MDC proposes expanding furbearer Hunting and Trapping Season

[silverfox]

Dec 17, 2021 7:33:18 GMT -6 krank said:

Back in the 70's, the locals down South told me the game warden would shoot dogs that ran deer and take the collar to the owner. I know they would not do that now but was it true back then?
Remember the court case of OLd Drum that happened here and was a nationwide news topic?

Best bet is inform the owner first and go from there. If the owner is irresponsible then I can be irresponsible too.

Great post, Krank. In these parts not only is a fed bear a dead bear but a loose trespassing dog is a dead dog. It works!!

I am sure lots of bears, unsupervised dogs, and even big cats meet their meet their maker when its necessary for the good of the commons.

Great thread.

[bigbob]

Dec 16, 2021 16:45:26 GMT -6 bigjohn said:

Feral and free running dogs do a lot of damage to wildlife. They run deer until exhausted, push turkey off nest, and kill fawns. IMO every dog should have a collar or take a chance of being shot. f your dog isn't worth a collar.....well then.

Collars can get snagged on branches and fence wire.

[bigjohn]

Agree Bob but I run my dogs WITH collars. If a person knows his dog doesn't leave the yard, shouldn't be a problem um?

I wish I had a dollar every time a landowner has told me that. Use to be a dog caught in a trap in cattle country, it was a dead dog. Turned many a coyote running dog loose.

[krank]

Missouri law-----Dogs cannot trespass. A dog chasing cows or chickens is toast and owner has no gripe. A dog accidentally caught in a legal trap is the fault of the owner.
You should not have to fight with a neighbor over a dog. The police should handle the situation. If they say there is nothing they can do then that is a cop out.(get it? cop out)
If police refuse to handle then bring it to the attention of the circuit judge. You can take somebody to court for damages caused by their dog.
Get on you tube and there are a lot of videos of dog shooting that were somewhat justifiable. There are a couple where the guy was just an idiot and caught hell for his crime.
Some rural radio stations actually announce, as a public service message, that hunting and trapping season is upon us and please control your animals.
My Mountain Cur instinctively trails,trees and herds. I caught him across the road playing tag with the neighbors calves. I immediately put a stop to that (pup meant no harm) and went over to apologize to the neighbor. THe neighbor said he had not noticed the dog and told me he would never kill a dog unless he had to. I told the wife Don was a nice guy because legally he could destroy the dog for that.

[segsarge]

I've had no luck with LE when it comes to free roaming dogs. Their claim is that as long as nobody is hunting over them (deer) it's a case of "no harm, no foul." That's on my property. No way there's going to be any help from MDC, Forestry Service or County Sheriff's dept. I don't have any livestock, but am trying to increase the wildlife. It isn't recognized as property (Wildlife belongs to State), but it's frustrating to plant food plots or improve habitat for them only to have dogs chase them constantly.
I got an update on my old trapping partner's river trip. He and his son took 70 animals in 7 days from a 3.2 mile section of the Current. Breakdown was 60 coon, 5 beaver, 2 otter and a possum. Of the 60 coon only 7 were boars. The rest were sows.

[krank]

They had a coon catching contest in SW MO last week. 750+ coons total. Winning team caught 100. One of the comments on FB about the picture was "Look, theres $50 worth of fur."

Just gonna have to play the dog thing by ear.

I need to study up on the new laws about artificial light and coyotes. I bought a night vision rig for my .22. By the time I got it all hooked up, it was pretty disappointing. I sent it back to Amazon.

I have a rig on my 10-22 called the "Wicked" light. It throws a red beam for 1/2 a mile. It is visible though. I want invisible.

[segsarge]

My son bought one of those night vision monocular. Not much good at anything past around 50 yards. Even then, you might see it, but can't see to shoot since it doesn't attach to a firearm. There are the high dollar thermal scopes that cost around 4 thousand. I'd try it if the price wasn't so high.

[krank]

The POS I bought was $150. They have decent night vision rifle scopes for $300 to $500. I have a night vision monocular made in Russia which is just good for looking. Real fragile and cannot be exposed to sunlight.
Yeah, state of the art is over $2000.
Lots of predator callers just use the red light. We used to use a red lens on a flashlight for fox years ago. They claim varmits cant see red light like white light. They make a green light but I think that is a hog thing.
I got a buddy with a suppressed AR with night vision. Legal.....He was shooting deer with the suppressed AR and the CA said he was going to write him a ticket. He said to go ahead because he would like to see what the ticket said.
I got no use for a silencer. At night, I am not banging away with centerfires. A 22 mag is just fine.
I load that 300 blackout with a 220 grain bullet and bullseye powder and it sounds like a pellet gun.

[segsarge]

Can't recall what my son paid for the monocular he bought but it was probably in the $150 range too. It's ok for checking the yard or driveway by the house when the Husky dog barks at night. Never had a .300 blackout. Thought about it a few times but don't understand the advantages. Is it less noisy than other centerfire?

[krank]

The 300 blackout was originally called the Whisper. It was 3 to 5 grains of bullseye and a big bullet. Used for shooting deer on public airport runways. Subsonic so no loud crack.
It is a .223 brass cut down and flared out to 308. AR freeks quickly latched on to them. Problem with the AR was getting enough powder to cycle action without breaking subsonic.
Bullets drop like a rock. You can dope it out for any range even 500 yards. Just understand that 500 yard setting will be 4 feet off at point blank.
The whole subsonic idea is that gravity does not claim a subsonic like a supersonic. Kind of hard to imagine but a supersonic bullet needs alot more powder to keep it on track as gravity wants it bad. Stay below the speed of sound and gravity has less effect. Kinda of like a car can move 5 mph on one cylinder but it needs all 8 cylinders to go 50.
Why not just load any 30 cal subsonic? You can to an extent. The limiting factor is barrel twist and case capacity. You need a 1:7 barrel twist to stabilize a 220 grain bullet. An AR in 5.56 is 1:9. Most sporting rifles are 1:12. Rule on case fill is no less than 60% to avoid weird things from happening. Bullseye seems to be an exception.
Don't get too excited. I played all summer a few years ago with cutting .223 brass and casting 80,90,110, 150, 190 and 220 grain bullets. Played with supersonic and subsonic.
Finally decided on 125 grain SP with a full case of IMR 4227 to get over 2000 fps to have a 200 yard deer gun. I carry 80 grain cast with Trailboss for small game.
I found a deal once where they had H&R handirifles in 300 BLK for $175 each and bought two of them. They are made to be scoped with no front sight. I put Williams peeps on the one and a 1x5 shotgun scope on the other (long eye relief puts scope in front of hammer-my old hammer gun trick)
I bought an AR upper for one too. 100 yard gun throwing 190 bullets with same noise as a .22.

Attachments:

[krank]

Yup. Kind of a toy but I love to play.

[krank]

Last year my buddies got set up for coyotes at night. What a hoot. Suppressed ARs with night vision. Scan with thermal.
I have since collected these items and am ready for next season in February.
Playing with my thermal monocular is amazing.
I go out at night and it picks up all the wildlife. I can walk up to a thicket and look through the scope and you see no brush just lit up rabbits everywhere. Last night I looked at a fence row and it showed two coyotes 500 yards away in the bean field. The monocular ignored the trees in front of me and lit up the coyotes way out there. Amazing.

Thinking ahead, that would be great for checking traps at 5 am. Pull up in the truck. Quickly scan the landscape. If nothing shows up then drive on. Huge timesaver.

The law is very specific that you cannot have a gun while using thermal.(except during special season) Not a problem when trapping.