Doc

The DEC began abrogating their responsibilities to the Citizens Task Force, and loved the way that spreading responsibility around worked for them. I guess that now they have decided to expand that philosophy. So now when things are screwed up, well .... You asked for it. Nobody wanted to pay attention to the CTF fiasco before, well now we have CTF+ and ignoring it is no longer an option.

The problem is that none of the answers that you get on this site have any legal authority behind them. Game cops and judges are not going to be impressed with a remark about how you "heard it on the huntingny.com forum .... lol. If you are expecting any of these scenarios to actually happen, you should be e-mailing the regional DEC headquarters. I say "e-mailing", because I think there is some value in receiving a written response rather than a phone response.

Ok, here is what they say on the DEC internet site. Question: How far off the highway must I be before I can discharge my firearm, crossbow or longbow? Answer: The Environmental Conservation Law prohibits you from discharging the firearm, crossbow or longbow in such a manner that the arrow, bolt, bullet or load of shot passes over any portion of the highway, which may include maintained portions including the shoulder, drainage ditches, etc. I am interpreting that to mean that when fired, your muzzle cannot be within that definition of the highway since doing so would cause the shot to pass over that portion of the highway that they have defined. What is really purposely confusing is the word "may". I don't understand why they put that in there. So, they are not defining it as "the highway and all legal right-of-way property". They are defining it only as "maintained portions including the shoulder, drainage ditches, etc." ....... And who the hell knows what is being implied with the etc. slapped on the end?... lol.

It all just shows you how dedicated, focused, and creative these anti-hunting whackos are. They will use every trick in the book and are constantly coming at us with everything they've got. We on the other hand simply argue amongst ourselves, fail to support our own advocacy organizations, and continue to under-estimate the effectiveness of these kinds of tactics.

That is some awful good shooting, and with a broadhead too. Very impressive.

The point is that if you have a serious population problem, you don't try to solve it using the least effective season available. A couple of doe days during gun season would do a whole lot more than the two weeks of antlerless bow season. To choose the lesser efficient season, raises huge questions about the seriousness of the population problem, or the credibility of what is truly the goal.

Ruger American in .270 caliber

It is difficult to say whether a lure actually brought in a deer or whether the deer would have simply shown up there anyway. The only exception that I have seen to that thought is an occasion where I used a drag rag and watched the buck come in on my trail with his nose to the ground. To me that was pretty powerful proof that it was an attractant. I was using Tink's 69 at the time. The bad news is that the tactic never worked again for me.

What all of this research fails to consider is that another difference between man as a predator vs. all the other predators is our ability to recognize endangered species and take remedial actions. They also fail to recognize that we as a species have developed laws, bag limits, and legal handicaps. We have also developed the ability to introduce species when that plan appears to be environmentally responsible. I saw none of this mentioned in the article.

The big rain yesterday lasted about 1 minute, and the rest of it was a nice gentle rain that lasted maybe the better part of an hour or two at the most. Hardly of the flash-flood variety .... lol. Actually, the last three days of flood watch or warning or whatever, resulted in no rain or very little rain at all. I'm starting to get a bit irritated with all this "sky is falling" weather forecasting. Trying to use the weather forecast as a planning tool has become a joke. And that 5 or 7-day forecast is an evergreen thing that changes each day. These weathermen really aren't all that good at their job are they?

Wouldn't you think they would all be printed, enveloped and ready to be mailed out as the first licenses issued? I mean, what benefit is there to waiting until the last minute?

As far as protection from cold, I know that people hunt polar bears and muskox in temperatures a lot colder than anything that will ever occur in someone's basement or garage. And they even shoot them in those extreme temperatures. Extreme heat is a different story. I have a dozen bows stored downstairs with each one hanging on a rack in an unheated area. Many of them are periodically pulled down and shot with no sign of performance or structural problems.

Mine was in the mailbox today.

Great article on the antlerless archery season, but I was terribly disappointed that the overwhelming question was not noted (unless I missed it). That question being that : If the DEC is truly concerned about what they call, "a critical need to boost the antlerless harvest in those units", why did they choose the most ineffective and inefficient season to do it in? How can you do an article on this subject without mentioning that glaring question?

I'm guessing a luna moth caterpillar, what's your guess?

I have had the same thing happen. One year, certain trails seem to be dominated by bucks and the very next year it looks like there isn't a buck on the planet. Only to be followed on the year after that with all the bucks being back. Also, I have had situations where old traditional trails that bucks have always used would come up deserted, and yet during the season, there would be plenty of bucks in other areas. I have always assumed that it was food related, or some temporary disturbance from predators or hikers or hunters or something that simply moved their pattern. It has always turned out to be temporary. Unless you had some unusual prior hunting season where huge amounts of bucks were taken (not really likely), it likely only represents some pattern shift away from where you traditionally set your cameras.

