Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/09/15 in all areas

  1. 5 points
  2. This is a complicated thing to answer...It is wrong to kill or intentionally end the life of a living creature for nothing more than enjoyment, ending in no other benefit to that life ending. That being said We all unintentionally kill things everyday from the ant one may step on to the butterfly that is on the windshield of the family car or squirrel under the tire. As your teacher may have taught you in every eco system there are predators and prey. Predators kill for food and the prey provide that food. Predators are at the top of the food chain prey and then plants are at the bottom. Any time we eat chicken off the summer BBQ or hit Micky D's for a burger,We have been at the top of that food chain...The difference between that and personally going out to shoot a turkey or a deer for the BBQ or burger is the hunter has taken personal responsibility in the taking of those particular life's. As a hunter we have great respect for the sustenance those lives have given us and respect those animals by allowing them their freedom until the time we do our best for a quick clean kill. Most hunters feel a profound respect for the animal they take and treat them with the respect they deserve through their role in lifes eco system. Now as in all things there are the good and the bad...most hunters are good and respectful...just like most farmers treat their live stock well whether that livestock becomes a chicken nugget or provides eggs for your Birthday cake and milk to wash it down with. The thing we all need to learn is how to treat not only each other with respect but the animals that help us through our lives with respect in the roles they play, be it life or death.
    4 points
  3. Been a while since a thread went into the crapper like this. Good times.
    3 points
  4. Call me old fashion, bit I still think the physical coarses have so much more to offer. Questions can be asked through the class room training, that just can't be covered on the internet.
    3 points
  5. I am not the most gun-ho for trophies myself, but this is an obvious one to explain. Human's enjoy and thrive on challenge.Generally the bigger,older animals are wiser, and therefore present the greater challenge in terms of outwitting them.The feelings of satisfaction from such a hunt are more intense and this contributes to over-all well being. Plus bigger usually looks better and more impressive. We are hardwired to be impressed by scale, it seems.
    3 points
  6. Heres the problem though. Human development of areas, especially residential areas, helps deer. We plant flowers, bushes, all kinds of gardens and plants that deer like to eat. Then you get the people that feed the deer, bird feeders, etc etc and they end up having plenty of food available to go along with the fields that are still farmed in and nearby most suburbs. Then, you think about all of the greenspace thats plopped right in the middle of housing tracts, most of which cant be hunted, and now youve provided sanctuaries for the deer as well. Other than an increase in deer killed by cars, many times we actually promote the deer herd through most residential and commercial development, but we have pushed the hunters out. Hunting is by far the most efficient way to control deer populations and in many areas you just cant do it any longer. Deer are extremely adaptable and adjust to their surroundings very quickly. Its why they have done so well once market hunting was put to a stop and the hunting lisence/wildlife management model began. The population needs to be looked at in smaller areas, and not thought of in regions or state wide. You can have an over population in one area, and not nearly as many deer 5 or 10 miles away for a variety of reasons.
    2 points
  7. Even if you take an online course, you still need to attend classes. You do not get certified until you do. All that is done in the online course is book work. the rest still needs to be demonstrated. Check the dec website, they list both home study and regular classes all the time.
    2 points
  8. The red tail tells me it is probably a red tailed hawk. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/id
    2 points
  9. They have a shoddy reporting system, and educated guesses using formulas, the numbers reported are way off from what I know is taken, there is no way I can take 10% of an entire towns take off 300 acres.. manage what you can using your own judgement work on your habitat, relying on others is just crazy . The wmu are much to large for proper management. But to make them smaller means more staff and $$$ wake up and demand a right to hunt in the state constitution,to be run by a game department, remember the dec is all enviromental,pollution,emmisions,willife,water,marine,and everything else... I'd rather have my game managed by specialists.
