At least one of us got lucky

[Bwana]

No, not THAT! My wife and a buddy's wife drew ND antelope tags so watch out southwestern North Dakota, the girls are coming!

Here in ND we have to submit an application to hunt certain species that in other states you might be able to simply purchase a license. If you have to apply for a tag, you will also be restricted to hunting in a specific game management unit, not the entire state. Up here that applies for not only the once-in-a-lifetime critters (elk, moose, & bighorn sheep) but also to turkey, deer, and antelope.

If you apply and don't get drawn, or don't get you first choice, you earn a preference point. The ladies have been waiting a LONG time to get these tags as can be seen by the fact that they had 8 preference points. But that is only half of it, as they actually had to wait an additional 3 years due to our season being closed for several years back in 2009 due to back-to-back very tough winters.

Now I have to get her to hold out for the goat of her dreams in order to make her 11 year wait worth it. Might have to not give her any ammunition until the time is right. :)

Anyway, we will take a scouting trip before the opener, then drag the camper down there after work is over on the night before the opener, and then watch out speed goats!

[Thumper]

Congrats to the ladies! Ummm, now don't you and your buddy be sneakin' out there to shoot those goats and have the wives sign the tags. :biggrin

[Arty]

Now that sounds cool.

How long do you get to hunt? Any other restrictions? Y’all’s laws are weird. :)


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[Bwana]

One thing is certain Thumper, if I were to shoot my wife's critter I would likely be shot by her. Either she shoots it or the tag goes unfilled and, knock on wood, that hasn't happened yet.

Artie, much like our rifle deer season, the pronghorn rifle season is 16-1/2 days long. This year it opens Friday at noon on October 2 and closes on Sunday October 18th. If she were a bowhunter she could give that a go prior to the rifle opener but she has never shot a bow. Back in the old days before our antelope numbers crashed, residents could purchase an antelope archery tag over the counter just as we can now for an archery deer tag.

[HideHunter]

Congrats all around!

[BarryBobPosthole]

Get ready to do some guiding, Bwana!

In my Mom’s family, it was common to buy deer tags for all the kids and wives and grandmas regardless how old. They used to publish all checked deer kills in the paper and it was fairly common to see four year oldschecking big bucks. It was one of those things everyone did and nobody talked about.

Pooling limits is now frowned upon by the masses. We still do it in Canada so that everyone comes home with a limit of fish. Personally I don’t see see problem with it.

BKB

[Bwana]

BBP, up here it is called "party hunting" or fishing as the case may be and it is considered illegal. That being said, I think it is fairly prevalent with some groups.

[BarryBobPosthole]

We bumped into a fish cop on a Canuck lake called Kilvert one day. Like we always do, we started packaging fish in our freezer at the cabin to take home pretty much the first day we got there. So we had maybe three limits in the freezer for a group of seven. The warden asked us how many fish we had at the cabin and we lied and said we just had some cheeks. He explained that as long as there were limits in the freezer, some people in our group wouldn’t be able to keep any more fish. I guess the Ministry expected us to just fill our limites all on the last day.

To me, that’s chickenshit. The object is conservation, not having gotcha rules.

BKB

[quercus alba]

Arkansas has what is called a possession limit which is twice the daily limit. So if you're camped out you can't have but two limits per person in camp. Arkansas has pretty generous limits on most lakes so that's not too bad

[Thumper]

Back when I bear hunted every year in Northern Ontario, we'd usually have a group of 4-5 guys there. A couple of us bear hunted and fished ... then there were always a couple who did not hunt and fished only. We stayed in a remote, primitive cabin on the far end of the lake, which was 27 miles from the fish camp (the only form of civilization on the lake). We were almost totally isolated and we'd usually spend 10 days there. Other than the provisions we'd carry in on our (2 or 3) small aluminum (15-hp) boats, we pretty much lived off the land. We built a live well made of chicken wire off the end of the small dock there and whenever any of us came in from fishing, we'd place our catch in the live well. We ate walleye for breakfast, lunch and dinner ... literally ... and really never paid attention to limits until the final few days as we'd all take our limit home with us and eat the rest before leaving. When it was time for a meal, we'd just take a net, scoop out however many fish we were going to eat, cleaned 'em and cooked 'em.

