Doc

Oh, we have no problem with those guys during gun season. They are scared to death of being out in the woods when the guns start banging....ha-ha. And the funny thing is, there is so much disturbance going on with the gun hunters, that a bunch of bikers would only help things out. But when that nonsense is going on during bow season, that just completely blows up patterns and natural deer movement. Yeah, the deer still have to eat, but they don't have to do it during the daylight hours.

I just dropped back to the house for lunch. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on here, and that darned wind doesn't seem to want to quit these days. Oh well, I'll be heading back out for an afternoon hunt anyway. Often the wind will die down at the end of the day.

Welcome to my world ..... lol. The mountain bikers took over the state land that I have always hunted (way over here on the western end of the state), such that now instead of figuring where the deer are, I have to figure out where the bikers and hikers will not be. The frequent activity pretty much keeps the deer laying low during the daylight hours. I have found a few spots where the trails don't do and so I am not completely screwed. But things certainly are a lot different since the DEC allowed them to cut a maze of trails all over the hill. They have pretty well blanketed the entire place with rutted up, tree-painted, trails. I'll bet this sort of thing is going on a lot more public land than we realize. More and more, hunters are being herded onto crowded conditions and now these lands have been opened up to mobs of people in addition to the hunters. Talk about conditions aligning to drive hunters out of the woods. Oh, and before I have to listen to it all, I am well aware that these people have a perfect right to the land just like the hunters do. It's just that all this stuff is creating a "perfect storm" to help eliminate hunters and hunting.

I'm pretty sure that if I were one that projected human emotions and reactions onto the critters that I hunt, I probably wouldn't be a hunter. I do understand the limitations in terms of reasoning and emotion that animals possess, and I am quite sure that a fawn may temporarily become disoriented and confused by having the doe taken out, but I don't mistake that as mourning.

Great video. There are others that vary slightly, but the one thing that he uses that I have to get is a small bone saw. I like the idea of opening up the pelvic bone, and the sternum. Currently I have not been doing that and it makes the job a whole lot more difficult pulling the anus and colon through that opening under the bone. It can be hard cutting every bit of the connective tissue. With that bone cut, everything is exposed and easy to remove. As far as splitting the sternum, the less distance that I have to reach up inside to get to the windpipe, the less mess all over my forearms. Also, if there is a broadhead or pieces of broadhead hidden up inside there, having things as wide open and visible as possible lessens the chances of getting sliced on them. So even an old geezer like myself can pick up some pointers. Thanks for posting the link to this video. Now, I have to go out and find a mini-bone saw.

Sounds like a fun project. I would suggest using pressure treated lumber though, so you can get as many years of safe use out of it as possible. Also put a ton of thought into the location. Be mindful of prevailing wind direction, and distances to likely trails and deer movement. Pick a good permanent "pinch point" that is not likely to be temporary. I would do a preliminary trail cam study of the area first before final location selection.

The picture in their ad looks like impending disaster when the guy releases. It would appear that there is no room for forward movement of the limbs. They might just be unknowingly tipping you off to a huge shortfall of that thing.

Yeah, I think such a law could be easily challenged in the courts.

Yeah, I realize that there is a lot of campaign left, But to date, Rich Funke, candidate for the Republican slot for state senator in the 55th District is up in the polls with 57% against Democratic incumbent Ted O'brien (32%). Guess what one of the big issues has been ........ the safe act. O'Brien has been running TV ads about how evil Rich Funke is against outlawing so-called assault rifles. It looks like there is a bit of a backfire on that issue.....lol. Well, I won't be tooting our horn on that race too much just yet because like I said there is a lot of campaign left. But I just thought that I would let you all know that we aren't losing every race when it comes to the Safe Act. We've got at least one of the anti-gun politicos on the run.

Darren- Let's see if I can help. If you enter your profile, you will see a button on the main page of your profile that says: Edit My Profile. click on that. Now you should be looking at a profile input page. The 5th bolded category of inputs should say: Profile Information. the next line should say: Member Title and there is a fill-in field next to that. You should now be able to fill in whatever you want to appear with all of your posts. Keep it clean .... lol. That should do it. If that doesn't work, let me know and I'll see what I can do. The default member titles I believe are based on the number of posts, and so your current title simply indicates that you have relatively few posts.

This is a pretty good question, especially for those of us who hunt state land and are finding crowded conditions getting worse each year. What really gets ugly is when two guys scout out the same area, become convinced that it is the hottest spot in the woods, and both show up there on the same day. This gets especially aggravating if the arrival times are such that you really should be hunkering into your stand and getting ready for the daylight. Yes, If you really need to hunt in or near that area, I can see where you might want to have a talk to ensure that it doesn't happen again. It's just a crappy situation that no one is at fault for, but you sure don't want it happening more than once. I think I might spend my day finding another good spot, a long, long way from that guy.

And now the ice is broken. Great way to git-er-done. Enjoy some nice tender venison.

All we need is a Disney writer to add the cries, "Mommy, Mommy, What have they done to you Mommy?" Anthropomorphism is alive and well even in the ranks of us hunters.....lol. But seriously, I can not fault anyone for this kind of reaction. We aren't exactly supposed to be heartless. But with a little luck perhaps we can keep these kinds of emotions under control. Heck we get beat over the head with enough of this nonsense from the anti-hunters without us doing it to ourselves.

It is interesting to note that the origin of this post was from Canada. The agencies and organizations were modified to Americanize the message, but the points are just as valid here as they are there. So, we often think we are alone in these things ..... but our neighbors to the north are faced with the same concerns and perhaps even worse than we are.