Free is good.

I have two pins that I use for hunting. A 20 yard and a 30 yard. In addition to those I have a 40 yard and a 50 yard set of pins that I mess around with on the practice range just for fun.

This bowhunter has come down out of the trees a couple of decades ago because of a vertigo thing. So I have been forced to hunt in the eyeball to eyeball fashion for quite a few years. I have put in a lot of years with both methods, and have developed quite a list of pros and cons. First of all, let me make a general statement that I do believe that hunting on the ground is a handicapped method of hunting. No, it's not that I was never picked off while in treestands, but deer are more conditioned and in tune with danger at the ground level. There are also some occasional benefits from elevated scent paths, although not as big a deal as you might think. Your view of incoming deer is generally enhanced by being elevated. That is kind of a big advantage. On the other side of the coin, my deer hunting has become a whole lot more exciting since I came out of the trees. The challenges of dealing with the senses of deer on the same level, can really be a crazy thing to experience. I have been in situations where I could have reached out and touched deer. I have had deer just on the opposite side of the tree I was standing behind. That's some pretty exciting stuff, that I never was able to experience up in the trees. Although I seldom use this advantage, I do have available the element of mobility with deer that refuse to travel within shooting range. You can quickly shift into still-hunting mode if that becomes necessary and seems advisable. I have not had a lot of experience with the pop-up variety, tent-style, ground blinds, but I can see some pretty nifty advantages. I would theorize that they might contain the free flow of scent to some extent. Also, they can likely make inclement weather a whole lot more enjoyable, keeping you on the hunt for a longer period of time. Also, they can allow you a bit more freedom of movement without risking being spotted. The choices of up in the trees vs. down on the ground is not always as simple as you might think. There are the things that I have mentioned and many more considerations that you will have to apply to make the decision. Probably the most important thing to keep in mind is that both hunting styles are widely used, and both are successful. So in the end, the decision is up to you.

You know, when you consider all the screwed up aspects of this latest DEC fiasco, it really is frightening that the future of game management is in the hands of this band of keystone cops. Now here Culver had pointed out yet one more dumb aspect of the plan. This doe-only screw-up will simply shunt bowhunters into areas that don't have this dire overpopulation problem that they are peddling.....Exactly the opposite thing that they are trying to do.

From what the DEC is peddling, it sounds like the NYS deer are doing just fine without an advocacy group speaking on their behalf ..... lol. I think I'll pass on this one.

They really are two entirely different kinds of hunts and I also like each one for their uniqueness. For me the bowhunting is a solitary kind of hunting that requires some heavy scouting and patterning of a relatively undisturbed deer herd with hopefully there still being a roughly repetitive feeding and bedding routine and some traditional rutting patterns that are again unbroken by excessive hunter activity. The bow is a short range weapon, so that the shooting distances are limited and requires a bit more solace and lack of interference. Gun season gets to be a more social event where friends and family gather for all the strategy B.S. sessions and the time when hunting partners go on joint excursions for stand locating and construction. And there are the pre-season target sessions for those that waited to the last minute to zero in those guns. And then there is the magic of opening day when the woods explodes with activity and all the shooting starts and that super anticipation that the orange army will push that deer in your expanded circle of gun range capability. It is quite exciting and all that stuff has its appeal too. Each form of hunting has its different styles of challenges and their separate kinds of fun and their separate kinds of requirements. And each style has certain aspects that interfere with the other. They were always kept separate because they are separate in all aspects and ways that they are conducted. I like them both, in their proper (and separate) times. Too bad the DEC doesn't have a clue about those differences or even care that there are differences.

My guess is that if you checked them out, almost all of them would have exit holes and the lead bullets would be harmlessly stuffed into some nearby tree or in the dirt which is where the material came from in the first place. A coyote isn't a very big animal. and most varmint calibers have no problems making it completely through their relatively small bodies even when bone is hit.

That's one of the great things about this site. There is a lot of opinions and once in awhile some facts written here. Some of it is useful and factual, some is not. You do have to sift through it all and weigh the value. But you are absolutely right. There is a lot of good info that can be gathered here. And we all learn from each other including learning from those that might be new to hunting and who offer different perspectives and ask questions that make us think and discuss things that we may not have considered before. So we owe you a thank-you too.

It's not about being resistant to change. It is about the ignorant and biased way in which it is being done. I would have thought that would be plain by now after 35 pages.