One morning we'd cleaned a mess of fish for breakfast and the gang was sitting at the table drinking coffee and making plans for the day before the cooking started. All of a sudden we heard a roar out over the lake and had no clue what it was as we'd normally never even see another fisherman on that part of the lake for the whole 10 days we'd be there. We stepped outside to check it out and saw a frigging fish cop pulling up to the dock in a float plane! He came up to the cabin and we had a nice chat while sharing a cup of coffee with him. He spotted the fillets next to the stove and we told him we were just getting ready to start cooking when he pulled up. He asked how many of us were fishing, checked all of our licenses, finished his coffee and headed back to his plane. Next thing we knew, he was back to the cabin and said, "Well boys, it looks like my business isn't finished here." As he'd returned to his plane, he spotted our live well. He asked how many fish we had in the well and we were honest and said we had no idea, but we eat everything we catch. He then asked us to follow him to the dock where he proceeded to net all the fish out of the well and laid them out on the dock so he could count them! We were actually under limit, BUT ... he'd already counted the fish in the cabin and added the filleted (already breaded) fish we had next to the stove to the total! We were then over limit and he took the number of fish over limit and threw them back in the lake ... where they were all floating belly-up after being laid out on the dock! Then the SOB dragged out his ticket book!

I'll give him credit, before he wrote the citation he said he was going to ask whose fish they were. He then told us if we said they belong to all of us, he was going to write a ticket for each one of us! Then he said if they only belong to ONE of us, he'd only write one ticket. My buddy (my father-in-law) immediately spoke up and said all the fish were his. I don't really remember the fine, seems like it was around $150, not sure. We still had 4-5 days before we'd be leaving and would have definitely eaten all those fish. Prick! We should'a charged him for his coffee. :angryfire

[BarryBobPosthole]

They can be real fine buttholes can’t they. We went to Kilvert by boat up a neat little river channel from Dogtooth afew times. Got stormed off it twice and check by fish cops twice. We don’t go back to that cursed place any moreeven if it is fun as shit to take your boat between lakes like that.
I was puckered up all he way back to the cabin worried his boat wouldbe at our dock when we pulled in.

BkB

[Arty]

BBP, up here it is called "party hunting" or fishing as the case may be and it is considered illegal. That being said, I think it is fairly prevalent with some groups.

It’s illegal here too but it happens a lot.


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[Arty]

One thing is certain Thumper, if I were to shoot my wife's critter I would likely be shot by her. Either she shoots it or the tag goes unfilled and, knock on wood, that hasn't happened yet.

Artie, much like our rifle deer season, the pronghorn rifle season is 16-1/2 days long. This year it opens Friday at noon on October 2 and closes on Sunday October 18th. If she were a bowhunter she could give that a go prior to the rifle opener but she has never shot a bow. Back in the old days before our antelope numbers crashed, residents could purchase an antelope archery tag over the counter just as we can now for an archery deer tag.

That’ll be fun!
Noon on a Friday as an opener.... another weird one! :). Every opener here is pretty much Saturday 30 minutes before sunrise here.

I’ve been applying for a quota hunt at an Arsenal here in Virginia. Preference point system like you’re talking about.

I applied for 4 years. Then got drawn to shoot a doe only.
Then my points reset and this is year #5 for a buck hunt (they require your first draw to be anterleas only, then buck. Then it resets and you go back to antler less ). Pretty much I’ve been applying for 9 years to get a chance at a buck hunt. They’ll be drawing tags end of this month and I have high hopes.

Some monster monster bucks there. 15” 1/2 inch spread minimum. If you shoot something smaller you can keep it but you can’t apply for 3 years.


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[airbud7]

Sounds like fun Bwana....

Down here if we want deer meat we just get in the truck and hit the gas.....you are sure to hit one...we keep spare bumpers and headlights.

[Bwana]

:laughing