Doc

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.

Eventually, hunters can start passing on 3.5 and 4.5, and 5.5 year olds. WTH, let's take it all the way and convert deer hunting into deer watching ..... lol.

What's the matter poopsie, your medication running a bit short. Feeling an overwhelming, uncontrollable need for random flaming? Do you feel better now? Are you starting to feel a bit more calmed now? I have no idea what your problem is other than a defective personality, but if these mindless unprovoked attacks soothe your internal rage in some way, I am glad to be of assistance.....lol. Hope you have a better day.

To me that paint job was worth every cent you paid for it. That is what really makes that old classic grab your eye. What a great job you have done on that, and you are to be congratulated for all the skills that you developed.

Spring is my busiest time of the year. We have yard and grounds maintenance, garden and landscape additions and maintenance. We also are surrounded by the woods, so leaf removal is a major activity and picking up the unending supply of limbs and twigs is a constant job. And if I happen to have a spare minute or two, I do like to head down to the river and have a go at the bullheads. Also, as already mentioned by FastEddie, the bug situation with an activity that requires silence and immobility, makes it very difficult for me to enjoy it. In the fall, I am completely immersed in bowhunting. Nothing interferes with that.

Most of the balloons that I keep hauling out of the woods are those Mylar party balloons. So it is great that they are focusing on the mass releases of balloons, but I think the release of all balloons should banned along with the sale of them. It is the dumbest activity I ever heard of. That crap is non-biodegradable, and I have no idea how long they last in the environment, but they don't seem to ever break down.

What kind of tree is that? It looks like it could be an apple tree. They are keeping it trimmed pretty good ..... lol.

What is the best way to remove an imbedded tick? I figured I better ask before I actually get one. The way everyone is talking it sounds like just a matter of time.

But all that stuff cost a lot of money, and is still serviceable. Well, maybe with a little fixing it would be serviceable. And maybe I'll use it again someday. I have gone through all the excuses for accumulation and storage. I have 5 string trimmers. 3 functioning riding lawn mowers. How many of those things can 1 person use. 3 chain saws. multiple rakes and hoes and axes and every lawn and garden tool that was ever invented. I seem to have bought 3 or 4 of everything. Can't find it ..... go buy another one. I have compound bows that are so old no one would want them. I too intend to burden my kids with the disposal of all my "things". At that time they will be old enough to need the exercise and activity.....lol.

I like all these kinds of programs and try to catch them all. Yes, I understand that there I a strong likelihood that there is some contrived drama provided for interest. For example, more than once the trail that they drive their snowmobiles way out in the deserted wilds of Alaska sometimes looks like a snowmobile race had just taken place. And then there is always the broken down snowmobile and the long 10 mile walk back to the cabin in the dangerous cold...... Why not catch a ride with the cameraman .... lol. But the fact remains that these people all have a desire to be self reliant to one extent or another. And I admire people who want to live like that and then actually go out and do it.

I remember once when I apparently had a single goldenrod stalk on a windy day that kept triggering the camera. I had a jillion pictures of nothing but that goldenrod. And that was just within a couple of days. I wonder how many pics I would have had if I hadn't checked the camera for 2 months......lol. Maybe that's where your 7000 pictures came from.

I agree with this statement, but how the heck that relates to a term like "self selecting group" still eludes me, but if that statement is somehow what you really meant to say when you started using the "self-selecting group" jargon, that's fine with me. I just needed some clarification as to what the hell you were talking about.

I'm sure there are all kinds of people that will make regulations as complex as possible and be real happy with that thinking they have set up the "perfect" set of rules. I personally tend to think the other way around. The K.I.S.S. principle is a good thing to aim for when constructing laws for environmental conservation law (or any other kind of law for that matter). It is interesting that co-ops and landowner biases can involve such unfriendly disagreements and harsh results, but I don't see any of that negativity being of value to the perpetuation and health of hunting. I suppose it is just two different ways of looking at how hunting should be for the participants. Some like to see it regulated right to death with no care as to how practical it is to abide by whatever law is set up. I prefer to keep it all simple and easy to accommodate without setting land-mines when it comes to practical legal application.

Would anyone care to actually define what is meant by "self selecting group". I am completely confused about what could possibly be meant by that term. It doesn't even make any sense to me.

Yes, there is a lot of combat that goes on here on occasion. Some of it has to do with the passion invested in matters that have to do with hunting and fishing and other outdoor pursuits. I have been a member of a lot of different forums, and find this one no better or worse than the others. I personally refuse to let others ruin a great tool of communication for me, and you shouldn't either. I have no idea what incident or incidents that make you feel that you have to leave, but just remember that for every bad apple that you run across, there are so many more members who are decent and interested in your views and conversation. It seldom makes any sense to be throwing out the baby with the bath water and quitting a great assembly of good fellow hunters and fishermen just because one of the bad ones occasionally shows up. Another thing that has to be recognized is that the internet can be a tough medium for accuracy of expression. Sometimes without the means of expressing tone and intent, things get mixed up and misrepresented, and sound offensive when there is no such intent. At any rate, we all have to make membership decisions on our own, and if it is no longer fun to be here, then we all have to do what we all have to do. I think you will be missed by a whole lot more people than the one or two people that you are having trouble with, and you will leave behind many great potential friends in your absence.

I can see some of the more exotic methods of AR being used on co-ops or as arbitrary rules on private hunting lands. No one is risking fines or public embarrassment when mistakes are made. That's not quite the same as putting such stuff in the state law books. Another thing that I don't like about spread-type AR is the requirement that you must get a look at the deer in a face on situation in order to even see the distance between antlers. My set-ups, or what I generally try to have for a set-up is a stand that is perpendicular to deer trails or the path that I am guessing the deer will take. That gets me the high-percentage broadside shot that I prefer (especially for bow hunting). I have no interest in drawing the deer's attention to myself by using noises or whatever to get him to turn his head toward me so I can determine if it is legal. Another problem is the assumptions borne of frustration at not seeing the deer's spread that some hunters will make that a tall rack is always a wide rack. The internal conversation goes kind of like this: "With tines that big, he has to be a legal spread". Well unfortunately there is no such correlation, and once again there is another opportunity for an unintended violation. And finally, no law should be written hoping that ECOs will "use discretion".

I still have a problem imagining hunters running through the woods with their tape measures trying to catch up with a buck to measure its antlers.....lol. Seriously, the more complex you make the legal harvest system, the more dead and rotting deer there will be left in the woods when hunters find out that antlers suffer that "ground-shrink" because they are not as good at "estimating" antler numbers on the hoof as they thought they were. We already have problems with hunters seeing 3" antlers where there are none.

That is true. Things would be much easier to keep track of with a lot better transparency.

I did, although it is not the first time that I had thought about mistaken perceptions in the woods. That is one of the reasons why I do not support extending shooting hours beyond the current limits. I have seen cloudy, foggy, drizzly days in a dark woods with a dense over-story that had me guessing at a few things that I thought I was seeing. This photo and some others that I have seen over the years of trail-cams point out how things can look like several different things to several different people. It has been a great Rorschach type test that shows that there are occasions and conditions where what we think we see is absolutely wrong.