Doc

These eastern coyotes really do have the appearance features of wolves. None of that gangly look of those scrawny pictures you see from out west. Our coyotes are very "blocky" and solid looking......like a wolf.

I don't buy the "visual pollution" argument .... lol. Posted signs are intended to convey a message. In most cases more is better. It really is limited only by the amount of cash the landowner has to spend. Nothing says, "I really mean it" like a posted line that is over-posted. If someone wants to add emphasis by using extra signs, I fully understand and sympathize with them. There are some places where people make of habit of working up bogus arguments about how they didn't see the signs,

"I have a general rule where at any point along the line, I can always see at least 3 signs at a time. The one in front of me and one on the right and one on the left. No one can ever claim that they did not see one of my signs."

We used to have a couple of high horses. Or maybe they just looked high because I was little at the time. I suppose low horses don't count .....eh?

I have gone with the Voss aluminum yellow background with black lettering and with my name and address stamped on from the seller. They are well over 30 years old. Here is some of what I have learned about posting: Go with a material that holds up the longest (aluminum in my opinion). Back each sign with a board. I used pressure-treated plywood. Nail the wood-backed signs to mature trees where possible. Younger trees, especially soft woods will grow quite a bit in a few years and pull the attaching nails through the sign. Leave the nails out from the face of the sign by about 1/4" to allow room for the tree to grow. Do not be cheap with the placement of the signs. I have a general rule where at any point along the line, I can always see at least 3 signs at a time. The one in front of me and one on the right and one on the left. No one can ever claim that they did not see one of my signs. Do it right and you will only have to do it once (with an occasional walk around to replace a few signs that someone has destroyed).

If you have read all the stuff that you have already bought, you are probably well equipped to make good choices. Of course nothing can compare to knowing someone who already successfully reloads who is interested in helping you out. Many times you can read something that may not be written the clearest in the world and come away with some bogus conclusions. If you don't know someone that reloads already, It might actually be a good idea to be looking for a local gun club to join. Nothing can beat personal guidance in methods and procedures, and having someone to ask questions of as they come up.

Ha-ha .... Nice try, but after 31 pages, I really doubt there is any resuscitating this one.

I think this kind of stuff is amazing. I love fooling around with Mother Nature. It will be interesting to see how this experiment works out.

By the way.... What did you guys think of the way those coyotes ate up that deer just overnight? They must have one heck of a lot of coyotes in that area.

I've got the scions cut and in the refrigerator.

Actually, I suppose that is why rattling works. Those curious goats can't help themselves and have to go watch a good fight. Actually, I have seen videos of 3-way buck fights where one of the observer bucks decided to get in there and try to kick the butts of the original two. These guys are not the meek little fuzzy cute critters that most people think they are. Apparently they are not always just interested in kicking competitive bucks out of their territory, but actually get into a killing frenzy at times.

Millers is out of business and the name is now owned by Stark Brothers. Hopefully the quality of product will still be as good as it was when Millers was supplying the product. Too bad, Millers was just a couple of hills over from me, and I used to be able to drive over and see the product before buying.

You're absolutely right ..... I already have more than my share of rust already.

Well, I guess I learned a lesson about the dangers of extreme cabin fever .... lol.

A couple of years back I put down a buck that I believe may have had his difficulties begin with a severe goring from a fight. My theory is that he was badly injured by a fight and then had further severe injuries added by a predator of some sort that left him laid up. It is my opinion that he would not have made in very far into winter, injured the way he was. Here is the part where I think some predator took over: That area of torn up meat around the back end is not the result of a botched gutting job....lol. That is the way he was when I shot him. But there are other wounds along his body that were definite puncture wounds.

What an amazing video! What an amazing hunt! Unbelievable. I wonder just how many of these deer-on-deer homicides take place each year....lol. Around here just a prolonged fight like that would take an awful lot out of a deer even if they both wound up walking away. With an impending winter coming up, that would have to make the survival of both deer questionable. Anyway, it made for one exciting video. I do wish the guy could have held that camera a little more steady, but with the excitement level, a little loss of camera control is certainly understandable....lol.

So, what is with that layer of ice across the top of the ground. The darned stuff is about an inch thick and harder than a bullet. I've never seen that sort of thing before. It's not everywhere, but anyplace even on a slight grade you are going down if you step on it, And when you put it on a steep hillside, there's no getting past it unless you detour around it. Anybody else have that on the ground or it that just a local thing here? And that stupid crust on the snow up on the hill has effectively shut that whole area off to wildlife. In our area, little weird things like this stuff at this later part of winter is starting to concentrate deer and other things down in the valley bottoms, and may turn out to be very tough on the critters. That snow crust and those areas of hard ice do not seem to be going away.

