Sign of things to come?

[Denver]

An article in the local paper about the opening of firearm deer season with pictures of the buck poles in area communities was really interesting this year. The animal getting much attention is a 240 lb field dressed feral hog that was taken by a deer hunter. Until a couple years ago, it was unheard of in this area. Seems we now have a growing population of wild hogs and there won't be many restrictions on hunting them either. The wildlife people with the DNR seem to be quite concerned. All I know is if they can survive our winters, they should make some fun hunting in the future, and I'll do all I can to keep their population in check.

:castmine: :Fire:

[bruce drake]

where?

[Bass Ackward]

Ya just never know how things are going to change.

When I was a kid, everyone left here to go up in the mountains to go deer hunting. Hunting camps were all the rage in Potter and McKean Counties and the like. Now, they got economic problems cause there are no deer to speak of anymore and few hunters travel.

First reports of tracks around here was in the early 50s and nobody knew what those heart shaped tracks were. No one owned a deer rifle because what the heck would you want to put all that money in something to be used two weeks out of a year. :grin:

Yep. That was the prevailing attitude. Don't even mention a handgun. What in the world would ya need one of those for? Everyone owned a shotgun. Now almost nobody hunts small game cause it pretty much amounts to taking your gun for a walk. And if you can't start a kid out hunting small game and have enough to keep him interested a few weekends a year before he get's bored, you lose that age group. That is exactly what has happened here.

The origional name of the town was called Elk Ridge. And there was a reason for that. Now the only Elk around are raised. Some bucks are raised here too for shipment to those hunting reserves or what ever they are called that you see on TV.

Quail, grouse, rabbits, squirrel were once pleantiful. Then they died out as the deer population exploded. Vehicle accident rates went to the highest in the nation. Turkeys were brought in as an experiment about 20 years ago and the things flourished. So the state started trapping them and selling them to other states because they were releasing cyotes to control the deer which has played heck with the remaining turkeys. Deer are still thriving, and car accidents are actually higher. Why? Cause the cyotes stay out in the woods driving the deer into towns where vehicle traffic is higher. Liberals! But ya can't let your pet cat or dog out anymore or he won't be coming back.

Now we have geese wintering here too. Never had that before about 10 years ago. Was very seldom that you even saw them flying over as we are so far from the flyways. But they are around as evidence can be found everywhere you step.

So what will be the next big trend? Probably the deer heard getting diseased now that they are confined to a smaller, closer territory dieing out so that hunting is ruined al together.

Unless the game commision watches the movie Jurasic Park and desides to clone a T-Rex. Now there is something you might need a harder cast bullet for huh? But I can't tell you why we don't have wild hogs around here. They should thrive.

[Denver]

where?

Northern lower peninsula of Michigan.