Bad move Steve. Even the tone he uses to say “duck farmer” is very condescending. Sorry we can’t all be fancy hunting personalities, but to be in that kind of position of power and influence and essentially talk down on the guy and come off like a bully is pretty crappy. IMO SR also got out social media’d by the guy which is pretty funny.
I grew up working in a sporting goods store in WI where hound hunting was big and it was a lot of mixed public and small/large private. The example that others are using about a huge buck you are patterning and hope to kill getting run out of its core area never to be seen again by a pack of hounds is a good example. It brings it home for hunters. Western WI had a rich hound hunting culture and there were hardcore deer guys and it got messy. I’m a huge advocate for private property rights, but also for public access to public land. If I own and pay taxes on my property there is no excuse for negative impacts to my land from others being there without permission. It doesn’t matter if it is running off a buck or bull, injuring or killing livestock/pet, damaging fence or outbuildings, whatever. It is not anyone else’s right to make trouble or work for me on my property. Accidents happen but hound guys know darn well that their dogs might chase a bear or Coon onto private when they drop the dogs, but they do it anyway in the hope they get their quarry and it works out.
For those saying Steve has done more for hunters, advocacy, whatever so he should get a pass for acting like he did. In my opinion there is no one in our society that deserves more respect than combat veterans, for what they do, the sacrifices they make, etc. If a CV grabbed your wife’s ass or disrespected your daughter in a bad way would you give them a pass, probably not. Doing great things is not a free pass to act like as big of an douche as you want. I feel like he thought he could act however he wanted in this situation and hunters would keep his back.
I’m all for retaining as many hunting rights as possible and fighting United against antis but as a fair chase hunter who enjoys many different types of hunting I internally choose not to hitch my wagon to certain groups like true canned high fence hunting and trespassers whether they are chasing their dogs or not.