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20 lakers so far and a few nice ones. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok, then challenge is not one of the motivating feature of hunting for you. I was not stating whether it should be or shouldn't be, just stating that in some cases, we seem to be moving toward a hunting culture that wants to remove challenge a motive. To me, I see hunting as a contest between me and the prey, and I do enjoy a worthy contest. If I was only interested in food, I would have been a farmer. Also, my resources have not dwindled to the point where I must forage for my food........yet. We do quite well at the super market and actually find it cheaper when all things are considered...... lol. I think that if you value your time as being worth anything, and when you look at the cost of equipment and supplies and maintenance, and transportation and special clothing, venison is one very expensive kind of meat. Regarding the question of respect, I think I have as much respect for my prey as anyone, and when looked at as a worthy adversary, perhaps even more respect than many who have an attitude of "whatever it takes to get that walking chunk of venison is ok, fairness be damned". I still maintain the perspective that hunting/fishing is recreation, and whatever handicaps that I voluntarily place on myself only helps to further the principles of "fair chase".

I usually aim for "knee high by the fourth of July". Today was one of them rare days when, if you look close enough, you can actually see it grow. It takes warm weather, lots of moisture in the ground, nitrogen, and plenty of sunshine to make that happen. At about 3:00 pm this afternoon, after grilling the girls some deer-burgers for lunch, I stood on the edge of my 2-1/2 acre plot and watched as it grew past my knees.

Jay had to bigtime us with a LMB Dance tights protect against poison ivy My other daughter opted to hunt turtles Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Green Mile, read it once every couple years.

Bait all set Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I tell my kids that there is no TRYING heroine, there is no TRYING meth. These drugs are terrifying, you're almost instantly addicted. Dealing them should be a capital offense Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

lol.........Not so much for the enjoyment spending time in nature huh? Zip-Boom-Season Over!

Old reliable, Happy long weekend. Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

Ribs again and I'm ok with that

This afternoon: couple of largemouth and lots of panfish.

i think for me it is this. And it's sort interesting that mother nature has always provided bigger racks, beards, weight with age to help demonstrate this. The counter to this is that a nany doe can be 10x harder to kill than a ruted up buck thinking with his other head. And here is where i'll be honest and note that there is a part of me that loves taking the picture, loves sharing that picture with this board, family, friends and facebook. Some may call this bragging, but i dont see it as any different than most other pictures we choose to share on social media. I would bet 95% of us have worked our butts off to get that nice buck, and are damn proud of it and want to share for those reasons, and not for trying to one-up someone else. Note, none of this applies to the outfitter/fence hunt. So yeah, the challenge is the main driver for me to hunt horns, but I'd be a liar if I didn't enjoy the horns on the wall which always leads to a good conversations starter in the barn/garage/den when drinking beers.

6 more weeks of season is a huge bonus and a compound is not that difficult to learn. You can get proficient to 25yds within a month of reasonable practice. Plus it's easier to handle in the stand and WAY MORE FUN! And you can then be a qualified elitist. Lol

First time they used dope? If not how did they start? Did the parents shelter them from the outside world up until the time that they over dosed? In todays world it is IMPOSSIBLE for someone not to know that drugs are bad and if you make a choice to try heroin there is a very good chance you will die. A simple question to ask any drug user: Prior to using heroin or taking a pain pill- were you aware that you could become addicted to the drug? How many of those users do you think will say no? Just about everyone that I grew up with is either dead or wish they were due to drugs or alcohol.One of my closest fishing buddies now stands on a corner at a Highway intersection with a cardboard sign looking for handouts. Last time I saw another good friend before he died with blood coming out of every orifice-he was curled up sleeping in a department store doorway trying to keep warm.My upbringing was worse then they could ever imagine........I want for nothing and run a very succesful business.Does that mean I'm special...........not a chance. I have come across other people from my youth that have wondered out loud how I am not dead or in Jail. I like to think it's because I know right from wrong and realized that when the next step was sticking a needle in my arm it was time to say OK-time to grow up and put this crap in the past. Dying from a drug over dose is a choice.If you choose not to try a highly addictive drug in the first place you can not become addicted with the strong potential of death.It really is that simple.

Big Ditch excavator Southern tier IPA Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Out with the crew having a beer and food at this place.

I'm far from lost my friend.If That is what works for you-Great but I have had way too many people that I have known that have tried to fool everyone with their holy roller born again bullshit. Playing the Jesus/bible card when it suits you or the situation and then doing a complete 180 from that when that persons "church friends" are not around tells me one thing.........they are lying two faced fools who are only kidding themselves.Reading a book and trying to convince everyone that will listen that you are saved does not mean the Leopard can change his spots. Preaching the bible one day and then torching up crack rocks the next is not in the bible as far as I know.I don't think handing out Jesus pamphlets during the day and getting pie eyed drunk that evening is either.How about praising the good lord as your savior and then getting stoned in the company truck as soon as you leave the shop in the morning heading out on the road? If I understand this whole God thing correctly I would imagine he can see all this stuff from his Kingdom..........I probably won't wind up there so I may not get a chance to ask him.

