Doc

It would be interesting to see how all that money is apportioned across the wide responsibilities of the DEC. I know when we think of the DEC, we picture all kinds of fish and wildlife management. However, monitoring pollution and all the other environmental policing, investigations and records keeping are likely no small percentage of all that income.

Well, it's official. The DEC and certain deer processors are telling us that all this "bad season" talk is ridiculous. The deer take is down only slightly as was predicted by the "wonder-stats" of the DEC. If we think we heard fewer shots, it is obviously a product of aging and worn-out ear-drums. If we thought we saw fewer deer, it is simply because of the failing eyesight of the aging hunter population. Even though we are all getting more experienced each year and using superior equipment every year, somehow our hunter prowess is deteriorating ..... apparently. Perhaps the processors that are claiming this to be an average to better year for them, may be some creative cherry-picking, I don't know. But according to the article in the NY Outdoor News, we don't have to worry about the reasons for fewer deer because there is no such shortage. Need further proof? Well consider that bowhunters and muzzleloaders were punished this year in some key areas for passing on does and only harvesting bucks. Obviously the DEC wouldn't do that if it wasn't true ..... right?

Yup! You would think!

Quite an interesting thread. Basically, it all says what I often have thought. Don't be picking out a spot on the wall when your trail-cam snaps pictures of monster deer. It sounds to me that whenever a deer feels like taking a hike (especially during rut) even if you've raised an award winning food plot, he's history. You need to be hoping for some other random traveling buck from somewhere else to happen to accidently stumble along in front of your bow or rifle on one of his random hikes. Once again hunting seems to be simply an accidental condition of luck to a large extent.... right?

I wonder .... Does that work on squirrels too?

Nobody ever said that those who break laws are brilliant people.

The rifle law has been in effect for three years now in our county. I was noticing that so far this year I have not heard even one of those rapid-fire 5-shot rapid fire strings of shots, that was always heard before. I think all these new deer rifles are being topped with scopes with a lot of carefully executed first shots being used. When people were saying that rifles would improve safety, I was very skeptical. But I am starting to become a believer.

Yeah, pretty soon I will be heading down to the basement and pulling a sheet off our decorated 4' artificial and carrying it upstairs to set it up on a card table and plug it in. That's all there is to it. It has been the same tradition for about a decade. I have tried a few different ways to wrestle with the Christmas tree fiasco. First we ran around the hill getting something that didn't look too scrubby. Then eventually we bought one of those chopped trees that start showing up some time in October or November (No telling exactly when it was actually cut.) Yeah the attempt to police up all the needles got old pretty quick. Ever notice how those little suckers get knitted into some kinds of carpets? And then I saw some of the artificials that you have to stare at up close for a while to tell that they are not real. That did it. I bought one that I can hold in one hand and that was it. Yeah, it is starting to look a bit beat up now, and should be replaced soon.

We have seen amazing improvements in hunting accident rates in recent years. We have credited the hunter safety programs finally kicking in, but I am really wondering if perhaps there just aren't as many hunters, and the actual discharges of weapons has significantly reduced all the crazy accident rates of the past.

I have a small first-aid kit that goes into my pack. A cigarette lighter is always in my front pocket even though I haven't smoked for years. My cell phone is also a permanent part of me. It is never turned on but is always there for emergency use (wife insists on that).

Unfortunately, I am a ground-stander (its a heights thing) hiding behind a stand, tree, blowdown, or whatever. And while I am completely hidden, that big white plume of breath comes out from behind whatever screen I have like someone waving a big white flag. That's a pretty good analogy .... lol. On those rare frosty mornings when that sort of thing is going on, I guess I might as well be waving a big white flag of surrender. Even being completely screened I have been picked off because of this. However, I will say that it is an extremely rare event, and maybe can simply be called just one of those unavoidable circumstances that make hunting ... hunting. It's just tat the original question did catch my attention because I have experienced that same thing as the OP.

I remember one season when exactly one day after the close of the gun season, 5 deer stepped out on my front lawn and began feeding in mid afternoon. I'll let you all in on a little known secret. There have been secret copies of the game syllabus and a calendar that have been stolen and distributed throughout the deer population.

