Doc

Logic tells me that the more technologically advanced weapon that you use, the more accuracy you will achieve and the less possibility of wounding there is. That would apply from a self-bow with sinew strings and stone arrow heads right on up the most sophisticated rifle and scope combinations. So if your prime consideration is solely about never encountering a wounding loss, it is probably best to forget about any kind of bow and go straight for the super-tech rifle with the high-dollar optics, and always keep your shots to mere chip-shots that are almost impossible to miss. When I took up bowhunting, it was with the understanding that I most likely was taking on a hunting activity and style of weapon where things will not always go right. Its a cold hard fact of limiting your equipment as part of the challenge. Even perfect shots can come up with bad results purely because of equipment shortfalls. If that's not a part of the challenge that you are willing and able to live with, then I have to say that there is no such thing as any archery equipment of any level that will erase the potential for wounding losses, and rifle hunting may be what you have to get into instead.

Yes, even within my own lifetime, I have seen extremes of the DEC being a day late and a dollar short even with all the touting of their statistical perfection and success. In the late 80's I watched deer in Honeoye dying off by the hundreds in the Honeoye yards because the herd size had been allowed to get so big ( a disgusting scene I will never forget. I also saw situations where all that was over-reacted to and large areas of the state were struck with deer "shortages". The populations seem to see-saw back and forth in what for all the world really looks like simply over-reaction in one direction, followed by over-reaction in the other direction. Yes that's one way of managing .... lol. But that is not the kind of preemptive statistical management that they are advertising. That is why I say that they have a lot more work to do on the fundamentals of population control before they start blowing resources on all the bells and whistles that hunters are lobbying for. Basics first. get it right and then move on.

What a great idea. I'll bet that will taste good!

Everybody worries about how long our gun season is. From what shooting I have heard in recent years, anytime after opening weekend is only sporadically used anyway. I think there comes a time when you could add a couple weeks onto the gun season and still not impact he take significantly. I am beginning to think that most hunters completely lose interest after opening day. Even Thanksgiving day is just a shell of what it used to be. I wouldn't get too concerned about the length of NYS's gun season. I don't think it makes a bit of difference one way or the other.

Ha-ha .... Nobody shrugs off 2' of snow, but yes, Western NY residents are no strangers to that kind of a storm. But I can't recall ever experiencing 2' of snow with hurricane or near-hurricane force winds.

You're going to be a fun Granny. Congratulations!! Nice thing about grandkids is that you can spoil the hell out of them and then simply send them home. It's great!

Frankly I don't give a damn what hunters are thinking. All I want right now is for the DEC to be working on perfecting their methodology for controlling deer populations relative to localized habitat. I don't want them wasting one more minute or dollar worrying about how to get older deer, or bigger racks, or any of that meaningless crap. I don't think that anyone including the most deluded DEC employee believes that they have maximized deer population control (which is their prime directive), and here we are running around talking about NYS becoming a trophy state, and whining about 1-1/2 year old bucks being taken. Somehow we have to get our priorities straightened out. So they can run all the polls they want, whether it is some supposed wonderful Cornell scientific poll/survey or some newspaper running a just-for-fun poll. It all means nothing as long as they still cannot perform the most basic management function....population control. Get the fundamentals perfected, and then maybe it's time to worry about adding a few bells and whistles. Hunters are not the management agency that we pay the big dollars for, and since when do we rely on hunters as being the college trained biologists that should be running the DEC. Who the hell is running the show anyway? I hate to see our taxes and fee money going to an agency that relies solely on polling hunters to determine wildlife management and what directions that management should be heading. How about they make their own decisions for a change based on what they were taught when they got their degrees in their fields of expertise. That's what we pay them for.

Anyone wondering what instinctive archery is ....... That's it, done as well as you will ever see it done. It does make me wish that I had never put that damned first sight pin on my old recurve. It was all downhill from there. Berger buttons, Flipper rests, more exotic sights, aluminum arrows, and then my first compound bow. There was no stopping all the gadgets, trinkets, quest for speed, and all the craziness that followed. And now to see this guy who is just a beautiful thing to watch, makes me wish that I had not taken archery to where I did. Of course I would never have gotten to this guys level of skills. You have to have some serious born-in talent and one powerful drive to excel. But to be able to shoot a weapon that is simply an extension of your body and mind with none of the help from gadget-manufacturers, is indeed a skill to be proud of. But there is a point I believe when your eye-hand coordination is totally ruined my all the crutches used over the decades. I don't believe there is any going back. Oh, and as far as all that jumping around and bouncing off the walls ...... forget it! I haven't done anything like that in a couple decades .... lol.

