Doc

Great video! It looks a whole lot more easy there than it is in NYS. I didn't really see many single coyotes like you see around here.

There is no way that I could list all the crap that I have bought over the years. I have drawers full of sights, arrow rests, releases, stabilizers, finger-guards, arm guards and all kinds of gizmos and go-fasters. I also have a wall full of bows (11 of them) that were all high end bows in their day. Also, I have an assortment of arrows that I cannot get both of my hands around. We're talking thousands of dollars. I used to be one to chase every fad going. Then one day I realized that the first compound that I ever owned had taken more deer than any of the bows that followed. The old Bear Whitetail Hunter with wheels everywhere and eccentrics and steel cable and those heavy old indestructible epoxy limbs that you could use as a pry-bar, actually killed more deer and just as dead as any of the abandoned bows hanging on the wall that I bought after the fever began and I started thinking I could buy guarantees.....lol. I put an end to buying archery equipment since then but I can't bring myself to throw out any of the trinkets that fill those drawers. They're all are memory joggers of the glory-years of my bow-hunting and shooting.

I haven't paid-to-hunt in decades. The last one was back in the 1980s when four of us did a do-it-yourself canoe/camping moose hunt up in Shining Tree Ontario, Canada. My share was somewhere around $500 and we all had quite a bit of moose meat to divvy up. Now, I open up the back door and start hunting my way up the hill. That doesn't cost me a whole lot.

It's just an abbreviated version of my last name.

It's awful early yet. Bowhunters got all excited when the start of bow got pushed up to Oct 1st, but I really wonder how many are really out there in force yet. I know my hunting has been kind of half-hearted. The heat is still here so a lot of my stands have been spent with that trickle of sweat working its way down my back. And then there is the bugs, which in a normal wet year would be so much worse. I'm not in love with deer hunting when all the leaves are still on. I don't like being surprised. Also, there has to be some time devoted to all the fall chores around home. Just like spring, fall is a very demanding time of year. So, I go out when I feel like it and think that I have all the winterizing jobs under control. I have a feeling that I am not alone in all of the complications added to the earlier start. Weather is starting to calm down a bit, so maybe I and others will start to hunt a little harder and boost up the take a bit.

When I was a lot younger, I can remember sitting on stand with the wind-whipped rain dripping off my beak, and the cheap old insufficient clothes completely soaked through. Today my personal comfort takes precedence over my hunting fanaticism ..... lol. Regarding recovery problems due to heavy, steady rains, I have had some first hand experience with that that seldom has ended happily. Right now I am listening to rain splattering on the house roof that I know full well would eliminate a blood trail completely in a very short time. I have always been told that a hunter should wait at least a half hour before taking to the trail even on hits that you feel rather good about. Well, if it is raining anywhere near what I am listening to right now, 1/2 hour would be enough to make "first blood" nearly impossible to find. So, when I combine that fact with my discomfort, the decision is made for me.

There's an old saying that goes something like this: "Good fences make good neighbors". Perhaps that can be amended to say "Good posted signs make good neighbors". The idea being that in rural areas with large land parcels, sometimes the landowners don't even know where their boundaries really are. Sometimes they need to be shown. I don't know what your claim to the land is or what your relationship is with the landowner, but you might ask him if you could post it for him. Most guys would love to have you do it for them.

Logic and reason and fact have little to do with the kind of imaginations a person can get spooked by when they are in total darkness in the middle of the woods with a weapon that even in the best of conditions are not great for emergency self-defense ...... lol.

So as your walking to your stand in the pitch dark with nothing but a bow and a few arrows for defense, this story will keep your mind busy. Every leaf that crunches or twig that you hear snap will instantly fill your mind with images of a slobbering, crazed, rabid coyote, with its drooling jaws snapping and ripping your face off. Ha-ha-ha-ha..... I already get those images even without reading this story. It used to be that my favorite scary thought in the dark was walking between a sow black bear and her cubs. Now I've got some variation in my panic in the darkness when I hear that twig snap. I may go back to treestands just to get the heck up in the air.....lol.

Occasionally we get these little reminders that hopefully we live through without anything too serious and permanent happening. Emergency communications is always a good idea. Since my stroke 16 years ago, I never am without my phone. That's not just my idea, but something my wife insists on. It can be a dangerous place out there. A little preparation for the unexpected is always a good idea. Here's hoping you mend up well and quickly so the whole season isn't lost.

