Doc

Or, all of the above. I think also that there is a condition where hunting habits have changed so that it may appear that public land is underutilized. What I mean by that is that 30 or 40 years ago, the space age fabrics were not invented yet, and hunters usually were forced in moving quite early in the day just to keep warm. Now guys hunker into their treestands or at the base of a tree and sit like a lump all day. So you get the initial action in the first hour or so and then it all goes quiet, making it sound like everything is deserted.

Aw cripes Eddie, isn't old age wonderful? Look at all the wonderful new experiences you get to have. I think the urologists are the masters of pain. It hurts just thinking of my last activities with those people. I hope things get back to normal for you real quick. And whatever makes those damned stones develop ...... STOP DOING THAT!

Getting a bit far afield from the original topic, But I think this comment deserves a brief reply. I think those that have complained about the silence on state land, are speaking in a comparative sense. I am one of those that has commented on how quiet our parcel of public land was in recent years. And I am using an observation base of 56+ years on that same parcel of land when making that statement. If people feel there are still too many hunters on those lands, they really would have been unhappy 40 or 50 years ago ..... lol. However, that observation does not diminish the importance of that land to hunting in general. Over those 56 years of hunting, I have also watched thousands of acres locally that have been locked up and posted, and I assume that is happening state wide. In many cases, public lands are all that are left to many.

You feeling a bit up-tight and out of sorts today? Maybe there's something you should take for that.....lol.

Retrieval rights should be no problem. The resident either gives permission, or lives with the stink of the rotting carcass....... his choice.

Actually it has been done ( http://www.history.com/shows/chasing-tail/about ), and is still being done in a big time way ( http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/urban-archery/ ) and is a very common practice. urban and suburban "hunting" (if you want to call it that) is a widely accepted practice. I have a different view on it all including whether it should be done at all, but there are many areas of the country that disagrees with me on that.

Yes as you can see there are all kinds of aluminums stirred in there. Unless an arrow was bent beyond straightening, or broken, I saved every arrow I ever bought. And a lot of those are still serviceable and killing deer yet. I am not cheap ..... honest I'm not .... lol. ..... Well maybe a little. Actually I prefer the term "frugal". It sounds better. Or another way of looking at it is, "If it's not broken, don't fix it.

The following quote is probably words to live by: "My father taught me many things here — he taught me in this room. He taught me — keep your friends close but your enemies closer." That is probably a good reason to tune into Cuomo's State of the State address. He does bear close watching. Also with any luck this "I love Cuomo fest" may result in the creep throwing his shoulder out of joint as he attempts to pat himself on the back. But I have to say that my stomach will not tolerate that much exposure to this giant sack of ...... I will not be going out of my way to abuse myself with watching or listening to his disgusting attempts at justifying his existence.

No! Don't do it. It needs the big screen experience if any movie ever did.

No, it really is not right for me to have even tried to answer this question since my motives, challenges, and expectations for hunting are way beyond antlers. Yes, the fact is that I am content with just about any deer. I like challenges in my hunting, but I am not really into the "my rack is bigger than your rack" game. For me it is more about the quality of the hunt and the overall experience than he quality of the deer. The two deer that gave me the biggest thrills and sense of accomplishment was my 1st bow killed deer, a mere buck with 6" spikes. And my second most impressive and fulfilling hunt resulted in a doe that I took at 8 feet with a recurve. The rack had nothing to do with either of those. So, I guess I measure success a bit differently than most, and way differently than the premise of the question. I like big antlers, but they really have nothing to do with why I hunt. And so I am disqualified from answering the question with the criteria specified.

From Canandaigua south, it's pretty darn hard to tell how much snow we've really gotten since that howling wind has not stopped blowing since it started to snow days ago. But right now we have and inch or two on the ground. How much that wind has blown off or evaporated is anybody's guess. Yesterday was kind of weird. I tried to go to Eastview Mall, and as I kept getting closer to Victor (going north) I was watching the sky in that direction that looked very black and ugly. Just as I turned onto 96 at main street Victor in the center of town and looked about 100 yards ahead west) and saw a literal wall of snow coming down. No gradual build-up of snowflakes but just a solid wall of snow with zero visibility into it. Actually it was damn scary and something that I have never seen before. I swung into the Corvette dealer and headed back, racing this weird storm. That wide open stretch between Victor and Holcomb had that wall of snow parallel all the way down to a couple of miles north of 5&20. That is when this thing caught up to us and was trying to cut us off from going farther south. I looked west into a big field, and couldn't believe my eyes. This storm was coming across the field, and it looked like a huge monster sand storm, flowing across this field. An absolute curtain of snow, tumbling across the field with huge cloud-like formations of blowing snow that looked to be 80 or 100' high. I was considering looking for a place to outlast this thing. All of a sudden, I was swallowed up into the middle of this, and visibility instantly went to zero. That is not an exaggeration. I got over to the side of the road, and sat there for a few minutes until it thinned out enough to see maybe 15 - 20 yards ahead. Realizing that even though I was off the road (I think), I was still in danger from other cars coming up behind me. So I started off again at a snail's pace. The wind was blowing so hard that it kept the road blown off a bit, and the blacktop was showing through reasonably well. At least good enough to stay on the road. About 8 miles of this crap, and it started to slow up pretty darn good. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.

