Missouri to eliminate non residents?

[Neill_Prater]

I live in Missouri, lifetime resident, almost 50 years of turkey hunting here. I hadn't heard anything about this, probably have an email on my PC which I don't check regularly.

I could go on for hours about the subject, but for now, will limit this response. I want to point out something which seems to be ignored regarding Missouri. Our regulations for the Spring seasons have had only miniscule changes since 1977 when I started hunting. The limit was 2 bearded birds. Forty-eight years later, still 2 birds.

Then it was a 2 week season, one bird per week. Eventually that changed to 1 bird the 1st week, allowing a hunter to take 2 birds the second week if you didn't score week one. I've never been a fan of that regulation, because that meant every nonresident that lived any distance shows up to hunt Saturday or Sunday of the first weekend (we always open on Monday), so as to be able to hunt again Monday if you got lucky.

In the late 90's an additional week was added, retaining the one bird the first 7 days regulation. Last year, all day hunting was allowed, only on private land, for the first time.

My point, although far from perfect, is that the MDC is different. Regulations have, in my opinion, been skewed in the favor of the resource more than the constituent hunter. I think the fact we still have decent turkey hunting even on public land is a testament to that. Kansas, our neighbor to the west and one of my favorite places to hunt back in the day, has had to go to a one bird limit and a nonresident draw, all the while allowing all day hunting for almost 7 weeks every spring. Notice a difference?

As for the subject at hand, I am not in favor of penalizing nonresidents at this point. My opinion could change in the future, but for now I respect others who obey the law and enjoy chasing turkey as much as I do.

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[Wigsplitter]

You are spot on Neil- I have hunted Missouri nearly all my turkey hunting career and it hasn't wavered hardly any besides licensing price- steady season and steady results and led the nation for most of those years - I live in Arkansas and we now have the identical set of regulations- it's been painful watching seasons drop back later and then have to sit in detention a week if you kill one early - we really don't have to worry about nonresident turkey hunters here we are not a destination state but Arkansas has upped the ante of the waterfowl nonresidents so I guess our game and fish is guilty of limiting nonresidents in a way - kinda like the tariff wars going on right now in America except its states raising the ante to what the last state raised to— the traveling turkey hunting is getting tougher by the day!!

[sasquatch1]

A lot of crowding issues would be fixed if multiple states opened on the same day!

There, I said it again.

There's got to be enough breeding date correlations based on distance from the equator to have seasons/regions aligned. 

Then you wouldn't need to have states limiting people so much creating the current madness. People would limit/restrict themselves due to not being able to run around hunting all sorts of "openers"


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[Old Gobbler]

Its a typical cycle ,

First step is blaming non residents,  then because let's face it .. politicians and bureaucracy are in no fear on non residents because they don't have to answer to them ...non residents get the boot

Phase 2 ...the non residents go to other nearby states , and those states feel the pressure at the same time they get wind raising non resident fees and blocking access is politically appealing to their constituency...

With Florida ...several of the neighboring states moved seasons back a few weeks ...guess what ..drive to Florida and "slam" WMAS ....it didn't take too long Florida has started to block non residents on public on a good number of WMA's

Trust me the whole state will off limits to no residents thevfirst 2 weekends on public in 3 years time...you'll see

The anti hunters are loving this

[Paulmyr]

Who's to say the anti hunters and some of the wildlife management aren't one and the same?

[Bill]

I could go on for hours about the subject, but for now, will limit this response. I want to point out something which seems to be ignored regarding Missouri. Our regulations for the Spring seasons have had only miniscule changes since 1977 when I started hunting. The limit was 2 bearded birds. Forty-eight years later, still 2 birds.

Neill makes some great points.  It wasn't until 1967 that Missouri lengthened the season to 7 days.  Prior to then it was limited to residents only, with a limited number of counties open to hunting.  In those days turkey hunting was more of a "niche" thing for a handful of hard core types (I kind of miss it!)  It was a huge deal when the limit was increased to two turkeys in 1973, and, although the season is longer now, as Neill points out that aspect hasn't changed to the present day.  I seems the department tends to err on the conservative side of regulation changes which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Personally, these proposed changes would not directly impact me since these days I have good private land to hunt and don't travel out of state to turkey hunt.  I wonder, though, if a better solution might be to go in the opposite direction and offer daily or two-day non-resident permits?  If visitors are required to purchase a high-dollar full-season permit, it's only human nature to want to "get your money's worth" which could lead to even more pressure on the resource in many cases?