My beard used to have a purpose of serving as facial camo. That doesn't work anymore because it is white now. It actually draws attention in the woods instead of helping me blend in .... lol.

I agree. Yes there are some slams against hunters that are uncalled for, but I suppose it does lend credibility to the main message that is reaching the public. At least they know it is not a hunter sponsored bit of propaganda. Interesting, and yes it is an under-utilized means of putting a better face on hunting throughout those that are on the fence.

I guess, always living out in the sticks, I have been destined to never rub elbows with the rich and famous. Probably I wouldn't recognize most of them anyways if I just ran into them in a casual situation. However, I have seen a few C&W music stars (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard) on stage at concerts, and then there was the Dick Clark road show where he hosted a whole pile of R&R stars & groups back in the late 60's. And then there was the Everly Brothers concert out in Canandaigua. Sitting in the audience of those concerts were about as close as I've ever gotten to any kind of celebrities.

I quit on 2/18/08. Of course it took a stroke to finally provide enough motivation. Yup, full recovery on the stroke, but it did scare the hell out of me. But I have to say that there are time even now when I would like to light up. I have heard some other ex-smokers say the same thing.

I've been hiding behind my beard and mustache since the bow season of 1972. I'll probably take it to the grave ..... lol. I suppose if I ever shaved it off, I would have to re-introduce myself to everybody. I don't think I even want to know what's under there. I know there is an extra chin hiding there that wasn't there back in '72.

One thing I noticed with this video was that the warthog at the time of the shot was facing the bowhunter directly face on, drinking. I mean, nearly dead straight on. And yet after the kill, the hog's wound was nicely tucked right behind the left leg...... exactly where you would want to hit him on a standing broadside shot. Now, I'm not going to say that that was an impossible result given the circumstances at the shot, but to me it looks a bit questionable. It did kind of make me think how easy it would be to set up a gun kill to look like a bow kill if someone were to want to do so.

Maybe that isn't so hard to believe. A lot of the shots at 40 and 50 yards probably are so bad they are clean misses......lol. Shots at 10 yards probably are messed up hunters melting down with buck fever.

Is that a scientifically proven, authentic, credible stat or are you engaging in a bit of creative imagination......Lol.

Actually, we had a lot of real good discussions back then. I have often wondered why we think that topics have to be "one-and-done". We have new members added everyday. I like it when people dredge up some of these oldies but goodies. They are still interesting.

Well, in fact they do want our guns, but the point is well made that airguns are not really going to provide any kind of precedent for that.

Even the lowly .22 Hornet is a legal deer hunting weapon.....imagine that!

I have sight pins set for 80yards for my archery range. That's an old hold-over from my NFAA field archery days where there is an 80 yard walk-up target. But when hunting season comes around, I have another complete sight bar that slides into a dovetail mount and has pins that only go out to 30 yards, and I have yet to use the 30 yard pin in a hunting situation, and I hope I never have to. Considering deer movement, and potential unseen obstacles, and wind conditions, etc., and the fact that sometimes I get little unexplained form hick-ups, I have always limited my shots to 25 yards. That pretty much gets the job done.

So, is this what we admire about bow hunting these days? Is that what it has all turned into? Our new hunter-heroes are those that just spray and pray, and when they get lucky, they claim skill? The guy that consistently gets within 20 yards or less of his prey to achieve high percentage, humane kills is just a guy who can't shoot all that well? Is that what bowhunting has become? Well, I'm not all that impressed. He has traded luck and risk for good legitimate hunting skills. Is that what we are trying to teach new bowhunters these days? ..... what are we saying with this demonstration of irresponsibility? It's only an animal, what the hell. Just keep shooting until something goes down.

So what do you think .... Some hunter trying to drive you out so he can have that spot all to himself? Or maybe some anti-hunter fanatic, or just a deranged individual who likes to cause people grief for no particular reason?

I guess I've heard enough of this commie crap. All this, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" BS is getting a bit old. If you are such a big fan of the communist doctrine, go someplace where they still think that is the hot set-up. But for me, I am a firm believer in a man's home is his castle and there are some limits on what a landowner should be forced to cede to the general public. I bought and maintain my property with my own legally gotten gains and will be the sole arbiter of who hunts my land. If you don't like that, then maybe one of those beacons of communist successes like Cuba or USSR would be a much better fit for someone with your "ideals".