That is the problem. No one is content just to hunt in their own fashion anymore. Everyone has a crusade where they want to control how you hunt and what you can take. Yes, I know that we have always operated under some constraints, but now the trophy quest has moved from controlling your own activities, techniques, and goals to increasingly forcing that mentality on others. It is almost getting militant. Huge arguments are now promoted and passionately and aggressively pursued to force one group's opinions and needs on the other. Yes, I can see how hunters might tire of their casual, relaxing pastime (hobby) being turned into constant warfare with all the pushing and shoving and belligerence. Who the hell needs that. It truly begins to look like one group trying to push the other group out of the sport so they can have things the way they want them, and I believe its working. Yeah, it all does get tiresome, and I can see where it would drive a lot of hunters away from hunting and into other hobbies.

Splitting an incoming arrow is probably the one trick that he does that comes closest to "Magic". I love these guys. I once attended a Stacey Groscup show, where he was shooting aspirins and other flying targets out of the air, shooting the bow from a prone position, and shooting it with his feet and a whole bunch of other insane tricks with a bow, knives, tomahawks, and blow-guns. I was rightfully impressed, but this guy is way beyond all that and is truly unbelievable.

I have yet to see a gun shop that's worth its salt that is or was empty. They generally are a pretty lively hub of commerce. There never really seems to be a glutted or saturated market. But the proof is in the pudding. One trip to the Bass-pro shops, the new Field and Stream store, Beikirch's where there are times that you can hardly find a place to stand, shows how frenzied the gun and ammo sales really are. Rows and rows of guns on display, and who knows how many hundreds back in other rooms as well as people walking out the door with them, tells me there absolutely is no shortage of demand. But look at all the empty shelves where ammo used to be, and you can see a problem. It's not a shortage of demand, but a shortage of product. Big box chain stores can gut there way through, but for the small mom & pop gun stores, every aspect of the business becomes important. And failure to sell ammo, and become lethal for them. And then too I wonder how many gun shops were stuck with product that Andy and Co. arbitrarily made illegal. That probably didn't help the bottom line too much. And what you call a fad (tactical guns) was just simply a positive design response to a huge demand, very much like the advances in archery equipment that works so well and are essential for bow shops. Tactical guns did not disappear because of consumer disinterest. That market was swept away by the arbitrary stroke of a pen by NYS legislators. Not only was the market swept away, but it appears that we have also lost a huge production facility (and jobs) because Andy and cohorts felt that they know what's best for us.

Beikirchs has been a real surprise and disappointment to me since all this shortage stuff started. Yes, I can see them getting caught with their pants down when all this "shortage" stuff first began. But of all the firearms and ammo suppliers around, I would have expected them to be the first ones to recover. I do have to wonder how much of their stock is heading to their PA store instead of the East Rochester store. And I have to wonder just what future plans they have for their NYS store ..... or not! If they go under or move out of state it will be a huge victory scored by Cuomo and his anti-gun crew.

Quote: "The investigation, dubbed “Operation TIP Works,” is the result of numerous complaints from the public to the Minnesota Turn In Poachers program." So, whenever we hear on these forums about neighbors or others that "we just know are poaching", NYS has a TIPP program also. Make a call. It's all anonymous if you want it to be, and shines a light on illegal activity. The DEC can't be everywhere, and that's what these poachers count on to get away with their crap. They also count on some hair-brained notion about being afraid to be a "rat", and actually get away with stealing from all of us because of that crazy mentality.

I will say that gun and ammo sales from smaller guns and ammo stores in and around Rochester may be in big trouble for another reason (in addition to Andy's safe act). We now have a real big-box outdoor store that is actually serious about selling stuff, and another one coming soon (Bass-Pro) in Victor. Take Andy's BS and the new heavy-duty competition, and it has to be getting pretty ugly for the smaller independent shops. What I worry about is losing some of the good gunsmiths that rely on gun and ammo sales to supplement their businesses.

