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http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/cabelas_desecrating_its_own_brand/C41/L41/

I realize that this is just one man's opinion and that there will likely be a multitude of opinions about this story. I post it here so that other's can read it and decide for themselves. The story itself is short. The comment section following is long but worth reading as well. Residents of Montana may be more interested than others. Just wanted to post this for anyone interested.

You should post this in the Campfire forum.......probably get more attention.

MM

I knew Sportsmans had gone public, and watched their service drop, but I didn't realize that Cabelas had too. With uber bean-counters at the helm, the company will now likely suffer from a lack of common sense. That's too bad.

Not really surprised by anything anymore. Disappointed yes.

It appears that real estate agents are selling private property to people. Some of those folks want to have some say in who hunts on their newly purchased property.

This means that people,often local who have hunted a place for years lose access. Cabela's Trophy Properties is one of dozens of companies that has focused on recreational properties.

When it happens to you,I recommend that instead of whineing about Cabelas or any other real estate company,you start working you a$$ off and saving money and investing in property of your own.

I bet when you do,you will want to have a say in the hunting that takes place on your property.

If buying your own property is not an option for you,get involved in organizations like Alabama's Forever Wild that promote the purchase of private land for public use.

Either way,boycotting Cabelas or anybody else in the Real Estate buiness will do nothing for anybody's access to hunting land.

There,after my rant,I feel much better.


Britt

It always amazes me how many folks living in our supposedly free country feel that they have the right to tell people what they can do with their private property. This entitlement mentality seems to especially extend into the hunting community where it seems many feel that they have a right to trespass if it's under the banner of hunting. I guess my opinion is colored by where I was raised, the deep south, because private property rights are a big deal down here. You simply don't go onto someone's land without being invited. As I understand the issue in Montana, private sellers are offering the property to private buyers and folks are upset because they've been allowed to hunt it in the past and they're afraid they'll lose access under the new sellers. My answer is: Tough $hit! Fork over some of your own money and buy the property yourself, then you'll still be able to hunt it. Someone who's been enjoying free access for years should have no say in whatever the new owner does with the property. That's like me inviting you into my house for dinner one night and after I move you show up on the doorstep demanding to be fed by the new owner. It just doesn't work that way! I really fear that our country is slipping far down the slope into socialism when attitudes like this are prevalent. This attitude of "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine" is wrong and shows the depths to which some in our country have fallen.

Well said Crowhunter

Cabela's is just one more facet of our increasingly cookie-cutter, Walmarted America.

I buy, maybe, one item every five years from them. I'd be glad to never buy anything from them. I'll never intentionally drive to Billings to buy their camo-sodden chit.

Truth of the matter is a retailer the size of Cabela's ,and being in the business they're in, should pay closer attention to those they serve and participate in some sort of land-ethic even if it's token.

They apparently do neither which is in no way surprising...

Either way you look at it, doesn't seem to be doing the hunting community much good. Fact is, land prices here have escalated to the extent that the average person can't afford to buy a hunting "property". An unprecedented land grab is taking place and most of us are relegated to the sidelines. There's bound to be a lot of hard feelings. And people wonder why out-of-staters are so reviled.

Hunts, Ive been following this story as I picked up on it on another forum , Bowsite.com . What a person does with their own property is their own business, when a hunting supply outfit gets involved in real estate to the highest bidder they are forgeting the spirit and intent of why its a hunting supply company. Remember awhile back when RMEF took some words off the front of their magazine " and the journal of the hunt" they too lost sight of the spirit and intent of what started them. Both were/are chasing VIP's and money and it did/will cost them. danny

Typical easterner's response to a western problem....

I'm sure you'd proudly tell someone in Montana to keep their opinions to themselves, if they came down and told you folks what to do in Mississippi... well a bar room door swings both ways...

land opened to hunters for generations gets sold and all of a sudden, you get some rich out of stater who comes in and the first thing he does is invest heavily in no trespassing signs and no hunting signs...

and Cabelas is only selling this stuff to out of state folks with megabucks, who can afford it and then act like they just purchased their own little country...

Well said Seafire.

There are parts of Cabelas I dislike, there are parts of their company I love. Things are usually not as simple as they appear in print.They get a fair amount of business from me every year and they treat me very well.

