Doc

I had the whole scenario doped out completely wrong. I was hoping that this being an "in-between" election year that most of the general electorate would adopt a Biz-R-OWorld style mentality and stay home. That part probably did happen. Then part two would be that the gun owners would be so incensed at having their rights trampled by Andy that they would be at the polls eager to bounce the little creep out. That part did not happen. And the third part would be the people who all have other gripes with Cuomo on other hot button issues would show up to vote anti-Cuomo also. All of that scenario should have come together to create the upset. It all was very feasible. The problem is that I over-estimated the outrage, or the gun-owner apathy. And who knows maybe the amount of people who had other problems with Cuomo was over estimated, or maybe the apathy among their ranks was worse than I anticipated. Anyway, we had it in our power to send a message that would have lasted decades and put the fear of God into those that would vote for further gun control. Somehow we blew it. An opportunity of a lifetime was squandered, and now all those gun-owners who sat home will sit around complaining about how government is unresponsive and determined to remove our rights, blah...blah.....blah and so on and so forth. And life goes on as usual and nothing changes other than the continued and predictable eroding of our rights. Damn! it's frustrating.

Ha-ha .... Normally I would be bouncing off the keyboard over these outrageous confessions of Biz-R-OWorld, but I am getting beaten own and buried by these self absorbed and self centered attitudes. I think his I-don't-give-a-crap attitude is way more prevalent than we could ever imagine. As disgusting as it may be, he is not alone when it comes to irresponsibility in a participatory government. Look at the voting percentages, particularly these non presidential elections. There is no excuse, but there is no denying that his attitude is much more widespread than we would like to think. And then we sit back and wonder where our rights have gone. It's pretty obvious now isn't it?

I still think there is a juicy story behind Duffy bailing out of politics. I think he some stuff that he just couldn't run away from fast enough. Of course we will never hear the story ..... lol.

I don't think anyone is resting on their laurels or thinks the work is all done. What I don't like are those messages that sound like all is lost no matter what we do in NYS. That message will definitely turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy if we don't occasionally stop to count our victories. It is very hard to maintain the loyal opposition when there are those that are constantly shouting in our ear that all is lost.

And did you expect one election to free the state? Did anyone realistically think that? Take the victories where you find them. That war is not going to ever be won without the victories that we achieved this year. I like realism, but I can't abide defeatism.

Yes, we are so busy crying in our beer over the Cuomo fiasco, that we are clearly overlooking the huge successes that we did have. While baby Andy may be smiling like a mentally deprived idiot, he is only one of the three chambers of state government. He needs his buddies to wreak any havoc on the Constitution. I am now more concerned with the mental attitudes that are left of the pro Safe-Act legislators. Do they realize that they barely dodged the bullet? Are they aware of their antigun buddies that are missing? Will they be as confident next time they are called on to raid the 2nd Amendment? I think we did make a statement that will be on the minds of the politicians every time the words "gun control come up.

No question we lost the big one, but I have yet to go through the results to see how many of those that voted for the Safe Act got the boot. It could turn out that we actually sent the big message that I was intent on sending. Cuomo can conjure up whatever kinds of anti 2nd Amendment schemes that he wants, but if we did in fact put the fear of God into the senators and assemblymen, he may find his buddies not so eager to vote his way next time. Remember, most senatorial and assemblyman elections were local and not NYC races. So before we all start weeping, let's see how some of these other races turned out. As for our district, the dems basically went down. And now I am going to do as I promised a bunch of months ago and send off a letter to O'Brien explaining to him that I voted against him and why. Message to Obrien: Don't mess with our gun rights. It just cost you your job. I think its important that they understand that.

There's a deer that's spent way too much time with humans.

Well, anyway, it sounds like the crossbow is such a goofy, worthless, p.o.s., that all sales will dry up and the idea of hunting with a crossbow will eventually be figured out by everyone to be such a pain that no one will be using one ........ right? I mean, why bother struggling with all that weight and having something that is impossible to carry without hooking everything in the woods. Really, from some of these descriptions, it sounds like the most ridiculous thing to take afield for any kind of hunting.

Before you head out to vote be sure to review the following post: http://huntingny.com/forums/topic/17272-lest-we-forget/ Remember, Cuomo was not the only culprit that trampled on the second Amendment. Make the others pay too!

