State biologists out of touch in Madison County.

Terry, I know your family pretty well. I will PM you later. I have permission to hunt about 12 acres right down the road from you, but usually only rabbit hunt it two or three times a year when the snow is on the ground. I'm my own dog, and it's my honey hole. A guy I work with bought the farm at auction and has done major remodeling to the house and garage, a very pretty place. I think that's where the new ethanol plant is going in after Bingham or Benham sold the ground. I live out on 500N between 400W and 500W, and he turned around and used that money to by a huge chunk of ground around the corner from me. At one time he owned the farm ground across from Hoosierland Park as well. There is a small patch down 128 headed east from SR-9 that an old friend from school owns, that I hunt squirrel and rabbit in. He and his father plant huge gardens, and he planted a good stand of walnuts, so it's fine with them to thin the herd down a little! I still have permission to hunt over by Gilman, but a few bad neighbors make it too much of a hassle. They call the CO every time you step foot on it, even though you have written permission and are clear back in the middle of a mile section. I finally bought a small piece of Ripley County to get away from this, so I will be spending less and less time hunting in my home county. Urban sprawl and current farming practices have pretty much ruined Madison County for me. Every time I see a fence row grubbed out, a woods cleared, or road frontage sold off to put a house on, it makes me sick at my stomach! Maybe Montana will still have some wild places left in a few years when I get set to retire. I stopped killing does a long time ago in Madison County because there are not that many deer left where we used to hunt, and that's my choice. I don't preach my practices on to other guys that hunt in and around our community. If it's legal and safe, by all means shoot as many deer as you like. Thanksgiving day last year, I hunted with one other friend from daylight until dark in Madison and Hamilton Counties doing one man pushes while the other stood, on numerous thickets and woods that we had permission to be on from farmers that owned the ground not just cash rented it. We saw one rabbit and three coyotes, of which I whacked two, but no deer. We put a lot of miles in that day and never saw another hunter anywhere. It used to be tradition with some families to hunt after Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas in our neck of the woods, but I guess not so much these days. I've seen one deer killed on SR-37 this week while driving back and forth to work, but with the rain, the combining has slowed down, and I don't think the rut is in full swing yet causing the deer traffic to be high.