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Disappointed and Mad!!!

Southwind

New member
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
1,575
Location
Augusta, KS
The Kansas Department of Wildlife started a Doves Field program on some Wildlife Management Areas within the last few years. Essentially planting some wma fields with sunflowers. From what I had read they had some pretty good success with one area producing over 1600 birds for 200 some odd hunters during the first three days of the season last year.

I had never tried one of these fields and decided yesterday to try it out. There are some within 30 minutes of the house but had decided to go to some others about an hours drive away. There is no map showing the location of the fields and I was unable to get ahold of the local f&g officer so I would just have to drive around and try to locate them. This area has 6 fields and I found three but with very recent flooding I wasn't able to get around everywhere.

Anyway, to the heart of the matter.

I found one nice looking field and with some birds flying around and decided to give it a try. As we were walking out to find spots to set up I was struck by the amount of trash left in the field. Empty shell boxes, empty water bottles, and of course piles and piles of empty hulls. The shear amount was staggering to me and very depressing. As I sat there I became more angry with my fellow hunters that had left this disgrace to the point it really did ruin the hunt for me. I also obsessed about this knowing that this area had been set aside the first three days of the season last week for youth hunters and hope upon hope that they were not part of this.

I did shoot birds, it was a beautiful day but I did even leave early so I could pick up some on the way out. I filled my 5 gallon bucket with 12 empty boxes I flattened and the rest with hulls and you couldn't even tell I had done anything.

I'm just really pissed! Here the F&G develops a nice program and people are slobs and just abuse the resource.

I don't know, I'm not done with this. I have some obligations this weekend but am thinking about going back with trash bags and trying to clean up.
 
Good on you for doing something about it! That is quite irritating and just plain selfish. I can't even fathom not picking up after myself, especially if it wasn't my land.
 
What a bummer! It's too bad there are hunters that trash the land. Good on you for helping clean up other's trash in the field. I do the same when I find garbage out in the woods.
 
CA has the same problem with the refuge system. Organized public land hunting combined with a generation of bird "shooters" equals a big mess. The average shooter, shoots 5-7 shells per dove, 1600x6= 9600 shells, let's say only 10% don't pick up after themselves. 960 hulls and 38 boxes left afield.The duck dynasty movement has not helped by recruiting a bunch of new shooters to add to the mix. Not that I am against new hunters , those of us with values just need to do a better job of including newbies and sharing what hunting and conservation is actually about.
 
That sucks. I know we always picked up our empties b/c we reload, especially those 20 gauge hulls. Also I didn't like leaving too much evidence behind for my "hot spot" locations around a given field.
 
I feel the same way. Instead of just complain and gripe about the idiots who don't care about the land, I started keeping extra trash bags in my truck and picking it up in the areas where I'm at. It might not seem like it is making much of a difference, but it did for that one! (for those of you who have heard that story).
 
With no public fields close to home, we always relied on plenty of opportunities on local farms. This very same reason has all but eliminated the access to private land when it comes to dove hunting. It seems to me that dove hunting is the worst example of this kind of behavior, at least around here. Sorry to hear it's the same scenario there.
 
It's very disappointing to hear about situations like this, but we all know that the individuals that are responsible for the trash and leftovers are not going to come back and pick it up nor do they care. I suggest getting a group together to go clean up the area, sounds like a good time to have a class of hunter safety students go out and learn the importance of keeping land cleaner than when you found it! As far as the locations of the dove fields, the G&F web site has directions and a PDF map of each location. You have to download the PDF, and I'm not sure if it's true for every dove field, but the map they have for Kaw is pretty accurate. Kaw is the only one I've hunted for past several years and love it. Down there we're fortunate that there's several local hunting groups that have burger burns or a fish fry to entice people to come out and help clean the areas up. Good luck this year!
 
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