Michigan Votes Forum

Do you really think that you will START hunting again if they put it on Sat? Ridiculous. Its tradition, and all the real hunters out there will agree that it should stay on the 15th. If hunting wasn't worth the price for you before, I really doubt that it will become economical for you if they move it to a Sat. AND, do think this will make the crowds in the woods less, or more? Stay out of this if you don't hunt.

We don't need to change the start day to deer season. The season was originally set up around the deer herd, not some politicians slanted view.I'm glad to see that so far the price hikes have been shot down. I think we can raise extra revenue by hiking the prices on non-resident licenses. Some states charge as much as $400 to $500 or more for non-residents. That would seperate the real hunters from the drunken idiots that invade the northwoods every November.

i agree with everything you said. this kinda seperates the people who are serious hunters from the people that give our sport a bad name also

hey your kids have a special season of their own in september. an opener that is that early would kill our hunting read a book on deer biology or go bow hunting and you will see why its not only a tradition but a important measure to protect our deer

if you are an avid hunter you should know about the animals you hunt and the impact that an earlier opener that falls before peak breeding would have on these animals.

i agree with you a later opener would be great (still like nov 15 tradition though) we are giving away potentially good thing to other states good hunting this fall to you and yours

ok well what about all the retailers or service industry people that always work on the weekends wich is their bussiest time. these people make up most of the work force in this or any state i guess theyre S.o.l.

LOOKS LIKE YOU AT LEAST DISSAGREE WITH THIS LEGISLATION

why even think about this now the auto industry is gone we lost a toyota plant comerica is pulling out of michigan along with phizer whose next. get it together lansing or their will be no one around to buy a hunting license in this state why in the world are you wasting your time and michigans voters time. michigan sells thousands of licenses (of wich iam sure your working on raising the price of)with our hunting season opening on the 15th. leave it alone and concentrate on the real issues.

i agree this would be better from a biological view as well as satisfy whatever this guy is trying to accomplish

this can be picked apart in so many ways. i have read the previous comments and i have to say that the people that agree that this early saturday opener is a good thing have to learn a thing or two about deer. they may say that it is only a few days earlier bu those few days are critical that saturday would obliderate any chances of ever becoming a trophy destination state (like all of the states surrounding us)if it has to be on a saturday it should be later (nov 15 early already......"let em go so they can grow".......

mr. representative please leave our hunting season alone. have some foresights nov 15 2008 is a saturday and it will fall on a saturday again. please place your focus on something that may be usefull to us citizens such as no more job loss or new jobs and let the dnr whose salary we pay through our taxes make these decisions. please do not offend us any longer with such ridiculous proposals. we voted you in so dont make us look like idiots any longer.

dont do it, too early already should be moved later if anything. people can always get days off i have never missed one no matter where i was working. if its important to the people they will get out there no matter what day it is. although i love the tradition and mystique of november 15th i wouldnt apose a later date such as the 1st sat in december it would be better for the animals and another two weeks of prime bowhunting would be great

mr. shaffer is that the best idea you have to help out our state. i guess we are screwed. keep up the good work buddy youve got my vote LEAVE IT THE WAY IT IS AND HAS BEEN FOR FORTY YEARS!!!!!!!

bucks you can shoot does anytime

you'd think this guy being a republican would be for tradition. leave it as it is a tradition

i must say i dont know much this politician. pollitics isnt my thing. i do however know a thing or two about deer and deer hunting (it is my lifeblood)and the negative effect this early opener would have. this date is way to early and would interfere with the peak pursuing phase of the rut. this would result in higher buck kill,poor genetics,and increased premature buck kills.all things the dnr is trying to stop. please sir stick to pollitics there is no room for it in deer hunting.

why not the 3rd saturday this would satisfy biological needs along with what ever reason you see it fit to open on a saturday. if you look at a calender the earliest possible date would be nov. 15 -see 2008- this would work better although i still see no legitamate reason to change it in the 1st place. i think you should be concentrating on some of the real issues in michigan. even putting this out there right now is sort of a "slap in the face" dont you.

for what reason would you change it. anyone serious enough about hunting can get a day off. if they arent serious about hunting they need to stay home in the first place!. most people have to work on saturday anyway. this date would be too early as well. some people say that kids cant get out of school but face it they have there own season in september. so why the hell is this even an issue. i can surely think of several things michigan needs help with. so please get to work on the real problems and let the dnr worry about screwing up hunting in michigan they are doing a good enough job of destroying trophy hunting in our state on there own.