Lol ..... We certainly do get pre-occupied with the subject of what other guys are shooting. We worry about AR. We worry about buck age, and now we are concerned with the family structure of what we shoot.....lol. Oh, I guess it all makes good conversation, as long as we don't start trying to apply ethics and morals and all that unnecessary judgment that often comes along with such discussion. Keep your harvests in-season, and shoot what you want and what is legal, and enjoy your hunt. And try not to pay a whole lot of attention to those that would try to dictate what you are supposed to be shooting.

You know, I have had more years when coyotes were not even resident in our area than years when they were. I got along just fine without them. I don't have any love affair with nature's little puppy dogs. They are simply something else to hunt and I have no problem with people engaging in legal hunting of a species that sits at the top of their food chain with no other controls but disease and cars. I am a believer that population control is good game management. It doesn't even bother me when they hold local coyote harvest contests, and guys come in with piles of them. Like I say, life was great before they got here, and it would be fine if they were wiped out again too. I simply don't care. Shoot the damned things if you want. Wipe them out if you can. It just doesn't matter.

I got blown out of the woods today. No problem with bugs, they were no where's around. Unfortunately I can say the same thing about the deer. I think they were hugging the ground to keep from blowing away. If I go out in the wind, I probably should take a helmet with me. The acorns are trying to knock me out.

By the time hunting season rolls around, fawns may still be nursing, but should not be dependent on milk. I will say that every time they keep shoving hunting seasons ahead, I have to wonder if they aren't getting into a timeframe where late fawns might begin to get into jeopardy when you take out the mother. But, you may not always have a choice. The fawns are not always with the doe. You may take a doe that you thought was barren, only to find that she was nursing. The only way to avoid that scenario is to not take any does. That's not a choice that I would be making.

One thing I never could do with a straight face was to try to convince people that I hunt to control deer populations. I do not go out with a mindset that today I am going to engage in population control. My hunting has to do with putting away some venison, and with matching wits with what I consider one of the more formidable competitors of the woods. And there is also an attitude of a self-sufficiency, heritage and cultural element to my hunting. But while population control is not a motivator, it definitely is a by-product of what I consider my natural predatory set of genetics. And I completely consider man to be part of the meat-eating predatory members of the animal kingdom. I don't apologize for that and I don't pretend that I hunt as some benevolent act of conservation. Conservation is simply a natural outcome of my recreational hunting. But it doesn't do any harm to explain the beneficial aspects of hunting and what the negative consequences are if there were no hunters as long as you don't rely 100% on that aspect for changing minds. People can see right through that.

Didn't see anything this morning and with these leaves coming down like rain, ground sign is getting hard to spot. I'm heading back out in a few minutes and cover some more area. Sure is quiet walking in these wet leaves.

What I find frustrating are those who shrug their shoulders and say, "Yup it is a vote buying scheme but as long as I am a recipient it's ok". Apparently we have some Cuomo apologists who are content to justify any kind of corrupt campaign practices. And then back up that justification by pointing to another liberal who allegedly did the same thing. Apparently as long as there is a precedent for dirty politics, it is therefore ok from now until forever. Sorry, but you can't simply drape a "family oriented" label over corrupt campaign practices and call that ok. There is nothing "family oriented" about voter bribery. And I am still trying to figure out why those that have kids feel that they alone have been the victims of over taxation. There seems to be some selective memory going on about the per child income tax credits that I personally have not seen in a good many years, and some people never have seen at all. I have no problem with people accepting the taxpayer funded bribe money that Cuomo insists on shoving their way, as long as you don't try to concoct some wacky justification for it.

I received an e-mail from Canada that had an interesting take on a few issues. A little creative editing to Americanize the message, turned out that the ironies pointed out for Canada apply equally to the U.S. These three statements tell you a lot about our government and our culture: 1. We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works. 2. We constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about welfare running out of money? What's interesting is the first group "worked for" their money, but the second didn't. 3. The Welfare Dept. is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free money ever. Meanwhile, the various departments of natural Resources across the country, ask us "Please Do Not Feed the Animals." The stated reason for this policy is because "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves." That ends Today's Lesson On Irony

Anti-hunters are a peculiar breed who like to believe that they are a super evolved, enlightened, superior version of humanity who have risen above the barbaric level of the low-brow hunting version of humanity. Just like any other pretentious person, they have concocted this self-deluded vision of themselves as being examples of the very best that humanity has to offer. Things like logic and cold facts really will not change their needed views of self-importance. So I seldom engage them in these kinds of discussions. Their mindset will never be changed because it would involve them admitting that this concocted self image has been totally off the mark. That is not likely to happen. Their entire personality is based on that delusion.

I have seen more people wearing blaze orange in small-game season in recent years. I think they are the smart ones. In fact I am considering adding some blaze orange to my bowhunting clothing.

Yeah, I have seen kids basically grow up without a father simply because of more dedication to work than their own family. I know that you can really get caught up in that sort of mentality where you think your whole life is measured by what happens at work. But when you reach my age, and get a chance to look back at your life, some perspective comes to light. When you tally up what that feeling of self-importance has cost you to lose, you start realizing that your family has gone through a lot of events and changes and growth that went right on by without notice. Somewhere along the line some sense of balance has to be applied, or you will get up one morning and wonder where the hell life went, and what exactly happened while you placed all measures of importance on the job alone.