Good Hunting Laws Makes for Good Kentucky Turkey Hunting

 This seems like a fun topic. Do you want the good or bad trends first? Kentucky turkey hunts are increasing in popularity and it may be because of attentions spans. It could be because time off of work and the global economy getting more efficient leading to more competitions and less free time available. Ok- That’s like macroeconomics and who cares about that stuff! This is about Kentucky hunting. There is some truth to people not willing to sit in the woods for hour and hours in cold with very little to do vs. turkey hunting where you’re not out there for that long and it’s not during a super cold time of the year. You get to call, and calling in turkey is encouraged, vs. trying your best to call in big bruiser trophy whitetails. Calling in deer is sometimes not recommended by ky outfitters.    

Answer: I don’t know. 

Do we require people to have licenses when they have garage sales? When they rent homes? Mowing lawns? When people sell homes as real estate agents?   Regulation comes from the need to people dealing with a high volume number of clients or customers. In this case, being a Kentucky hunting outfitter selling Kentucky deer hunts would not qualify as a “high volume” number of customers. One McDonalds store deals with more customers in 1 hours than any Kentucky outfitter deals in several years. On the flip side, how may oil reserves are tapped into by major oil companies per year? It’s probably not that many, but shouldn’t they have a license? So there is room to debate on both sides.

 Deer hunting in Kentucky is not that big of an industry. Profits made after expenses are minimal probably with the real winners being the out-of-state hunters. Kentucky hunting guides would really have to charge about quadruple to 8X as much to justify it being a good business to feed a family on and there isn’t an appetite to pay $25,000 to shoot a whitetail deer. It’s a fun side job that mixes in with the enjoyment of a hobby to many.    Now government might make a real estate professional pay a $25 per year annual fee for a license. And the real estate industry takes that further and created a “Board of Realtors” to create a club of people holing the practice to a higher standard. (Translation: stopping ma and pa from selling homes and taking a piece of the “rich mans pie”). 10% of real estate sales people make 90% of the money and that is a fact. The extra endorsement supposedly means you are super duper and “really” care about the profession. This type of non-sense exists in all industries and there is nothing wrong with it at all. I just get tired of reaching the “super duper” status, then some bureaucrat creates another “super super duper duper” distinction that I have to go and pay money for. 

Some people like to race, fish and hunt…others like to feel like they are smarter than you and can better tell you how to live your life.   What some states have done, after being lobbied by their wealthy land-owner outfitter friends, is to charge a outfitter licensing fee of $2,000. I believe this was passed by the state of Illinois because too many 80 year old ladies were leasing out their land to hunters for $1,000 all year long and it upset the “high-end outfitters”. Or that the 80 year old ladies grandson decided he wanted to sell hunts on his grandmas land for $300 per hunter vs. the $3,500 typically charged in the area. So this law stopped the small guy from trying make a few thousand dollars to go on a vacation once a year. So land owners who couldn’t afford the $2,000 licensing fee would then just “lease” the property to hunters and offer no “guide service” or “cooking service”. Which evolved into do-it-yourself hunts. 

Any time “the rich” tries to interfere with the small guy trying to work a job, I personally take issue with it and fight for the small guy.   Kentucky deer hunting and the fisheries and wildlife department will learn from the mistakes of traditional big deer states. Kentucky is more old school with so many counties still being “dry” with no liquor sales permitted. You can’t buy alcohol on Sundays (even during the super bowl) and things of that nature. The people of Kentucky apply a little more common sense to their lifestyle and aren’t in as big of a rush to turn everyone into little efficient robots.   In the end, there is no “exam” to get a Kentucky outfitter license. It won’t make anyone any better or more qualified. I’m pretty certain life-long deer hunters and Kentucky outfitters know their stuff when it comes to hunting. It just will take away $2,000 out of the pockets of someone working (costs are usually passed along to the consumer anyway) and handing it to someone sitting at home collecting a check choosing not to work.