Doc

Yes, it has happened that I have headed out the door without my back tag (southern zone) which was still fastened to another warmer weather garment from the day before .... lol..

I'm not real big on moving shots, and that is regardless of whether the deer is moving, or I am moving. It's not really a concern for me anymore. I've evolved into a ground dweller and came out of the trees a few decades ago.....lol.

Use rubber gloves and there probably won't be any problems as long as you don't go banging it around on stuff. The main thing is to keep crud away from it.

Use the TIPP line to report this violation. http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/393.html It is anonymous if you specify it to be. Which I would suggest you do. The DEC cannot be everywhere or see everything, so they rely on conscientious people to report what they see. On the other hand, it seldom is useful to start neighbor wars (nobody wins at that) so the anonymous reporting will take care of this. Don't be leaving notes, or making phone calls, or making visits to the neighbor, or inserting yourself into the middle of something that could blow up in your face. That is why they have the anonymous option.

I like the computer reporting. Straight forward, simple, and I get a print-out that proves I did it in case that were ever to come into question.

Of course we need to do the best we can within the limits of practicality. I have a copy of the Environmental Conservation Law of New York for the years of 1984-1985. It is 3" thick and is some very dense, smallish print that I'm sure almost all hunters have never laid eyes on. That's what it looked like 30 years ago. so I can imagine what it is like today. Couple that with the fact that almost every line can have multiple interpretations depending on the ECO, Judge, or the outdoor enthusiast, and I think it is a fair thing to say that the very best that anyone outside the business of enforcement can do probably isn't anywhere near enough to protect him from stepping over the line regardless of how well intentioned he is. So, when we have people hired to be experts on this stuff, it is entirely reasonable to expect that you will get an answer that is better than a shrug of the shoulders and an, "I don't know" as an answer. When some of the penalties can involve thousands of dollars and the confiscation of hundreds or thousands of dollars of equipment, it sure would be nice to have an LEO offer some kind of answer to a question regarding their area of expertise when asked.

Imagine the challenge of finding that one small spot where an animals foot will be, given the thousands of acres where you may be trapping. Yes, you do have to know something to be able to find or arrange that scenario. There is more woods-lore involved in that, and more expertise required regarding the knowledge of the life habits of critters than all the hunting knowledge combined. It doesn't involve predicting the location of the prey within 20 yards of a bowshot or 100 yards of a shotgun or the 200 yards of a rifle. It involves knowing the precise 2" that it will step on overnight.

The term is used either as a point of derision, or simply a statement of fact that the time of the season has arrived where some venison (any venison) has to be taken. I have been there, and I make no apologies for basically saying that it is time to take a deer, any deer. I hold out for bigger deer until it is obvious that I am not going to have my annual fix of venison. At that point the goals change.

So the unfeeling, cruel and heartless hunter card that the anti's are constantly playing got trumped by you. Good for you. A clear demonstration that often the hunter's bullet or arrow is the least unkind ending for wild critters. No guarantees, but the most likely scenario would been that the deer would have died a slow lingering death of disease, starvation, or being eaten alive, a piece at a time. I think it was lucky to have encountered someone who was kind enough to do the right thing. Oh, and by the way, like someone already has said, even if the fawn had been perfectly ok, if you had decided to take it, there would have been nothing wrong with that either.

Good video! Not sure that I agreed with every minute of it, but they did try to take on some very controversial aspects of why we hunt. Measures of success, and the thought processes that hunting brings to our personalities are very individual, and do cause controversy where perhaps there shouldn't be any. But what the video did jump over was the elements of the human thought process that causes these controversies to be so deep seated and entrenched. Individual experiences, traditions, family influences and personal goals all pull us in different directions. It's never as simple as saying, "Can't we all just get along?" There are many things about hunting that come from so deep within us that the answer really is, "Yes we can co-exist, but no, we probably can never really put ourselves into the exact same mindset as the next hunter". So, coexistence may very well be the very best we can even hope for.

And so, what chance does a hunter, fisherman or trapper have. I always have suspected that everytime anyone goes out hunting, fishing or trapping, they likely are breaking some law that they didn't have a clue existed, or that they have misinterpreted because of sloppy wording and ambiguity. We seem to be constantly "set up" by the legal system. However, we do look to enforcement officers to be an authority on the legal code they are enforcing. If they are not, they are not doing their job.

I prefer a ground blind pulled together with natural local materials. I have been down out of the trees for a couple of decades now.

