Kentucky deer hunting

For at least a decade my grandparents leased their farm to be used year-round by “big city” hunters for $500 per year. Over time, land slowly gets cut up and we’ve seen generations of “we want it now” types of people. As land gets passed down to kids and grandkids, it gets cut up and sold. More and more middle class people can’t tell the different between their lives and that of those who collect welfare checks. People who don’t work get housing with flooring, air condition, heat, etc, just like working people. They actually get heathcare they use vs. working people who don’t have time to go to the doctor only get “health insurance.” Non-working people get cell phones, internet service, NetFlix, Playstations, etc. 

So when a working middle class family inherits land, they often times need to sell this off to catch up on bills basically because of inflation and taxes. Somebody has to pay for all these people on welfare.    So how are lawyers to blame for rising deer hunting costs? Well, this isn’t provable of course, but my grandparents happily let people hunt their land for $500 per year. Do you think people in their 40’s today would allow strangers to hunt land for free or for cheap? Don’t you think most people of today are worried about liability and lawsuits? Yep.

 In fact, during the bump stock crisis, I bought and sold one of them. She asked if I was concerned if someone was going to use it in a crime and I then be held liable for it. Isn’t this world sick? If I was worth millions, then sure some lawyer would try to come after me. I explained to her if she had a valid point, why wouldn’t they go after the manufacturer? Heck, whynot the post office for deliverying the item? Why not the people who manufacture the plastic to make the part? Why not the dairy farmer’s kid, who milked the cow, who sold the milk to the terrorist who needed his strength to carry out his crimes?   The fact is we can be held accountable if you knowingly allow a person, aid a person, or not report a person who you believe to be an immediate or eminent danger to other.    So now we have to pay insurance companies premiums to make sure if someone comes onto our hunting land, climbs and tree and falls out of it, that we have insurance to cover potential damages. With the cost of land at $2,000 per month mortgage for hunting land, $150 a month for insurance, seed costs, equipment costs, herbicide costs, mineral and corn feeding costs, fuel cost, etc., how much should deer hunts cost? Don’t forget the labor of the hunting outfitter! In fact, I’d argue that most outfitters do not make a single dime to be used to feed their families. They are paying on assets, that after 30 years, they will be able to pass it down to their kids.   

Mineral sites is like debating with your friends who is the best basketball player of all time. If you are God, with the mental ability to measure everything by parts per million, then there could be a “right and wrong” answer to this. Science specifically show that adding mineral sites to your hunting property doesn’t really offer a significant increase in size of your deer or the deer horns.    Now in a vacuum where there is no salt or minerals in the soil, your neighbors aren’t putting out salt or mineral, etc., could having mineral sites increase your deer size and horn size noticeably? Of course. Most deer hardly live to be 5 years old though, so let’s face reality. If you fed your baby vitamins and minerals vs. candy, would you notice a big difference when he/she turns 5? And yes, I know there is a difference, but I’d guess deer life expectancy is closer to 7 years of age? Are they meant to live longer biologically? Yep. Do humans and preditors interfere with that? Yep.   ***

Minteral sites are fun for outfitters! We like mixing, blending, finding good deals, looking at hoof marks, etc, throughout the deer season. Each time we’re required to do a mineral site, it means we’re throwing an extra 200 pounds of corn on the Ranger and feeing the deer. It means we’re looking at weed control and considering ways to improve the tonnage of any given Kentucky deer hunting food plot. Mineral sites are valuable, but not in a way you might think. There is just so much calcium and salt in the dirt, improvements on the quality of the herd are negligible in my opinion.  

  Deer Disease (EHD) – is it managed by the insurance companies?   Everyone has heard of the blue tongue disease that hits and has hit the Kentucky deer hunting (and across the nation for that matter). The fact is disease is nothing more than natural selection. Humans interfere because we believe we’re at the top of the food chain, which we are, but we also believe we are more important than everything else. We also have a tendency to just look after and protect “life” if it has a cute or pretty face, is larger than most animals or just doesn’t inconvenience us. Flies annoy people, so it’s ok to commit mass murder. Other animals are cute and cuddly that have facial expressions if you were to run them over with your car. Generally if the death of another creature impacts any of the senses of a human, we get all concerned about it. Stomping an aunt vs. stomping an animal the size of a dog has a great degree of meaning morally and legally. That’s the most I’ll express my opinion about those who say shooting deer for sport is wrong and cruel, as they drip Ketchup from their mouth off a double beef cheeseburger from McDonalds.   

First ask yourself, to whatever issue is going on, who stands to make a profit from this? Is it a small business owner or a big wealthy family/company? Is it easy to get caught if anyone were to conspire to control such a disease. After all, wasn’t it the big drug company reps who say why would they want to cure a disease to make a 1-time profit vs. treating a disease for 50 years? Are we a capitalistic society? Does everyone have the same moral compass?   So is the car insurance companies of the world dictating or even creating disease that will help kill off deer that cause them a lot of profit loss? Probably not. Do they try to influence various state conversation rules and laws to dictate hunting seasons or at least pay for studies used to determine a “human” level acceptance of what should be considered a “healthy deer herd”? Yes.    The fact is deer fill a niche void that can survive with human presence on Earth. They are elusive, non-domesticated, can live off the land and evade the predators well that humans allow to travel freely. I’m not sure how many 100’s of millions of dollars in damage deer cause to vehicles per year, it’s likely in the billions. I can tell you the more we resist and keep the right to best less efficient, and worry about profits as little as possible, the better the human race will be. Humans are not efficient and we will be scrubbed out the more efficient the global market requires us to be to survive; it’s only a matter of time before all this freedom is taken in exchange for efficiency and white-collar profits from “the man”.  

