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If CWD becomes a major issue in MS, which is a pretty distinct possibility, do you think we will see more interest or participation in duck hunting from traditional deer hunters turned off by the prevalence of CWD?

Haven't thought of that but that is something that could very well happen. That coupled with the recent Anderson-Tully/Public land deal where a good many lost their camps could mean a boost in duck interest. Will be interesting to see and hear everybody's opinion.

I don't think so, I believe as of late there has been a decline in duck hunter numbers due to the limited hunting spots. I know there are a ton of places to hunt, but the regular folks and younger crowd can't afford to play the lease duck ground game, and the public land hunting is all (mostly) by draw hunt only now. You are told when and where you can hunt. I haven't duck hunted in years because it was too much of a hassel. I used to hunt oxbows off The River but big money bought the law writing trespassing tickets and the like, all the public land in my area is draw only, the other areas you can hunt without draw don't have water much (When is the last time DNF pumped a greentree?) etc.. etc... I got tired of the whole public part of public land deer hunting too, I bought my own little piece of earth and thats that. But back to the CWD affecting duck hunting and drawing more folks to it..IF it becomes a factor, it will be no more a factor bringing folks to the sport than the limited opportunities and rules and regulations are a factor pushing people out of it.

Just my 0.02

Deer hunting in west central MS and SW is changing at warp speed right in front of our eyes. Frankly, I’m a little depressed by it all.

How is it changing?

There are 1000s (I don’t think that’s hyperbole) that have lost their hunting spot, are expecting to any day (me), or are expecting to be leasing from a new owner, with the ATCo shakeup. This may seem like no big deal, but lots of the examples are multi-decade if not multi-generation memberships. More and more, that guy you run into once or twice a year at the store and talk about hunting seasons isn’t hunting anymore. Some die-hards from back in the day are hanging it up.

Where I am, the damn baiting has absolutely changed movement patterns. Give me deer hounds stinking up the woods again over what we have now.

The CWD stuff is at least in the back of your mind, too.

Now I don’t mean this as a woe-is-me thing. We’ve had a good thing for a long time. Change is guaranteed. But it ain’t always fun.

I think it will......at least initially. I think those deer hunters who have never duck hunted that take up duck hunting because of CWD will stop very shortly after starting. They have no idea of what it takes in money, time, and physical energy. The bloom will fall off that rose very shortly. Duck hunting is a whole different ball game than sitting in a heated shooting house watching the ball game on a tablet.

I agree 100% with doing away with feeders. What I see is the mature bucks just go from feeder to feeder checking does and eating free corn at midnight.

REBEL DUCK wrote:I agree 100% with doing away with feeders. What I see is the mature bucks just go from feeder to feeder checking does and eating free corn at midnight.

We've turned em into Democrat Deer!!

I agree with doing away with feeders. Our neighbor in the delta used to run 30 to 35 feeders prior to the feeding ban. His feeding absolutely changed our deer sightings. This year has been one of my favorite bow seasons just hunting hot oak trees and not worrying about any type of feed on us or the neighbors. With that being said, why do deer in Texas move all during the day going from feeder to feeder. Maybe our deer are just different. Ha.