    2 points
  10. It's a rainy morning so you get what's on my mind: I had a conversation with a friend - a middle school teacher and non-hunter. She does not object to hunting, Actually, I keep her supplied with non-lead ammo literature. She gives to the hunters in her class. She invited the local paper's outdoor columnist to address her class. After his presentation, a student asked him "Mr. Outdoor Writer, isn't it wrong to kill things?". To this simple question Mr. Outdoor Writer said "God put those creatures on the earth for us to do with as we like" - or words to that effect. Without getting into anyone's religious beliefs, this has to be about one of the worst possible justifications to give to a public audience. It certainly raised my friend's hackles. He won't be invited back. I told my friend if someone asked me the same question, I would immediately ask them if they eat meat. Looking at hunting as a way of acquiring protein - the traditional reason for hunting and still a major factor in these rural areas - hunting is clearly more moral than buying food in a store. Hunters take personal responsibility for the death of the animal instead of buying it wrapped in plastic. I feel the same way about slaughtering livestock. In these cases, the animals had good lives "and one bad day". This may not be true of livestock raised on factory farms but it is true of the animals we raise. If the student was a vegetarian, that is a different set of values. It still raises questions of whether it is okay to kill plants and whether or not non-human predators are "wrong to kill things". I have no real justification for explaining trophy hunting since I don't really understand it. Maybe someone can help me with that.
    1 point
  11. If you think about why does the DEC even care how many deer there are. Farmers complain about crop damage = more dmp's DOT and road kills = more dmp's Small towns complaining about too many deer = more dmp's Foresters and regeneration = more dmp's Even antler restrictions "shoot a doe if you want meat" = more dmp's Just hand them out until hunters start loudly complaining of the lack of deer. Then maybe cut back a few. So basically do they really care about the actually population? Or do they want the least amount of deer possible that will keep hunters mostly at bay.
    1 point
  12. Hmmmm....We've heard from the far right and the far left on a subject that really shouldn't involve politics.. YAWN...I think it's time for my nap....
    1 point
  13. good to hear it wasn't anything major.......like I said earlier, my last tuneup produced 3 brand new Champion plugs that were bad right out of the box..............what brand?
    1 point
  14. "The emotions that good hunters need to cultivate are love and service more than courage. The sentiments of the hunt then become translated into art. James Swan, In Defense of Hunting
    1 point
  15. "The true trophy hunter is a self-disciplined perfectionist seeking a single animal, the ancient patriarch well past his prime that is often an outcast from his own kind... If successful, he will enshrine the trophy in a place of honor. This is a more noble and fitting end than dying on some lost and lonely ledge where the scavengers will pick his bones, and his magnificent horns will weather away and be lost forever." Elgin Gates, Trophy Hunter in Asia
    1 point
  16. "How, given the canine teeth and close-set eyes that declare the human animal to be a predator, had we come up with the notion that oat bran is more natural to eat than chicken?" Valerie Martin, The Great Divorce
    1 point
  17. IMHO, non-hunters do not support hunting in their hearts. They may be convinced it isn't a bad thing, but they will not actively support it when it is threatened, because they have no personal use for it. The best you can hope for is their apathy towards it.
    1 point
  18. "One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted...If one were to present the sportsman with the death of the animal as a gift he would refuse it. What he is after is having to win it, to conquer the surly brute through his own effort and skill with all the extras that this carries with it: the immersion in the countryside, the healthfulness of the exercise, the distraction from his job. Jose Ortega y Gasset, Meditations on Hunting
    1 point
  19. Online is only part-one to getting your basic hunter safety permit, most still go to a day class for the exam and filed test. By sitting through the classes, you also get some real world tips, examples, and demos at each session. My daughter took hers this spring in Sullivan Co.. They had 4 firearms on hand (breach, bolt, pump, and a demo pistol [non-firing]) to show different actions and go through with each student the handling proceedures. They even had a "field" walk carrying practice in her class (3-person group carrying down a wood road making turns and navigating trees, bushes, and a ditch safely). Last day had lot of daylight left and the instructor had ammo to do some shooting, so they got to shoot .22's, .410, and 20 gauge at stationary targets and practice their safey skills when handling and loading. That also provided a demo of what a 22 and 20 gauges can do when they imapct a target to drive home the importantance of safe handling and knowing what is beyond your target. That was great for the total newbies (never been out with hunting friend/relative, let alone fire a gun at a target) like couple city people, as in NYC residents, that were in the class. Those people were also instructed to file permit for having a firearm in NYC since this was all new to them and did not know that there are also local firearm laws that have to be followed.
    1 point
  20. You have to do classroom if you do online. All that is recognized in NY is home study
    1 point
  21. And even more so for the hunter that shoots a buck early. Only option is doe is they want to continue to hunt. I would be in favor of the OBR.
