Question for our American cousins across the pond.

[Malt 379]

Just a question for you guys in the states. With something stupid like 93% of the land in the UK being privately owned, so requiring permision to hunt (or not, depends on your methods...! ), what's the score with the publicly owned 'wilderness' areas that you guys are lucky to have? I mean, can you just go out and shooting/hunting at the right time of year? Or do you have to get some sort of permit for what your shooting, and have you got bag limits on the amount you can shoot, that kind of thing. Just asking out of curiousity, as unless you have land, or spend all of your time asking land owners or gamekeepers, you're quite limited in the UK as what you can do. (legally....)

[greatwhitehunter 47]

thats a good point ive never thought of that

[BlueCoyote 0]

there is a bag limit on most game animals except for pigs and raccoons (i think.. pigs for sure)

There are rules for public land in Florida... mostly being you have to wear blaze orange from the waist up.. legal weapons and of course a general hunting license - covers all game during the season - but again pigs and raccoons are legal year round just need the license.

 

most states should have their own individual magazine for hunting regulations free to the public. within that magazine they tell you of any updates, raised or lowered license fees plus a list of every public hunting land in the state and what you must do to hunt there and what game you are allowed to take.

 

 

or have a look for yourself

http://myfwc.com/hunting/pdf/0708FLHunt_web2.pdf

its a PDF so be warned if you have a slow computer like mine...

Edited December 18, 2007 by BlueCoyote

[bshadle 5]

We're fortunate here in the US to have vast holdings of public lands at the national, state, and often local level. Each state sets its own rules for hunting in that particular state, some few hunting laws are at the national level. The national laws are pretty much limited to things like migratory birds and sea mammals that are also covered by international treaties.

 

Generally speaking, most national forests and state forests are open to the public for hunting and fishing. Most national parks and state parks have at least areas that are open to hunting and fishing, although areas around campgrounds and other tourist attractions will likely be closed to hunting.

 

In addition to the national and state forests and campgrounds, here in Pennsylvania we also have "State Game Lands", currently over 1.4 million acres, that have been purchased by the state using primarilyhunting license revenues. Our SGLs are open to the public for hunting and fishing.

 

We also fortunate to have a lot of access to private land here with the owner's permission. Some areas are as competitive as there, other areas are almost open to the public. My state has several programs where our Game Commission offers incentives to private landowners to open their properties to the public. Even then, it's at least polite if not essential to ask permission though.

 

There are specific seasons and bag limits for most game animals that vary from state to state. The EDRD board has a good link at http://earthdogrunningdog.com/community/portal.php?page=2 if you're seriously interested in the specifics.

 

Just a few of the more obvious differences between here in Pennsylvania and what I understand about hunting in the UK -

 

What you call "lamping" we call "jacklighting" and is considered a form of poaching here. The only legal game to take that way are coyotes, raccoon, and fox.

 

Where you seem to have essentially unlimited bags for rabbits, our rabbits are classified as game animals and our limit is 4/day with a season that runs from mid October to late November, and then again from late December until mid February. I'm not certain if it would be legal to hunt them with lurchers here, we generally either stalk them with .22LR or flush them, often with beagles, and shotgun them. Sometimes a beagle will get lucky and grab a rabbit on the flush. When they do that, we don't brag about it but quietly put it in the bag.

 

A dog running deer here in Pennsylvania is usually a dead dog, laws allow a dog harassing deer to be shot on sight.

 

There's probably more if I thought about it a while, but those are ones that spring to mind.

[Malt 379]

Thanks for the info guys, you've told me exactly what I wanted to know!