It goes deeper than just an underestimate of casual hunter numbers (And I totally agree with you on that point), but there is an accompanying arrogant disdain for hunters that are not rabid fanatics as though they count for nothing. But every year as hunter number continue to dwindle, and we drive these guys out of the woods, we will be seeing how important their numbers were.

I can find those people too, and I can also find people that are sick of having restrictions, regulations and more damned screwy laws and complexities added to their hunting, faster than the stinking regs can be printed. Everybody has more crazy fad-management ideas than you can even keep straight anymore. One buck limits, EAB, ARs, ..... I'm sure I have left some out. And now they are talking about things getting so complex that in addition to Regions, and WMUs with all their pages of verbal descriptions to keep track of, they will be needing yet another set of areas complete with yet another wall of verbiage to describe their boundaries. Where does all this nonsense stop so that people can just relax and hunt? How many people are starting to bail out because of all this craziness.

I'm not sure "good deer management" is what runs the ship anymore at the DEC. My suspicions are now going to the goals of the DEC are being driven by short term political directives. Polls, surveys, public meetings, all seem to be the current tools for "management". Of course it is necessary to keep hunters involved and engaged as long as these "popularity contests" don't start taking the place the good basic biological principles. I'm beginning to wonder. One year their head biologist is saying that there is no biological purpose or benefit to ARs, and the next year they are implementing several AR units, and talking about adding more as long as it shuts up those nagging pressure groups. Then too you have the CTFs determining deer density targets also. It just seems that more and more, the responsibilities of performing wildlife management is being turned into a series of opinion polls. I hope I'm wrong, but every year that seems to be the direction the DEC is taking.

As long as this isn't starting to mean that the bowhunter population density isn't approaching the circus-like gun hunter populations of the past. That may be great for whacking on deer populations, but the price may very well be a reduced quality of the bow hunt. No, those that own or control their own hunting grounds won't have to worry but those that use public or open private land may find bow hunting to be changed in a very negative way.

Yeah, I had 7 pretty good sized deer wandering across my yard the other day. But I'll bet there are a whole lot of guys in other parts of the state that really don't want to hear about how many deer we have all over the place .... lol. Sorry guys, I know things are not great everywhere. I know that many times there are towns that border each other that don't have the same or similar population situations.

That's "millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks". I guess if you're going to be a crook ..... do it right. I have a feeling that he may get quite a bit more than just a slap on the wrist. His influence is gone, and he has the Feds after him. They don't usually leave any loopholes in their cases. Here's hoping anyways.

I have seen a few, but the population has taken a beating over time, and I have no idea exactly why. I also sense some statewide concern by the DEC in some of the articles that I have read.

Do not confuse "enjoying fighting" with standing up for your own interests. I will tell you that if we all cower into a corner and allow issues involving hunter concerns to only be presented and lobbied for only by non-hunters, we will get exactly what we deserve. There is no one that will stand up for hunting use of public lands other than hunters themselves and their advocacy organizations. We have to recognize our minority status and understand what some of the last bastions of hunting access could turn into if we do not use the principles of lobbying using whatever means we have at our disposal.

Well unfortunately this product is out of stock at Dick's and I had to settle for a higher price tag. I was a little slow to decide to get one for my MQ-32 Mathews. I went to FS Arrows, and it's on its way.

Re-reading my reply, perhaps it did sound like I have no appreciation for a good set of antlers on a older buck. That's not exactly accurate. As illogical as using antlers as a yardstick may be, I think we all appreciate a good set of antlers as part of nature's art. And truly if for some weird reason, bucks were declared illegal to harvest, I definitely would feel like something had been lost, and indeed an important option (choice) would have been eliminated (nothing I would ever be in favor of). But back to the original question, I know that even without a buck option, I would still enjoy the hell out of my deer hunting and be out there excited about getting a doe or whatever is legal to hunt. At my age with deer season having become such a huge part of all those years, I have to be on the hunt, antlers or no antlers. Yes, I also would be working my tail off to get the buck option restored, but while that was going on, I would be enthusiastically hunting the does.

About 5 years ago, I dug through my ancient collection of broadheads and refurbished a half dozen of my rusty of Bear Razorheads, and took a nice doe with one just for the sake of satisfying some nostalgic need. Yes, they could be the one broadhead that has taken the biggest percentage of deer of all the broadheads ever invented. But anyway, the old Razorhead was the workhorse of bowhunting for a whole lot of years and still is a very capable broadhead.