Here in central Florida, we have one of the best places in the country left to hunt on the outside. The Ocala National Forest has been, for years, a place for all types of hunters to come enjoy the outdoors. Over the last several years we have had an increasing number of incidents between hunters and non-hunters. I guess this is due to higher population and more traffic in the forest. My main question goes to the hunters especially in La., who have lost their ONF, what would you tell us Floridians (who have already lost fox pens) to be watchful of or somehow prevent losing our hunting grounds. And how do you cut down on people running out of season! It is a rampant problem here and one I am sure will cause us plenty of grief. Thanks for any input.

Time may show that the foxhunter was the test bird in the coal mine. This modern world is the mine and the bird died.Civilization seems to have devolved to the point that down is up and up is down.We saw the financial explosion to the wildlife agencies with the deer management projects and the foxhunter saw what majority rule means.We hear groups preaching democracy, well this is democracy. More or less the mob rules.Funny thing is this country is a republic. Or in name a republic. But we foxhunters are seeing no representation whatsoever. The comfort we must take is this upside down worldly earth is still ruled by our heavenly Father with Jesus at his side.

I know I see on Facebook or social media in general people posting videos of running their hounds out of season. It's hard for me to put my dogs in the pen and not run them, but I do because that is the ethical thing to do. I feel as if our forest rangers are just taking notes and pictures/videos for their case to shut it down. I guess we just stay on the ship until it sinks.

Sadly, this is what this country is coming too.the other day a friend of my mother put a picture of a truck with a box full of hounds driving down the highway and put the caption "Is this legal?" When 20 years ago, everyone in the South knew a hound hunter. I'm only 30 and in my lifetime, I have seen a huge (at least 50%) drop in the number of hunters in the past 15 years. In the 90s and early 2000s, southeast Georgia was pretty much a continuous group of dog clubs from the Folkston to Waynesboro. (Roughly a four hour drive). A big hunt at Swainsboro would have 500+ hounds at that time period. The Ogeechee one day had an exceptional turnout for the times today with 260 hounds. Currently there are only roughly 200 deer dog clubs left in the state. The population in the state is exploding but hunter numbers (including still hunters) are dropping and land is disappearing to urban sprawl and being cut into smaller tracts especially around Savannah, Statesboro, and Richmond hill. Sadly our traditions and ways of life are going to the same place the rest of Our South is heading.

I'm 30 minutes from Orlando. I know all about urban sprawl. The biggest problem I think we have is that hunters are hurting themselves. Can't follow simple rules. It doesn't matter if it is running out of season or driving down a closed road. Dog hunters around here need a full time PR man, and anyone in his right mind wouldn't take the job.....

Chase, there is a club in South Carolina that actually lost their lease because of a video of a guy shooting a deer on a blacktop road that was put on YouTube. I wish folks would get it in their head that the best policy for our sport is to stay out of the public eye unless it's for charity or something positive to the general public

We already know they will never understand! We need to quit giving them ammo to take it from us!!!

We heard a man's tee ' d off ex wife filmed his bayed coyotes in a florida pen and put it out to the public to get back at his women chasing several years ago and thats started sll the bull in Florida pens...may be made up but sounds about right...

Here in La. We have lost the forest as well as Weyerhauser properties as well. As for the forest I would suggest you all mount a call in effort to your congressmen and senators urging support for the sportsmanship bill currently working its way through the house. If I've been told correctly there is an amendment attached to the bill that will require the federal lands to honor state regulations for hunting seasons.
I will also add that as hunters we had better support each other and present a strong voice with numbers to back it up if not the politicians will ignore us. This is the main reason we need numbers within our ranks as hunters. I personally foxhunt as well as deer hunt (dogs) and love both but there both being stripped away here in the sportsmans paradise. The LSA was formed to combat the national forest issue here about five years ago it has evolved and we are now attempting to get Weyerhauser to reverse their recent decision involving the no hound issue. We are trying to defend hunting in general but our two core issues have been the national forest and Weyerhauser. Our dues are 40.00/year that's a Coke and pack of crackers a month, we have approximately 700 members. You would think that we would have 10,000 members but hunters refuse to band together.
In closing I've got to respect the bow hunter, turkey hunter or whatever a individual wants to hunt and by whatever legal means he prefers and vice versa. If not the hunting fraternity will be dismantled state by state and style of hunting and species one at the time.
The foxhunter will pay an entry fee every week or two the deer hunter will buy a ton of two of corn a year but to get them to support the LSA seems to out of the question. Hunters are very passionate about their sport but are VERY APPATHETIC about trying to preserve it.
Mike Martin
318-990-1322
LSA board member

Well, today what started my rant, was a fellow hunter posting a video running deer in our national forest. Not only is it out of season and he shouldn't be doing it, but it's bow season! He is stepping on the toes of a fellow Hunter in more than one way!

