• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Louisiana Saddle Hunter's Thread

The Mississippi River engaged in habitat improvement for whitetail for a few years in a row.

LAKY said:
Are there any habitat improvements done on Louisiana public lands? Are there any timber stand improvement projects done to get the browse levels raised to increase deer carrying capacity?
Click to expand...
 
Louisiana can't even improve insurance rates, infrastructure, crime, economic opportunity, educational attainment, literacy and poverty rates, sexually transmitted disease prevalence, drug use... whitetail opportunity is buried way down the list.
 
What can the hunters do to change that? It seems the agency charged with natural resources is managing the wildlife through regulations but doing nothing to manage the habitat the wildlife use.
 
LAKY said:
What can the hunters do to change that? It seems the agency charged with natural resources is managing the wildlife through regulations but doing nothing to manage the habitat the wildlife use.
Click to expand...
trying to get LDWF to do anything positive for the hunting\fishing community is like arguing with a 3 year old, especially if it involves them spending money vs making money (just my opinion on the matter).
 
this is partially why I have thought that sticking more to non-LDWF managed areas could be better. I think some of the NWRs do prescribed burns, same as in Kisatchie i think, etc. could be wrong on that.
 
mschultz373 said:
this is partially why I have thought that sticking more to non-LDWF managed areas could be better. I think some of the NWRs do prescribed burns, same as in Kisatchie i think, etc. could be wrong on that.
Click to expand...
theres only one WMA LDWF actually does prescribed burns on that i know of and its to improve habitat for upland birds. They also decided to do this literally in the middle of deer season year before last.
 
Dmathews87 said:
trying to get LDWF to do anything positive for the hunting\fishing community is like arguing with a 3 year old, especially if it involves them spending money vs making money (just my opinion on the matter).
Click to expand...
It seems like the LDWF could do select cuts on WMAs to improve habitat and make money or use that money to fund other improvements.
 
LAKY said:
It seems like the LDWF could do select cuts on WMAs to improve habitat and make money or use that money to fund other improvements.
Click to expand...
They do, but they over select and don't follow up with cutting with windrows and burns. The areas grow into jungle that is only good for hogs and bear dins. The only proper select cutting I have seen was in a restricted area on a WMA.

You have to remember, the LDWF states they don't manage wildlife. They manage "opportunities", and that is all. Until they shorten the seasons or do away with the "primitive weapons" season nothing will change.
 
cjr4497 said:
They do, but they over select and don't follow up with cutting with windrows and burns. The areas grow into jungle that is only good for hogs and bear dins. The only proper select cutting I have seen was in a restricted area on a WMA.

You have to remember, the LDWF states they don't manage wildlife. They manage "opportunities", and that is all. Until they shorten the seasons or do away with the "primitive weapons" season nothing will change.
Click to expand...
This is their mission statement. They are charged by the state constitution to manage wildlife, their habitat, and opportunities. Habitat is the basis for supporting wildlife. No habitat, no wildlife, no opportunities.

Screenshot_20231211_062750_Chrome.jpg
 
while we're here... I'm typically NOT in favor of shortening seasons or our 6 tags/yr only bc I'm not totally convinced they automatically yield bigger, better, more deer.

I would argue that rather than decreasing hunter opportunity, managing habitat better would be of more benefit and yield better results.

That being said, crossbows aren't archery.
 
cjr4497 said:
A few year s back the head of the wildlife commission said "we manage opportunity, not wildlife" in an interview. This is why they let crossbows in for everyone during archery and why they let crack barrel rifles into muzzloader season. The department funds mainly come from license sales and that is what they manage for. That whole plan is a crock of bull. They do nothing based on science for the benefit of the wildlife. It is like this.
Click to expand...
I can tell you that when crossbows were being legalilized I testified against them at the commission meetings. After one of the meetings, I had a certain commission memeber and a former commission member, who had just purchased a crossbow company tell me we did not have enough money to stop it from becoming legal. It did not matter how many signatures we had or how many people spoke against it. All about the $$$.

If you truly want to help things, help start some type of hunters cooalition at some of these WMAs or NWRs and help volunteer to help with the loss of labor and budget shortfalls. We did this at Tensas years ago by helping plant the trees in the reforested areas as well as other WMAs.

There was a time when you saw volunteers many if not all of them were hunters helping make improvements. Now its the nonhunting groups, photography, bird watchers, etc. volunteering. Hopefully one day this will change.
 
