Hunting in America vs Africa

[Bonk]

I live in Kentucky. I'm a land owner and I hunt exclusively on my property. Every year I kill enough deer to keep us in venison until next year. Same with turkey in the spring and fall seasons. As a land owner I don't have to have a license or pay for tags as long as I hunt on my own land. Same thing applies to my immediate family members. The only thing I have to pay for is federal stamps if I decide to hunt geese or ducks.

I have to abide by all game laws as far as bag and daily limits but that still allows for plenty of venison in the freezer. The only game laws I don't have to consider are license/tag fees and wearing hunter orange. Everything else I have to adhere to including the various seasons (archery, modern gun, muzzle loader, youth hunts, etc).

We have a telephone game check in system where I call in the game I take and I'm assigned a confirmation number. I attach that number and my name and phone number to the deer so I can legally transport it to the processor. It serves as a makeshift 'tag'. The same thing applies to turkey. In either case they mainly want to know the sex/species/size of the game so they can keep track of the harvest and manage the game herd.

I don't have to call in small game such as rabbits, squirrels, etc. I have to adhere to the appropriate seasons/limits, etc but I don't have to report anything.

All in all I have it very easy here in KY. No money for licenses/tags and I can hunt pretty much everything I want as long as I honor the bag limits. We do have a small elk herd here in KY but the rules are a such a PITA I don't even bother. Besides, the overwhelming majority of good elk country is private land and they want an arm and a leg to hunt there. No thanks.

I've also lived and hunted in Missouri and California. Missouri was easy. Pay a modest fee for a license and a few more dollars for deer tags. IIRC (it's been 20+ years ago) a license was around $10-15 and a tag was something like $8. I hunted public land mostly but I did eventually find a farmer that let me hunt his corn fields. I paid him back with a few pounds of venison and a couple of days of free labor.

California was about the same. Pay a modest fee for a license and tags and head out to the Sierra Nevada Mountains to bow hunt bear and black tailed deer. Again, that was 20+years ago so it might have changed a bit since then.

In my experience hunting basic game like deer, turkey, upland birds and waterfowl is pretty easy in the USA. Buy a license, tags and stamps and off you go. Pretty strait forward and not difficult to find decent public land. It starts to get weird, expensive and unwieldy when you want to hunt big game like sheep, elk, etc. YMMV.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Elton, you almost have to be a lawyer to interpret all the regulations. Each state is different. I live in Colorado where it is basically a manual for hunting. We have a number of big game species such as mule deer, whitetail deer, antelope, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, black bear, mountain lion, etc. each has different license tags for different seasons. You have to pass a hunter safety course before you can even get or apply for a license. For mountain lion, you have to pass another online test as well.
There are a few game management units where you can buy an over the counter bull elk license, but lots of units you have to apply early in the year in a drawing to get a license. Some units you can get an over the counter tag for black bear while you are hunting other species (elk, deer primarily).
Almost everything else you have to apply for preference points each year and pay to get that until, or if you ever get drawn. Example: apply for 3 years just to be able to get the initial 3 points before you start getting what are called “weighted” points after that. I applied for some 18 years for mountain goat and bighorn sheep. After the first six years, I lost all my points because I failed to apply on time the following year. I started over. Now at 73 years old after acquiring 12 weighted points, I’ve decided not to waist my money and time chasing a dream I likely will never draw and if I do, I likely will not be in shape enough to hunt at 12-14,000 feet in elevation.
Another example: I had 12 weighted points (plus the 3 to start) for moose. I gave up on a bull, and decided a cow would work. I drew and lost 15 years of points and many $ of applying. I had to hunt alone, so I knew I had to drop a cow within 300 yards of a road, or I would never be able to get it out. No cell service and 75 mile drive to call for assistance. Needless to say bulls walked across the road in front of me, but all the cows were 1/2 mile at least from a road. Didn’t pull the trigger on any. 15 years of points gone.
Not wasting my time and money chasing points in Colorado. If I really want a moose, bighorn or mountain goat, I’ll go somewhere and pay an outfitter to haul it out.

I drew an either sex elk tag and a buck mule deer muzzleloading tags this year. If I take them and can get them out without a heart attack by myself, this will be my last year without a guide to do the heavy lifting.

