Doc

I am always curious about the supposed motivation that the DEC would have for suppressing evidence of mountain lions. What purpose would they have for denying the existence of any species in NY? I know how much fun conspiracy theories are, but really doesn't there have to be some good believable motivations behind a good conspiracy theory? Seriously.... can anyone explain what value it is to the DEC to deny the existence of mountain lions in NYS if they didn't sincerely believe that the sightings were complete hog-wash?

One other observation that I have made is that going to areas that are distant or hard to get to do not guarantee isolation from gobs of hunters. There seems to be a health and fitness craze going on now that makes a lot of guys relish long and strenuous hunts. We have a hill that is ugly-steep and yet, unbelievably it is laced with mountain-bike trails everywhere .... on the side of the hill .... on the top and on the bottom. I have seen joggers during the bow season prancing by in the middle of the top of the hill. The bikers pretty much can cover everything up there as they travel in packs, hollering back and forth. What used to be semi-wilderness, now has a bit of a Coney Island atmosphere to it .... lol. Yes, things in the state land are changing rapidly as hunters lose ground to the lands they used to hunt in pretty much ideal isolated conditions. So, there are cases where no matter how far in you want to go, you may still encounter interruptions in your hunt, and a herd that is predominantly nocturnal because of all the crazy raucous commotion during daylight hours.

It's not always about just distance. I get about a mile off the road, but that mile is a pretty ugly climb. I won't say that it's hands-and-knees kind of steep, but it sure makes that mile seem a whole lot longer to those that are tempted to get up there. Also, there are areas down in the valley that are right next to the road that have some pretty good deer that hang out there. A lot of that does not get hunted because of the thick multi-flora rose that has taken over. The whole area is basically a "man-trap". Guys walk right on past that stuff and won't even attempt to hunt in that crap. Some of these areas are great deer sanctuaries when the orange army invades the woods. For those that want to take the time to find or cut trails through that stuff to get to some of the more open areas on the insides, some pretty productive areas can be hunted. So it is more than just distance that gets you away from other hunters and into the deer.

Yup, just about anywhere is a better business environment that NY. Of course those that are looking for the absolute best business environment are not stopping at the country's borders. That probably is all the more reason that we should not be intimidating our last remaining businesses into picking up and bailing out. I don't suppose that Remington really had any burning need to vacate NY, but when you create a hostile environment to their products, they likely figured the time was right to just go for it.

http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activities/scary-campfire-stories.page-1.html

I always have a super tough time making recommendations to beginners. So much changes in those initial weeks of shooting. First of all your strength takes a rapid increase in just a few weeks of concentrated shooting, so you really don't know what poundage you want to start with. Your personal draw length will change as you begin to develop a more relaxed shooting form. Anchors will evolve as you find what feels most comfortable and repeatable. With so much that is likely to change, I would hesitate to invest a big pile of money until you have been shooting for a while. If you go with the big bucks, you may find yourself compromising on shooting form, trying to make your form fit some expensive bow that you have bought. Honestly, if you have an opportunity, I would borrow a bow from somebody for the first couple of weeks of shooting, before dropping a ton of cash. Get used to the drawing and aiming process. Get some development of the archery muscles, and I think you will have a better shot at buying a quality bow that fits you.

Here are some pictures that kind of set the mood for hunting for me: And here is one place you hope you will never see the blood trail go beyond. Past there is about 200' straight down: But first comes the archery practice: And of course practice for gun season: And then a look back at hunting in my younger years when deer camp was a bit more rustic: Yeah, these pictures generally get me in a hunting mood. Too bad I never seem to take any pictures of small game hunting. That is really my next hunting venture for this year.

I have a very lightweight aluminum folding stool that can be put in my backpack. I had to laugh at that title, "Getting comfortable in the ground". I may be getting on in age, but I hope I am not ready to be getting comfortable in the ground. When that day comes, I would guess that my folding aluminum stool won't really do it ..... lol.

Yes, perhaps they were and perhaps they weren't. Possibly, maybe, could be, perhaps, might have. Well, we don't have to use those guess words with Cuomo's actions do we?

Just another screw-job of hunters by the DEC. All they did was to transfer the printing costs to the hunters. Those guys that don't have computers will just have to guess at what they think the regs say. Granted there may not be many, or maybe there are.

I was looking at the piebald hide that somebody posted a picture of. And then a thread came out about a bear hide. And there have been other posts about taxidermy and mounted foxes and such. It all made me think that perhaps some here might have some neat looking dens or man-caves or trophy rooms. I have a lot of free space downstairs that maybe could be converted to such a room. I even have an unused fireplace down there. I also have some mounts and other items of taxidermy laying all over the house in places that simply were not furnished or designed for that décor. So I was hoping that some guys might have some pictures that I might use as examples as I continue to think about how I would design such a space.

So how many of you have a dedicated trophy room, or a den that features mounts, hunting and fishing stuff? Just a nice room of your own to retreat into that is decorated to put you in a nice, relaxed, outdoorsy atmosphere and frame of mind. Any pictures?

