Doc

John- I suspected that there was a message here that you really wanted to express clearly, and that is why I commented the way that I did. I understood enough to know that the topic was an important one and really wanted you to clarify it so it would get the proper response and attention. I am sorry to hear about your accident, and I know that this topic is important to you (and me), and I am glad that you took the time to re-submit the post. Like I said, I do not want to be looked at as the grammar and spelling police, but I do want everyone to recognize the importance of your message.

It kind of tells you a lot when the Democrat nominations have Hillary and a socialist as the front-runners. I'm not super excited about the Republican roster of candidates, but for crying out loud ..... Hillary?? .... Bernie?? The U.S. road map is pretty clear these days. We've dropped the façade now. We are being forced into choices between crooks and commies. No offense people but I am damned glad that I have no affiliations with the Democrat party.

"I'll give you my wood stove when you pry it from my cold dead hands"

Honestly, I really don't have any idea of what kinds of activism those guys get involved with. For all I know they may each be high ranking officials in some militia group ..... lol. No seriously, I have my own beliefs as to how much time and money I should devote to activism. And everybody has to establish those numbers for themselves. I do what I can, and others do what they can, I assume. But this sampling of hunter's opinions on a handful of issues really is not all that time consuming. It's a small enough thing to do on something that I feel very strong about. And I do hope that others will offer their opinions to the DEC. They can do what they want with the input, but at least they can't say I didn't tell them what I was thinking.

Back when I was trapping, I sold hides stretched fleshed and dried. Only hide that I ever tanned was my first fox that I trapped. It became a wall hanging in my room. I'm not sure fur buyers would take a tanned hide would they? That's usually a job for professional factories to handle.

72 years old. Deer hunting since 16 ..... 56 years. Was squirrel hunting since 12 ..... 60 years. Was hunting pigeons up in the barn with my homemade longbow at about 10 years old (and I got some too and ate them ....lol)...... 62 years.

I just had to go out yesterday. Sun shining, 45 degrees, no wind, and this guy is still trying to get control of left over holiday weight. So up the hill I went. I didn't see one squirrel .... lol. But what a great day to be outdoors, just lovin' life!

Do coyote numbers and locations fluctuate with deer numbers and locations? I realize that the coyote diet consists of way more than just venison, but with all the talk about deer numbers slumping badly in certain areas, I was just curious if coyotes are capable and even likely to change home range to areas where deer numbers are higher. Can they even uproot themselves from their home area easily and follow the food when it gets scarce or are they slaves to their home territory? Anybody know?

Whenever these discussions come up, I have to admit that most of what my opinions are made from the experiences of others. Actually there are damn few of us that has actual hands-on experience with shooting each different caliber and load into actual deer in actual hunting conditions and then doing it repeatedly so that valid data can be collected. However, we all do read and converse with others, and eventually arrive at some kind of fairly firm opinion. Stir in a little logic and common sense, and your individual opinion will probably not let you get too far off-track. I like to throw in some kind of factor of safety into my selections for the times when things don't always go per plan. These are living, breathing creatures that we are hunting, so they probably deserve a little of that extra consideration rather than trying to always be right on the edge.

I still have a few to go through before I get into any other kinds of arrows. I still abide by the old saying, "if it's not broken, don't change it". I found out that aluminum arrows do kill deer, and probably just as dead as any other kind of shaft. Actually I adopted a new attitude toward trying to keep up with all the latest technology. I chased technology for years and have walls full of bows and drawers full of gadgets, trinkets, and go-fasters, to show for it .... lol. But I reached a point where enough was enough. So now I will use my aluminums until I deplete my stock. And my guess is that that will never happen in my lifetime.

But we still have to try. I can't in all good conscience whine about issues here on a forum and then not even participate in the when asked to offer up a simple opinion when they have solicited it. Somehow that doesn't sit too well with me. I can't really make a judgment on whether any of it will be paid attention to or not. But I sure do know that my opinion will definitely be disregarded if I don't offer it.

