Doc

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.

Are any of the trails mowable with a rider? A riding lawnmower can move a lot of weeds, leaves and small twigs without a single step. You could do an awful lot of trails in just one day, if they are stump and rock free.

I would not be surprised to see Pataki as the Republican nominee. He is the typical candidate that the Republicans usually manage to put forth. Always seems to wind up with a choice between the lesser of two evils. I have not had an opportunity to become excited about a candidate since Reagan and before him it was Goldwater. The rest have been warmed over libs who spoke a good conservative line, who never walked the walk.

This is probably all you have to know about Pataki: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/10/nyregion/pataki-signs-nation-s-strictest-gun-controls.html Pataki Signs Nation's Strictest Gun Controls By RICHARD PEREZ-PENA Published: August 10, 2000 At a place best known as a scene of random, irrational violence, Gov. George E. Pataki today signed into law the strictest gun controls in the country. The governor presided over an emotional ceremony at the Merillon Avenue train station, a few yards from where Colin Ferguson fatally shot six people aboard a Long Island Rail Road train almost seven years ago. A crowd of gun control advocates, state legislators of both parties and people who have lost spouses or children to gun violence cheered as Mr. Pataki put his signature on a bill that many of them said they never expected to see enacted. Alfredo Valentin has campaigned for gun controls since his son and a friend were shot to death in the Bronx six years ago. His voice choking, he said, ''Maybe, maybe today I have meaning.'' Mr. Pataki said of the new law, ''We hope this serves as a national model. We hope other states follow.''

The district covers Monroe and Ontario Counties.

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.