Agreed, it goes back to the respect I spoke of.

chase ,like you I grew up close to the forest Oviedo area started running dogs there in 1970 at the age of ten saw the the forest go through the hell years when it took a full weekend to get one race,moved away in 1987 did not hunt the forest again till 2013 I was shocked it had come a long way it had become obvious the true sportsman and houndsman who wanted to continue to run had started policeing theirselves and only by this will we will be able to continue,truth be known no other group of hunters has hurt us we bring all the damage on ourselves ,a quote from a law officer I have become friends with in the Apalachicola forest, the state will never have to stop dog hunting your going to do it to yourselves.remember this as we go forward the whole state has new horn restrictions ,they do work I have been apart of it the rewards down the road will be worth it,with all the eyes on the hound hunter ,and new laws ,this is not the time to get greedy

They have always wanted us to police ourselves. But that in itself is a double edged sword. What can I impose as a fellow Hunter as a penalty to reduce the problem? Nothing. I've seen lots change in my years of hunting there, but the worst is yet to come.

In some states deer hunters are the problem.Cant please them whatsoever. We had dozens of hound disappear over last 20 years.No body is on the foxhunters side here.Not many run hounds on outside in this state and very few pens..Its not a new problem in Tn.In fact foxhunting has been dead in this state since 1980 when the government started managing the deer population. The old foxhunters gave up and died out.And any body left is crazy to keep trying.

I agree with you a 100 percent I have seen it turn friends to enemies we all have,but one thing is for sure if we don't try something we all know the outcome. nuff said

Most all of our problems are created within our own dog hunter brotherhood, at least around here. I was hoping some older and wiser hunters would show me the way. But it's not just here in our forest but everywhere. I guess I should be happy we have had it this long! Thanks for all the replies!

Our problem here in Missouri is people move out of the big city's and buy 5 acres in the country and think they own the hole country and if they hear a dog bark they throw a fit

Chase, I've found if i run my dogs the day after deer season up to turkey season then start back from day after turkey season till bow season starts, I have no problems ( so far). That's gives me about 7 months of running and I usually have the Forrest to myself which is around 300,000 acres. I run a little at night during deer dog season.iv had no problems with hunters, game wardens or local residents. It's something about deer dogs that most deer hunters don't like and the local residents resent it also. Deer hunters don't seem to like each other very much. I'm surrounded by clubs and from what I can tell no body gets along. They always cast a suspicious eye at each other. Still hunters don't like dog hunters and dog hunters don't like still hunters. I think they have watched so much of this tv edited hunting shows that it's playing on heir mind. When I let them know I'm not trying to kill their deer , im trying to run coyote, fox, every body loves me . Try it, it works.

The issue is that we have hunters running out of season in the national forest. They are breaking the law and what I fear is going to end our right to run hounds legally in other times of the year. We can run from the end of October until the middle of April. November to January you can deer hunt and the rest is for fox/coyote running, which most don't abide, much like the season dates.

Game and fish need to be writing tickets not closing running seasons , they missing out on money.

Marcus P.
If you have evidence of arson by any person I suggest you contact law enforcement. Otherwise you need to keep tongue in cheek, those are serious accusations you have made. Opinions should be kept to yourself until you can back them up. How about you showing a little class or better yet guts and posting your name. If your interested in speaking to me my number is on my post.

hunters, this is a tough fight that I have been involved in for over five years. it is hard to keep hunters pulling together for our effort to keep hunting on nat, forest and private land because most of them want something done quickly. that does not happen when you dealing with congressmaNS AND THE GOVERNMENT. I am on the phone weekly along with other board members of the lsa trying to get our congressmens to act and move forward but it is a slow process. it take time and money to fight these anti-hunting people in Washington. you hunters in florida need to get your hunting organzation together and make hunters realize this is a long fight and you have to raise money to keep up the fight. we in la. have spent over 100,000 on the legal battle etc. to try to preserve hunting in our state and still fighting every day. this administration in washinton is not for the hunters. keep that in mind when you vote from the local level to the president. make hunters realize that it is a long hard fight and we need to hang in there to the very end. I want to thank the ark. and miss. hunters for their support along with our lsa board members.

Evidence? It darn sure wasn't lightning! Burning the woods after something like this is old hat. They did it on the National Forest as well. That's a common response throughout the years. Take a drive up there and read the signs posted, warning folks about arson. I'm sure Weyerhaeuser is the ones putting up the signs. They know it was arson. Who else is going to burn the woods after a deer dog ban? It darn sure isn't any other of the hunters. I'm just calling a spade a spade. It's the bad apples in every group that get the negative attention. All it takes is one and the fingers get pointed. I think it would be more productive and more helpful for "the cause" if less time was spent worrying about a name on a website and more time was spent weeding out the bad apples like was spoke of in the original poster's comments.

