Squirrels for Thanksgiving? -- MDC

 

I shot this buck several times and left him there

       You can have the traditional thanksgiving dinner.  I guess you likely will.  I never did like store-bought turkey; it is tasteless and dry and if you have a slice of one when you are young you can bet it never is going to get better as many years of Thanksgiving pass.  Maybe it should be prepared as I do wild gobblers.  I slice the breast thin as possible and then fry the razor-thin meat slabs with a good coating of various types of seasoning and flour to give it taste.  I did that back when I use to shoot turkeys with a shotgun.  I roam the woods now with a camera, and as scarce as wild turkey are becoming I would be ashamed of myself if I killed another one.

       In Missouri, the conservation department has figured out a way to make more money out of dwindling numbers of turkeys.  It use to be that if you bought an archery tag you could hunt both deer and turkey with a bow.  Not now.  They got together and figured that they could double the income from bow-hunters by requiring different tags for each, therefore twice as much money.  I don’t know if that will work so good, because if a game warden got real ambitious and left his pickup to walk back into the woods and catch some smart fellow in a tree stand with a bow, the hunter could just claim he was hunting coyotes, or bobcats, or weasels and produce a predator call to prove it.  Or he could say he was hunting squirrels maybe, and then bark like a squirrel.  

       To make more money the MDC will have to make a new law saying that during the bow season for deer or turkey, a hunter may not hunt anything else with a bow.  Of course they could charge fifteen more dollars for permission to bow-hunt anything from squirrels, ducks and groundhogs to coyotes and bobcats.  That would work! And more money!

       The MDC has a lot of additional regulations.  For instance, you cannot shoot a deer or turkey with a firearm within 450 feet of a residence, barn, shed, etc -- in some areas of the state, nor hunt with a bow within 200 feet of those buildings-- in some areas of the state.  It is not clear whether or not you can hunt turkey with a bow in November with a gun turkey tag for October.  In October you can hunt turkey with gun or bow or atlatl or slingshot without a new tag after October. But in November thru January if you use a bow, atlatl or slingshot to hunt turkeys you need a new tag. Understand?   

       Some agents do not know for sure about all this neither. If you want to hunt deer and/or turkey with a bow you have to buy a turkey and deer tag separately.  Figure that what you have to do to hunt anything in the fall with gun or bow now costs more money.  If you buy deer tags for archery, turkey tags for archery, gun tags for turkey, and gun tags for deer, and then new spring tags for turkey you will spend well over 100 dollars.  You will have to spend a little more for getting a youth tag I think, but that enables a hunter who can drag a kid out in the woods to get one more turkey than it is legal for him to kill with his own tag.

       I hope I have not confused anyone here.  It is best that when you go bow hunting you call a game warden to straighten it all out and tape record the conversation so he can’t change anything if he comes after you.  Also, if you hunt coyotes, groundhogs, bobcats, or wolves with a bow, have a predator call with you.  And oh yes, there are some additional requirements for hunting bobcats, which I do not understand.  On the Internet it said there are also additional regulations involved for hunting squirrels, rabbit, rails, snipe, bobcats, coyotes, pheasants, coots, and several more species.  Thankfully that list on the computer does not involve ducks and geese.  That’s all I am concerned with.  If you hunt ducks with a bow, you do not need any special license, you need to have lots and lots of arrows and your head examined!

       I did shoot a nice buck this year with my trusty 35 millimeter Nikon single barrel. I just left him there! Last summer I shot several strutting gobblers! Called them to within a few yards. I never bought deer or turkey tags to do that and I recommend you follow my example! With all the regulations and efforts to make more money the MDC has agents that don’t understand all of it either.  

       I interviewed the Chief of Enforcement a month or so back and was surprised by an attitude I admire.  He said that if any hunter or fisherman receives a citation he feels is unwarranted, or if any agent treats someone disrespectfully or illegally according to that citizens rights, that he should be notified.   His name is Randy Doman and his phone number is 573-751-4115.  You will have to go through a lady at the desk, but just ask for him and then leave a message.  

His email is Randy.Doman@mdc.mo.gov if you need help getting through to him, call me at 417-777-5227 and I will put him in touch with you. He has assured me no one will be ignored. This opportunity has not been available before and I applaud him for making it happen.  Trouble is he gets told what he can do by some very uncaring higher-ups.   I like Doman and I intend to try to work with him.

 

       I have written lots of books and put together more than 100 outdoor and Ozark magazines.  Some might make good Christmas gifts.  See them on your computer at   www.larrydablemont.com.