    1 point
  22. Thanks guy's. I'm hoping to schedule a course with a local gun club soon with both boys. I just feel it will be a little more interesting than an online course. They are now in baseball season and at least one is playing all stars,that will extend the season a bit. So I may have to take them separately depending on their and the course schedules. I will naturally,sit through the course with them and explained that it will be kind of a "grampy time" with them,and that,we all love to have. I also explained that the real learning and fun will start as we hunt together.
    1 point
  23. It hasnt been cool all spring though, it was above average for a while there. Accuweather has a nice chart that shows the high and low per day along with averages and records. May was a bit above average. April was about average. March was a bit below. Heres a link to the May calander and chart. You can flip through other months http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/rochester-ny/14614/may-weather/329674?monyr=5/1/2015
    1 point
  24. So True. I hold myself..At this age..To need to have a quarry that is the smartest,hardest to find and extremely hard to harvest. I believe there are also 2 kinds of trophy hunters...The ones that have to have every animal put on this earth mounted on their wall and then the ones that hunt for the meat to enjoy from an animal but that animal still has to be the tops of that species. In the case of the Whitetail, that trophy can be a mature almost unkillable animal with ten inch spikes or it could be a 2 year old with 150 inches of bone on his head. For some hunters... Others may have a different idea of what a trophy is. Thats what makes it so nice!
    1 point
  25. be careful mentoring hipsters. they can be very cool and you will get pulled into the occasional good conversation until that fateful day when they say something so ridiculous that your eyes get that blank stare and you just blow your brains out. seen it happen, wasn't pretty.
    1 point
  26. HOLY $h1t Biz! This has to be a record! I took a screen shot of the views this has! Seriously dude, 11,019 views? That has to be a record for a hunting site!
    1 point
  27. I love the black and white
    1 point
  28. I sat through the whole thing again when my wife got her hunter safety certification. she needs to do bow still as she only wants to hunt with a bow. they're take home work books then just show up for test/field day now for all of them around her.
    1 point
  29. Nice, Both Mules with brow's nice job.
    1 point
  30. Congrats brother.....
    1 point
  31. yeah, unfortunately the unhooking the battery trick only fools it for a little while and you're back to square one in no time..........been there done that.
    1 point
  32. A future shed antler, coming to a pic near you, LOL.
    1 point
  33. Here are some serious ID challenges. Anyone want to guess? A bird I photographed in Deposit - The remains of a large hawk - A young bird I photographed about 10 days ago - A dead bird I was asked to ID last Christmas Day -
    1 point
  34. It really wouldn't matter what the DEC was doing in the way of management because there will always be a good amount of uninformed, nay saying, ignorant hunters that will be pushing back on whatever system is in place... its a human condition that runs rampant among NYS hunters. The DEC decisions are usually more about baby sitting the cry babies than anything... I'm sure they would love to do more but have to deal with the hissy fits that hunters have over the slightest changes... I am in full agreement that the DEC could stand to improve deer management techniques in NY, but I'm not sure that it would matter what they did... they would still get a hard time from a large portion of the hunting population. Damned if they do, and damned if they don't kind of thing.
    1 point
  35. Exactly. We should be welcoming any new hunter that hunts resposibly, safely and enjoys the sport. Who cares what they wear, what kind of haircut they have or what music they listen to. Why anyone would argue about new hunters being good for the sport is completely beyond me.
    1 point
  36. Who cares! As long as they follow the laws and hunt responsibly.
    1 point
  37. IMO the automated report system is a major disappointment ,, I know many hunters who say they will report and don't when asked later ... I believe that the old mail in system was more accurate,, as these same people always did that .. Just my 2 cents ... In general I think to many doe permits are issued for DMPs due to overpopulation in housing tracts and areas that can't be hunted .. Which helps nothing ...
    1 point
  38. As far as the DEC is concerned, their system is perfect, as witnessed on their own web site. In response to good suggestions about bringing the reporting rate to near 100%, their answer is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" That is a quote off their own webpage. So they feel that their statistical system of accounting for non reporting hunters is as good as if we all reported and cannot be improved on. Arrogant? ..... sure, but they are the ones running the show. So if hunters don't report their kills, it doesn't matter. The DEC claims they've got it covered.
    1 point
  39. I think they are more concerned with keeping the population in check vs having enough deer for hunters. I do not feel they are concerned with population unless it is high. I have never heard a DEC agent talk about how to get the population up in an area. Unless you talk about the ADK then they recommend praying for mild winters.
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...