Doc

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.

Apparently the DEC sees bowhunting as the only viable solution to managing the doe part of the harvest. As ridiculous as this may sound to anyone who takes more than a half-minute to actually reason it all out, somehow the DEC seems to be a little confused on the shortcomings of archery for this task. And there also seems to be some desire to believe that bowhunters are the only ones that pass on does, resulting in their desire to punish bowhunters with a doe-only segment of the season. I'm thinking there is more to the actual motivation for that rule and the threatened actions involving muzzleloaders in the future, but anyway, the DEC in all their brilliance first tried to sell their sky-is-falling story about out-of-control deer populations and then in a typical credibility lapse decided that the solution lies with the least effective weapon.....lol. But anyway, the comment in the article about lack of population control in places where control cannot effectively be incorporated (i.e. protected areas of severe human population density) is probably on target. And yes, that problem will fester into a very ugly deer problem that will effect all metropolitan centers in the state. But I'm afraid that with the inability of the DEC to apply real logic and reasoning as demonstrated in the "does only" bowhunting fiasco, I would not be looking for them to come up with any amazing real solutions anytime soon. Sorry to sound so critical, but this latest deal with punishing bowhunters for a shortfall in deer management really did step over the line in terms of raw stupidity.

Yup! been tried on the internet and already made illegal .... lol. But believe me, if it was legal, I believe that many people would go for it. That's kind of the direction we are going .

Thanks for putting your money and effort where your mouth is. Too many gunners don't, and then they whine, "How come nobody is doing anything?"

With a bow, I have to really watch just how bundled up I get. Too much bulk, and my groups either move significantly or don't group at all. With gun, I can get away with a comical amount of layers, but the bow is awful damned unforgiving.

I always wonder if making noises and alerting them and drawing attention to myself and putting them into a spring loaded condition is really what I want to do. So, I have never tried it. It just seems so foreign to everything that I have ever learned about hunting. I know ..... I have seen it on TV. But I also have to wonder how many deer have they not shown that simply bolted out of the situation without ever offering a shot.

Hunting is on the decline. Some of it involves the pressured and hurried lives we all lead with so many more distractions than we have time for. Some of it involves expectations of instant rewards that cannot be met by hunting. Some of it involves attitudes as to what constitutes success. Some of it is tied in with less access. Some of it has to do with the complexities of modern day hunting methods, and attitudes that are being pumped into our heads in a constant fashion. I think Saturday morning TV hunting programs with unrealistic expectations. Also, hunting is boring to the younger recruits who are much more enamored with the latest techno-gadget than freezing their butts off in the woods somewhere. And on and on and on. Let's face it hunting is just not cool anymore and there is a culture-wide turn-off in progress. Those that continue to hunt are slowly but surely putting their hunting on the back-burner in terms of priority. I believe that a lot of hunters still buy their license every year, but when it comes time to actually crawl out of bed, they just don't. I believe that a lot of those out there get overwhelmingly bored when in the first couple hours, that 200" buck does not stroll by like they see on TV, and they cut their hunt short. I think it sounds like a lot better idea than the experience turns out for them. I don't think you really should ignore the constant drumbeat of all the well financed anti-hunting organizations either. I do believe they are taking their toll in terms of public attitudes toward hunting as a viable activity of recreation. Yeah, I'll bet some very interesting studies and books could be written on the subject. And perhaps someday, historians will write such a book.

Perhaps this is another aspect to the hunting access problem that is strangling hunting these days.

I did buy one piece of equipment for bow season this year. It was a Dewalt heated jacket. It solves a major cold-weather archery problem. I the past I always had to dress up like the Michelin Man in order to stay warm, and then it always screwed my shooting form and clearances with the bow. problem solved with this purchase. The jacket is quite thin and yet will keep me on stand. No, I didn't get a chance to use it for bow season, but it did get a test run during this gun season and will be used during bow season next year. They work!