As I said if you have evidence that someone set the woods on fire you need to call the law enforcement agencies involved. If you don't you need to be careful about casting blame on a segment of hunters. Feel free to give me a call.

face facts...its over.and it wasnt the foxhunter caused it.

Chase, there is not much you and I can do about the situation, the ones doing it don't care what we think and if L.E. Shuts us all down they will keep right on doing what they're doing. Law enforcement don't seem to care unless they get complaints and if we inform them what's going on they mark it down as a complaint and use our action trying to save hunting to close it.
The more people like us they can get out of the woods the easier their job is! There is no law enforcement in that forest, just look at how the kids tear all the roads up after every rain. On the rear occasion during deer season when L.E. does show up some of them seem to just want to harass and try to intimidate legitimate hunters.
I did have a FWC officer stop me on hwy 42 in March when I pulled out of 88 in front of him. He ask what was I doing in the forest with dogs in my truck, he didn't even know fox/cat running season was open and he lives on the edge of the forest!
But that is not always a bad thing for us.

chase, on a more positive note have the dates been confirmed for the 3 day in January 2016 thanks

January 28th-30th. Bench show the 27th 👍

chase here in south ga we can runa fox or a cat year round legally , but can not kill anything with a gun which I wouldn't dare do anyway , a lot of hunters this day and time only want to kill something and it don't matter what it is period . killing is the name of the game , and most hunters don't understand a fox hunter period , they think u are suppose to kill what u run , almost every hunter expecially deer hunters ask me what do u do with the fox or cat after u kill it , and over we have to start again explaning to them I don't want to kill anything expecially not a fox, being for not hardly having any, if hounds can catch the cat I will let them but the fox I will try to get them before they eat him, todays time its all about ones self not me thinking abt u or what u might want its all abt ones self and the heck with what everyone else wants , a lot will say im doing what I want and don't care whose toes I step on , and there usually the first to cry when something happens and there the ones that contributed there crap to the prob. I see it regularly from people with zero respect for fellow man, I hunt year round here but I show a lot of repect to deer hunters , they out number me 1000 to 1 or more , if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be hunting , where I hunt , I wont be there at daylight, during deer or turkey season , I don't like for them to see me at all , or hear my race cause most are jelious, and that's the truth,alot are greedy and just want to kill something , and will shoot the fox and throw him in the ditch that evening , I was taught to eat what I kill remember outa sight means out of mind , and respect your fellow hunter.

Brian, think back and give me an honest answer, how many cats has your pack of hounds ran down and you saw a dead cat they killed this year. I'll tell you first, mine haven't ran down and killed any that I'm sure of.

Brian,I am or was a foxhunter.I still breed hounds and try.But as you and I know it is a hard way of life.I 100% agree with respect towards deer hunters because my grandad was a better man than me and he always respected them as humans trying to survive in this world. But the deer put this old true sport out.That's the truth.Those gun hunters took over and now they are fighting each other over a place to kill deer.I cant sympathies with them much and dont consider them my peers or sportsman.

pulpwood I will tell u this , I wont say on here what I do , on here facebook or any social media site , when I say outa sight means outa mind that's the way I plan on staying , but here is a clue sypher thru if u can and not being a smart tail but more than 1 and less than 20 and I have seen them . and something else how abt put a name with pulpwood , so I will know who im talking to, most of the time when a no namer says something they just want to down the other person, but I am a hunter , not a computer hunter or a dog jockey I have used hounds all my life and have a pen full of broke dogs 9 to the count, I don't deer or turkey hunt I only fox and cat hunt, nothing else and usually hunt 3 to 4 nights a week , all I can say believe me or not I really don't care but the proof is in the pudding , if u aint catching cat u need to change dogs !

One of the biggest problems with our sport is the negativity that is thrown at others that are participating legally and ethically in hound hunting. The posts on this forum reflect that. I fully support any hound hunter that is respectful to others and respects our sport. I live for hearing a hound run and spend 75+ days a year either running deer, fox, or yotes or judging trials and even a few days shooting over a pointing dog. I really have no interest in tree dogs, hog hunting or the like but if hog hunters, alligator hunting, fishing or anything whatsoever to do with outdoor sports in this Country comes under threat, I'm on the keyboard typing letters to local, state, national representatives, government officials, or anyone else that matters trying to sway decisions in the favor of legal, ethical sportsmen. I've spent hours recently writing emails to our Georgia state officials on a change in our saltwater regulations. We are all sportsman here. Like mama said, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all!"

Brian, here in Florida we can run fox,cat, and coyote any time of year but only on private lands not in the forest. People can't respect rules, each other, or the general public and I'm sure that in my lifetime I will have to watch it close down.

chase, I need to talk to you. call me at 3184480940 or give me your number on here.

I'll call you tomorrow Leroy 👍

chase, a reminder to call me. need your help.