When I was a kid, we used to have family get-togethers very frequently through the summer. And I am not talking about just the immediate family. The yard was filled with cars and the house (a rather large farmhouse) was filled with people. Kids running everywhere. All these conversations and laughter filling every room. Then as years passed, these gatherings occurred only at major holidays. And today, my wife and I are lucky if we can corral our own kids and their families for major holiday dinners. It seems to be just a sign of the times. Families are scattered all over the globe, and many people have retreated into their own lives with only electronic implements to interface with others. Yes like the Sunday dinners after church, a lot has been lost as everyone goes deeper into their own individual worlds. Just another set of lifestyles, attitudes, and circumstances of the ever-evolving world.

Mine went out this morning.

Words to live by: "If it tastes good, spit it out."

I have a Primos trigger stick that I rigged up with a sling for carrying. It keeps the weight off the gun, and is great for still hunting. Yes, it does take time to unsling, set-up and use, but I try to avoid any hurried shots anyway. And of course, if you are hunting primarily from natural ground blinds you can leave it set up while you are on watch. Most of my ground blinds have gun rests built into whatever cover Material that the blind is made of. See below:

It can be a real cardiac test.

That is what makes it necessary that the opposition to phase three be included in the comments sent to the DEC. It may or may not do any good, but if you are opposed to any type of firearm being added into the bow season, here is another bite at the apple, and another chance to go on record as being against that growing mentality in the DEC ranks. Chances are pretty good that bowhunters did not do a very good job at registering their opposition to this phase of the deer management plan when that comment period was open before. Let's not make that same mistake again.

Was that the county of Ontario, the Township of Ontario, or the Province of Ontario? ...... lol. In the Province of Ontario, snares may be legal for rabbits when in season.

I have some personal preferences in the one knife that I carry. I don't want anything that cannot tolerate a lot of abuse. I don't want one that folds. And I don't want one that is light. If I want to cut a 1-1/2 inch sapling for a walking stick, I don't want to be limited by the size of my knife. If I want to remove a husky limb that is in my shooting lane, I don't want to be under-knifed. If I ever have to use it in a survival or defensive mode, I want it to be robust enough to handle those tasks. Yeah, I have a small jack-knife that is always in my pocket right along with the nail-clippers and coins. But that is not a "hunting knife".

I am convinced that they write laws without ever researching similar laws. Two similar laws written at different times by different people and perhaps even by different legislatures. One hand never knows what the other is doing.

Amazing talent you have there. Seems to me that you could make quite a few dollar with that as a sideline. You could pretty-much ask whatever you wanted for work of that quality.

It would be interesting if Bubba could dip into his Justice of the Peace experience and shed some light on how fines are arrived at. I have no idea, but it may even be completely arbitrary and maybe even without any guidelines. How about it Bubba? Anything to offer on what criteria sets the fine levels and why there would be such humongous disparity from one violator to the next or one township to another?

I know we are all looking for some logical reason for the low take and low sightings this year. I also know that temperature sounds like a reasonable reason. And in some cases where the temp spikes way up ( 80's, 90's), there may be reason to expect the deer to delay their movements until after dark (although I have seen plenty of exceptions to that too). But, when you actually look at the number of degrees that temps were above normal, it really is difficult to believe that a couple of degrees would make all the difference that people are hoping to be able to blame their lack of success on. And for most of the days, that's all it really was ..... a couple of degrees. There are so many different reasons for deer patterns to shift or change that insignificant slight elevations in temperature would not be the one I would blame it on. The one significant factor that I would suspect is kind of related to temperature in a way. That one is the lack of snow. It is so easy to walk right on by a bedded deer when they are not highlighted with that white background. And I know that after the first shots of the gun season, sitting tight in heavy cover is a favorite ploy of these critters .....and it works too as long as they are not silhouetted by the contrast of snow.

Aha.... that makes sense.

Bucks of that caliber are basically wimps and don't like to wander around in the daylight. So the only hope is that he has a little mental lapse during rut and makes a mistake. It does happen. Maybe that big guy will get old and senile and stumble out in front of you ..... lol. Like they say on the NYS lottery commercial, "Hey, you never know". Anyway, next year is a different season with different weather and different pressures on patterns. Maybe next year is the big year to take the big deer. Ha-ha-ha.....Isn't that something. The deer that we prize the most is a wimpy, chicken-hearted, Lilly-livered, coward, cringing and cowering in the weeds until it is dark out....lol.