La. Hunter said:
I don't think we should give them any honey holes, but what is wrong with telling them what refuges are in their area or just not replying?
LA - maybe it's a sticky about Cyber scouting that if correctly written, can just be used as the response. Even in the case of David's sticky he was essentially telling members
not to talk about areas much less ask about them.
Most people don't live in Louisiana, Arkansas, along the Mississippi and have nearly the opportunity on birds. Most of those don't have private land locked down or owned that are waterfowl rich locations. Add to that, land groomed or naturally attractive to hold ducks every season.
So Public land in most spots is a huge premium and there's very little of it. If someone wants to be successful hunting ducks in the areas they have to spend the time learning how. ALL of the resources they require are online. Often times you see the post "I just moved here" and while that event might mean you have to figure out things all over in your life, that IS life. If you're passionate enough about your hunting, you'll reinvest time to be successful.
So no, I don't think people asking about locations is appropriate, it's just being lazy. And the internet is read by hundreds, if not thousands being even more lazy, scouring for information they could work to find on their own. If they are willing to put in work, they deserve reward.
Why is it incumbent on the guy that did the work, to tell someone who didn't do the work, where the local area WMA's are? People can find those 24x7x365 if they really want to know were they can go hunting on Public land. And by doing that, and learning about these areas, and being able to accept there's good spots and bad spots, hunts with ducks and hunts without ducks.
If I want to go hunting Saturday at XYZ marsh and not sure if it's frozen over - I have three choices. Either get up in the morning and take my chances, call a buddy to see if he knows, or take the initiative (insert inconvenience here) to find a way over there a day or so ahead and LOOK.
The smartassery is just an exclamation point letting people who are cyber scouting know that it's THEIR responsibility to figure these things out, not someone elses. And again, 98% of Public areas are on a map provided by their state. If you want to know if there's 'birds around' they'll have to spend the time to find out, like the rest of us.
Those you speak of that have been 'run-off' are folks that probably 'joined' not to contribute but to take. When your first questions are 'where to hunt' it's pretty obvious why you joined.
Lastly in this manifesto... :lol3: ...there's a LOT of people that weren't even born until after the 'internet' was mainstream. Google and Forums have become a 'magic box' of answers. I see it all the time. It can be a great resource to help someone research things but it's not a place someone should believe they can avoid all the work of being successful, if they truly want to be successful hunting anything.