Doc

So if something happens to your password, and you try to re-join, your just plain out of luck. So it could be that a lot of people that we thought had abandoned us may simply not been allowed to rejoin when something accidently happened to their account. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.....perhaps Burmjohn got locked out of his own site. Hey! That's not funny.

I could see some kind of almost head-on shot with a broadhead doing that. It's hard to imagine barbed wire staying engaged with the deer's hide long enough to do that, but I suppose anything is possible. That's pretty weird that we have two pictures of deer with that same kind of wound, isn't it?

Interesting. Are we saying that the site is abandoned and will just keep afloat for as long as the provider doesn't need the use of the bandwidth? That sounds a little tenuous. Is there a way that the site can be taken over by someone else? It is kind of a weird situation, isn't it?

But the original topic question is "How do we reverse hunting's demise. There is another topic that deals with why hunting is slipping in popularity. This topic is about how do we fix it, or what may slow it down a bit. Nobody is saying that hunting will disappear tomorrow, but I don't know too many people who are thinking that the activity is as popular as it once was. So, if we recognize the problem, do we have any ideas as to how to solve or slow the problem down as much as possible? Or have we all just resigned ourselves to the fact that the sport that we all have attached ourselves to so rigidly will someday not exist as we have enjoyed it?

Aren't they remarkable animals? I have seen a couple of deer that have had legs shot off and still able to keep up with other deer that are running away. I shot one that was missing a front leg and it had skin grown over the wound and was one of the fattest deer I have ever shot. Just amazing. I am wondering if these kinds of long slices are from buck fights.

I didn't see that as a reason-for-hunting in the other topic on why we hunt. Is that what it is all about?......recognition? Do we need recognition for our hunting achievements? Maybe so. If that's the case nothing we can do in hunting will ever satisfy new hunters because the general public really doesn't give a damn how big the deer are that we get. Quite the opposite. You are more likely to get spit on for killing Bambi.....lol.

I'm afraid that deer hunting has taken a turn toward measuring success by the numbers. This has been sold so hard that I doubt that we will ever get back to a simpler measure of satisfaction. It is too bad, because I suspect that our losses due to elitism may be higher than we imagine.

I do have to say that some of the trail camera photos hear show that the cameras are not really a secret. The pictures of deer noses kind of show that. Also, I have seen some pictures that show the deer running away. In fact, those are the picture that prompted me to ask the question. I know that too much human pressure will change deer patterns. The question is, are these cameras just another form of "pressure"? In addition to the cameras, there are also the visits to monitor the cameras by the hunter. Especially when the cameras are inside of bedding areas. Too many visits to bedding areas, and pretty soon they no longer are bedding areas. I don't know the answer, but it seems to be a reasonable question.

One thing we need is for DEC personnel to interface more with schools and have a more visible public presence. Also, we need the DEC to understand that we have a problem and they are part of it. What I am talking about id the closing of the DEC national hunting and fishing day in region 8. That was the most popular interface with potential hunters that we ever had going and then they shut it off. I don't know what their problem was, but it certainly is something that should have been solved rather than just shutting it down. I place a lot of emphasis on the DEC becoming part of the solution because they are the ones that will someday be faced with the problem of no way of controlling future game populations as the hunters continue to phase out of the sport. Also, every fish and game club, archery club, and such need to take a more active part in recruitment and in the politics of hunting, fishing and trapping. I know that most of them do have some kind of recruitment activities, but they have to step up the efforts even more. They all have to push membership drives that focus on youth participation. Annual youth hunts (plural) must become part of their itinerary. These are the organizations that can have some impact on hunter recruitment. There needs to be more emphasis put on opening up private lands to hunting. That sounds good, and I have to admit that I haven't a clue how to attack that one. Perhaps habitat improvement on state lands. I often thought that it might be useful to renting out open fields to local farmers either for free or for a very small rent, so some of the land can be returned to agricultural uses (one of the best animal attractants going). Encourage selective logging on state lands to open up maturing state forests for better forage and undergrowth. Maybe offering tax breaks to those farmers who allow open public hunting might also provide some additional hunting areas. I don't know whether some of these ideas might be impossible to implement, but these ideas or some version of them could help acquaint the public with what hunting is and how it benefits wild critters and the environment in general. Hunting population importance has to become a prime focus of the DEC and outdoor activities clubs and organizations and the dangers of losing hunting as a resource has to be made clear to the public. Just a few thoughts on the subject.