The movie was so-so but the book was very good. Why didn't they put in the part where he got all those bad guys with one shot by hitting the soccer ball they were using as flotation to cross the river ? I guess maybe it would not have been "politically correct" at the time.

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2017/06/30/bronx-lebanon-hospital-center-gunshots-fired.html yeah NY safe act works..... NOT !!! plus... Belo...??? that's one weird coincidence.... I think

Good luck.

Oh why not. Only 3 locations in WNY serving these specials today only. One in East Aurora was a zoo. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good luck, i am sending good thoughts your way!

Well, my doctors have been carving ME up like a Jack-o-lantern the past few months, so that's given me the opportunity to do some removal of my own on yet another skull. Went with a simple "burnt oak" theme on this one. Finally figuring out where I can go deep and groovy, and where I need to go with light chicken scratch so I don't blow through the thin spots. This one looked good to me from the time I scribbled the design on there until I sealed over my autograph! Deadhead/shedhead- some of the leaf design gets lost in the folds under the eyes in the side profile pics.

Absolutely in love with these. You've got a knack, niche and winner there Wooly Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Another prayer sent your way, hope everything works out ok.

Here is my opinion on that question. Strictly an opinion that I don't expect all to agree with. Both hunters utilized some sort of skill to shoot that buck and both had some luck on their side. But I still have to say the unknowing hunter had more luck on his side. If he hunted that same stand every day he probably wasn't paying attention to wind , bedding, his scent trail, entry and exit routes etc... He unknowingly aligned many specific factors to allow that buck to cross within his range without being had. The guy that was targeting the buck was probably paying attention to all these factors. He most likely had multiple setups, knew where this buck was bedding, and had a entry and exit that allowed him to get close. He probably wasnt hunting every day if the conditions didnt favor it. From experience if your hunting the same stand day in and day out (when conditions don't always favor it), many deer, especially the older does and bucks that frequent that area with figure you out after day 1. Again, I'm talking aBout a lot of specifics here and I know I did stray off path a bit from stubby68 question. Either way the hunter shot a buck that he should be extremely proud of, no matter what the circumstances!

I had a cousin, a few years older than me who died from an untreated wound on his leg sustained from a bicycle fall. He used a bicycle because he could not afford a car. He came back from Nam in 1971 addicted to heroin. He was in and out of rehabs and the methadone clinics his entire life and never held a job for more than a few weeks at a time. The untreated wound became systemic because in his clouded mental state he thought he just had the flu and after feeling so bad for about a week, one of his "smack" using friends, a women user, called 911 and reported his illness and unresponsiveness. She then left and they found him and took him to the ER where he admitted to the hospital. It was too late. The infection was so advanced that infection could not helped by antibiotics and he passed away. In those early days heroin use was not too well known and not as understood. In 2017, everyone that isn't living in a cave somewhere knows the deal with this shit. I too agree with an earlier post. We will help you once but after that you're on your own. When other people must pay hundreds of dollars a month for medications to stay alive and when an addict can receive Narcan at no charge this is not right. How bout the police and EMS that have to administer the Narcan to the overdoser, this can't be enjoyable either. I just can't feel sorry for people who go down this road. They know better. This isn't someone puffin some weed a couple times a year or having a few beers on a Friday night - this is russian roulette.

Thanks everyone for all the well wishes they are much appreciated. Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

i've watched a bunch of young and old destroy there lives with that crap.Everyone of them started off with oxycodone from an injury then when they couldn't get the pills any more they hit the streets.I blowout my back two years ago the doctor gave me a 120 pills i took 2 what a crazy feeling i dealt with the pain after that.it's been out of control for a few years now.

Get well soon, hope the blood test comes back negative!

Hopefully have the health to enjoy hunting the next hunting season, people seem to forget health is taken for granted, enjoy what you have and what is presented to you..

Prayers sent. Hope you feel better soon!

Good Luck with your tests. I just went thru those tests myself last month. 1 up and 1 down. That pre test stuff is the pits. I was also found to have the start of Diver... Knock on wood no pain yet or anything like you had but have to slow down on the xtra peppers and such on the sub's.

Some more prayers!

That looks good, I like that 21st amendment Blood Orange IPA, It actually pulled me off the wagon

Best wishes on the test results and the road to feeling better take care..

Good luck and get well fast. Hospitals are no fun, I know...been there done that.

Didn't know there was any other way. Many that don't have farms have no clue! Let's just say all rules do not apply to everyone. From dumping to controlled burns.

I don't think that I ever said that. Almost all hunts have some element of challenge in them even if it only amounts to marksmanship or simple patience and persistence and willingness to suffer the cold. What I DID say was that those that talk about challenge as being their primary reason for hunting, "walk the walk". But the realities are that almost all participants in hunting today are doing their absolute best to eliminate as much challenge as possible. That is a statement that darn few people can argue these days. The examples are everywhere throughout hunting today. I point to the establishment of bow season way back in the early days of bowhunting. Everyone who participated did so to handicap themselves severely with a weapon that was a real problem to succeed with and the deer take numbers reflected that. That was the whole reason for the creation of that season. Those people were obsessed with challenge. That really was their primary reason for hunting. That attitude is really very different today. No, no one is saying that hunting does not have some challenge built into it, but nothing today makes that challenge look like a primary motive for hunting. Everything that I see today is an attempt at removing challenge. I'm not trying to say that that is good or bad. Just saying that motives for hunting seem to be something other than looking for ways to put the odds in the deer's favor.

