Bowsite.com

Wow

Quite a read.

Wow is right. "Chances are they are hunting illegally". Guilty until proven innocent? That ain't how our country works.

Wow! And we wonder why hunting in this state is an uphill battle. Does anyone know the legality of towns attempting to completely ban hunting in their town? It seems like an outright ban is quite an overreach. How would that hold up in court considering it completely contradicts state law? Also, I wish this article was written more recently, I'd love to see a rebuttal shredding this guys negative comments about hunting/hunters.

I guess that is what you guys mean by an "Anti",.. :\

At least out in Belchertown most folks are passively ok with hunting at the very least,.. never personally met a rabidly anti. Hope I never do,..

Am I hyper sensitive on this issue, or did John W. White do his best to imply someone is killed or injured every year in Walpole?

It did seem like the implication was Walpole, if not in MA. Technically I'm sure someone dies nation wide, likely several someones, so it's not "untrue" but sort of bogus for sure.

Given the town does not allow hunting on it's land, and requires written permission, maybe they should have written this in a more neutral direction. OR, clearly stated if you are on town own lands and see someone hunting... Ok, that one is obvious.

But, if you are just driving down the road is he suggesting you call the PD when you see a hunter? That's nuts.

Ugh.

Being from Easton, I have heard many hunters tell of there negative experiances of hunting Walpole. The level of Anti Hunter attitudes have definitely increase in Zone 11 as I have personally witness over the last 25+ years. I have had multiple people slow down and take pictures of me while walking on public roads, I have been verbally attacked, tree stands stolen off public land that abuts private property, homeowners posting land that is town property. One lady had a emotional breakdown called the police, we were completely legal, she believed they were her deer because she feed them. I know Sharon, (Next to Walpole) is really tough on Hunters, there is no Hunting without landowner permission there. I don't even try to hunt those areas, just asking to be harassed. Too bad too, lots of deer in those towns. My motto is; what they don't see, they don't know about! , so we go through great effort to not be detected in all of the areas we currently hunt. No interaction with public is our M.O. The access into hunt able land has become an even bigger problem, now with all the Anti Hunting attitudes. Because of this I am continually scouting out new areas to hunt. We loose a spot or two because of this at least once a year! Development of land is also a big issue. Easton has a ton of conservation land, but most of it can be very difficult to acess. Zone 10 does have deer in it, but how you hunt it is a lot different than western zones. I

Just an FYI... if you didn't already notice, this article is from December of 2014. It must have been written in response to some issue(s) at that time.

The requirement of written permission to hunt on private land must be a Walpole Town ByLaw.

Sad to report that Walpole was my home town.

It wasn't always that way. Then it was.

You can imagine what my stepmother thought about my hunting , she doesn't even swat a bug. She traps it and sets it free.

Is it any wonder she doesn't talk to me ?

Yep ,Walpole ... Them days are in the past.

It is the same thing in my town Hampden with no public hunting land. Their just happens to be no town land that is huntable although I notice alot of private land hunting and most residents here are ok with deer hunting.

And you bitch about cross bows!!!!! wake up and smell the coffee !!!!!!!!!

Hey pi Walpole is my home town too. The whole ring of towns including Walpole, Sharon and Canton are hunter not welcome towns. Let's Go

Rebels!!

Funny coming home from basspro a few weeks ago I had to call Walpole PD to put down a deer that the car in front of me hit. Poor little guy. Right by Turner pond. The pond I got screamed at for firing up the old jiffy on lol

what a joke... remind me to never venture out to Walpole... to spend any of my $$ or support a town like that.

Yep , unless you want a good education, safe and good looking town, excellent sports programs, and high real estate values ... it ain't worth going there.

But if you know someone whose backyard is in just the right spot then have at it. If you happen to land in Ceder Junction then ask the warden for a pass to clean up the woods...

Still shakin' it boss, still shakin'...

Yep , unless you want a good education, safe and good looking town, excellent sports programs, and high real estate values ... it ain't worth going there.

Got all of that down here PI. Marion and mattapoisett as you know are great towns with hunter friendly attitude.

But there are no deer in Z11

We've got it pretty good out here in the Berkshires too... no deer here either ;)

No deer on Z-11 only wabbits, big wabbits!! Let's Go

I guess I feel kind of lucky. In my area of z10 none of the surrounding towns have any hunting restrictions that I'm aware of, for a bow anyway. Even Manchester by the Sea, which is pretty well known for being a bit of a yuppie town, the town clerk didn't seem phased at all when she wrote my permission letter to hunt town land last year. And when I got pulled over by a Wenham police officer last year on my way out for an afternoon hunt, he wished me the best of luck. Good to know that while these whacko opinions are out there, they aren't the norm, in my experience anyway.

For what it's worth, I believe the number of deer in the areas that I have repeatedly hunted in zone 11 have decreased over the last 5 years. Although I do believe that catipillar deforestation and heavy snows late in march have had a negitive effect on the numbers. I wonder if these anti hunting towns like Walpole, Sharon and are controlling their excessive deer herd populations by "other" means of culling the numbers down? Can they hire private party's to come in to cull or would it have to be like a Canton Blue hills Hunt?

The end point, is that MA has no deer. They all live in NY, CT, RI, NH and VT. The hunting here is horrible. That's why we all "talk" so much on here, nothing to see in the woods... :)

huntskifishcook - where are you in Zone 10? Because almost every town on the North Shore has hunting restrictions in terms of needing owner or town permission. I can't think of a town where you can hunt without it on private or town land.

If you meant an attitude like the one in the article, then I agree. Most towns up here are pretty friendly, especially to bowhunters. Unless they're horse people. Those folks suck.

I hunt almost exclusively around the Cape Ann area, LateRiser. Gloucester is totally opening to bowhunting on public land and might even be good to go for gun hunting. I also regularly hunt a couple other towns in that general area whose wording on hunting laws is murky at best. Haven't had a problem, yet. I do have permission from the town of Manchester, which was easy and hassle free to get. I also called the town of Salem yesterday, they had no idea. Couldn't find anything specific in their town bylaws, that's a green light in my book.

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