A lot of my still-hunting is hard to tell from "sitting". I walk a very short distance and then sit and scan everything (and I do mean everything!) with my binoculars. It can take me between 15 minutes to 1/2 hour just to check out every log and stump and dip and bush. And then its an ultra-slow forward motion for about 50 yards or whatever I judge gives me a new look at a new area. The difficulty that a lot of novice still-hunters have is that they are looking for a deer silhouette or large parts of a deer outline instead of an ear or an antler tine or the smallest part of a deer. You are indeed hunting a deer that has nothing to do all day but watch for the danger that they are already aware of. One quick pass of the eye over the landscape in front of you usually isn't going to hack it unless you are counting on luck. It is not an easy style of hunting, but is very effective when deer have survived opening day and refuse to move.

That was a pretty amazing seat these people had to watch the show. A live performance right in front of their window.

What a tough decision. I have no idea whether I would like the meat or not. I probably would not really want to spend the money on a mount. I have no place for a bear rug. To my knowledge, we really don't have a huntable population in the immediate vicinity, and I wouldn't feel real good about shooting something that I don't feel exists in sustainable numbers yet. Maybe the decision isn't so tough. The answer comes out to be a "I would let it pass".

I was wondering how anyone was going to get a milk can off of a bear's head. It was just a case of having the right equipment and the right guy to use it .... lol. Good for him!

Gun season: Opening day is an all day sit (dark to dark). There's a lot of hunters tramping in and out of the woods. Deer are caught off-guard, and there are a lot of deer moving through some of the favorite escape routes. From that point on it is all still hunting. In our area, hunters all but disappear after opening day. The few that come out, sit all day. Since the deer are now in super-survival mode, they are nocturnal in their movements. And so you have deer sitting all day in their favorite sanctuaries. You have a small number of hunters sitting all day wherever they think will produce, and you have nobody getting the deer up out of their beds and moving. Under those conditions I have no choice but to engage the "you go to them" mode of hunting. I generally do pretty good, because I have hunted the same ground for enough decades to pretty well understand where the spots are that they consider safe. Another nice feature of the still-hunting is that I get to sleep in until I wake up without an alarm clock. I have a nice leisurely breakfast and get out there when I get out there.....lol.

Are we really going to start criticizing every topic selection now? Seriously, if the subject does not interest you, simply don't access it. Or better yet, start your own topics of whatever you think is worthy of discussion.

To be honest, I have never read anything about deer not being able to see blaze orange. No, if you put blaze orange on, you are not "invisible". No, they do not see it as we do, but I haven't seen any evidence that it does not grab their attention quicker when movement is involved than other more subdued and less "flashy", reflective colors. Has anybody ever heard or read that claim from any credible source? My take is that I don't really care whether they see it or not when there are guys out there that are shooting long distance projectiles at anything that they can somehow misinterpret as a deer. With a gun, I can take precautions to keep my movements super slow and down to minimum to take care of any added attention getting colors. But if I am out there in any gun-deer season without blaze orange (and plenty of it), there are very few precautions that I can take that will stop a bullet. That's a little more important to me than whether I happen to spook an occasional deer once in a blue moon.

Carrion eaters have to eat too. Assuming it is not in somebody's lawn of in the middle of a footpath, or along the side of the road, leave it there for the critters. Whether the location is appropriate or not is a judgment call. When in doubt, move it out of sight.

Not yet.

If I hadn't have had a stroke a bunch of years back, I wouldn't even own the primitive cell phone that I carry now. It is never turned on except to check the battery. Nobody including myself knows what the phone number of it is.....lol. It is only an emergency item that my wife makes me carry. Hunting is a way to get away from all the constant wired up lifestyle that we are all forced into these days. Hiking, hunting, fishing, etc. for me are solitary activities and purposely so.

I don't think it happens very often that any animal dies peacefully in its bed one night. Mother nature is a ruthless game manager, and I suspect that the most likely ending comes by being weakened by age to the point where you cannot elude the predators anymore. Or it can be a lingering disease due to health difficulties. But I doubt there are really many critters that simply curl up and die quickly and peacefully in their sleep. I have had dogs and cats that we have eventually had to put down because of age related problems that were causing all kinds of misery and pain. It was the humane thing to do. I think I would not hesitate to shoot a deer because it was getting old. In fact while it may not really be my true motivation, it could be considered the "kind" thing to do given the alternative ends that the critter would likely come to.

Most of the time, you would swear there is not a mature buck on the place. But then there are those occasional trailcam pics that show otherwise. So, I have no way of assessing the age classes in my hunting area with any real credibility. Also, there are those phantom bucks that just show up out of nowhere. Have they been there all along, or are they just passing through? And then there is that monster rub that belongs to a deer you've never seen. The valley where I hunt is a huge area of unbroken woods and hills. Who knows what all lives there....lol.

There is no question that deer have different tolerance levels to different situations and conditions. I have had deer walk 60 yards across an open field toward me because they saw something they could not identify. In that situation, I probably could have been wearing a flashing neon sign and the deer probably would have walked even closer .... lol. That does not mean that they can't see you, or that in a hunting situation, bright clothing does not amplify attention getting movement. Like I said, deer may not always be able to interpret color, but they do understand movement. And if you are wearing something that draws attention to your movements, you had better do it with extreme caution if you are going to get away with it. I'm not saying it can't be done, but when wearing clothing with nearly fluorescent properties, it's not the sort of thing you are going to consistently get away with.