Doc

Animals give us so much, unconditionally, and we can't help but get caught up in a bond that is so painful to break. I am sorry to hear about Max, and I completely understand the feeling of loss that you are going through.

It's funny to listen to all the theories about why there are so many deer or so few deer. Most of them sound fairly credible because we all have had the same thoughts at one time or another. The one observation that I keep encountering is the shrinking numbers of hunters. Fewer and fewer people pushing deer around during daylight hours. And yet there are just enough to keep the deer reminded that a deer season is in progress so that they stay in their survival mode. The other thing to remember is that all deer hunting is local. I have heard differing opinions between hunters that are on next-door properties. We can't be everywhere at once, so the guy on the other side of town has as valid and opinion and observations as anyone else. And they may both be right.

The worst part of all this is the realization that it will never get any better. Nobody is getting younger as time goes on. However, as they say, "When you consider the alternatives to old age, it all doesn't seem quite as bad".....lol.

The thing is that there is no "one" single reason for people to quit hunting. But each little aggravation is just one more nail in the coffin. When speaking of additional costs, one must look at those of us who load our own bullets. I have hundreds of dollars or reloaded ammo. What am I expected to do ......Dispose of all that expensive ammo or spend weeks pulling them apart so I can change the bullets to non-lead? The additional costs are not simply the additional expense of bullet materials. Many of us have existing supplies of lead bullets and rebuilt lead ammo. By the way, I also have boxes of reloaded shot-shell loads too.

My Dad tried to be the "nice guy" and gave permission to a few guys from work. Funny thing how people seem to think that as soon as they have hunting permission that automatically gives them the power to grant permission to everyone they know. That went on for a number of years until Dad realized that the original people that he invited no longer were hunting there, but everyone he ran into claimed to know someone who had gotten permission from someone else. Finally it got to the point where there were strange cars parked in the driveway such that it was getting difficult to get out onto the road. The posted signs went up and he devoted a few hunting days to turning back those that pulled into the driveway. For some reason I thought I could keep control of things better than Dad. So I planned a few hunts with some guys at work and ran into the same problem. It finally came to a head when the brother-in-law of one of my old hunting friends (who no longer lived in the state) had a couple of car loads of orange-coats setting up a huge drive in the thicket between our house and the road. I put an end to that and the same day came up with the same solution my Dad did with the posted signs and the invitation to leave my property for anyone caught trespassing. People just like to take advantage. It is pretty darn hard to get hunting permission on my property, and an iron clad list of limitations is supplied to anyone allowed to temporarily hunt there.

Is it possible that he is in the early stages of rabies? I have read of cases of rabies in deer.

So are you guys started with the practice sessions and getting ready for the season? It's not so easy this year with all the stinking bugs banging into my face and whining in my ears, but I have started. I know there are some that never really stop shooting even all summer with the 3-D competitions and such. But I have had a very busy summer season around the property. But August is usually when I get started with my shooting regardless of what is going on.

Would you expect Comrade Cuomo to say any different?

All this talk about timing of the best turkey hunting has gotten me wondering exactly what drive the breeding activity of turkeys. I don't turkey hunt and know very little about them, so please excuse me if this question sounds stupid....lol. Is it the prevailing nuances of the current weather that turns them on, or is there something like photo-periodism at work that drives the timing as in deer? I think I am hearing that the activities seem to be repetitive from year to year regardless of what the weather is doing for each year. Anybody got some info on that?

I also think that the widespread use of scopes has made today's hunter much more deadly than back in the days when I was a kid. My first deer gun was an old bent-barreled 20 ga. with just a ball bead at the front. Great squirrel gun, but getting a deer with it wasn't really too likely.

I'm still a bit puzzled at how the deer take stays so high when the numbers of gun shots heard are so low compared to past years. It must be that hunters today are becoming very good shots. Seriously, observations of traditional parking lots and other places that used spill out on the highways with parked cars of hunters look nearly empty by comparison to years ago. And the shooting seems to die off after the opening morning. At least that's been my observations. And yet the deer take seems to be better or at least the same as past years of much greater participation. The remaining hunters must really be good.

The most prized rack on my wall is that of a 7" spike buck. It draws a lot of comments ..... ha-ha-ha. It was my first bow killed deer. For me it is always about the story behind the mount, and that often has nothing at all to do with antler size. Back then, any deer taken with a bow was a trophy and that one is still a trophy to me.

Ha-ha-ha...... you're right. I could care less what they shoot their deer with. I would shake hands and congratulate anyone who successfully takes a deer of any size, regardless of what implement they do it with as long as it is all legal and in season. Of course what is legal and what season certain implements are legal for use, is still being determined isn't it?

This guy is right on the money. People get some real peculiar ideas about what they are doing out there. Some picture themselves as the harvest police who have been appointed the duties of keeping hunters to some kind of mandatory standard of kill-size. Probably a lot of you are not old enough to remember the prejudice against shooting does. Most hunters considered that to be an ethical failure for hunters to shoot does. And yet, decades later we found that shooting does is a necessary management activity but still even today you will find some that consider taking a doe to be something akin to a sin. But today the big sin is taking a small buck. The word is that anyone who does so should be banned from the woods. All I can say is try hard not to be telling others what deer they can shoot and which ones they cannot. Accept that it's not your place to dictate what others choose to take. It is a very personal decision unique to each individual hunter and is really nobody else's business. Seriously.....It's nobody else's business. It is no one's duty to apply mocking ridicule or anger to someone else's kill when it doesn't measure up to your arbitrary standard. Save your indignation for those who engage in illegal hunting activities and offer a hand of congratulations to the hunter who is happy with what he legally got. I think we will keep a lot more hunters in our ranks if we stop mocking those that are not so hung up on scores, and antler points, and some mythical standard of deer size.

One year we had an opportunistic hawk that was getting fat on the birds that were lured into the feeder. I guess when you concentrate a food source, some of the predators figure it out ..... lol. It's just Mother Nature doing what Mother Nature does.