I've been asked by a couple of local clubs to limit part of our club to am hunting only. Cast your vote for the next 4 weeks.
I've been asked by a couple of local clubs to limit part of our club to am hunting only. Cast your vote for the next 4 weeks.
Unload my gun at 12 noon and go take a nap or watch sports and drink hot chocolate at the cozy duck club
14% (4 votes)
Please let me hunt all day or until I get the limit at my draw for all of legal shooting hours, unlike most duck clubs
86% (25 votes)
Total votes: 29
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Hunter, and Fellow 3Riverians,
I am still campaigning that we become the South's first ever afternoon ONLY hunting club. Think about it. No more 4 am mornings w/ Randy Neely farting and yelling for everybody to wake up b/c he wants to get in the pit at least and hour before daylight. Instead, we can enjoy sitting up the night before, drinking Jack Daniel around the fire pit, sleep late, eat a genteel breakfast at a leisurely pace, and mosey on out to the pits about 2pm.
Therefore, I am encouraging write in votes for afternoon hunting only.
However, just in case the rest of the club doesn't go along w/ me on that, I am voting not to restrict our hunting. Randy's comments pretty much reflect my thoughts on the sub ject.
Thunder Dan
Okay, Dan, you tickled me with that post....
@Auto5man
Well Thunder Dan has been campaigning to change opening hours of duck hunting for years now. He has been spoiled by South Dakota's pheasant hunting rules which in fact starts at noon each day.
As the newest member to the "pheasant hunting slaughter" I do find great merit and convenience in Dan's theory. It is a great thing to sleep in, get a hearty breakfast and still limit out on birds by 3pm. However; you do miss out on some awesome sights at first light. The sunrise in an Arkansas rice field can take your breath away, and the sounds of whistling wings in the darken sky are music, sweet music to a duck hunter's ear.
So if Thunder Dan ever gets his bill passed in congress, I will still be there sitting in a stinky, steel box in the middle of an Arkansas field, eyes to the sky, waiting for "that" moment, that moment in time that will never be duplicated, with merely a camera in my arsenal as evidence of my experience.
Randy
I've been a duck hunter a long time, some 25 yrs now. I've heard every argument known to man about this subject. "Kill em' while you can", "They won't be here tomorrow", "Don't afternoon hunt", "Birds need to rest", etc...
Bottom line is;
It's a 60 day season, I have a job, it's an expensive hobby and I want to hunt when I can for as long as I can each time I go. I don't have the luxury of taking weeks off to pursue my passion. I love to hunt, I also enjoy the fellowship that this sport brings whether a duck is even seen in the sky. Sitting in a blind laughing, telling lies, and eating meat from a can is a wonderful experience, killing ducks is a bonus, BUT, killing ducks is fun as hell...LOL and adds to the memories of great times with great friends. Memories are made in the blind, why in the world would you want to limit that and stop at noon? The Feds set limits, I say kill your limit!
If others outside the club have a different opinion ok, hunt where you are and run your club your way. I doubt the members of Three Rivers will want to have half day hunts. And all it would take is for one group, ONE GUY, to hunt after noon and the crap will hit the fan.." Well Billy did it", "Group 7 hunted til 3pm!" This is not what we want to happen.
Hunter I say leave it alone. As a Rookie in the club my say so may not mean much, but my experience dealing with such restrictions does. This would be BAD and create a ton of headaches...
Even limiting it to part of the club puts restriction on everyone. What if it's my day to hunt one of the hottest pits, I cant get there til 2 in the afternoon, if it's one of those "limited pits" I'm screwed and that just knocked me out of a days hunt that I paid for.
Randy
Appreciate your comment and I feel the same way, but I'm trying to get an honest pole and let the members speak up. I never want to restrict time in the field, b/c every hour is sacred to us. However, with the volume of land that we hunt, our actions do matter to the folks around us and if the majority of our members want to rest part of the farm in the afternoon and see how it affects our AM hunting, I'm for it. From the looks of the pole so far, we are safe. On the same note, most farmers in our area restrict hunting after 12 noon, so realize that if a farmer ever imposed that on us, we'd have to comply. It just so happens that for 10 years, we've been able to hunt all day, except for one week period. It was about 5 years ago and there were so many ducks on the section 2 block, TV crews were coming to film it and it was amazing. Once again, I asked the guys what they wanted to do, most said no hunting past 12 for a week and that's what we did. You'll find this a shocker, but I think it did help keep the birds on us longer and we had unreal AM hunts an awesome time watching over 100,000 birds fill up section 2 and roost there for over a week, unreal and I'll never forget it.
-Hunter
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I agree with you that limiting afternoon hunting does in fact hold local birds longer, and is a terrific draw to new birds. I've seen it and know it makes a difference. I just feel that with a crew of 50 members and guest it would be impossible to govern such discipline. If a land owner puts those restrictions on us, then so be it,his land, his rules. I see you taking swift and appropriate punishment on those that would go against the land owners rules for fear of losing the lease. However I saw numerous "land owner rules" violated last year. Trucks driven on levees where you specifically said not to and a few others. I'll support you, the club and the land owner in what ever decisions are reached and will abide by those rules for the benefit of the club as a whole.. Just please see that EVERY member is obedient and complies with these rules. If not it creates a lot of ill feelings and can ruin the season.
Like I said I'm still a rookie and don't know how much my say counts, bit I am a paying member of this club, I like the club and the way you operate it, I hope to be hunting with you along time, so you have my support as leader of this here clan.
See ya soon, work days are coming!!!!!!!
Randy
I like your points and am glad that you see both sides of the issue. I am torn both ways in regard to this issue, 'knowing' that it would make a difference holding birds longer, but in my gut also 'knowing' that enforcement would be a nightmare and would limit guys in their hard earned time to enjoy hunting. I was there also in Section Two five years ago to witness and experience the amazing numbers of waterfowl we had using our area for almost two weeks. The din and cacophony of all those birds was a sight and sound that was truly amazing. I can remember parking on Roberts Rd early in the morning before sunrise to start the walk out to the pit....the noise was so loud you had to raise your voice for a buddy to hear you just a few feet away. No question that minimizing our impact as much as possible held those birds longer. But on the flip side I am reluctant to vote for a blanket restriction on pm hunts for all of the reasons you mention. My ultimate wish would be to devise a way to rest PARTS of the farm in a rotating fashion...the birds find a way to use fields that aren't being hunted and begin to raft up there. I think it would just be too complicated to manage though with a group of our size.
Grover
@Auto5man
Yes, trust me, I'll consider all the issues before we make a rule, but the first thing is to see if the members want it and so far it looks like they want it about as much as Obama care, so no worries.
If you see somebody breaking a rule, give me a call and let's discuss b/c we don't have many other than being a gentleman in the field.
-Hunter
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