I've got to be honest about all of this. You couldn't pay me to hunt in the urban/suburban areas. I just wouldn't do it. I watched that program a few years back called "Chasing Tail" or something like that. I have no interest in participating in that kind of fiasco. What kind of camo do you use? ...... Something with a rhododendron pattern. Do you use an old rusty Volkswagen bus for a blind? Do you wave at your neighbor when he comes out in his pajamas in the morning to get his paper? And when you shoot a deer and it runs over into the neighbor-kid's sandbox to die, do you have to wear some protective gear to shield against the screaming and crying kids that are throwing stones at you as you drag the bloody carcass away? That's hunting? Let the damn sharpshooters do it, I don't want anything to do with it. Besides, these residents who hate our guts and don't want us there need to live with the problems of car collisions, landscape damage, and Lyme ticks and such. My attitude is let the situation rot and fester until they are begging us to come in and fix their problem. All of a sudden, hunters will become their best friends.

Ha-ha .... Don't ask me. I'm still shooting XX-75 autumn orange aluminum arrows, and Game-getter aluminums....lol.

Someday I would really like to read the story behind that bear attack scene. That was very realistic and looks like it must have been pretty darn difficult to come up with. I'm not even sure that the bear wasn't some kind of computer composite creation.

There are plenty of reasons to hunt besides antlers, but I do remember a co-worker who on his first deer hunt downed a monster buck within sight of the truck. He never went hunting again. So, I suppose it is possible to get turned off when you believe you have already gone as far as you believe possible.

I am no big gun expert or anything, but that sounds like something that might need further investigation .... Maybe a second opinion or something. You never know when even the Remingtons might start acting up too, and probably at some crucial time when a second shot is necessary. However, I am not surprised about the Winchester's jamming. They are putting out some real crap these days. These pics were as found right out of the box.

It's a must-see flick. I won't say anymore about it than that since there are people here that haven't seen it yet.

Well, I guess I have to work on a spray schedule and get a sprayer that will handle 20'+ trees. These are all standard trees, so there is no reaching the top right now with what I've got. It is one very ugly problem. It's not any kind of big orchard, just three apple trees and a couple of pear trees that apparently are susceptible (but too young to bear yet). I'm getting a lot of apples, but not a one that is fit to eat. I know I am early yet, but I want to develop a plan over the winter so I am ready to go in the spring.

Of course it's illegal, and that makes my point exactly. An underpowered weapon is inappropriate regardless of whether it's a gun or a bow. And my point is also made that I am not concerned any differently about ill-equipped bowhunters than ill-equipped gunners. But the discussion here is in fact about the .223 as a deer hunting weapon, is it not? As I said before, I would never go bow hunting with flu-flu fletched arrows and field tips, and the same reasoning makes me understand that there really is no reason to be deer hunting with an ill-advised caliber rifle. I think the flu-flu/field tip analogy should make it plain why I don't use those in my deer hunting, and why I don't use a .223 for deer hunting.

I have a serious scab problem in my apple trees. I am looking for a treatment program that has a high probability of working. Anyone got any experience and cures for this disease?

Lol ...... Killed, cleaned, and cooked all with just one squeeze of the trigger. Just kidding. I don't know anything about a 300 Win Mag. Never shot one and probably never will. But from what I have read, they do have a rep for being a bit on the "mean" side.

And people ask why some hunters keep journals....lol. That was some fascinating reading.

Deer are having a great year so far. These are in good rig, and some normally ugly winter weather has been stalled off and is behind them. It all means more preserved winter fat to help them out later. Life is good!

And yet, this was the year that the DEC thought it was absolutely a panic situation of overpopulation that required an emergency style ramrodding through of the antlerless-only two weeks of bow season. Is it ventriloquism that they use to speak out of both sides of their mouth at the same time that way?

How about a school that applies at least a minimum amount of common sense and reacts accordingly. I mean really ..... That was not an over-reaction, but a stupid reaction based on nothing.