Lol .... I could have done that down here in the valley where the snow is just about gone.

Yeah, people are always telling me to go take a hike, so today that's what I did. I haven't been up on the hill in long time so I figured I would climb ol' Cardiac Hill, and see what's happening up there. Big mistake! There's hardly any snow down here in the valley, but as I kept going higher and higher, the snow kept getting deeper and deeper. First about 1/4 of the way up, I ran into ice. Hard thick and very smooth ice that had me down about 1/2 dozen times. Then thankfully there was enough snow on top of the ice so that I could climb the hill without falling on my face. Then the snow kept getting deeper and deeper, plus it had a crust that would support me until my full weight got on it and then break down with a spine shattering crash. By the way the noise that all this crunching made never once threatened to allow me to ever catch sight of any critters. It didn't matter anyway because the only critter dumb enough to go up there was me. I should have guessed that it wasn't going to get any better because there wasn't a single deer track above the half way up point. Well, I made it up to the top, but I can't for the life of me figure out exactly what I accomplished.

Hell, I've got enough "ripping" to go around, and there is never a situation where I will not take the opportunity to "rip" at the NYS sportsman's number one enemy..... Cuomo. He never gets a free pass from me regardless of what other issues may be present about this article. Is it first class journalism? ..... probably not. But,I suppose it may be a lot more info than the Governor and his lackey intended for public consumption since the press was barred from the meeting. I would like to know the purpose of that decision by the way. My feeling is that the Governor is out fishing for allies that he considers to be the movers and shakers of hunting politics. And of course why have a bought-and-paid-for DEC Commissioner if you don't use him for your political activities. No matter what was going on, you can rest assured that the Governor was looking for some political leverage out of it. My comment was just to point out that Martens is merely a Cuomo mouthpiece and that in all likelihood there was political motivation behind this meeting that was orchestrated by Martens' boss ..... Andy. Don't be looking to make anything more of it than that. This is election year, and Cuomo is a master politician. His every waking move is based on re-election at any cost. Oh and by the way, those that may be getting tired of me ripping on that piece of filth, Cuomo, should probably get used to it. I will not be letting up until he is replaced. And actually, I do not understand any gun owner who wishes to or even suggests that we should tread lightly on Andy's contempt for the 2nd Amendment. In my mind, the campaign against Cuomo is in full swing ..... right now!

Take a walk on just about any parcel of state land. You will be amazed at the plastic water bottles, zip-lock sandwich bags, candy wrappers, cans, and other forms of junk that people just tossed on the ground. Another type of trash that I can almost guarantee that I will find are these damned party balloons that people turn loose by the jillions. Apparently people assume that because they eventually go out of sight that they disappear and never come down.

Ok, It's real nice that the DEC Commissioner wants to hear from sportsmen, but the fact is that the Commissioner is a tool of the Governor. He is an appointee that serves at the pleasure of Cuomo, so asking for sportsmen's input on dictates of the Governor seems kind of like window-dressing only for the benefit of P.R. What exactly does anyone think might come of this that would be beneficial to the outdoor men and women. It is show-time!

Damn! That brings back childhood memories of when we used to head out to the feeder creeks of Canandaigua Lake. My Dad, Uncle, Cousin and myself. We filled buckets with smelt. We had about 8 different places we would go where cottagers left the creeks open for smelters. You can't do that anymore. Those places have long since been posted up and shut off to access. Probably the fault of the fishermen themselves. People can be such pigs.

I just wrote that down so I don't forget to tell my wife that idea. It really sounds good!

Every law is backed up with the promise of eventual force (violence) somewhere along the chain of reactions if not obeyed. Our entire society is built on that precept. If you act in a lawless fashion, somewhere along the legal reactions, someone will visit violence on you to force you to comply, or to take you out of society where you will be controlled. It's not a wonderful thought when you live in a society that celebrates independence and personal freedoms, but it is a fact of civilized living within the organization of a society. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where life would be if there was no threat of violent reaction to law breaking. All it takes is a 5 minute glance at the local news to understand that there are people in our society that need control and that control often requires some level of violent response to have any effect at all.