Or better yet, how about he says, "I'm not sure but hang on a second while I call regional headquarters and get an answer for you." There really is no excuse for any law enforcement officer to not know what it is that he is supposed to be enforcing. And at the very least, there should never be a situation where he cannot almost instantly get the proper interpretation with a simple phone call.

Any other success stories?

A spike

Ok, so some hunter sees you walking through the woods with a full-size body draped over your shoulder. I wonder how long it would be before the cops arrived....lol.

I understand that there can be some growing pains when a new law is being implemented. But, I would think that an agency charged with the responsibility of enforcing laws would be staffed with people who are experts on every aspect of that law. There are things that can be done in parallel and don't always have to be done in series, so there is no reason why you should ever get the "I don't know" answer. These guys should be fully up to speed by now. Even if they have to carry around a cheat sheet for a few weeks, or carry a phone number to an expert, an answer should never be more than a few moments away. My gosh, if those guys don't have the answers, how on earth is a hunter supposed to abide by the law. That's ridiculous.

And if they have a gut shot to contend with and wait the prescribed 8 hours before even beginning the long difficult blood trailing in the 80+ degree temperatures, I wonder how many of them are simply left for coyote food when they finally find them .... lol

Yes sir..... I think that is next year and will be located near Eastview Mall. Were going to be the hunting outlet center of the state ... lol. Add that to Dicks offering and life will be mighty fine around here. Imagine the competition. The only guys that I feel sorry for are the outfits like Beikirch's and the small mom and pop gun stores and such. They definitely will take a hit.

Slight side-step off the topic, but ...... Something that I always wondered was why the state doesn't rent out some of the tillable land on state wildlife management lands to local farmers for free? ....... instant free food plots for deer and all the other critters. Sounds like a win-win situation for everybody and everything. Looking at the rents posted here on some of this land, farmers would likely jump at the offer.

So after the fiasco of trying to blow leaves out of the yard in a mini-hurricane, I decided to head up to Henrietta to look over the new Field and Stream store. I liked it. Prices are pretty standard....they're not giving things away. The selections are good-ish. Much, much better that the joke nearby called Gander Mountain. The reloading component selections where actually pretty decent even though they didn't have the Hornady .270, 150 gr., SSTs that I am looking for. They seemed to have everything else. They could have supplied a better selection of brass. It's a nice looking store, with shooting facilities for archery equipment (try before you buy). They have a huge selection of guns. Trapping supplies, boots, clothing, boating, fishing, blah-blah.... all the things that you would expect in a well stocked outdoor store. I'll be back. Gander Mountain is now dead to me .... lol.

Can you imagine something going wrong and you get a gut-shot when they are calling for 80+ degrees? Oh yeah, along with that, yesterday the wind was doing a kind of hurricane thing. You have to look for those deer that are hugging the ground with their hooves dug into the dirt. By the way, I did get the lawn cut and carefully blew the leaves out of the yard. Before I was done, there were more leaves that had fallen all over the lawn than when I started. That worked well.

Nice looking day, but I'm ready for a day off, and this is it. With 80+ degrees, I really don't trust that I can shoot, find and transport a deer without danger of spoilage. Yes if the deer leaves a bloodtrail that Ray Charles could have followed, it probably would work out ok. But I don't often have that kind of luck. So, things don't seem to be moving in this warmer weather here, and I have been thinking about taking a day off, and getting the lawn mowed and a few other chores that have been being ignored. Tomorrow sounds like pretty steady rain so Friday will be the next time out. I may do a bit of scouting today and whatever parts of tomorrow that are useable, to see what the heck is happening around.

A DR Trimmer is not an easy thing to use except under ideal, flat, and non-bumpy conditions. I have a lot of area up and down our 1000' driveway that can only be cut with the DR Trimmer, and I know what kind of effort that thing can require. My legs and back are always shot when I have to do that job. No, when I suggested mowing, I was thinking of a nice riding lawn mower. Great item for blowing leaves when it can be used.

Oh my gosh, there's that word compromise ....lol. That is code for dilute. Everytime I hear the term "moderate", all that comes to mind is some wishy-washy politician who does not have the courage of his convictions and doesn't want to be identifiable as having any attachment or association to any direction whatever. And as far as "getting things done", there has been way too much that has been "gotten done". It really is time to start "undoing". A little bit of Conservatism would be a good direction to at least try for a while.