Absurd Laws...

[GobbleNut]

It's the off-season, so I will throw out another topic to ponder...

Let's discuss some of the absurd laws and rules that exist in the hunting world.  Here is my personal favorite.

This is the "air space" rule for crossing private lands at public/private "checkerboard" corners. (for those of you that are not familiar with this, image a checkerboard at each intersecting corner where the two colors come together, and with one color being private and the other public land).  This situation is quite common in the western states.  there are LOTS of these intersecting corners where a public land hunter could step across the corner from public to public lands without ever touching the private lands on either side.

However, there is this ludicrous law that says the landowner "owns" the airspace above his property (for a certain distance), and although someone stepping across at a corner would not physically touch their private property, it is still illegal to do so because it would violate the private property "air space". 

There are literally MILLIONS of public land acres that are off-limits to the public because of this ridiculous law,...and conversely, those public lands are, in essence, privatized for the landowner to have as his own private playground. 

Quite honestly, just talking about this situation infuriates me!     

[derek]

No Sunday hunting in several states in the east. 

Pretty absurd if you ask me.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[Mossberg90MN]

Yup I have found myself in that exact spot before. And whenever I do cross like that im waiting for the landowner or someone to come out yelling at me because they assumed I trespassed since no one ever goes on that public lot.

Yea that's pretty dumb. Not sure if it's law In my state but if it is, that's dumb.

I'm not a fan that I can't use Trail cameras on WMAs in my state. Not for Turkey, but for deer. I get the idea, because you don't want people leaving stuff up all year and just making a mess, but maybe if it was just in season.

I also wish I could cut shooting lanes for deer hunting. Again, I get it. But it would be nice if I could "groom" the tree a little so I can have clear shooting lanes.

Same goes for cutting brush or branches in front of me for Turkey hunting. I know it's not allowed in my state to cut anything. And there has been times where I set up and wish I can cut some some vines or brush in front of me for a better view.

I normally just step on it to flatten it. It's not cutting it, but, don't know what the difference is at that point.

I wish you could quarter deer on state land and leave the carcass/remains.
If I could quarter the deer in field and just head back with the meat in a pack like they do out west, that would be really beneficial in some of those harder to get to spots.

I think that's enough for me hahah

[Jroddc]

I live in the most densely human populated state which also happens to be the most densely populated by black bears. Here they cause a lot of damage to crops, damage property, kill livestock, kill pets, break into houses and are hit by cars pretty regularly now. Up until last year we could hunt them but not anymore.... Stupid law

[Paulmyr]

Yup I have found myself in that exact spot before. And whenever I do cross like that im waiting for the landowner or someone to come out yelling at me because they assumed I trespassed since no one ever goes on that public lot.

Yea that's pretty dumb. Not sure if it's law In my state but if it is, that's dumb.

I'm not a fan that I can't use Trail cameras on WMAs in my state. Not for Turkey, but for deer. I get the idea, because you don't want people leaving stuff up all year and just making a mess, but maybe if it was just in season.

I also wish I could cut shooting lanes for deer hunting. Again, I get it. But it would be nice if I could "groom" the tree a little so I can have clear shooting lanes.

Same goes for cutting brush or branches in front of me for Turkey hunting. I know it's not allowed in my state to cut anything. And there has been times where I set up and wish I can cut some some vines or brush in front of me for a better view.

I normally just step on it to flatten it. It's not cutting it, but, don't know what the difference is at that point.

I wish you could quarter deer on state land and leave the carcass/remains.
If I could quarter the deer in field and just head back with the meat in a pack like they do out west, that would be really beneficial in some of those harder to get to spots.

I think that's enough for me hahah

They snuck that cutting brush one in under the radar. News to me. It use to be you could trim up to a certain diameter, 1 1/2" I think not sure. Wonder how often it gets enforced. Plenty of guys could get popped for that one and not have a clue they were breaking the law.

[TurkeyReaper69]

Not exactly related to the hunt, but when I hunted Hawaii this past spring I had to make an appointment at the police station to register my firearm. Went to police station and had to be fingerprinted and the whole 9 yards... even so far as paid a fee to bring my gun onto the island.

[Turkeyman]

I hear you GobbleNut regarding "air space".  Not turkey hunting but rather my elk hunting in Colorado. We had that exact situation in a quadrant at a fence. North was NF, south was the outfitter's ranch, east was private, west was private. The outfitter said he didn't want us crossing over it so as not to cause bad feelings between him and the private landowners. Not sure if the conservation department had anything mandated.

[scattergun]

I think about 3/4 of any states rule book is filled with absurd laws. It's not possible to effectively hunt without breaking a law. If you deny that, you are only lying to yourself

I've not heard of the airspace one, and not only is that an absurd law, that's absurd that a single land owner would care. It's absurd that any landowner who buys land surrounding public land is then disgruntled when people use the public areas.

