spot. The next time we went, there wasn't a bird on the place. But I found lots of fresh shotgun hulls. I looked that SOB up and told him if he killed any more birds on that place I was going to beat him to a pulp. Or if I ever caught him hunting on it again. That SOB owned over 1100 acres of his own. The spiteful prick had went in there with several buddies and cleaned out the birds. My cousin didn't renew his lease on the property a month or two later because it pissed her off so bad. Turkey are funny about being on one place one day, then someplace else the next. Everybody thinks the turkeys belong to them when they can roam 10 miles or so in one day. I used to like hunting turkeys but just ain't go into again since I got the knees replaced. the turkey's are so thick in my area I gotta dodge them some mornings on my way to work, seen one earlier this summer that was damn near an albino, just had some bronze spots on it's body and what appeared to be every other tail feather, Goddamned cool looking bird. |
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that's no shit about the quail, they've done a reversal with turkey in my area, used to never see turkey, now they're all over the place and quail are no where to be found. About 15 years ago I took my son and Joe Carter, Sr. quail hunting on my cousins property. The guy that had it leased came charging down on us and cussed me for killing his quail. I told him to fuck off. We flushed up 4 coveys, took 14 or 15 birds, then went on to another spot. The next time we went, there wasn't a bird on the place. But I found lots of fresh shotgun hulls. I looked that SOB up and told him if he killed any more birds on that place I was going to beat him to a pulp. Or if I ever caught him hunting on it again. That SOB owned over 1100 acres of his own. The spiteful prick had went in there with several buddies and cleaned out the birds. My cousin didn't renew his lease on the property a month or two later because it pissed her off so bad. Turkey are funny about being on one place one day, then someplace else the next. Everybody thinks the turkeys belong to them when they can roam 10 miles or so in one day. I used to like hunting turkeys but just ain't go into again since I got the knees replaced. the turkey's are so thick in my area I gotta dodge them some mornings on my way to work, seen one earlier this summer that was damn near an albino, just had some bronze spots on it's body and what appeared to be every other tail feather, Goddamned cool looking bird. How did it taste? 
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that's no shit about the quail, they've done a reversal with turkey in my area, used to never see turkey, now they're all over the place and quail are no where to be found. About 15 years ago I took my son and Joe Carter, Sr. quail hunting on my cousins property. The guy that had it leased came charging down on us and cussed me for killing his quail. I told him to fuck off. We flushed up 4 coveys, took 14 or 15 birds, then went on to another spot. The next time we went, there wasn't a bird on the place. But I found lots of fresh shotgun hulls. I looked that SOB up and told him if he killed any more birds on that place I was going to beat him to a pulp. Or if I ever caught him hunting on it again. That SOB owned over 1100 acres of his own. The spiteful prick had went in there with several buddies and cleaned out the birds. My cousin didn't renew his lease on the property a month or two later because it pissed her off so bad. Turkey are funny about being on one place one day, then someplace else the next. Everybody thinks the turkeys belong to them when they can roam 10 miles or so in one day. I used to like hunting turkeys but just ain't go into again since I got the knees replaced. the turkey's are so thick in my area I gotta dodge them some mornings on my way to work, seen one earlier this summer that was damn near an albino, just had some bronze spots on it's body and what appeared to be every other tail feather, Goddamned cool looking bird. How did it taste? don't know, cleveland county's turkey season in only in the spring |
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don't know, cleveland county's turkey season in only in the spring  You mean there is a SEASON on turkeys????? 
20 years ago I got to hunt up by Waynoka on the Cimarron in the spring season. We actually came on a flock of over 200 birds. I've never send that big of a winter flock in my life!!!!!!! We all bagged a bird and were on our way home by 9. The next year it got leased and the outfitter was charging $250 a day to go turkey hunt on that land.
Last time I killed a turkey was on Canton WMA. I had four or five toms gobble at me after I yelped before the sun came up. I watched so many flashlights coming at me after the gobbles I thought I was on I-40 at night by downtown Oklahoma City. I actually had one guy shoot a tom on the fly down into MY DECOYS BEFORE legal shooting time. I picked my crap up and left. A couple of hours later I passed a nice tom and two hens off the road. I pulled down the road, got out of the truck, and crawled my fat ass about a quarter mile through the sand burrs and briar patch to get close. Some clowns stopped by the turkeys and started to shoot them off the road. I said to hell with that and let a round go off in the air. That tom flew right at me and my second shot dropped him right at my feet. That wasn't really the way I like to shoot a nice tom. Calling one up and having him strut in front of you is a bigger thrill that popping one. Don't get me wrong, I'm there to pop one and I will. But damn, you can't help but enjoy one of them spreading that tail and watching those waddles swell up. 
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