Anyone see the liberal ad that didn’t get published? It showed a video of a middle-aged trucker hat, fish hook on the bill, with guns hanging on the window from a Z71 jacked up pickup. Oh, let’s not forget a tall pole rising out of the back of the bed with dual American flags flapping in the wind. I didn’t notice a Kentucky Hunting Outfitter sticker thank goodness! And the best stereotype of for this ad that emphasizing we are all actually different and have different tastes whether you like it or not, the confederate flag license plate proudly mounted on the front of the truck. Before I get into describing the commercial, my personal belief is that if I’m in an ocean knowing sharks don’t like me because I’m human, I’m not going to force my American beliefs on the Great White Shark and force his mentality to get along with me and not kill me. Some people just give humans too much credit.   So what does this have to do with Kentucky deer hunting or Kentucky outfitters trying to improve hunting for everyone? Well in the video it shows 10 year-old Iraqi kid who sees this nefarious pickup truck coming down his street where minority kids are playing kickball. This kid starts running, the pickup truck steps on the gas and roles out the diesel smoke (actually there was no smoke…the elitists who made this ad probably didn’t realize diesel truck can smoke and that is cool to do as well). So this dark complexion kid is running and jumping fences to save other kids from this pickup Trump supporting pickup truck. It was hilarious! They pulled the ad because just before its release, there was a shooting. It was felt because the shooter was in fact not a white person running over people with big vans. 

I’m for the middle class…period. Since I don’t believe any rich politician has my back, you won’t find me taking any sides other than for the middle hard-working class.   BONE COLLECTOR STICKERS: With it being “mainstream” and cool to place deer stickers on your trucks and cars, this helped grow the deer herd! It’s put public peer pressure on those going on Kentucky deer hunts to make sure they shoot a monster buck or you’re not cool! These stickers are mammoth 200 inch deer that could be putting an unrealistic expectation on our youth. It’s a growing process from your “first buck” is great no matter how the size! To shooting 8 pointers or bigger only, then graduating to judging bucks by how many “inches” they are and trying to improve on your personal best from year to year. In time, shooting a buck becomes more work than it’s worth, so you’re willing to pass on 120 inch deer in hopes they grow to a 140 incher and so on. The bigger the deer, the more willing you are to pull the trigger.    Deer hunting in Kentucky isn’t a guarantee to come across a 150 inch deer in 5 years of hunting unless you go to a high-fence operation. Free range fair chase bucks scoring over 150 inches are a Kentucky trophy whitetails. I’m wondering about the negative impact of everyone promoting these large bucks on the backs of cars and trucks? Probably not much at all. When it comes to my advertising, I don’t get into the monster non-typical drop tine deer; I go for the traditional wide and tall 8-10 point bucks where the average person would have a reasonable expectation of shooting.  

Should those who re-sell Kentucky deer hunts on leased land be required to follow certain rules? Should those who own their own land who offer Kentucky deer hunting for a fee be given rules and regulations? 

Would the rules look like this:   

#1) Only 1 hunter per 76.3 acres of harvestable timber with a diameter of 10 inches or bigger with a tree count that must exceed 26 trees per acre, but not to count land within 200 feet of any sinkholes or 400 feet of any residential dwellings. Also, only 1 hunter can hunt this land every 14 days, unless an animal is harvested on the 2nd hour of the 1st morning hunt, etc.   

Do you see what happens with people with agendas start getting involved and wanting to force their beliefs on other people? FREE MARKET. It’s really simply. 

You should vote with your wallet. Just like when we vote during elections, but I’d rather see us “vote” through the use of IRS tax returns. Do you want to pay for entitlements for people who can work, but choose not to? Check “yes” if you want to pay for it or check “no” if you don’t. It’s that simple! Don’t force me to pay to use my extra spending money just because you only spend money on coffee, taxi rides and going to the gym. Any extra money taken from me is the money we need to go on 1 vacation a year! Now for some people, they can ski behind 6 yachts, so they don’t mind giving up 1 of their yachts; they still get to water ski!   So governmental involvement is never the solution for me. I’d like to hear suggestions or ideas. 

The concept is pretty simple to me. A piece of hunting property costs $25,000 or more per year in just mortgage payments. Then you have to pay for upgrades, wages, etc. Unless you believe in NO MINIMUM WAGE, then you can’t expect Kentucky hunting outfitters to work for free. I personally believe Kentucky outfitters work just so they can keep land in the family and pass it down. Very few make enough money to justify how many hours they put in compared to sitting home and collecting a welfare check. I bet welfare pays much better! Yes, they get exercise, but welfare people can go out and walk during a work day as well.   Any time you include government, it’s never cheaper. It just means more regulation, more insurances, more attorney fees, which is all passed down to the consumer. That’s just the nature of business.  

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