Missouri Department Of Conservation

[bigredbirdfan]

Lets see how the forum will vote on this issue.

[jdmidwest]

Just to add my 2 cents, it is not fair if someone owns 5 acres and actually hunts and tags deer or turkeys on the 5 acres. If not, go to 2nd question, we need more enforcement of existing rules, regulations, policies. 5 acres is enough to be successful in a deer hunt provided that it is the right spot. I feel 40 would be more realistic and 80 is probably excessive. Last 2 seasons, I harvested 2 nice bucks standing in the exact same spot after crossing our pasture field as it was driven out by neighbors. The majority of my deer have been harvested off one 40 acre timber area on our farm and all of the deer in my life have come from our farm except for 1.

I could hunt other places, but population control on our farm is the main reason I hunt there.

[bclift65706]

I dont think it should just jump from 5 to 80 that is a little mutch but a little more than 5 would be ok like 10 or 20 there is not many people in Mo that owne 80 acers anymore but I guess that is the reason for going with 80 instead of something more reasonabale like 10 or 20.

[Al Agnew]

I agree, 80 acres is too excessive. 5 acres is too little. I'd say minimum 20 acres, 40 acres would probably be better.

There should be 2 agents per county in the counties that have a lot of public fishing water and public hunting opportunities, which would include most of the Ozark counties.

We've hashed out the whole enforcement thing before. MDC will tell you that although you may not be checked, you don't know how many times the agent is watching you, and as long as you're not obviously doing anything wrong they don't reveal themselves. But if the goal is to protect the resource, rather than arrest lawbreakers (after they've screwed up the resource), then the agents should be more visible and obvious more of the time.

[bigredbirdfan]

Thanks for your votes and your positive input.