How about it. Have any of you seen any evidence that the game cameras spook the very deer you're trying to hunt? Do they change the patterns of the more cautious deer?

Well, we have discussed why we think hunting is losing popularity. So I guess the next logical question has to be, "How do we reverse hunting's demise?"

No problem. That was an interesting direction for the thread to go.

What a fantastic mount.

I also agree with Grouse regarding the effects of the anti-hunting organizations. While we were laughing at their idiotic antics and ravings and never took them seriously. Their outlandish claims and tugging at people's heart-strings and their well-funded organizations were converting more and more people. Some of the converts were even hunters. I hate to admit it, but they are winning. We are getting beaten by a bunch of crazy wackos. It's probably way past time to admit that, but it is looking like fact. That along with so many cultural impacts is threatening the entire activity of hunting nation-wide.

I'll tell you another influence that kept my mind in these kinds of outdoor activities was other kids in school. It's hard to believe but back then there were a lot of kids that ran traplines and hunted and fished and all of that stuff. Is that how it is today? When I went to school, opening day of deer season was an unquestioned excused absence. Imagine that! Also another hard-to-believe fact is that I took my hunter safety course in the bus garage at school. Yes, we even had real guns there and did some shooting. Imagine that today.....A school resourced hunter safety class....lol......With guns! Yes, times were a whole lot different back then. they were a lot more hunter-friendly and made it a lot easier for a kid to become self-motivated to get into hunting.

By the way, who is the insurer so we don't do business with them?

Hang in there and good luck with your case, and the new bill. It sounds like you are doing all that you can.

I'm not much of a fan of civil wars. The outcomes are never guaranteed and the style of govt that results is always in question. We lucked out on our one and only civil war in terms of how the system of government basically was preserved. And that was because the feds won. Who knows what kind of government we would have wound up with if the south had won? Regarding the 10% of population being enough to win a civil war, I have to point out that warfare is a whole different animal since the revolutionary war. We are not dealing with muskets anymore. Can 10% of the population stand up against missiles and such? I don't think our deer rifles would get us through the first day of an uprising.....lol. Seriously though, there may come a time when there is no other choice, but let's not be in too much of a hurry to rush to that end. Sometimes such ambitions can wind up throwing out the baby with the bath-water.

Happy Birthday.

So much of this thing that we all do has to do with heritage and things that pop up in our own history. We all have hunting in our blood if we look back far enough...........All of us.

Is our society still capable of drawing lines and paying the ultimate price for their convictions? Hell, do we even have convictions anymore? Does anyone see people leaving their jobs and their livelihoods and their comfortable suburban homes to march off to war?

This sounds like one of the few bona fide reasons to contact a good lawyer. I assume that you have done that.

Those that want to test themselves a bit might consider building your own long bow, and arrows and knapped broadheads and then getting a deer with that kind of equipment. It is something I always wanted to do, but never got around to it. It is an interesting thought to do it the Indian way.

I agree with airedale, these kinds of argumentative threads should be taken off into private messaging, just to maintain a little peace in the forum. Let's not get sucked into another one of those thread-fights. The two of you can battle it out privately.

This is only one example of the cruelty of disease in the wild. I have seen rabid animals and those with distemper and others that I simply didn't have a clue as to what their problem was. It is not a very kind ending that all the critters face. I've witnessed the massive deer yards over in Honeoye where you could see deer that were just waiting to die from starvation, and the deer that were too weak to clear fences that were just hanging there until they died. It's pretty brutal stuff to see.