Doc

Then maybe the discussion should center on whether a bow season should still be maintained at all. I'm sure it is only a matter of time before that thought gets argued in earnest (for the very same reasons). In fact, in many gun circles, that thought is already a hot topic.

Lol .... Those best spots will just continue getting better until I have a go at them with a rifle in my hands. But thanks for the offer....Ha-ha-ha.

"Buck battles gone bad". This is the one I would like to see quantified. I wonder just how many deer deaths can be attributed to direct wounding, or loss of energy going into winter due to the stress of full on pitched battles. And how about those other things like broken bones of wound infections, etc. I have never seen anyone really discuss that in terms of buck mortality rates.

Of all the reasons for inclusion of crossbows, this is the line of logic that I have the biggest problem with. That is because what is being said here is that the bow is an inadequate deer hunting weapon because there are people who refuse to devote the effort to shoot them well. That line of thinking has no limit to it. It says that anytime a hunting season has any challenge to the weapon of use, more advanced weapons should be continually added until the requirement of skill goes away. Taking that to its logical conclusion says that the creation of a bow season was a mistake. Bow season was created to allow a special time of year for using a weapon of a unique skill (challenge). Obviously the bow creates a need for an additional level of effort and responsibility to accommodate that challenge. This argument basically says that weapons technology has to be added to all special seasons until the weapons of maximum ease are included for those that lack the will to devote the time and effort to become proficient. Bow season was created for exactly the opposite reason. It was designed specifically for the addition of challenge. So this idea that skill needs to be taken out of hunting as much as possible goes right at the heart of any of the special seasons that promote the use of challenging weapons. Take away the challenge of the weapon, and you have taken away the fundamental reason for the special season because the ultimate most efficient weapon with the least amount of required skill is the rifle.

Ha-ha .... legs still work well, so I'll still be out in the woods scouting and working with my new camera. Of course with my luck, that will be the time when some 12 point buck with antlers so large that he can hardly hold his head up will walk by, stopping at 15 yards in a nice broadside situation thumbing his nose at me. Probably if I listen real close, I will hear a bit of a giggle.

I use my Primos bipod for my rifle, and I'll bet it would work as well on a crossbow. Yes they did get carried away with their pricing, but it is a quality product and really operates smoothly and easily. The first thing I did on mine was to rig up a sling on it so I can get it out of my hands for easy carrying. Something that I think primos should consider adding to their products.

Well, look at you getting all indignant .... lol. I probably should remind you that not everything is about you. There were 5 pages of replies in that thread, and I don't recall mentioning your name or your comment. My comments here are simply that I am finding a general lack of consistency between these two threads, in terms of what we are getting outraged over and what we accept as being simply a mistake. Personally, I find most of that kind of judgmental crap unnecessary and there comes a time where we begin to cross over from simple information sharing as in this thread, to page after page of un-ending malicious moralizing, as in the other thread.

I am a great one for procrastinating on such things, but for once I got scared enough to disregard hunting schedules and such and do what I'm supposed to do. The timing was unfortunate, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Next year's another bow season. But then I run into one of those great days like yesterday, and I really miss it. I guess I'll be starting to scout for gun season pretty soon and get a jump on tuning that season up to the max.

This is something that works out to the mutual benefit of both parties. They may share your interest in firming up that boundary and may very well split the surveying cost. It's been done before. It also emphasizes the fact that you are not trying to pull a "gotcha" on them. Better neighbor relations.

It sure beats trying to shoot a bow all dressed up with bulky clothing looking like the Michelin Man.....lol.

There's a problem with relying on personal conversations with ECOs or telephone conversations. Neither provide you with a permanent written record as to what you were told. It is amazing how memories of conversations can change or fail when you need to explain where you got the idea that something was legal. It is also amazing how two people of authority can have contradictory answers on the same law. Heck, even judges and such can have varying opinions and interpretations of the same law. So, I am not sure how binding it would be or how much good it may actually do, but I would think if you had a printed response that showed that you did due diligence in trying to find an answer and tried to abide by official interpretations, it would have to go a long ways in helping your case. If you have a recollection of a conversation that cannot be backed up, there's no doubt you would be officially screwed at court.

The rut will happen regardless of weather.

Thanks for all the good thoughts. I was just thinking back, this is the first bowseason that I have missed a significant part of in 51 years, so I guess I have no real complaints....lol.

You know, 70 yards may sound awful close, but things like tree foliage and positioning of stands, and the screen of limbs, branches and trunks can make things even that close nearly invisible. Do you know for sure that he even knows that your stand is there? I remember a time when one of my friends from work had the same situation. Opening morning of gun season, there were two orange lumps sitting in trees that were unbelievably close. neither one knew the other was there until their location was highlighted with blaze orange. Then it all started with who was there first. That got to become a full blown neighbor feud. My advice: find another good spot and move your stand.