I'm with ruraldoc & crowhunter on this one. If you're hunting private property not publically owned you could loose hunting rights at anytime. The landowner at their discretion can decide at anytime and for any reason to stop hunting. It happens here in the eastern US all the time. In case anyone hasn't heard the fastest appreciating land in the US is recreational propertiy. Cabelas isn't the only one who is getting in on it. You guys in the western states have had it pretty good if you have enjoyed free & easy access to good private land. If you are loosing it (you will and it will only get worse)blaming Cabelas is not the anwser. Getting off your ass and working hard to find places to hunt either thru clubs, leases, investment groups, or individual purchase will get you farther than slamming Cabelas or anyone else for that matter. 163bc

Kinda reminds me of when we bought our 40 and put up our log house 13 years ago. 90% of our county is state and federal lands open to the public. But when we moved in and I posted our land I upset many hunters who seemed to think they had the right to continue hunting it cause they always did in the past. I pointed out to them, maybe they should get off the road system and get into some of the beautiful country set aside for them. Am I wrong for protecting MY land and family(not to mention some fantastic deer hunting)Maybe the folks out west should try and find a way to keep ranchers ranching and not cashing out there land to whomever.Yes it sucks to see wild country chopped up and sold, but there are many layers to this issue.
AS a side note my hunting bud moved back from Corp. cabelas to open the Rogers. Mn. store. They hired 400+ people from the area. Thats a lot of good jobs with good benefits,don't be so quick to pass judgment.

You have got to be kidding me....... Why doesn't everyone who is mad about this start protesting Real estate agents as well....... If a person who owns a piece of property wants to sell it that is their business.... period. and it does not matter who it is that does the selling for them... this is a free country people....................

This is the same mentality we put up with here in Tennessee with all the poachers..... We constantly have people tearing down gates, ripping down signs, tearing up food plots on our property.... all because we are "City folk" and "they" use to hunt that land and just because it was sold (27 years ago) does not mean they can not do what they want on it anytime they want....

Just remember.... If someone else owns a piece of property it is not yours and they can do with it as they see fit. Get over it.

What a crock..... YOur money is just a green as the people who are from out of state....... You are just mad because some of your neighbors have decided they want money more than they want the land or want the money more than they want to make sure the "good old boys" can still hunt for free........

In the East (that would be anywhere that isn't the West) the mentality is different about land ownership than in the West, or at least the Montana portion of the West, and I think the differences are showing here. Hunting in the West is also very different and ignorance of those differences are showing here too.

In the East, nearly any decent woodlot can provide good stand whitetail hunting... deer and human populations are high, public lands crowded. If you don't own or control ground your hunting options are generally quite limited. I can totally understand posting ground in the East.

In the West we have smaller populations with a lot of public ground and even more private ground owned by a very small percentage of the population (framers/ranchers).

Owning large parcels of land in the West has traditionally been viewed partly as a "trust" of the landowner with a view towards being a good neighbor and steward... often that means allowing hunting. It's a win/win thing and helps control game populations (which eat pasture and crops) and create good will ala "being a good neighbor." The "neighbor" ethic here in the West is still strong in rural areas. Once upon a time it could mean the difference between survival or going bust.

Many that move here bring their Eastern land mentality here too and, rather than try to understand or fit in to the the local view of land, just post their ground. That's absolutely their right and I support their right. However, being too hasty to exert what's your right can often lead to a lot of hard feelings and that ultimately doesn't help the person who moved here to escape wherever they came from.

Money and outfitting have changed everything obviously. For me, Cabela's is basically a metaphor for that change. I mostly don't complain about it because it's reality, and I have a firm grasp of personal rights and reality. That doesn't mean a lot of us like the change however nor does it mean we'll support it financially either.

Those that say "bear-down and buy the ground yourself" are basically clueless as to what buying a huntable piece of ground really means (at least here in MT). A couple hundred acres in most places doesn't even qualify as huntable ground. You really need to control a piece in the thousand's of acres. There are exceptions, and I know of some small 20-40 acre parcels I'd rather own than many 10,000 acre ranches. However, the cost of the "right" 20 acres can easily exceed $1,000,000.

Most of the really good, large ranches are leased to outfitters... the cost of such leases can easily exceed $30,000 annually.

Painting the entire picture of hunting in the changing West is the stuff of a lengthy PhD thesis, so the above is just a small and imperfect vignette of those changes...

I see both sides of the argument. What bothers me and what "I" think the jest of the thread is that Cabelas ought to stick with what made them in the first place, selling hunting & fishing stuff.
When they step off in to other things in all sorts of directions they start becoming Walmarted.

I doubt that they will change the direction that they are headed so I'd say that if you hunted those lands in the past you better start looking for some other places to stomp around in.

[quote=Seafire
Typical easterner's response to a western problem....
[/quote]

No no no no.... what's typical is geographic areas that think like they're not part of the whole of the United States - still the best country in the world because of the freedoms we enjoy. Other Americans aren't foreigners, not the enemy.

The problem is you can't accept what has historically (always) been legal in our society. We have the best non-perfect system in the world. We want the American people to travel freely, prosper, invest and own private property. The pains that go with that are the price of freedom, get over it.

Don't tell me you want to put conditions on private property ownership in your state for hunters. That would be the worse of the two evils.