Leave it on the 15th. Making it the second saturday will only hurt the herd by killing to many bucks before they get a chance to breed. There is no reason to change it.

please quit screwing with our hunting season. try doing something usefull like creating jobs. i cant believe that someone would have the balls to even propose something like this when the state needs real help. lansing makes me sick seriously this is like a sick joke and quite frankly iam offended by this. mr. shaffer if you cant help us step down and let someone who cares about michigan take your place.

these elitist morons you speak of have a concern for herd dynamics, the growth of the sport and, the tradition of the sport. if better deer management was done here in michigan we would have trophy bucks wich "elitist morons" would come to our state and spend good money to hunt. i believe that the thrill of the hunt is why we are out there and big bucks are thrilling if you dont care about them shoot does. sir you may not be an elitist but your a moron none the less.

look at a 2008 calender its on a saturday it will be fine to keep it on nov15. it is on the 15th to keep it as early as possible without interfering with the rut. i think that most people have to work on saturdays anyway.

it is too early anyway. we should be looking more at improving buck quality. we took a step forward with our restricted tags lets not take a step backwards. every state around us is known for their big bucks. we could too if we would just have more laws that would protect our immature bucks. if it had to open on a saturday it should be later like 1st week of dec.

time to start picking on hunters now is it iam sure their is more than meets the eye here. leave our traditions alone. let the sport we love remain unchanged.we spend millions of dollars just the way the season is now ,hell we are giving up money we dont have because the government wastes its time on stupid shit like this instead of creating or retaining jobs.

opener of rifle has been on nov.15 since 1925 and its that way for a reason. this week is at the end of peak breeding an earlier opener would be a disaster to the quality of our herd. every state around us is known for their high quality deer. michigan could as well if we would manage for them. people spend a lot of money to hunt other states deer. i think most people have to work on saturdays anyway. and as far as kids go they can go in september. if parents hunted with their kids on just sat&sun they would not go away for several days as we do during the week while staying in hotel eating at resturaunts etc.and spending money. if it did go to a sat.should be later in season. i stop hunting with gun on nov.17 but bowhunt every weekend i can my money would stay at home 1more weekend with this bill. if it was later i would be in the woods more weekends i think most hunters do the same. bucks are all dead by nov.17 with our moronic 2 buck law thats why i stop. please leave it as it is or make it later. please realize that we could have more out of state hunters if we got smart about our deer herd. i think this bill would be a step backwards in michigans economy and it wouldnt take long to see the adverse results. m. nowacki auburn hills,mi

The hunting season would begin on November 10th this year. Assuming that closing date and fees do not change, I would get more "bang" for my "buck". :-)

more days to gun hunt less to bow hunt. pick up a bow "yooper dave" you'l see what youve been missing. this date would be way too early and would be bad for the herd read the other comments. most of us that are out in the woods bowhunting for 1.5months before you hit the woods all know why.

more days to gun hunt less to bow hunt. pick up a bow "yooper dave" you'l see what youve been missing. this date would be way too early and would be bad for the herd read the other comments. most of us that are out in the woods bowhunting for 1.5months before you hit the woods all know why.

more days to gun hunt less to bow hunt. pick up a bow "yooper dave" you'l see what youve been missing. this date would be way too early and would be bad for the herd read the other comments. most of us that are out in the woods bowhunting for 1.5months before you hit the woods all know why.

I like the revolving opening day as it is now.

Leave it alone. What's next Queen Jenny?? Change Christmas to "the last Saturday in December?" Don't the people in Lansing have enough to do ? Maybe it's time they took out Mops and cleaned up that place in thier spare time. Leave us Deer hunters alone,we are a happy group,and do NOT need politicians telling us how to hunt.

Kids take off all the time, so open on a Saturday. Makes SENSE. Also, workers take off, call in sick.

I don't hunt but when your hobbies start costing me money my two cents will be in there.I will say this I have many friends who hunt and have nothing against hunting.I think in these economical trying times our state is having anything we can do to save a few bucks without infriging on the freedoms of our citizen's is great or they could leave it alone and continue down the path of doubling license prices to off set the cost of hunting expenses to our state.I guess have it your way $30.00 or so for a license awesome.

the reason for the nov. 15 is to coincide with the does being in estrus. i recently ran into some very not so nice people from chicago while i was hunting here and it was a saturday. you can keep those people in illinois and let me go hunting in our forests on opening day [november 15] on monday through friday and hopefully they won't be there

Great idea !!!!!!!