Hope this helped you understand one US state’s licensing method.
Best if you are planning to pursue North American game.

Ridgewalker,
Yep, that's the Colorado system. I gave up on sheep or goat tags after 12 years, after the DOW started charging $50 for a preference point. I have 25 PP (that's 25 YEARS)for a muzzle loading bull elk tag in area 201. I've really lost all interest in that hunt. I've not been able to draw a Unit 4 second choice elk tag for several years now because of chasing that tag! It really is almost like a pyramid scheme, where those who drew with a few PP (father in law with 12pts and his buddy with 9pts) keep encouraging others to keep putting in for that ever elusive tag. Biggest hunting mistake I've ever made! I'm about ready to do what you did, just so I can hunt elk again! I'm leaving tomorrow with our elk group just for a fall trip, but will only be hunting spruce grouse and humping out elk if someone in the group gets one or more.
CEH

 

[Bonk]

What's interesting to me is all the elk/sheep hunting articles in the gun rags where the authors seemingly get tags anytime they want. I'll be honest, I have no faith the draw system is even remotely fair. I suspect, but can't prove, that just like almost every other government run scheme it's corrupt as hell. It's more about who you know and/or who you pay than a random draw. How is it some people 'randomly' draw tags year after year and others have been patiently waiting decades? I admit I'm not too familiar with the process but as an outside observer it seems every state that has a draw for elk, sheep, etc the system appears to be either corrupt or has extremely long odds that an average hunter will get a tag.

 

[JimP]

What's interesting to me is all the elk/sheep hunting articles in the gun rags where the authors seemingly get tags anytime they want. I'll be honest, I have no faith the draw system is even remotely fair. I suspect, but can't prove, that just like almost every other government run scheme it's corrupt as hell. It's more about who you know and/or who you pay than a random draw. How is it some people 'randomly' draw tags year after year and others have been patiently waiting decades? I admit I'm not too familiar with the process but as an outside observer it seems every state that has a draw for elk, sheep, etc the system appears to be either corrupt or has extremely long odds that an average hunter will get a tag.

If you have the money you too can do all the elk/sheep hunting that you want to do without having to draw a tag. A number of states have ranches set up where the landowner has quite a few tags to sell to whoever can afford them, in exchange they allow state resident hunters to apply in a draw for the same ranches. This is for deer and elk.

Now sheep, it just takes money to be able to hunt them every year. Not everyone can afford $20,000+ to go chase them.

 

[Ryan]

What's interesting to me is all the elk/sheep hunting articles in the gun rags where the authors seemingly get tags anytime they want. I'll be honest, I have no faith the draw system is even remotely fair. I suspect, but can't prove, that just like almost every other government run scheme it's corrupt as hell. It's more about who you know and/or who you pay than a random draw. How is it some people 'randomly' draw tags year after year and others have been patiently waiting decades? I admit I'm not too familiar with the process but as an outside observer it seems every state that has a draw for elk, sheep, etc the system appears to be either corrupt or has extremely long odds that an average hunter will get a tag.

I can't prove or disprove your thoughts on corruption. I can say I lived in Arizona and I'm not a fan of the point system which I think is more than a little hinky. While not every hunt is a drawing in Alaska, the draw tag system is completely random. I have personally drawn a Dall sheep permit and a mountain goat permits in the past 10 years, both with 1% or less odds. I've had a few friends draw various moose permits and brown bear on Kodiak. So it can be done without mischief. Now a nonresident for sheep here will probably be hunting in an area that isn't a draw permit, but they must have a guide by law. So those writers hunting here had to pay, and steep prices for that sheep.

 

[BeeMaa]

I've been told of hunting sheep successfully...
You need a lot of time, or a lot of money.

The guys from the hunting rags/TV shows certainly have the $.
The locals have the time to scout, know the land, weather patterns...etc.

Unfortunately, I'm neither.

 

[leslie hetrick]

a lot of the gun rags-hunting shows hunt free for the hunts to be written up or put on the hunting shows, in the hope it will bring normal hunters to hunt or read the gun rags. its called advertizment and its all written off on their taxes.

 

[steve white]

One thing stands out in my mind--the safari camps in Africa really spoil you! Everyone should experience it once.