Doc

No, they don't want to, but didn't they back off on the cost of license fees increases just recently? You know, some times you gotta do what you gotta do. Especially if what you did in the past was stupid. It has to be undone. And even the DEC is capable of understanding that ..... sometimes.

Yes, I can see the logic in having some controls on weapons. I don't really want people to have grenade launchers at their disposal. I guess I am against personal suitcase nukes, and bazookas probably would not be a real good thing to have easily obtainable. Fully automatic weapons have been illegal without special permits for decades and probably rightfully so. So yes, the discussion has to take place about where that line needs to be drawn? Is it anything that can take a life that needs to be banned? Do we use criteria that involves perception or appearance as the place to draw the line? Tell me the functional difference between any currently legal semi-auto hunting/target rifle and an AR-15 that does not involve arbitrary perception or visual bias. So are we ready to make all semi auto weapons illegal? How about pump actions next? Lever actions? Where do you draw the line? Because the argument against AR style rifles while ignoring any semi-auto hunting rifle just doesn't make sense or certainly is not consistent. You can call these AR style rifles anything you want .... weapons of war, assault rifles, black rifles, but none of that makes them anymore of a weapon of murder than your dad's old semi-auto hunting rifle. Those are emotional descriptions that reflect how you feel about cosmetic design. Is that where we draw the line on constitutional issues, cosmetics and perceptions? Not in my mind.

I'm still confused as to why they started charging for antlerless permits in the first place. You have a process that needs hunter cooperation as a major, crucial, part of the management process, and you add in a new fee, coincidentally at a time when control of herds is starting to slip out of their hands. Now really, does that sound like a decision made by competent game managers? I don't want a refund in certain WMUs. Get rid of this stupid dis-incentive completely, statewide. It was a dumb counter-productive idea to start with. Undo it!

As I recall, there was a fee back in the olden days for the party permits, and that did get dropped with no particular problem when they went to individual antlerless deer permits. But it sure is ridiculous to add on a fee and then out the other side of their mouths they start whining about not being able to get hunters to take them. As I said, the government has learned that if they want to stop or discourage an activity, just tax it. That's fine but don't turn around and cry about how they can't get hunters to shoot does. By the way, issuing the tags up front (oct 1st) is a good idea as well. See, they really haven't put a whole lot of thought into solutions for what they are calling a problem. Instead, they continue to come up with bogus schemes for cramming firearms into bow seasons. That's their real motive. I am sure that if they wanted to, they could figure out ways to darn-near eliminate almost all the deer if they had to without resorting to goofy doe only harvests in bow season and other hair-brained schemes.

Actually, there is no reason to be charging hunters for something you need them to do. It just doesn't make sense. If you want to discourage a behavior, tax it. That's kind of a time tested government tactic. Why they want to apply that tactic to taking does, is a mystery to me.

Sure, make tags easy to get, as many as you want, and none of this charging for them if they are really serious about having a problem. There is a serious credibility problem when they continue to throw up road blocks to getting permits. The fact is if they have some serious areas that are a real problem, make the permits something you can copy off the internet. That is something that might even get some of the landowners who have their property locked up starting to get with the doe harvesting solution. That would not necessarily be the total solution, but it would be a couple of steps in the right direction. And for cripes sake, make it good for gun season where results can actually be expected. This playing around with bow season only is just a goofy half-hearted lip service (window dressing) to the problem. Is there a problem or not? Are they really looking for a solution or not? If so, act like it. Look, when farmers have a problem with deer numbers, they don't play games with bow season. They accept the problem and they aggressively go at it with firearm nuisance permits. I assume they get results too. They don't say, "This is a problem that only bowhunters must solve." They go after it in a credible way (whether we like it or not) and reduce problem populations as though they really have serious intentions of doing so.

Yup. Comes up fine. One of those pics looks real familiar. The one that has the buck working an overhead limb along-side what looks like an old roadway (date=11/7/14). was that ever posted here before? The only thing is that the picture that I think I have seen here before didn't have the deer there. At least that's how I seem to remember it.

Years ago, I had a bear Whitetail Hunter where the string broke. That's when I realized that the string tension was all that held the limbs in. I still remember that loud whirring sound as the top limb went by my ear.

