Yep, that’s right.  I honestly thought it was a joke until I checked out the website a little more and found to my surprise, it’s not a joke.  Certainly not as prestigious as the revered Boone and Crockett Club, Pope and Young Club, or even Safari Club International record books, but the Road Kill Record Book honors those animals that meet their maker at the hands of car driving non-hunters and hunters alike.  Here is an excerpt from their home page…

“It’s a shame that so many superb examples of various species are left to feed turkey vultures, crows  and other non-trophy critters along the roadbanks. The Road Kill Record Book Club breathes new life into the dandiest denizens of the fields and woods with their inclusion in their own trophy record book.  It’s the right thing to do.”

Check out the website.  They have interesting trophy categories such as  protected species, yucky stuff, small game and furbearers, and even songbirds.  They’ve got a few t-shirts for sale that would certainly qualify as being excellent conversation pieces in your outdoor circles.  Not sure I’ll be rushing them my $10.00 for submitting a big road kill to the record books but an interesting concept nonetheless.

I was reading on the National Wild Turkey Federation website where they received the results back from a survey they sent to members.  Among other things, it had a couple of questions regarding their permission on private land and the difficulty in obtaining and maintaining permission on those parcels.  The researchers were surprised at the high percentage of hunters that indicated they had lost permission hunt on private land parcels that were once accessible.  That number was 65%, that means 2 out of every 3 hunters has experienced a loss in hunting permission on private lands recently.

Although, I didn’t participate in the survey, I would certainly fall into that category.  Last year, I had a wonderful archery spot lined up when the landowner pulled the rug out from under me at the last second.  The only reason he gave me was “I don’t have any problems with you, but I just think we’re not going to have hunting on our land this year.”  What can you do and except politely say, “yes sir”?

Well, here are a few pointers towards NOT losing your hunting permission this fall.

#1 - If you pick up some litter on the property, making a passing remark to the landowner that you noticed some trash and took the time to pick it up.  Don’t toot your own horn, but just mention it.  They’ll appreciate it.

#2 - A couple nicely wrapped packages of venison backstrap, jerky, bologna - whatever he/she likes is always greatly appreciated.

#3 - Don’t leave a gutpile on their land, especially if you’re talking about a 10 acre parcel

#4 - No tire ruts!!!   Pet peeve with landowners and especially farmers!

#5 - Write a note of thanks post-season and even offer to help them out with their leaves or pruning some shrubs or other little task that shows your appreciation.  Remember, actions speak louder than words.

#6 - Don’t be a stranger showing up before dawn to hunt and leaving without ever saying “hey”, take the time every once and a while to talk about the weather or whatever…just show you care.

If you follow these guidelines and anything else you can think of, hopefully you won’t find yourself in the 65% majority, but there are people who - no matter how well you treat them - are going to kick you off their property for seemingly no reason.  Just take it in stride and establish a new relationship with their neighbor.

Well, usually I wouldn’t care much about what goes on in another state concerning deer hunting regulations, but…this is different. Kansas has decided to allow hunters during the early muzzleloader season to use scopes instead of being required to use iron sights. Why do I care about that?

Big bucks like this one! I took this picture from a treestand in August ‘07 at my Maryland study site, but he certainly was big enough to belong in the Midwest! I’ve got a preference point for Kansas and should be a shoe-in for a non-resident muzzy tag this fall. My dad grabbed a hold of a lease in southeastern Kansas last year and we decided to opt for applying for archery tags and building our preference points, but sent 2 friends to scope out the deer hunting for us. They killed 2 bucks - a 138″ on the first sit of the hunt and a 169″!!! The amazing thing about that buck was that it only had a 12 1/2″ inside spread, but picket fence with beams that stretched way out over his nose. STUD!!!

My dad went up for a turkey hunt last spring and bagged a really nice bird that he just got back from the taxidermist a couple of weeks ago. I’ll try to grab a picture of that hunt this weekend and post that next week in lieu of spring turkey season rapidly approaching. He is headed back up in a couple weeks to do another turkey hunt, so I’ll report on that when the time is right.

But anyways, Kansas’ change extends our effective range during that early muzzleloader season from 50-60 yards to however far I can shoot a muzzleloader accurately 100-150 yards. Yeehaw! Pumps me up even more than I was!!! We were already planning on taking a trip during the September muzzy season, and this just increases our chances at a Booner!!! For those interested, Kansas also legalized crossbows for use during the Kansas firearms season.

I saw this somewhere, unfortunately I can’t remember where, but I know one thing for sure…It is worth posting about! Robert M. Poole wrote this article for National Geographic in November 2007. Any positive article on hunting these days in the mainstream media is a rarity, and that certainly makes this article a gem. If you’ve already seen this, you can look over this post and look forward to tomorrow’s, but if you haven’t, Read This

Well, NC’s annual Dixie Deer Classic is already underway over at the State Fairgrounds. I’ll be headed over after I clear out of the office for spring break. Just to get your appetite wet, here is a buck that I found 8 years ago while rabbit hunting behind my house in Alamance County.

It won second-place honors that year in the pick-up category. Can’t remember the exact score, but he was right in the 140 class range with 13 scoreable points. Bunch of little gnarly stuff on his browtines. They line up with the other tines in the photograph making them difficult to see.

Anyways, I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and share them with everyone next week. My hunting buddy Josh is hoping to take the archery division with his Guilford buck this year, so that should be exciting!

My study site for my master’s project is on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, so I have some experience with the fall shotgun season.  It is an exciting time for youngsters to spend time with their fathers and mothers in the field.  Although not quite on the same level with the hunting tradition in neighboring Pennsylvania, Maryland hunting would suffer a blow if this legislative bill is passed.  It is now being passed to the Maryland House Environmental Matters Committee that would prohibit any child twelve years old or younger from being able to hunt in Maryland.  If passed, the law would go against the recent trend of states lowering minimum ages in an attempt to increase hunter recruitment especially in youngsters.  Research has shown that as a person’s age increases, they are less likely to take up hunting and fishing as a pasttime.  If you are a sportsmen in Maryland, contact your legislator and let them know that you oppose HB655.  To know who to contact, access the Legislative Action Center at www.ussportsmen.org 

You can read more Here

Leave me a comment and let me know if you think there should be a minimum age restriction for hunting.  If there is enough response, I’ll do a more lengthy post on exactly what I think about the subject.