If the goverment has anything more to do with this issue the time is coming that we won't have a "gun" season. Our society is fast changing and our numbers and credibility are dewindling. Everytime one of these mentally unstable individuals or groups have a slip up and murder people like the VT incident we as good guys take a beating. My friends, hunt as much as you can, take your kids, their friends, your wife, daughter, or girlfriend. We need numbers, plain and simple. I love the opener on the 15th, but if it comes down to hunting or not hunting, change it and fill the woods with family and friends. Take pictures of kids and women enjoying the hunt, send them to the media. We are the good guys, let us enjoy our heritage while it is still a privledge to do so. Remember, hunting is not a right, it is a privledge, regardless of what day it starts. We need unity,,all of us, now more than ever. The Nuge & Michael Smerconish were on the Glenn Beck show on CNN Headline News on April 17th to discuss the tragedy of Virginia Tech and more! Here's Ted's transcript from the show: I’m just a guitar player, but I like to pay attention to my wonderful country. And the evidence is irrefutable once again that gun-free zones, which is what exists on the Virginia Tech campus, don’t work. In Oregon, where a Columbine-level tragedy was unfolding, it was a student who went to his truck and got a .22 caliber squirrel rifle and stopped the mass murder. It was a citizen, an off-duty cop in Salt Lake City, who stopped an armed monster from killing citizens at random. It was just up the road from Virginia Tech at Appalachialaw school where students retrieved legally owned firearms and stopped an armed assault. Who is not getting this information? Who is pretending this isn’t how it works? There are hundreds of millions -- and I hope people in the news media will write this down some day -- hundreds of millions of law-abiding American families with hundreds of millions of lawfully owned guns, none of which are going to be used in violence, crime or accident. The sheer numbers of zeros following the decimal point in the percentage of guns used in crime is beyond enormous. That does not compromise or negate the heartbreaking tragedy of any kind of accident, any kind of violent crime that involves guns, but it does put it in perspective. We had two cops killed recently near a pizza parlor in New York City, in part, because Mayor Bloomberg thought it was reasonable gun control to disarm them. That’s how insane this has gotten. I know that at Virginia Tech there’s been quite about the fact that lawfully possessed firearms and gun owners with lawfully procured government-scrutinized concealed weapons permits are forbidden to use those concealed weapons permits on campus. Does anybody join me in realizing that 32 people were killed because the killer wasn’t stopped? I don’t want to come off like I know all the answers. But, again, the evidence is overwhelming. If a good guy with a gun can stop evil crime and tragedy so often, why do we continue to create gun-free zones where killers can roam free?The Nugent family is praying as hard as we have ever prayed for the families affected by this terrible tragedy. We are praying just as hard that our fellow Americans would recognize that this kind of tragedy could be stopped if only more Americans were allowed to exercise their second amendment rights. CNN Glenn Beck transcript 4-17-07 by Ted Nugent

Why can't the kids just go out on Saturday either way? I have no problem saying that I will never agree with a Saturday opener. I think it presses politics onto a biologically based season. What’s next; let’s allow hunters to shoot any sex of deer that comes by so that we can get more people excited about hunting? Come on people! Our natural resources here in Mich. have been mismanaged by the DNR for far too long, and if this goes through it will be another example of mismanagement in lieu of what will make the politicians popular.

I'm only 28 yrs old and have been Deer hunting since I was....well not even legally old enough This would be the biggest mistake in a deer management program to date. Anyone and everyone know this would devastate the peak rut and destroy the (FEW) GENETICALLY SUPERIOR Bucks from spreading more of their genes. Wich there are few and far between Bucks in this class to begin with. I've had the fortunate luxury to hunt other states and Iowa is MY FAVORATE BY FAR and is a GODLY place to visit if you can draw a tag. Last year I was fortunate to shoot a 165' Brusiser with 13 1/2 G2's and a 22.75' inch spread and passed multiple 150's due to broken tines and probably another 15-20 bucks over 130' in 5 days in Mid-"DECEMBER" Obviously they know what their doing in their management program. I ALSO HAVE THE LUXURY of a prime tract to hunt in my family here in SE Michigan it's only 18 acres but on the corner of three 200+ acre crop fields and can sit from sun-up to sun-down on opening day and some years see 100-150 deer if the crops in the area are all cut but out of that I might only see 2-3 shooters being 130+ it's sick...that our mature bucks are more rare than purple squirls....Please, who ever proposed this bill is obviously not a Deer Hunter and doesn't understand the catastrophic effects it will put on an already mis-managed, abused and down right neglected deer herd we have. We have one of the top 5 states in terms of habitat for the Deer but year after year continue to fall off the map in terms of what we grow and sustain due to the TERDS like this idiot, who come up with some supid idea's to detroy an already crippled and inferior deer herd. Like someone said earlier "Leave US Hunters alone with you "MORONIC" ideas with regards to something you don't have the slighest clue about and do something positive and constructive for our one state depression like stop the bleeding and create and retain some jobs before this poor state slips further into our one state depression. Regards,

The 15th is great. Saturday openers are dangerous. Too many people in the woods. I would vote for (If it were going to change)opening in on the first Wednesday after the 13th or something like that, never a Saturday. Mid week openers are the best, not only are you out there on opening day, your NOT WORKING! I have NEVER missed an opening day and never will. I have lost jobs, been written up etc. Its all worth it to be out there mid week with fewer more serious hunters. Leave it on the 15th, it is tradition and it should remain that way. If the poloticians in Lansing want to do something better, work on the unemployment rate, lowering taxes, bettering our schools etc. Leave this sacred day as it is.