Ha-ha-ha, we kind of pick and chose which laws we want to criticize people for breaking or intending to break. I'm still trying to figure out who made us part of the judicial system. And I do love the creative quoting. That was cute.

I guess for me, I am out of the game for a while. I am looking a lot like a mummy with gauze, tape and a jillion stitches and orders not to be pulling back my bow. Timing for this surgery really sucks. There was some stuff that the doctor didn't want to see developing on my skin so they all decided to skin me like a muskrat ... well that's a pretty big exaggeration....lol. Hopefully by gun season I'll be able to shoot and drag deer. Well, that's the way it goes sometimes. I'm pretty lucky because after all these years, these are the first stiches I have ever had. So now, it's up to all you guys to control the deer herd this year without my help until gun season rolls around. So get out there and keep the DEC happy. I'll still be here bugging everyone ..... lol. Probably even worse now. So brace yourselves for an evil-tempered frustrated old geezer.

I think you want a surveyor to lay things out for you. That gives it all some credible authority. Walk along with him marking trees as you go. It sounds like you are only doing a partial, and hopefully the cost will reflect that. Once the line is established and marked, get some good quality aluminum signs each mounted on it's own board (pressure treated 1/4" plywood works well), and you will establish a permanent and clear marker on the land to eliminate any controversies. It will last a whole bunch of years with just a minimum of maintenance. I have a general rule that no matter where you are standing along the boundary, you can see at least 3 consecutive signs. That is way more restrictive than you legally have to do, but again, it is cheaper to overdo the job than to be worrying about and arguing with trespassers because you took the cheap way out. I know that anyone who trespasses on my property willfully did so.

If the wind is howling where you are the way it is here, you could walk through the woods breaking every branch in the woods, and dragging both feet through the leaves and never have deer hear you coming. so move around where ever you want. I usually use these kinds of days for scouting and getting updated on what's going on in different parts of the woods. perhaps while on the move you can catch a whitetail being blown by. A big fish net can be useful on these kinds of days with super-winds.

Aw geeze! Don't get me started. We're are all a bunch of law-breaking crooks just waiting for the right circumstances to get caught. But remember: "Ignorance of the law is no excuse".

There are people who would come up with some line of justification for mosquitos ..... lol. I believe those attitudes would change immediately if they ever found themselves out in the middle of the woods, suffering from a bite from a rattler, watching their arm or leg swell up to the size of a tree-trunk. The attitude changes a bit then.

I agree. If things get much more complicated, a whole new cottage industry of hunting lawyers will be springing up. Already there are so many new laws on the books that literally no one understands or knows them all. And that includes ECOs, judges, J.P.s, and most of all the ones who are supposed to be abiding by them .... the hunters. And then to make it all the more impossible to be a 24/7 law abiding citizen, there is the interpretation of the laws that no one seems to agree on. Some of the crimes you may commit may not even be interpreted until you have already broken them and you get your day in court. And these days, the answer to everything is to pass a new law. We all want EAB, AR, and all the other alphabet soup that makes up everyone's wish list to support their armchair deer management schemes. Just what we need ..... more laws!

Now wait a minute. We just got done tar and feathering a new hunter with 5 or so pages of telling him what a scumbag he is for not abiding by the legal hunting hours that I assume had slipped by him. You know the old rule: "ignorance of the law is no excuse". So, everyone should have a copy of those volumes of Environmental Conservation Laws purchased and committed to memory as well as constantly checking and memorizing all new laws that are passed every year...... right? A bit of sarcasm here, but I think you all know what I am getting at.

Well, this thread should put to bed any more of that goofy argument that legal hunting hours should be changed to 1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset. It appears that the opinion is close to unanimous that when this guy shot exactly 1/2 hour after sunset, it was obviously the reason for the gut-shot deer. I'm glad that one is finally settled.

So, you care so little for the deer that you head out into the woods with such poor shooting skills that you are wounding "Many" deer (your words). Perhaps you should have your own 4 or 5 page volume of comments about how disrespectful it is to use a weapon that you apparently have very little proficiency at or any interest in improving your shooting skills. Look, that holier-than-thou attitude works only if you really are holier-than-thou. Otherwise, it simply shows up as just plain old hypocrisy.

Well, I guess the proof is in the pudding. The fact that none of our resident libs have stepped up to the plate to attempt to refute the facts and figures of this video clip kind of shows that in the face of facts their emotional arguments simply cannot stand. They are staying away from this one like the plague ....... lol.