If there are WMUs that have deer crawling all over each other, just drop the requirement for doe tags. I mean, what's with all these bogus plans and schemes. Just declare open season on does. No bag limit. You'll see the herd reduced in a hurry, and then everybody will be happy.

Has anybody heard how it happened that 7 people went over a falls at the same time? I'm trying to picture how that could happen.

I used to be pretty darn good at swatting those deer flies. I don't miss very often.

Now that's a mouthful! And he doesn't seem to be making any real headway in getting it down. Is that a case of his eyes being bigger than his belly? ..... lol.

Back in the mid 80s, I went bow hunting with a couple of buddies down in PA. The area that we hunted bordered up to a corn field. There was a couple of bear trails into that field that was as defined as any deer trail that I have ever seen. The corner of the corn field looked like somebody was testing out a roller there (about a quarter of an acre, flattened). All the corn was laid down flat with bear scat everywhere. I always figured that if a guy could find that sort of set-up during bear season, that would be as good a situation as you could ever find. There were obviously several area bears working that field, and spending a whole lot of time there. Seemed to be as good as baiting.

I don't doubt that the procedure itself is rather quick to do, but how long does it take to get their hands on them to perform the procedure? Perhaps they have become completely domesticated so the can simply walk up to them and put them to sleep with an injection while they perform the surgery. But it seems to me that the surgical procedure would be the quick part, and getting the deer's cooperation while they do it would be an entirely different matter. It would be interesting to watch how it is done.....lol.

Let's try this theory: The old doe has had her fawns in tow for a year. These fawns have had ma make every decision for them. Now it is time for ma to pop out a new fawn or two, and she doesn't do that in a crowd, so she ditches the fawns for the first time in their lives. Now its time for them to make all those decisions that the more experienced doe was making for them. One bad decision regarding road crossings frequently is their last. The learning curve gets real steep, or it gets very short. I don't think it is any coincidence that this spike in the roadkill comes at the same time as fawning season.

Now, there is a useful survey. But I do wonder if it is getting to all hunters. We are aware of it's existence because it happened to get posted here on this forum (which represents a tiny minority of hunters).

I saw the light back in 2003, and as much as I imagined that life would become very sedate and calm, with all the time in the world now available to me, what I found out was that I am now busier than anytime involving my career (even with massive hours of overtime). I have seen people who were ill-prepared for retirement, and felt lost by what they perceive as "lost purpose". There is as much preparation along the mental sides of retirement as there is for the financial side. Often we spend so much of our lives and involvement at work that we don't know how to handle freedom. It took a while for me to "re-make" myself, but when I actually did it, I learned that there really is life outside the corporations; Life that is customized to serving myself rather than corporate demands. And believe it or not, there really is more fulfilling activities than just pleasing a boss.

I think that you will find that people of that area have resigned themselves to commuting longer distances than many will accept. Rental housing situations across that entire area are far different than in metropolitan and suburban areas of higher population density. And so rental searches usually have to take in a lot larger area than just one small village.

Anybody noticing what looks like a significant spike in dead deer along the highway? I have also noticed deer wandering around all over at mid-day.

EAB is still a very popular proposal that always seems to come up when talking about harvesting more does. So regardless of the problems with this thread, EAB is still a viable topic of conversation and debate. It doesn't matter how the subject came up, it is a very interesting topic, and it is good to have a periodic re-hash to refresh the pros and cons.

Here is a serious question: What keeps a hunter from submitting a bogus doe harvest report and then going on with his buck hunting? It seems to me that some kind of check station system would also have to be created, funded, and staffed in order for EAB to work. But I never hear anything about that part of the plan. Is it assumed that check stations automatically come with EAB proposals?

This looks like a proper time for me to simply sit silent and let the idiot continue to embarrass himself. And he is doing a fine job.

Ice cold bottle of caffeine-free diet coke would be appreciated.

Zero-turn mowers ...... the lawn mowers that turned drudgery into a "carnival ride". The darn things are actually fun.

So now you've got a project for the next 5 years. Paint her up and finish it off.....lol.