No Sunday hunting is a doozie. That's outright religious discrimination right there. I can't believe those are still on the books.

No trail cameras is one of those laws nobody follows. There's trail cameras all over public lands, nobody cares. You think there's a bear bait anywhere out there without a trail camera on it? Come on now. You get to leave a pile of food out there. Why would trail cameras be any issue. If there were really zillions of them getting forgotten out there all year, criminals would be making bank stealing and selling them.

Cutting shooting lanes is another one nobody follows. I'm not aware of any state that allows you to cut anything, yet, you can't stand hunt without it. No, you shouldn't be cutting down trees, but if there's a few saplings or branches in the way, you cut them. Everyone does, and denying people that is more or less denying them the ability to hunt effectively.

Leaving guts is another one in the long list. This is why black and white laws are worthless for a lot of hunting. No, you probably shouldn't be leaving a gut pile on that 10 acre section of WMA by the city. That said, there's nothing wrong with leaving guts on a lot of big tracts of land, where you are faced with a mile+ hike out. You expect me to seriously drag out an entire big game animal that far? No, like everyone else, you gut at least, and likely quarter it. The coyote's or wolves will have the rest gone in a couple days. I don't understand how this is a law, yet you can't drive a mile in Minnesota without coming across a whole dead deer in the ditch.

Shotgun gauge restrictions are so far outdated it's not even funny. Anyone hunting turkey/ducks with a .410 today is going to be using TSS or similar. On the flip side, an 8 gauge or bigger shotgun hasn't been a big advantage in over 120 years at least. The 10 gauge maximum law for migratory birds was outdated the day it was signed into law, they only needed to stop the unregulated market hunting. Not a huge deal, but if you measure the bore on my SXS muzzleloader, it is technically 9 gauge. Luckily it was proofed as a 10, so I just call it a 10. It isn't like my old muzzleloader is going to be dropping turkeys beyond what even a modern 20 gauge can do.

[Yoder409]

For about 3 decades, my state outlawed shot larger than #4........yet allowed rifles in the fall.  So I couldn't stick a #2 copper-plated lead round in my shotgun.  But I could use my .220 Swift......... 7mm STW .......... .375 Weatherby, etc.

[scattergun]

You reminded me of another Yoder, which could come into play this weekend. My brother wants to hunt this weekend, but is not seeing much for geese. Instead he is trying to get us permission to hunt a field for doves, which he has seen a lot of.

We will be shooting small lead shot, I'll be using #8 lead, for doves, but if some geese happen to fly by, we can't touch them, even if we shot them with steel shot. You can't have lead shot in your possession at all, even in your vehicle a mile away. That alone, some might justify, but the fact I'm free and clear to shoot doves and pheasants with lead shot anywhere, but geese in the same place is not. Dumb.

I don't push this one too hard, because then the idiots might mandate non-toxic shot for doves.

[GobbleNut]

I've not heard of the airspace one, and not only is that an absurd law, that's absurd that a single land owner would care. It's absurd that any landowner who buys land surrounding public land is then disgruntled when people use the public areas.

I suspect you don't live in the west.  Out here, not only do the landowners care, they absolutely go out of their way to enforce this ridiculous law.  As I stated at first, this law allows landowners to, in essence, convert public lands into their own private playgrounds.  There are lots of property owners here that own small tracts of land that control the use of tens of thousands of public land acres because of this insane law.  Just in the area around where I live here in southern New Mexico, I know of hundreds of thousands of acres of public land that are made inaccessible to the public due to this stupidity.   

Unless the law is changed (which should have happened decades ago), this problem is only going to get worse as time goes on.  Big game hunting in the west is BIG business nowadays.  Having control of a few thousand acres of public land,...land that is cut off from public use because of this law,...can mean tens of thousands of dollars in profits to the landowner that controls it through the sale of access fees.   

[tracker#1]

Can't use #9s in NY but can use #8s for turkey hunting?

[catdaddy]

I hunt the state of Arkansas with some regularity. Arkansas has 17 deer zones---each with their own set of season dates and regulations. Some zones are further divided into an A or B zone.  go check out the hunting regs for Arkansas and look at the separate regs for the WMA's and different lakes and rivers. It is a booger to keep up with.

I am not a crow hunter perse but take a look at the Arkansas regs.  There is a season--but during the season you can only hunt crows Thursday - Monday------no crow hunting in the middle of the week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays,.

[GobbleGitr]

Can't use #9s in NY but can use #8s for turkey hunting?

Same in Iowa on no #9, and when I ask DNR about it, they don't want to hear or see any data on heavier metal ballistics...no .410 either.  Nothing wrong with honoring tradition...but being data driven should be a part of management and hunting rulemaking

[Chris O]

No Sunday hunting in several states in the east. 

Pretty absurd if you ask me.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

I agree 100% That is way over stepping government control. You should be in control of when you go hunting!!!!!