Doc

Frankly, I have no idea why she couldn't pull that bow back. It may have been lack of practice or maybe it was a combination of cold and time in stand. I remember a time years ago when I had bought a bow set at 80#. That was no problem, and I used it for about a year and a half set at that weight. I always practiced every night and shot two NFAA field archery rounds every week. No problems ......... Until that day that I spent several hours on deer stand in high winds and 22 degrees temperature. A doe came in and it was a scene just like in the video. My muscles had seized up against the cold. I spent those hours with my hands jammed into my pockets and my shoulders all crunched up bracing against the wind-driven cold and by golly I couldn't for the life of me get that bow to break over. So, if that was the case with that girl, I completely sympathize with her. I know the surprising effect that wind driven super cold can have on the human body.

I guess I have said it often enough back in every "crossbow topic", but I will say it again. It is only a matter of time before firearms become part of bow season. The fact is that they already are. Not long ago we had a threat from the DEC of adding muzzleloaders to areas of under-harvest. It didn't take them too long to put the role of total deer herd management on the backs of bowhunters when they thought they could get away with it. "You bowhunters better control that herd or we'll be adding muzzleloaders". I see from the results of this thread that the idea has now been permanently implanted in the minds of many hunters. Little by little, precedent by precedent, bow season is becoming a "catch-all" season for anyone with any weapon to stake a claim.

Quote: "Would You Support Elk in NY?" Maybe yes....maybe no. I would want some very detailed research done to ensure the compatibility with the deer of the state. I don't want any species introduced that would compete with the deer herd. I would not want any additional species that might introduce or increase any diseases. I am not saying that elk introduction would do any of these things, but I would like to see exhaustive research done to make sure that all i's are dotted and t's crossed when it come to ensuring that there are no unintended consequences.

Politically, I seldom agreed with him, but there is no doubt that he was a real man and a great human being.

Ha-ha-ha..... This topic is so funny because it is so true. I always get them back in the bags, but never know exactly how I did it. If you wrestle with it long enough, usually some happy accident unknowingly happens.....but only after I am reduced to a cursing idiot. How in hell did they ever figure out that design?

About the only thing that can be said about this topic with any certainty is that the one who is beating their chest the loudest, and is frantic to make you believe his prowess, and is desperate that you pay attention to their ranting about their expertise is most likely the most pathetic loser who really has no clue what they are doing.

As I said, the evolution of bow season is a long list of situations where hunters have always been looking for that magic bow, gadget and go-faster that would replace actual effort and time afield and a need to actually master a difficult weapon. The compound was the first major departure from what the season was initially created for. It was the precedent that sent us all on headlong fling toward "success at any cost". And it's not exactly slowing down. It does make a person pause and ask "is there really an end to it all?" Or is the natural end simply the blurring of special seasons until there aren't any.

I'm not sure, but I do know that that was the entire reason that I took up bow hunting. It certainly wasn't because it was so productive. We used to come into work Monday morning and all gather around and talk about the doe that we saw, or maybe a well used trail that we found. And my gosh if somebody got lucky enough to actually get a shot that was the highlight of the conversation for the whole day. As far as equipment, I was using whatever I could afford, and at that time it wasn't much. It certainly wasn't state of the art materials. You were doing good if you had a matched set of Port Orford cedar arrows. Yeah, I think tradition and challenge was perhaps the only attraction to bowhunting.

Things get real tough when there are no other hunters moving around to push deer out of their hidey-holes. That's why I think there are times in the season when state lands are more productive. I remember back in the hey-days of the huge drives when deer seemed to be running everywhere. Guys used to run from one thicket to another with their monstrous deer drives and deer would come squirting out of every piece of cover. Now-a-days the hunters are all bundled up in their nice warm space-age garments snoozing at the base of a tree and a few hundred yards away the deer are all curled up snoozing at the base of a tree and that's pretty much the way deer season is spent after opening weekend.....lol.

The examples would fill an encyclopedia.....lol. I have watched bow season in particular go from a mere bent stick and string to wild-looking compound bows that look like something from a Star Wars movie and now super-performance crossbows, being followed by talk about archery season pneumatic air bows. What's next? The movement is as predictable as any study of human activity. Tradition?....challenge?.....These are all passé things of the past that no one values anymore. None of that has any place in hunting these days.

There is a lot of that going on these days. More and more movement toward making hunting something that only the moneyed people can or want to participate in.

It doesn't. For most, hunting is intended to be an easy activity, apparently. It seems to be human nature to remove any and all obstacles and challenges in hunting by using the least amount of time and effort and letting technology to do as much of the hunting for us as possible. The history and evolution of NYS Bowhunting is the best example of that, for those that care to look at it. It is all just a sign of the times.

It seems that every year I hear the gunners complaining more and more loudly about the quality and quantity of big bucks that are frequently being taken in a supposedly "more primitive" special bow season. I also have noted that there are more and more gunners asking why there even are any special seasons that they are excluded from. The bow equipment changes over the decades have evolved to the point where some of that talk may actually be warranted. There are a lot of people being kept out of a desirable part of the hunting season with ever-diminishing justification, and it is beginning to catch the attention of the gun hunting community. Perhaps the bow season is just a cobbled up excuse to get the gun hunters out of our way so we can have access to a much more pleasant time of the year. But now we start including weapons that don't even slightly resemble the primitive weapon that the season was initially designed for. But we say "What's wrong with adding weapons that are easier to shoot? Doesn't that mean fewer wounded deer". And by golly that is a true point crossbows are way more efficient and accurate and require nearly nothing to become proficient. So I guess that is intended to imply that conventional archery is inadequate or inhumane and needs less challenging weapons in the name of being humane. But it doesn't stop there. Now there are people coming along suggesting that adding just one more little feature like pneumatics would help ensure real humane kills even a bit more. You know there really is no end to the justification of cramming all kinds of weapons into bow season. I have no idea of what comes after that...... maybe inserting more muzzleloader options into bow seasons. That's not an idea that I never hear. I'll bet there are plenty of dandy rationalizations that can be made for that too. If you have a weapon that you want to see included in bow seasons, there are all kinds of made-up reasons for doing so. So now when I hear people beginning to talk about getting rid of special seasons (bow season in particular), I am beginning to understand where all that is coming from. I may not agree with it, but I am understanding exactly where that is all coming from. We are working our way out of having any bona-fide reason to hang on to our hard-fought-for bow season. And eventually there will be plenty of gun hunters that will be supporting that idea. So as we continue to fiddle with what weapons can go into bow seasons, maybe we should be looking at where this is all going.

And then there was the big buck that I saw that had his lower jaw swinging from his head like a big bag of hamburger. Kind of hard to ever eat again with only one jaw. And there was the one on the other side of a huge ravine that I could hear wheezing all the way across that distance. Probably a windpipe hit. Both deer likely will go down of hunger after a heck of a long time. Not much meat saved there. I have no idea what the details of those wounds were but I would bet dollars to donuts that they were attempted shots at the neck or the head. That's not to say that shots attempted at the huge boiler room never go astray, but the odds are so much more in your favor with the massively larger heart/lung area.

Ha-ha-ha..... Don't count too much on license plate numbers. I have seen a pile of them that even with a good picture you likely wouldn't be able to read it. How are people getting away with all these unreadable "peeling" license plates.