Doc

I will reserve judgement for a season or two. I want to see if the bow season becomes a hunt for nocturnal deer that are already in the survival mode that deer get into after the first day of traditional gun seasons. That of course will depend on how many people take advantage of the early gun season and the resulting pressure. I am also wondering how the mountain bikers and the hikers on the state land will take this ever creeping deer season. Usually they flee the woods when the guns start. I also hope that those non hunters are smart enough to wear the required hunter-orange clothing. I don't believe that the legal requirement of orange (or pink) applies to non hunters. As to myself, I doubt that I will take advantage of this new season. I do not enjoy feeling that trickle of sweat working its way down the middle of my back, or the whining sound of mosquitos when I am try trying to listen for incoming deer. Also trying to feverishly keep the flies from laying maggot eggs on the gutted deer before I can get it to a cooler of some sort cannot be a lot of fun. I also am concerned about the heavy full foliage on everything from the ground up. The deer are hard enough to see even after the leaves all come down. The same concern applies to safety issues of not being able to see other hunters, even those wearing blaze orange and that includes the concerns I have of being seen by other hunters with rifles when full foliage is still on the trees and bushes. I think a lot of these concerns are shared by other hunters or may become their concerns once they have tried a September hunt. So, like I say, the jury is still out. It is one of those things where we will have to wait and see how it all works out before I can argue for it or against it. Unfortunately once something lke that becomes law, it take an act of God to get rid of it. But we'll see.

Yes, most of my first sensing that there is a deer coming in is the sounds. My hunting has suffered because of carelessness in protecting my hearing. There are so many items in life that can attack your hearing. The radio is one, and then there is the chainsaw, and lawn mower and of course shooting, and so many other things that can gradually kill your hearing. My hard of hearing condition didn't happen with any one thing. It ha been an accumulation of things that gradually eroded my hearing to the point where I am considering a hearing aid. But the one thing that I have noticed is that old guys like me tend to not wear them most of the time. I kind of wonder if there is something irritating about them. I have heard complaints about background noise that they pick up. I don't know. I have yet to experience any of that for myself, but there sure seems to be some reason why so many people spend gobs of money on the things and then leave them in a drawer at home.

So when are the DEC signs going to be put up on state land that allows firearms for hunting?

Now that is the kind of treestand that I should have. With my fear-of-heights thing, I would feel real comfy in that thing.

I had a massive bowhunting data base that tracked deer sightings (from stands and anywhere on the way to and from the stands). I logged the areas of the sightings, weather, deer gender with a notation about those that I could not identify, hunting style (standing, still hunting, or just walking to and from the stand), time of day, date, results of the sighting even if I didn't even shoot, direction the deer were traveling. Every stand had a complete history when I used them. I could sort the results by almost any feature that I wanted that gave a pretty good picture of deer movements throughout the season. It also told me what stands were the most productive given the date and wind direction and other weather related data. It was a lot of fun and very useful.......... in the short-term. I stopped when I realized that all that data eroded with the passage of time. Over the nearly three decades, there was a huge ice storm that buried traditional heavy deer trails and significantly changed patterns. A mountain bike club established a thick network of bike trails that also were used by hiking groups and individuals. Hunting pressure had some impact as bowhunting became more popular. Some areas were developed for residences, open fields turned into impenetrable thickets which also impacted deer movements. It seemed that the data collected was only valid for a few years at a time. That realization made me end the log. It still has value as a kind of memoir thing as the data collected was so complete it was like a story about each deer hunt and sighting. It brings back a lot of great memories. But as a predictive tool, it just doesn't remain current. It was all fun, but in the end did not live up to what I was trying to do with it. It's too bad because you would think that 30 years of deer patterns and history of a particular hunting area would be a valuable thing. In this case it did not turn out to be true.

Would that be considered to be a "high shot capacity assault-crossbow" by our politicians?

I have heard all the arguments against lead bullets and lead shot, and am not certain that I agree with any of as being significant. I am certain that this bill is just another in a long list of hunter harassment laws that have become so popular in NYS. Many of us hunters have accumulated significant stocks of ammo, some representing many long hours of reloading. The anti hunters and anti-gun forces would like to strip us of any stocks of ammo and have us begin reloading all over again, especially now that ammunition has become scarce, even some of the components. This particular law is nothing more than another way to frustrate people out of the activity of hunting.

I am not afraid of changing patterns of deer with a few walk-throughs now. I am just not sure how valid any info gathered now will be when the fall arrives and deer have changed patterns because of completely different food sources or the coming of rut or other changes in the conditions and environment that shape the ever-changing deer patterns.

So there is a related question that comes to mind. Those that would not shoot a trophy in your lawn, does that thought change at all if we are talking about a food plot? Any problem with shooting a deer that has been lured to a food plot?

So I sit here reading all these so-called facts and figures from all our resident oil industry tycoons without a word about sources. Please excuse me if I happen to question the validity of it all. I can only go by the very public video clips of Biden declaring war on the fossil fuel industry. Guess who are the most likely victims of that kind of declaration of war. Why didn't he just declare war on the American economy.

