Pre-Season Preparations: Read And Understand The Hunting Regulations

© By Othmar Vohringer

An important part of preparing for the hunting season is to read and understand the hunting regulations in the area you hunt. Yet, I am baffled each year how many hunters, even so called celebrity hunters, are caught in violation of game hunting laws. The usual excuse is; “I didn’t know.”

There is simply no excuse for not keeping up and be familiar with the laws and regulations pertaining to hunting. Wildlife conservation needs can, and often do, change from one year to the next and if you do not know and shoot the wrong deer or at the wrong time you could get in to serious and expensive trouble. Take my hunting region for example. Due to declining moose populations the Wildlife Services stipulated that the moose hunting season start in November and for two weeks only, whereas in the previous year moose season was held in late September to October. The season has not started yet and hunters already “look forward” to the September moose hunting season. If theses hunters go out and shoot a moose they are poachers and will be treated as such when caught, and quite rightly so!

It is our duty to keep abreast of changing laws and regulations and with every region making hunting regulations available on the Internet nobody has an excuse not to be informed.

The most important part of pre-season hunting preparations is to know and understand the rules and regulations, even if you hunt with an outfitter in another US State or Canadian Province. Not knowing the rules will not prevent you from getting your butt kicked, the excuse that you didn’t know or that the outfitter hasn’t told you will fall on deaf ears in the court room.

Is Shed Antler Hunting Licensing In Our Future?

© By Othmar Vohringer

The thought that we need a license to collect shed antlers seems ridiculous to many hunters. Yet if new laws in Nevada, Utah and Montana catch on with other states shed antler licensing could soon become a nationwide mandatory requirement.

Utah requires a mandatory “Antler Gathering Ethics” course and established season dates during which hunters can gather them.

The Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners voted to prohibit shed antler collection between January 1st and April 15th. It is not required to be licensed to go shed antler hunting. However such a step might be considered in the future.

Montana established antler colleting seasons for all their Wildlife Management Units. It’s interesting to note that Montana, Nevada and Utah claim that the increasing popularity of shed antler hunting made such regulation necessary. We have seen it before when governments sense “increased popularity” in an activity they also sense revenue that could be obtained and therefore a “need” to regulate and license.

Proposed regulation in Illinois will keep youngsters out of the field

In the News.

Source: U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance

Law enforcement officials in Illinois have proposed regulations that will prohibit young people from partaking in hunting and other firearm-related activities.
The Illinois State Police (ISP) has submitted a proposal to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) that will prohibit anyone under 10 years of age from obtaining an Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID). All Illinois residents who buy or possess firearms are required to have a valid FOID card. The proposal appears to be the department’s knee-jerk reaction to anti-hunting/anti-gun activists who responded with hysterics after reading a satirical article that made light of how easily a newborn could obtain a FOID.
The ISP’s proposal has drawn the ire of sportsmen. It denies parents of the right to decide when and how children get involved in hunting and shooting sports. If the age restriction is put in place, it will delay the entry of successive generations into the hunting heritage and lead to a decline in the sportsmen’s community.
“Research shows that in states with hunting age restrictions, the recruitment and retention ratio of new hunters is lower than in states that do not have such restrictions,” said Bud Pidgeon, USSA president. “At present, Illinois does not have a minimum hunting age, and we would like to see it stay that way.”
The JCAR is an administrative body responsible for reviewing and considering proposed regulations. Prior to considering proposed regulations, JCAR must observe a 45-day public comment period during which citizens may submit written comments.
USSA will submit official comments to JCAR early next week. Illinois sportsmen should keep an eye to your e-mail for an action alert.

Tags: Illinois Hunting, Firearm Restriction, Young Hunters, Illinois State Police, U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance

Cover up that deer in the back of your truck!

I am sure you have heard about a new law been proposed in North Dakota by Rep. Duane DeKrey. The news has been all over the Internet. The law would require hunters to cover up harvested game when traveling on an Interstate or highway when returning from a successful hunt.

DeKery claims that he couldn’t help wondering what the general public thinks about seeing dead deer in the back of pick-up trucks or tied onto trailers. After a flood of protest from hunters against the proposed law Duane DeKrey pulled the plug on his stupid legislation. And that is the time where PETA entered the field. PETA, according to their spokesman Bruce Friedrich, feels that the cover-your-deer-legislation is a bad idea. Say what? Does this mean that PETA for ones is on the side of the hunters?

Not rally. According to the AP, PETA would like for hunters to leave their game uncovered in the hope it might bolster their own anti-hunting cause, spokesman Bruce Friedrich said. "We encourage people, if they're going to kill defenseless animals, to parade the animal's carcass all over town, since uncovered bloody carcasses are more likely to wake people up to the cruelties of hunting," he said. "Clearly, covering up cruelty doesn't help animals at all."

When I heard about this nonsense legislation proposal I got just a tad annoyed thinking; “How far will this politically correct morons go to legislate every aspect of our lives”. But then the hunters stepped, once again, up to the task and defeated political correctness stubidity. It's called democracy at work and we need to do it every time some minority interest group pushes their minority agenda. Unfortunatlely, today hunters have to be as active in the political jungle as they are in the deer woods. Well done North Dakota hunters.