possesion vs. dailey limits

[youngie22]

Any body seen the bill trying to raise the daily limit of pheasant to 3 in MN?? Should this be done, or should they raise the possesion limit to a 2 day limit? It would be nice to shoot 3 birds when you go out, but is this the best for our pheasant population? What will give my 7 year old daughter a chance to get a bird here in MN when she is 13?? What do you all think?

[JigginIsLife]

Yup I read the proposed article and what they are thinking. I dont believe that it is a wise decesion to raise the limits already. wasnt it like 4 yrs ago we had one of the lowest birds per square acre years. i think we give it time to recouperate and instead of having one year of good hunting we preserve multiple years of every trip comming home with two birds in the bag. i see this as being an "oppratunistic Hunter" 's dream. They havent hunted the years where the only birds to shoot were old wise ones. instead they will come out with there are tons of birds and ruit the population. i can only see a new bag limit destroying the bird population.

[youngie22]

I do know the rep. who proposed the bill. I would like to speak to him and see what his thoughts are. I think his hunting days were to short. He owns a nursery I floated through on a scenic canoe trip just yesterday, calling some predator calls. We kicked up 12 hens right on his shore line. I think your right though, it should be left the same for atleast a few years.

[grab the net]

You cannot stock pile or save roosters for the future, not even next year. Average life span is 9 months for a pheasant, that is taking everything into account. There will always be some carry over, but habitat and nesting are the two things that dictate how many roosters you have to shoot the following year. This debate is ruled by emotion more so than biology, just like the two lines -vs- one for open water.

[JigginIsLife]

I know that you cant "stock pile" the birds but im just saying that i think its too early. let the avid hunters that have put in the time, fill thier bags every time. im from southern mn where the birds are far and few between, and this has been the first year when we have actually seen birds, i mean getting skunked like 7-8 trips in a row is terriable. and i think its just a little too early to increase the bag limits.

[riverrat56]

We've all gone back and forth on the stockpiling, limit raising, feeding debate. The truth is that we need habitat, but also, I don't think we need a 3 bird limit.

I'm agains't it in every way shape or form, and have stated before why.

[fishing4fun]

IF they do raise the limit on pheasants then they should lower the walleye limit to 4 a day. Just my opinion...

[terryt]

I have read the article and my understanding is that if they raise the daily up to 3 it would take place after the 16th day of the season when the birds are a little tougher to come by.

[sdstatekid]

Habitat is a million times more important than a 3 bird daily limit instead of a 2. All it takes is one nasty winter in an area with poor winter cover to decimate the population in that area. Another thing you should think about is IF we would have that nasty winter, even if there is good winter cover, the birds still need to eat and if there are too many roosters left after the season and food starts running they will kill the hens. So now instead having a down season the next year, you basically have no season, because the only birds are the carryover roosters, no young of the year birds because there aren't any hens. This is why you can sometimes get to hunt pay to hunt places out here in South Dakota for free or very low cost late in the year. The owners of these pay to hunt places hire biologists to give them an estimate on the number of roosters they have on their property, and they give them a number that should be shot that year to stay on the safe side. If the owners of these places haven't gotten rid of enough of them. Another way the weather can decimate the population and it wont matter how much habitat we have or how many roosters left from the previous season is a spring that is way to dry. That happened in some parts of South Dakota this year, not much you can do about it, more habitat wouldn't have helped. No moisture = no insects = no food for the young pheasants. There are to many factors that go in to how many birds we have each fall, for me to worry that a 3 bird daily limit is going to destroy our population.