The SimplyOutdoors’ crew had a great time over the weekend – we got to converse with quite a few local Michigan residents, and we had a great time doing so.  It’s always fun sharing stories with local hunters – and it was even fun talking with the non-hunters.

We were definitely happy to see the weather hold out for us, too.  There was a chance of thunderstorms throughout the entire day, but, thankfully, we only experienced a little rain in the morning – the rest of the day was perfect and actually quite warm at times. Read more…

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If any of you Michiganders who read this happen to be in the area, you should stop by our booth at the Dewitt Ox Roast this weekend.  A few of the SimplyOutdoors crew are going to be there, and we’d love to have you stop by and say hello.  You’ll find us in the Arts and Crafts area. Read more…

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Anyone seen this nifty little feature?

Ram has came out with a new line of pickup trucks called the Outdoorsman, and they are specifically targeting the hunters and shooters amongst us with their new Mopar Rambox Holster:  it can hold two shotguns or rifles in a lockable, watertight compartment on either side of the truck bed.

Pretty cool, if you ask me.  Oh, and fishing rods will fit in there, too! Read more…

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Last year, Jeff, as well as a few other family members, leased hunting property in Calhoun Co.  I wasn’t really interested at the time, especially since I can hunt a few other properties for free – but, since they were down one person this year – he moved to Hawaii – I decided to drop the few hundred bucks and join them on the lease this year.

Friday night I headed to Menards, picked up a nice little 15ft stand, and on Saturday morning we headed over to the property in order to get the stand put up, as well as to show me the property lines, etc.

I was not disappointed. Read more…

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If you’re a Michigan hunter who has taken the opportunity to hunt pigs in one of Michigan’s local hunting preserves, hopefully you enjoyed the opportunity.  And if you’re a person who already has pork in the freezer after frequenting one of these hunting preserves – you better really enjoy that pork – because opportunities to hunt pigs within a Michigan preserve could be a thing of the past.

State wildlife biologists are on the verge of listing feral swine as an “invasive species”.  If that happens, those deer and elk ranches – which sometimes provide pig hunts as well – will not be able to do so anymore.

The NRC will be gathering information about this topic this month, but it will not be acted on again until sometime in September.  That should give everyone a few months to ponder how they feel about having wild pigs in Michigan:  By listing them are we losing an opportunity to hunt a different species?  Or are we helping out the entire Michigan ecosystem?

Now…..listing them will not ban all opportunities for a hunter to put some pork in his freezer.  They still have the possibility of running into a feral porker, and as long as they possess any valid hunting license, they can legally shoot them on site; only hunting pigs on hunting preserves would be affected.

Why are they being so hard on the hunting preserves?

Apparently because they see a direct correlation between the areas where these hunting preserves exist, and the locations where hunters have legally killed feral swine.  In a nutshell, the biologists believe that most of Michigan’s feral swine are escaping from the hunting preserves.  As Russ Mason, the state’s wildlife chief put it:

“Where we find the pigs running wild we find (a hunting preserve) nearby. There is one chance in a thousand that there is no relationship between the two.”

How do I feel about all this?

I’m very torn.  On one side I would love to have the same opportunities that Phillip, Rex, and Jeff have – but, on the other side, I can see the pig problem getting completely out of control if it’s not properly handled now; and as much as I would love to have a chance to bag a few porkers, I would hate to see the pigs decimate the landscape so much that it starts to effect Michigan’s whitetail habitat.

I’m sure both sides of the issue are getting taped up and ready to put on the gloves.  We’ll just have to wait to see what the NRC decides.

Note: Want to read more on this particular subject?  You can do so here!

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