Doc

No, it really comes down to the fact that bowhunters could not see a reason why they were the ones singled out to do an impossible job and then told that they would be punished if they didn't do it. Bowhunters also detected a lack of credibility as far as the DEC being serious about a doe reduction plan that uses the least efficient weapon. In terms of the muzzleloader threat in bow season, I think that that is the real motivation behind targeting bow hunters with this impossible challenge. The DEC made no secret of their desire to jam firearms (principally muzzleloaders) into bow season since they tried a decade ago to do exactly that. What better way to achieve that desire than to give bowhunters an impossible challenge with a firearms ultimatum if they don't succeed?

No, you get no free permissions to private land, just like the DEC doesn't offer you permission to private land. No guarantees at all. Not even a thank-you. But since that amount of money is insignificant, I'm just making it known that I will gladly take it.

I now reload all of my ammo, and I know exactly what is in there.

Yes, it must be a pretty tough racket because every so often one of them gets prosecuted for all kinds of poaching offenses. On the other hand, I have seen some unintended pictures of feeders that didn't make it to the cutting room floor. And I have seen the deer going by their stands with their tongues hanging out. And I have caught some of the unintended pictures of the tall fences. So there may be some that done completely free-range and fair chase, but I have caught enough filming mistakes to keep me from assuming that they are all anything like the conditions that non-pros have to hunt under. Many of these guys are hunting preserves and hunting ranches that would just love having the name of their outfit show up on hunting shows and go out of their way to ensure that these hunter-heroes have success when hunting their place. My biggest problem is that these programs devote little or no info to scouting and all the real preliminary necessary work that hunting is 90% about. And yes, those omissions do tend to lead one to question exactly who is really doing that part of the job. Is it the hunter, or the outfitter/guide.

Here's my experience with Winchester ammo ..... straight out of the box. It took sending two boxes back to Winchester at some ugly amount of un-reimbursed postage in order to get back some weird "Winchester Dollars" that was slightly less than what I paid for the original boxes. I am pretty much done with Winchester ammo forever. If something like this can get through their "quality control" just imagine the kinds of internal screw-ups they can accomplish.

Quote: "What trips your fall trigger?" I tell you what doesn't trip any triggers is this damn day-after-day of 90+ degrees temperature. By the way guys, don't be in too much of a hurry to wish your life away. Come next February when we're slipping and sliding all over the road through the 10 inches of slush, and reading our heating bill, we will be daydreaming about the good old summer months with the fishing and nice cold beer under a shade tree, and munching down the stakes off the grill. I love the fall hunt, but there is always that looming winter hot on it's heels. And by the way, I love all those nice, sunny, picture-book, photos of the colorful leaves that we get to see about 2 or 3 days all Fall (if we're lucky). But most of Fall is gray skies with near constant drizzle and gale-force winds.

You have only two viable choices. Trump who is not schooled in the slick art of politics and mis-speaks far more often than your average dyed in the wool slickster, but has philosophies that have elements of what this country grew up on. Or you have the career politician who knows all the tricks and procedures for lying to your face, utilizing slimy practices that are illegal for all but the chosen few that truly are above the law. If you are tired of the business as usual candidates, that can slip and slide through the system, then to me it makes no sense to vote for that kind of candidate. Yes, this country has been sliding down the rat-hole for decades. To me it makes more sense to shake up the system with someone who is not a career politician and makes a few mistakes along the way than the one who has made sleaze a career path and knows how to remove your rights and make you happy about it. Protest votes involving insignificant third parties are simply sitting the vote out and leaving the results up to luck, or more likely handing the election to the slickster and her political machine. That is not a protest vote, it is simply a way of forfeiting your vote and avoiding taking a stand by using the system.

Maintaining pointless complex fee structures that do absolutely nothing are kind of silly too. Especially when we don't even have a clue what the charges are for. I've got an idea. Since everybody doesn't mind the government's hands in your wallet, why don't you all just send me $15 or $20. I'll put it to good use ......... Trust me.

Look, we need one more gun control law that will put to bed all this assault rifle controversy. Obviously many in the public believe that appearance features are what makes many of the weapons in the hands of criminal much more lethal than old-style gun designs. So lets just pass a law that requires that all guns be painted pink, rendering them obviously harmless. Create a pansy rifle, and it really won't matter that it has a horrible pistol grip or a thumb-hole in the stock. Since laws are being passed based on appearance features rather than function, the new pink paint would render them harmless.

You are assuming that it would actually be more. It could be that the simplification would actually be less for all.

Imagine a farmer who has a chunk of his annual income that comes from some nice prime black angus or Hereford purebred beef cattle reading about this stupid study. Or maybe a dairy farmer who has to tolerate slaughtered cattle because of some newly introduced cougars which would undoubtedly be completely protected while the DEC tried to establish a thriving population. Expand that to those who count on their sheep, hogs, horses and any other convenient farm livestock that are suddenly on the menu of these introduced kitty-cats. Pets, hikers, mountain bikers, kids, you name it they could all become an entrée on a mountain lion's menu of convenience. You don't just throw a bunch of these things into the wild without some unintended consequences. There are a few other considerations beyond just having a new species to hunt. But these brilliant scientists have studies that show that it would help decimate the burgeoning deer population. Do these mental midgets ever step outside their cubicles?