Its Bernie said:
I can tell you that when crossbows were being legalilized I testified against them at the commission meetings. After one of the meetings, I had a certain commission memeber and a former commission member, who had just purchased a crossbow company tell me we did not have enough money to stop it from becoming legal. It did not matter how many signatures we had or how many people spoke against it. All about the $$$.

If you truly want to help things, help start some type of hunters coalition at some of these WMAs or NWRs and help volunteer to help with the loss of labor and budget shortfalls. We did this at Tensas years ago by helping plant the trees in the reforested areas as well as other WMAs.

There was a time when you saw volunteers many if not all of them were hunters helping make improvements. Now its the nonhunting groups, photography, bird watchers, etc. volunteering. Hopefully one day this will change.
Click to expand...
I bet if the hunters felt like they actually had a voice in this state you'd see a lot more volunteering. Instead, I drive across the line for much better big buck hunting opportunities because of restrictions; they work.
 
Sugcain04 said:
I bet if the hunters felt like they actually had a voice in this state you'd see a lot more volunteering. Instead, I drive across the line for much better big buck hunting opportunities because of restrictions; they work.
Click to expand...


What restrictions are you referring to? I feel zero restriction to harvest nice bucks here in LA.
 
The_Fit_Ness_Monster said:
What restrictions are you referring to? I feel zero restriction to harvest nice bucks here in LA.
Click to expand...
I would just love to see two bucks tags instead of three and less rifle days or purely lottery rifle on a few WMAs. Thistlewaite during the 4 on one side days was awesome to hunt compared to now. I don’t particularly care for a point rule but those restrictions made a huge difference.
 
Sugcain04 said:
I would just love to see two bucks tags instead of three and less rifle days or purely lottery rifle on a few WMAs. Thistlewaite during the 4 on one side days was awesome to hunt compared to now. I don’t particularly care for a point rule but those restrictions made a huge difference.
Click to expand...
Yeah I’ve always said we have way too long of a rifle season for sure. Eh I can take it or leave it as far as myself (don’t really chase horns) but all my buddies that do do quite well here in N.LA, hell last year my buddy and his brother went down to Thistlewait and each got a very nice 9 and 10 point, I’ve always said Thistlewait has probably the best deer in the state only problem is they’re mostly nocturnal there and they have 6k acres of the thickest best coverage in the state which makes it one of the harder places to hunt as far as getting close to bedding areas. But though the deer were less (it seemed) this year I’ve seen some impressive bucks come out of here in N.LA. Which if you in LA I don’t know why you wouldn’t hunt up here, I grew up down with (Lafayette) and drove every season to tensas, big lake and bayou Macon, Jackson beinville back in the day and always Thistlewait, but I never minded the trips, it was a yearly thing and a big event and it’s where the deer always are so it was always worth it, there were some slow years but in the past 10 have being getting much better then the previous 10. Hell last year nearly reminded me of tensas in the mid 90’s lol but I’ve always wondered overall what would the population do if they did away with rifle for just a season.
 
it doesn't help that everyone and their mama and their daddy and their cousins and their in-laws and their mother-in-laws and their co-workers and their best friends and their acquaintances and their girlfriends is in the woods gun hunting if/when there is a legal season on public in Louisiana.

I think habitat improvement would go a long way to bettering our deer hunting.
 
also... just gonna say, this is a guy they caught. For every guy they catch, I would bet there are a dozen they don't.

www.louisianasportsman.com

Chalmette man arrested for numerous hunting and fishing violations - Louisiana Sportsman

LDWF enforcement agents completed an investigation on Dec. 13 that resulted in an arrest of a Chalmette man.
www.louisianasportsman.com www.louisianasportsman.com

NWR officer told me they've had problems with locals poaching on the refuge; guys on leases saying other members are hunting deer at night. suffice to say, there's A LOT more deer being taken each year than are reported.
 
Yeah poaching is a problem and a huge pet peive of mine. It seems like there’s and entire generation of people that all they did was outlaw and yet I see more deer nowadays than years past. I’ve always detested outlaws and I’ve spent way more time thinking about how to curve it from happening and short of public skinnings there’s no way to police that, you’ll catch a couple but never all it comes down to people having personal pride and others holding each other accountable. I do my part and report em. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve reported around me literally bragging about outlawing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top