It all gets real simple for me: Trump- Energy independence, a stable border, excellent economy, my retirement funds growing like crazy, none of this out-of-control woke nonsense coming from the presidency.........Life was good! Biden and his merry band of Democrats- disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, wide open border that is now controlled by the drug cartels, crime at ridiculous levels and climbing, inflation with recession a certainty, all time record prices of gas and we haven't even seen what will be happening to fuel oil yet with these ridiculous energy policies. My retirement funds are taking a huge hit with no relief in sight. Oh, and in case people want to give all Dems other than Biden a pass, Remember that Pelosi and her merry band of Democrats have voted for all of these irresponsible spending bill through both houses. I'll take Trump and common sense policies any day over the crazy Democrats that pass all kinds of crazy screwed up spending bills.

I never saw any sense in measuring or recording deer or deer scores. Is there really any benefit to doing that? My hunting has become simply a contest between me and the deer that I hunt. None of it is done for the benefit of anyone else. Sure, I will join into hunting discussions with other hunters when it comes up, but measuring antlers for bragging rights simply is not something I want to get involved with. My hunting is an experience, not a competition with anyone but the deer.

What is an *OXBOW*?

Quite often, comfort makes the difference on whether you stay in the stand or leave early (just as the deer begin to move). I love some of the examples of what you guys plant your rump on while on stand. My problem is that I hunt a lot of public land and have to carry out whatever I carry in. That makes size and weight an important consideration. I generally stuff a small aluminum and canvas folding stool into my back pack, and that serves the purpose of being able to get off my feet when I need to. It weighs just about nothing and is very compact. I like the looks of that backpack chair shown above. I also see the value in having the ability to pivot or swivel. Deer have a habit of coming in from unpredictable directions. Maybe I need to do some more thinking on what seat to take along.

I have to wonder what is learned from summer scouting other than just a general census of what the deer herd size looks like. Let's face it, the feeding habits vary wildly in the fall from what they are like now. Food sources are what drives the deer movements, and the food sources are totally different right now from what they will be when the season rolls around. Of course, the way we are driving season openers earlier and earlier, perhaps the variations may not be as different as it used to be. I have seen smoking hot summer trails go stone cold when the leaves and temperatures begin to fall. I have seen the growth of farm crops effect deer movements. I have seen the ripening of fruit trees move deer patterns. And then there is rut which trashes everything that might be learned right now. There are other seasonal changes that put summer scouting in question. So, I have to ask, what useful info for fall hunting can be relied on from the movements that you see in the summer.

Over the years, I have had some pretty impressive deer wander into the yard and start grazing during the open season, and I have always refused to shoot them. I guess it does violate some idea of what hunting is to me. It feels like taking advantage of conditioned animals. Almost like shooting pets.......lol. But I always wondered if I was being dumb. Sometimes these incidents happen during seasons that have not really been all that exciting. I do feel a little silly giving deer a pass just because they happen to use my lawn to feed on. But then too, I have to wonder if I had a "food plot", would the situation really be any different. I was just curious what the attitude of others is.

Thanx everybody for the info.

They are a mixture.

My biggest fear is that Republicans and Conservatives and Independents will all assume that a Republican victory is a foregone conclusion and will not feel it necessary to vote. We have a habit of doing foolish things like that. This next mid-term election is so important for putting the brakes on Biden's assault on our country, we cannot afford to fall to over-confidence and apathy.

Along with the corroded rifle ammunition, I also acquired a couple of boxes of nasty looking shotgun slugs that are definitely throw-aways. I want to dispose of it in a way that is safe. Throwing them in the garbage does not seem really safe for the trash pick-up guys so I was wondering what is the best way of disposing of loaded and primed slugs. Is there a recommended way to dispose of ammo?

But the real question is, will there be anything left for Trump to save? Can we survive 2 more years of Biden?

I recently acquired a whole lot of ammo that had been in storage for a long time. There are hundreds of rounds of .22 ammo, and some lead balls for a muzzleloader. The problem is that the lead is kind of corroded with a white outer layer. Will this corrosion affect the bullet performance or the gun barrel in which they are fired? Is there a way to clean the corrosion off the lead?

What if a buck that you considered to be a trophy was grazing on your lawn during season. And let's assume you lived out in the country where you could legally shoot. Would you slide open a window and shoot it?

I have to admit that bow season starts a bit too early for me. I hate battling the bugs. And the excessive heat that usually comes with such an early start. Also, opening up a deer with the heat and the flies all over the place is a bit nasty if you are not super-fast at getting the deer into a cooler real quick. Besides, the fishing is still good that time of year, and summers are so busy, that I am usually looking for some time along the lakes and creeks.

I am not against electric powered vehicles either, as long as I am not waiting 40 minutes for one to charge, or my house doesn't burn down while I am waiting for the batteries on the fire trucks to charge up. I just want to know all the angles on these things before we start pricing fossil fuels out of existence. Doesn't that seem like a much more rational approach than declaring war on fossil fuels and hoping for the best without knowing all the facts and limitations of the arbitrarily mandated switch over. The other thing that no one seems to want to talk about is the percentage of homes that are heated with fuel oil. And how about the idea of declaring war on the primary ingredient in every plastic part manufactured? The list of questions and potential deadfalls involved in covering our eyes and hoping that we get lucky and some miracle occurs that solves all of the potential unintended consequences.