I don't know exactly how many times that I and many others have said, "If only I had had a gun instead of a bow, that deer would have been mine." I feel confident shooting at deer with ranges up to 150+ yards well rested with my scoped .270. Many others can do much better with their deer rifles. My maximum range with a bow is 35 yards, and I really prefer 20 yards. How on earth can anyone compare the two when it comes to efficiency. Is it really true that early deer are easier before the guns start banging? Not if you know how to use the pressure from other gun hunters. If I want to reduce any segment of the deer herd, realistically, I would take my .270 and let the other hunters move the deer for me with their movement and noise and their filling the woods with scent. I can't see how anyone could possibly argue that point. Hang around a deer processor some opening day of gun season and see just how effective modern firearms really are compared to bow kills. I see them corded up like firewood every time I cart my deer over to our processor, and that is not just opening day. Any day in bowseason ........ not so much (or even close)

We all just love paying extra fees don't we? Why is there not just one license that allows you to hunt? Seriously, I don't mind fees if they can show additional costs because of the additional activity. But what is the additional cost for muzzleloading or bowhunting or whatever. I see it only as more bookwork and expenses involves in all the separate tracking. What ever happened to making government agencies justify fees. Nobody cares to make these people financially responsible and accountable? Maybe they have numbers and whatnot that show that it is cheaper to break all these variations into separate entities and individual tracking and paperwork. But seriously, I would like to see it before ridiculing those that wonder about separate fees - no matter what the size. Just because it has always been done that way doesn't mean it is the "smart" way.

Yup!..... There goes our worshipped scientists again with another hair-brained scheme. Isn't it amazing how these lunatics (supposedly some of the best minds that our tax-funded study money can be spent on) seem to keep coming up with these brilliant ideas. By the way, where is the best cougar habitat located? my guess would be the central Adirondacks where the deer population is the thinnest.

There is a pretty good chance that if the doe days were implemented in the season that has the most effective results, it would turn out that this magical 2 weeks, would be more like two or three days. Doesn't it seem odd that this emergency overpopulation problem that plagues those targeted areas was never discussed or proposed to apply in a season that had the best odds of having significant success? Just how serious are they really when they apply the solution only in the least effective season. That's the real question that nobody is asking.

All this stuff is complete nonsense. Until you put an antlerless only day or so into the regular gun season, you will never see any significant change in doe take. Either they are serious about removing does or their not. But let's get real. no matter what you do to bow season, it is firearms in the season designated for them that are the only thing that will make any difference. Anything else is simply window dressing with no real motives that seriously involve population control. By the way, is their any surprise that these so-called surveys are in favor of trashing the bowseason. The majority of respondents could care less about bowhunting season other than the fact that they might now get a good chance to grab a piece of it.

You are absolutely right. In a few years the DEC will cram their muzzleloader season into bow season, but it will have nothing to do with whether bow hunters were able to bring doe numbers down or not. For at least a decade, the DEC has been aching to get any kind of firearms into bow season that they could, and have even been successful to some extent in doing so. Now they have concocted a scheme that justifies exactly that, and there is no doubt in my mind that they will push that scheme just as far as they can with or without the bowhunters humble submission. I don't believe that the DEC thinks for a minute that bowhunters alone are able to control doe numbers. That is just their cover-story. And it appears that they are selling that story to some.

It sounds like the guy has a lot of time and effort put into building this stand. He may be a bit hard-nosed about removing it or not using it. It may become more of a nasty situation than any of us are visualizing. If it were a portable stand he probably would be a lot more likely to move it without any kind of problems. It could be that he had a special arrangement with the previous landowner.

There's nothing wrong with the show that a few standards on safety wouldn't fix. The only problem they have is the effect of baiting a few numb-skulls into taking some very stupid, ill-conceived risks with enough money at stake to tempt the weak-minded into taking high risk gambles with their lives. Actually, there are a lot of very talented people that are on that show, and are very entertaining. They simply have to implement some filters for acts that perhaps are ill-advised for live TV programming.

My DMPs are all free since I bought my Lifetime License. I'm not sure if there are unique situations where that is different but for me they are freebies.

Wind direction will be the most frustrating parts of any hunt. Nothing can irritate you like watching the wind switch 180 degrees a few times while you sit there using plans based on a weatherman's predictions. I hunt in narrow valley areas with high steep hills, and they definitely will do some weird things. I have one blind next to a 150' deep rock walled ravine that twists its way up the hill, Anywhere around that ravine will have constantly changing winds. And some of the biggest bucks in that area use that for a bedding area because there is no approach to that area that will not give them a scent warning before you get within shooting range. The good old milkweed seed test wil show you what you are up against and it can be a very frustrating story. There are also areas where the wind can be in one direction all day long and then late in the afternoon, the thermals take over. I don't know about flat land. There is none down out way ..... lol.

We had a young coon in the driveway that was staggering around, wobbling from side to side, falling over and laying down and then getting up and just generally looking very uncoordinated and totally screwed up. No drool or foaming at the mouth, but also not a bit afraid of the car as we drove up the driveway and pulled right up to him. Rabies???? .... Maybe, but I also understand that distemper has those same kind of symptoms.

With some of the stupid things that they do on that show, it was only a matter of time before something dangerous like this happened. I really do expect that some day there will be a fatality of some kind.

As a general rule, I only do one all-day stand per season ..... that is opening day of gun season. After that it is mostly still-hunting. Bow season is 3 to 4 hours in the morning, and the same late afternoon. My still hunting looks a lot like moving stand hunting. I take a few steps from one bit of cover to the next really slowly, all the time scanning every little feature out ahead and off to the side, and then I sit for 15 minutes to a half hour. Then I do the same thing to cover another 100 yards. I guess you might call it all day moving-stand hunting. But on the gun season opener, I stay planted in a well constructed blind. Theree is enough hunter activity on that day to keep deer moving to me, when the hunter patterns are in place. After that day, it is time to actually do some hunting to find the deer.