Apparently there was a rectal biopsy test that was first published in 2009 and has been successfully used in domestic herds. http://buckbreeders.com/articles/dna-solutions-unveils-test-detect-cwd-prion-gene I have no idea how frequently this test is administered, but anyway the answer to my question is "yes, there is a non-lethal test for CWD".

I would use the TIPP line and anonymously turn this poacher in. http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/393.html If you have a GPS, some coordinates would help too. Lets face it, there are way too many of these violations that go ignored because hunters and others refuse to get involved. The DEC can't be everywhere, especially in these days of draconian budget cuts. But if conservation laws mean anything to you, you do have to get involved. I did use the anonymous qualifier because open confrontation can result in all of the negative results that have already been mentioned, and there is also a possibility that if you don't use the anonymous feature of the TIPP line, there may be repercussions from the violator. Another thought too is that since you hunt the same area, you automatically become a suspect if someone else reports it.

There is only one situation that I can think of where shooting a spray of projectiles really has any advantage over one carefully aimed single projectile, and that is when the shots are planned for shooting running deer where one hopes that "close" is good enough. "If only one or two of those pellets gets into the deer somewhere .... anywhere .....". That is not the mental state that I want in anyone who is hunting anywhere near me.

It is littering, plain and simple. And every bit of it that I run across gets removed and properly disposed of. It's no different than when I come across beer cans, or sandwich baggies, candy wrappers or any other kind of litter.

Sorry if this question has been asked and answered already. But have they developed a non-lethal test for CWD? .....or can positive identification of infected deer be determined only from necropsies?

But some suck worse than others. Some are even downright dangerous. This will not be the first time I have voted for the lesser of two evils. I do not have to be doing back-flips with excitement over a candidate in order to make a necessary and intelligent choice. The worst possible decision would be for people to forfeit their obligations to vote because neither choice of politician walks in absolute perfect lock-step with everyone of our views.

Yeah, I think if a bill were introduced to allow buckshot, I would probably campaign against it.

These days with all kinds of non-bow equipment in the woods during bow season, I feel compelled to have at least a very bright blaze orange hat on as a minimum. I have seen evidence that deer do not interpret blaze orange as danger, so why not.

To me, if you cannot find your way through the woods without polluting the place with tape, maybe you really shouldn't be there. Down our way, the mountain bikers can't seem to follow a rutted up dirt trail without painting trees all the way along with some nice bright paint. Perhaps they should take a long a guide as well .... lol. It seems that everyone needs some sort of visual pollution as soon as they step away from the highway.

Now you can see the mentality behind the anti-hunting crowd. They too think that their "favorite species" is cool. Logic or science is replaced by their emotions. They simply let irrational emotion dictate their actions. Animal rights people carry this kind of thing to extremes where they want to mandate that all hunting be ceased, but the basic emotional mentality really is not all that different. the killing of rats, bugs and other vermin is ok, but it is not ok to kill the "cool" animals.....lol. Hey, I suppose that is just the way human nature works for many. Maybe we all have a bit of Bambi-ism buried in us somewhere.

As has been mentioned, is it possible that they are using deer nuisance permits? They are farmers, and I'm sure they get as many permits as possible.

Interesting discussion. My take on it is that scattershot is generally for jump hunting as in rabbits and birds. The thing being that a pattern of lethal projectiles is generally thought to be more effective on running game. I have to wonder if that same mentality applies when deer hunters use buckshot. Does it promote jump-shooting deer? Is the mentality aimed more toward putting a pattern of lead generally in the direction of a fleeing deer as in rabbits, and hoping something falls down? Do those that use buckshot really take carefully selected, accurately placed shots, where the background is scrutinized, and all safety rules observed, or is it just an instantaneous instinctive process of seeing a deer get up and unloading a pile of lead at it? I don't know, I'm just asking. But if any of this is the case, then I will say that there may very well be some weapons that promote unsafe shooting more than others. No it is not the weapon, but it may very well be the mentality that some weapons foster.

I'll be honest, once the deer start blowing and raising a ruckus, I have never had deer come walking through that area again that day.

I have a big old Kabar style knife. It's heavy and clunky, but one knife does all. If I want to gut a deer, there's nothing delicate about that operation, and if you want to whack down a sapling, it's kind of nice that I don't have one of those wimpy little skinning knives. And if I have to wrassle a big old bear to the ground and stab it to death ........ Well, let's not get carried away.

It ain't my butt that gets cold.