I was curious to know if anyone has figured out a way to disperse it enough so it wouldn't be quite so dense and noticeable. For example, pulling the collar of your jacket up high enough so you are breathing inside of your coat. I'm not sure how practical that is or if it would even work, but maybe some tactic like that to dissipate that huge dense moving cloud of bright white when a deer is standing just a few yards away.

Well to be honest, my switchover to country was so abrupt and complete that there is a lot of that stuff that I have never heard. That whole era was also the beginning of Country Rock, and that stuff sounded a whole lot like the original rock and roll that I grew up with. And so the screechy guitars of rock and roll went off my radio, and the country rock was all I was listening to for a few decades. I'm slowly getting back into some of the more mainstream rock just now.

How did you get the brains out?

So what is the safety record looking like so far? I have not heard of any gun fatalities or injuries so far this season. Are we in for a record year in terms of safe gun handling and hunting use? I know its early yet, but usually by this time of the season there are one or two newspaper headlines of hunters being shot.

I have seen it too. And sometimes it can be very noticeable and impossible to hide. The sun makes it even more bright and noticeable. I creates movement even when you are standing completely still. The good news is that the conditions often are not suitable for this dead give-away. But when they are, it can be like waving your arms ..... lol. I have no idea how to counter this.

Yes, I think every emergency rescue agency has a ton of tales about rescue activities that involved that attitude..... lol.

The property wouldn't happen to belong to a farmer with crop damage would it? He may be running his own version of deer damage control....lol.

Lol .... I have to be honest. It was that kind of music that drove me from rock to country. I never realized just how much aggravating squealy noise that some could make with a guitar. Not really a fan of Ted Nugent noise either ..... lol.

Getting lost?? Think it's impossible??? Think again. I got myself twisted round on my hill in a very dense fog where I couldn't see far enough to recognize even very familiar landscape features. It turned out I was heading down the wrong valley. I didn't realize it until I got below the fog-bank and began to see things that I could then recognize as not the way I really intended to go. That was a hunt in an area that I have lived at since I was 11 years old. Also short-term survival gear is a good thing to have with you just in case you become incapacitated in some unexpected way. It's not always about getting lost.

That's an odd looking wound. It looks a bit big and lethal for a gun wound. I'm thinking car or coyote, although coyotes usually go for the rear. Anyway, it's a very nasty thing and the deer must have been a bit of pain and agony. So what ever caused it, it is good that she doesn't have to live with it anymore.

Ha-ha-ha .... And already it starts. Every year when the deer take slips there is this immediate rush to assign a cause. Some of them really get reaching ridiculously far. Yes the weather has been warmer statistically than usual. I guess I have heard that on days when normal temperatures are 40, we are seeing 50 degrees. Seriously? Does 10 degrees shut down all deer movement? I doubt it. I think I would be looking more closely at hunter numbers and actual hours logged afield by what hunters we have left. I think the jury is still out regarding how big a toll the ugly winter of last year took. That may have some impact on harvest numbers. I'm thinking that here may be an accumulation of a whole bunch of factors involved. But maybe we should be waiting until the"calculated" harvest numbers are in before we try to figure out what went right or wrong....lol. I'm sure that the picture will change somewhat by the time the DEC get finished with statistically massaging the numbers.

And he always dreamt of becoming a moose some day. Now it will never happen.

Check out the NYS number from 1958 vs, 1959. I believe there is some kind of mistake there or the numbers were arrived at with some factor that is not present in any of the other years. NYS: 1958 ----998,448 1959-----700,010 Almost a 300,000 difference in one year. Is that even possible? That huge difference is way out of scale with the rest of the chart. There are other anomalies that look a bit unusual but nothing as gross as that difference between the two years. It would be interesting to see what was going on during some of these licensing years where there were big gains or big losses. Perhaps there is something to be learned there. I did a spread sheet that showed the variations from one year to the next. Unfortunately the columns and rows lose their format and are unreadable in this messaging system.