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I picked up this guy a couple of days ago from the taxidermist. It was just about a year ago when I caught him. I knew of a hot otter toilet on a local steam that I wanted to trap but I kept putting off for a couple of years. Luckily last year I set it up because when I went to check on it a few days ago , I noticed a large tree fell right where the toilet was. These otters certainly have beautiful fur.

Man has hunted for thousands of years. The driving source runs deep in the veins. It just comes naturally.

In the setting and atmosphere I grew up in it would have been almost impossible not to become involved in hunting. Unlike today where it seems very few hunt, especially young folks, back when I was a kid almost everyone I knew hunted. Family on both my mother and father's side were avid hunters, my Dad was a fanatical hunter. When family and friends got together the conversations invariably were many times about hunting, it was easy to get drawn into the culture and excitement. My Dad encouraged me all along the way, hunting books, Sports Afield and Outdoor Life magazines in the house were read voraciously, so it was pretty easy for me to get psyched and involved. Lot's of small game hunting got me started, my Dad was a big time rabbit hunter with top notch Beagle rabbit dogs, he had friends that had Coon dogs, that is where my love for hunting with dogs got started. Back then there were plenty of Pheasants, Squirrels, and Grouse along with assorted waterfowl, still my prefered type of hunting today. The good old days really were good. Absent was the greed one sees today. Al

I have one big buck hanging on the wall that I had spotted and patterned and killed (Costs have limited me from mounting more). Hanging right next to it is a little antler mount of a 5" spike which was the first archery deer that I ever got. The fact is that it is that spike that brings back the most satisfying memories. That happened 47 years ago and still I can tell you everything about that hunt and the huge sense of satisfaction that I felt. For me that was the "greatest hunt" ever. Of all the deer that I have ever taken that was the one where I can remember every detail, and emotion. That was the most prized animal that I have ever gotten. The good news is that way back then there was nobody harping about scores and how I should have passed that one waiting for a bigger one. I have taken much bigger deer since then, and they all fade into faint memories when compared with that spike. Great hunts for me are more about the surrounding circumstances than any measured-up antler lengths and spreads. I can even tell you of hunts where does have had my hands shaking. I appreciate antlers, but they are not the end-all and be-all of hunting for me.

I can't really think of how I became started on this lifelong need to hunt. Yes my Dad took me squirrel hunting once when I was little, but I don't remember that as being a very pleasant experience. It was cold, and his version of squirrel hunting was to sit still and wait for the squirrels to become active again. Then several years later, I found an old draw-knife up in the shop and fashioned a pretty decent longbow out of hickory. And with some willow arrows, I went up in the hay loft of the barn and started hunting pigeons. I got two and had my mother cook them up. That hooked me on hunting. And then there was the trapline that I ran. While that is not actually hunting, it does kind of result in the same kind of thing. Then too, I enjoyed reading books about the old pioneers and their ways of subsisting, and that put a bit of adventure and even historical culture into the notion of hunting. All these things fashioned an appreciation of the outdoors, that has lasted through the years and among so many other outdoor activities came the need to hunt. So as it turns out, there really was no one who introduced me to hunting. My rural life and so many other outdoor activities promoted my interest in hunting. In fact it was me that introduced my Dad to archery and bowhunting.....ha-ha-ha. But that is a whole other topic.

January 31st

This is a question we hunters get asked quite often. So what is your answer? what makes a person spend jillions of dollars and all kinds of hours out in the freezing cold with rain dripping of the end of your nose, or wallowing around in snow with half-numbed toes? Are you really that hungry?.......lol. No there is something more basic and deep in your make-up that drives you. What is it?

2,700 we’re taken in 2022. The National Park Service has to do culls of several sites including Fire island in an attempt to slow down the rising herd. The real ticking time bomb is Nassau county, no hunting and the numbers are rising quickly. Their now in areas they’ve never been before. I can show some pics of Nassau deer that are monsters.

LOL, We get it. You are the greatest hunter on this forum or any other forum in the world. We will all now bow down in your presence. All hail King Four Season

It is like I always say.....It is not the Politicians that are responsible for our sad broken state. It is the goof-ball voters that vote them in and those that do not vote them out.

It was posted on Bushcraft USA forums.

He became a deer hunter (Gun and bow) long after I was already established as a hunter. My Grandfather was a "city guy" who never did hunt. I guess I was the initial hunter in our family.

No plenty of places to hunt in Suffolk county. Some state parks. All regulated by the DEC check in and out. Especially at gun season. Sounds like a hassle but it isn't.

I subscribed to Outdoor life and watched American Sportsman with Curt Gowdy. I still have some of those issues! My brother and his friend small game hunted and would take me along. I would retrieve the game like a bird dog!!!! lol There were these small adds in the back of the magazine to become a forest ranger, "sleep under the stars and catch your breakfast from a cold stream" that's what I wanted to do at the age of 12!

Dad was a social hunter....he hunted with friends to get out doors and enjoy the company, but was never very succussful. Small game hunting was a reaosn for a walk in the woods, and he deer hunted, but to our knowledge never saw one and never raised his gun to one. From a very young age I recall pawing through his hunting coat pocket and being fascinated by contents....compass, 12 gauge shells, a few feathers, acorns or whatever else he picked up to share. He would take me for fall walks, and I still can smell the mouldering leaves and spice of the apples on the ground.... He and my brother in law took me hunting, but success was very....limited. It wasnt until I went with one of my best buddies and his dad, that I discovered you may actually see (and shoot) a deer (Dad was shocked the first thanksgiving I hunted when I brought home a big finger lakes doe (multi person doe tags then). Earlier that fall, I went with him to a friends hunting camp in the ADKS deer hunting....and I was the only person in camp who saw something, even if it was just a small first year doe. Moms family were the hunters, but they had all passed on by the time I came around, so I think I actually got my hunting drive from that side ...Dads family wasnt allowed to own guns!!

I hunt because that’s the way I get up. Now that everyone has since gotten too old or has no interest anymore, just seeing deer and getting that shaky feeling. If that ever goes I would stop.

It's really a tough call. Personally I love the black trim but I do not like the white wash of the wood. I am dealing or should I say not dealing with the same thing right now. My kitchen is wood flooring, walls and ceiling. It's to much wood and it really darkens the room. We really want to change it but don't want white wash and don't want to hassle with drywall right now so it continues to sit as is.