I remember as a young guy my hunting was somewhat limited by time and proximity to open areas. I pretty much had to hunt the water treatment plant property and other park/ open land.

Our town was being over run with peope leaving Philadelphia for the open country. In a matter of three years there was no where to hunt that didn't require a long walk of a drive. There were a few of us boys that would hunt together but most of the areas were so small, you really had to hunt slow and methodical. If you saw a pheasant you had a really good day. Mostly I would shoot doves and jump some ducks. If you shot a deer you got your picture in the paper. The most productive hunting was for gray squirrels. Boy I ate alot of squirrels.

No matter. the point is, hunting is so much better where I am now I have a hard time thinking I would ever move from here. I have the envious position to be able to say it a darn sight better now than it was.

longwalker

Hunting is only getting worse where i am Every inch of wooded area is being built on or cleared out for potential building

Yeah I remember growing up in the '50's and '60's hunting was pretty easy deal . Landowners had no problems with people hunting . We had about 1000 acres ourselves ..
Nowadays for deer , you either have to have access to private land ( a hard deal ) , hunt one of the states WMA's ( and they have crazy dates within the season ) , or join a club . This year I broke down and joined a club ..
Alabama is still pretty rural which is a plus , and we dont have much anti hunting problems like out west and other areas .
Not like it used to be ..
Jack

longwalker,
I started hunting in 1958 and there were many local farms open to hunting. Small game season was a big deal and there were lots of hunters. Deer season was the icing on the cake. It was a great time.

We are now being developed in many areas of Pennsylvania. Access to good farmlands and woodlots can be a challenge. Fortunately, we still have many rural areas and millions of acres of state gamelands and forest lands open to hunting. Deer season gets crowded the first day, but after that there are very few hunters out the second week of the season. Small game season has seen a dramatic decline in numbers of hunters.

Native pheasant numbers are very low and if we want to hunt them, we have to go to a regulated shooting ground. Turkeys are available in good numbers. I have plenty official access to hunt groundhogs. I prefer the old days. All the best...
Gil

P.S. I used to date a young woman in Tolstoy, SD.

Gil

rude careless people have ruined getting permission to hunt on private property. a prime example is when i was a kid.

i was quail hunting a 200 acre open field ajd some more people showed up with dogs and let the dogs out and cut this mans 5 strand barbed wire fense to let there dogs in the field. i instantly left the woods and walked 3 miles to the owners house and told him what i saw. this man who let anyone hunt on him from that point on only let me hunt his property.

this last week was deer season. im surronded on 3 sides by a company called mid am milk. a huge coorperation. i had a city slicker board member hunting on them cross my fense walk 100 yards onto my property and tell me i had to leave or go to jail for tresspassing.

yes thats right tresspassing on my own property.

he informed me the hunters on mid am had paid 1500 dollars each to deer hunt and only they were allowed to kill anything within a mile of where i sat.

i wonder why he got upset when i stuck my pistol up his nose and informed him what would happen the next time i saw him near my land.

missouri conservation is the best in the world. our game is now at levels higher than i remember in 40 years of hunting. this year bow season started sept 1st and runs until jan 15th and gun season ran 10 days and starting friday muzzel loader season starts and runs 9 days

people ruined hunting themselves by thinking since they are from the CITY they have more rights than those of us who actually own our own property.