[fabsroman]

On one farm I hunt on, about 10 years ago I saw a guy poaching on the property dressed in a ghillie suit and using a bow during firearms season. The sad thing is that back then the landowner pretty much gave permission to everybody that wanted to hunt on the land. The owner, a previous hunter himself, is 94 years old right now, and after the wine house incident about 5 years ago, he doesn't just grant permission to anyone anymore. You definitely need to know somebody before hunting there. On the same farm the same season, a waterfowl hunter left his decoys out in the field overnight planning on hunting the field the next morning. What he found the next morning was a cut chain on the back entrance to the farm and no decoys. Of course, as chance would have it, I was setting out my decoys one morning as he and a friend were coming to the field to hunt and he assumed that I took the decoys. His friend was on the scene first, and he told his friend to load up his gun and go talk to me and my buddy. What are people thinking? After a little discussion that morning, we hunted together, exchanged telephone numbers, and hunted together a couple of times afterward.

I am willing to bet that the number of bad hunters out there is not the majority. However, the number of people that want to lock farms up and not allow anybody else to hunt with them is significant. If waterfowling, why not let the other guy hunt in with you. Will it really matter if there are more decoys and more blinds in the same field? If there really are too many people, how about letting somebody film the hunt while he waits his turn to get his limit. If big game hunting, why not let the other guy hunt somewhere on the farm that isn't covered by a gun or hunt next to you, first shot on the game being alternated and the settling of any dispute about who killed what being settled by the drawing of straws?

This shouldn't be so complicated, but attitudes, envy, and greed cause most of the problem.

My wife reads this board sometimes over my shoulder and she has remarked that sometimes it seems as though somethreads are all about mine being bigger than yours and/or who is the better hunter. It really shouldn't be like that either because a lot of hunting depends on luck and money.

Kind of like trying to determine who is a better person. It all depends on what qualities people use to determine who is a better person. Money, intelligence, street smarts, looks, nobleness, politeness, heart, love, charity, etc. Everybody has their own viewpoint on that stuff too.