Or have other prove your a schmuck. When you become entitled a farmer you may learn something. Chirp,Chirp Chirp is all we hear.

Thank you everyone for all the well-wishes. I'll pass them along. Lots of broken bones but it sounds like he's out of the woods with regard to deadly internal injuries. I'll send updates as I get them. Thanks again, Mark

People talk smack about high fence deer, Yes there have been some pretty freaky deer bred in the deer world but for the most part if you look at most of the awesome bucks harvested in Kansas, Ohio and such they are bucks pushing 200 inches, Same as MOST deer are behind fence.Hunters have seen what can be taken if they have what it takes and commit on taking only one type of animal. The problem we have in Ny is that we are in the crappiest place to live and hunt what a real whitetail can look like. The hunters that chose to hunt only mature deer are truly hunting, Find,track and kill a single animal...Like hunting for Bin Laden. Mono de Mono. Most places in todays hunting is pretty much shooting deer, we have a great number of animals and one does not have to "Hunt" to hard to kill any deer.

Heck ya I liked fishing as a kid. Used to skip school and pedal our bikes to the quarries and Willow beach on Pavement rd. Caught some nice bass and hammer handle pike there. Carp fish the Cayuga in Lancaster with dough balls and a can of Kodiak chaw. Fished the Cayuga in Lancaster CC a lot as well. Largemouth fishing with my dad at my Aunts on Tinkam Rd in Darien. We'd set the Minnie trap at the golf course for big chubs. Throw on a big ole bobber and wait mere seconds . Biggest largemouth I've ever seen. Could easily stuff your fist down their mouth. Weed choke and winter kill did that in years ago. They took out wheelbarrows full. Still produces a few big uns but not like it used to be. Some big perch now though. Dad and I would always stop at Beachy's at 77 and Broadway for a hot dog and milkshake. ( Thanks for reminding me of those memories) Zinging spoons of the breakwall at mouth of the Catt for steelies a lot ! Niagara gorge in Artpark for lakers. Daughter loves fishing. Requested that we go on her first day of summer break. My mom got her a worm bucket and polarized glasses for her 10th bday One of our best excursions was floating the Grasse river in Messina . Long float and hammered the smallies. All though a day on Lake Erie on a boat is always a blast. She was whooped after reeling in back to back to back sheephead last week, lol She was literally bummed it was too windy for the lake yesterday. Maybe try tomorrow And she has a better rod/reel combo than I do. When she could barely walk we went to Westwood park in Lancaster. I was untangling a mess of the line. Turn around and she's got all the nightcrawlers poured out in her hand and counting them as she's putting them back in the container.

I see backstraps lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Also keep in mind, crossbows are not allowed in Westchester. I too got a bow to extend my season. But once I started practicing with it, I enjoy just shooting it just like I would shoot a gun at the range. Now...if they told me I could never hunt with a bow again, I would still find myself going to the archery range every once in a while just to shoot for fun. I don't think crossbows would do that for me.

I respect your opinion. That being said, I think you are wrong to advise someone, just getting into shooting crossbow, or bow for that matter. To take 60 yard shots or even 50 yard shots at deer. We have all heard your story, many times, of the 59 yard heart shot. Thats all well and good for you. But for a young hunter, or one just getting started, this is not an advisable shot, under any circumstances! Long range shooting is for the experts. Not too many of us qualify. Too much can go wrong when shooting ANY crossbow or bow beyond 30 yards, unless you have years of dedicated experience. Deer are not stationary targets! I've been a blood tracker for many years. This is what "MY" experience has proven many times over.

Boom!

I've read the responses here Doc and I think I have a bit of a different take. I don't think it is as much the psychology behind it as the millions of years of genetic encoding. I think as a species we have a desire and even a need to have our efforts acknowledged and admired. A hunter in those long ago times was granted stature based on how well they hunted. Females selected their mates on the basis of how well they provided. So I think the tendency is there in our very make up. Like anything else there are varying degrees of intensity. Why do we keep score in sporting events? To acknowledge the better players by saying they won. As a measure of a hunter I would think that a person that consistently takes the more mature animals would be viewed as the better hunter. Age and antler size are generally proportional. and the older and more experienced animals (prey) would have the greatest life experience and most survival knowledge.Therefore they would be the most difficult quarry to take. .

Oh trust me..I Know. But let word slip out of a buck or two that one has done homework on and its game on for some.

Biggest rack in women , biggest truck , biggest engine , biggest biceps , biggest house , hardly think quest for biggest deer rack is in anyway unique. 'Merica ! Stubby , I gotta disagree about everyone knowing about big bucks killed. Few outside of hunting even know that there is a scoring system, most I know think my 10pt must be bigger then your 8pt . I still run into people who ask if I eat it ? 3 % of New Yorkers hunt , most of the remaining 97% could'nt tell what P&Y or B&C was or care in the least .