Doc

My guess is that 90% or better of bears that are taken occur in places that allow bear baiting. But here in NYS baiting of bears is illegal. So, since the number one method for taking bears is illegal here, I have to wonder what methods you guys use to do your bear hunting. Are bears repetitive enough in their movements that you can hunt them like whitetails....That is watching a know common bear trail, or trying the old bedding to feed habits? Or is it more likely that bear harvests are simply capitalizing on accidental targets of opportunity while deer hunting. What's the scoop? anybody figure out how to apply a bit of science into bear hunting?

Guys that go out looking for antlers will be having a great year for that activity if the winter keeps up without snow as it has so far. Right now would be a great time for that.....right?

One thing we seldom discuss is a subject that is so critical to our hunting. That is, what is the real wind direction. It seems pretty obvious a few feet from our face, but there aren't really any deer right there. So we whip out our little squeeze bottle of powder and give it a squirt and we can see what the wind is doing maybe 10 feet out. But where is the wind going beyond that. The trail that we are expecting to see the deer coming in on is 20 or 30 yards away from the stand. I have played with milkweed seeds a lot over the years, and noticed that those little white parachutes seem to defy gravity and can be seen floating on the breeze for about 25 yards or so.....More if your eyes are better than mine. And boy are there some eye-opening things that I have seen. I remember a lot of times back in the days when I used to get up in the treestands, and on damp days I would watch those seeds go out a few yards and then start heading for the ground. Well so much for any theories that just because we are elevated, our scent goes over the heads of the deer. The air gets heavy on damp days. But another nifty phenomenon was to watch the seed float out a handful of yards and then take a hard left or right. That's funny, at my stand it was a pretty steady "in my face" direction. Sometimes it is the work of some subtle thermals. Sometimes it is just some ground feature that funnels unseen air currents that have found a shallow ravine to follow or a thick stand of trees or bushes that can turn the wind around in a devastating direction that can ruin your hunt. Oh, and by the way I find it interesting that in this hill country the wind will reverse itself half-way through the afternoon hunt as the thermals reverse. Just when the deer begin to move.....isn't that nice. I live in hill country, and I have seen stands that were completely ruined by circling winds. And I have noticed that those trouble spots where the wind is always circling and changing are the favorite spots that the bigger deer like to travel through and hang out. I would really like to see more discussions here on things that you all have learned about wind direction behavior. I think it is a subject that seriously gets overlooked but is so critical to our hunting success.

Hunting seasons are coming to a close in this part of the state pretty darn soon. At my age, winter sports are not really all that interesting. I don't ice-fish anymore (there ain't no ice this year anyway that's fit to stand on). Can't start the garden. Damn! I'm starting to get kind of bored. What are all you guys doing to bust up the winter blahs?

Was this just a few hobby projects, or do you intend to do more for sale?

Did you keep track of how much time you have into them? It looks like you have plating cost to recoup too. How much is your time worth? What percent of profit do you expect? Are you thinking of producing many more of these? I think that if you can answer these questions you can probably come up with a value.

This reply is going get a bit lengthy I suspect, so please have patience with me. I tend to get a bit "wordy". Thank you so much for the video. I now know that my assumptions about the theory of this site have been correct. And I think this guy has done a great job of maximizing the theory that correlates the size of the vitals to the distance to the target. And like he said the theory is something that has been around for a heck of a long time. So if this theory has been around for decades (just in a different form), I have to wonder why most of today's hunting sites do not use the concept. Here's what I remember about my first encounter with the size/range concept. I think it was back in the 60's when someone came out with a sight that had three or so rings of certain selected diameters that represented the vertical distance from the back to the brisket of an average deer. One was for 20, the next one down was sized for that distance on a deer at 30 yards, and another for a deer at 40 yards. Sounded pretty slick. But bowhunters pretty quickly found that deer are not all the same size, and a slight difference in deer size made the difference between an arrow going into a wound area or a real kill area. That concept didn't last very many years and today you cannot even find that design on the market. The second area of skepticism that I have is regarding the convenient orange circle on the deer. It kind of like the deer you are sighting on is transparent. But the problem is that deer do not come with orange circles and they are not transparent. In the heat of the battle, you have to imagine exactly what the diameter of that vital area is. Not a close approximation, but an exact size because your range finding depends on an exact estimation of the size of the vitals on the featureless brown mass of the deer's body. Use his graphics and take away the orange circle that he conveniently provided. Not so precise anymore is it? Also look how close the tick-marks are vertically. a slight mistake in your estimation of the size of the vitals can have you using the 30 yard tick marks instead of the 20 yard tick marks. A third concern is that he shows the deer standing exactly at right angles to the hunter. What happens if the deer is quartering away? The width of the vital area changes and I would guess that while the diameter of the vital area has now changed, his ranged distance has not changed to compensate. Well, my remarks are all based on theory, and he has put a lot more time and energy into the design, so I would reserve any final conclusions for results from people like yourself who have actually put their money where their mouth is. So I am eagerly awaiting your actual field tests under actual field conditions. I am hoping you will keep us informed on how this site works out for you. I know that he has hunted up people that have successfully killed animals with this site, but we don't know how many people have complained of wounding an animal with a bad range estimation. I would rather take the word of someone like you who I'm sure will give us the straight scoop when you get a chance to try it out. If it works as advertised it will be the best thing since sliced bread.....lol.

I have noticed that over the past several years, I have seen a significant increase in hawks. Man, they are perched on the electric wires everywhere. I know that they are very effective predators of small game. Yes, they are a very effective control animal when it comes to mice and rats, but that all comes with a pretty high price in small game numbers.

And that is why it drives me crazy that I cannot understand how the "deer-size" range finding system is working where historically other attempts at using that theory theory have failed and are no longer available. Obviously there are people who are happy with it according to the testimonials so I became curious to see why this one is being accepted where others have failed. I guess I will remain skeptical and see if this one succeeds where past versions have not. I am not really in the market for a new sight anyway, but it does all make me curious as hell.

Don't be too quick to be discouraged. Right now the temperature is down to 26 and still dropping. We still got March to get through yet. But I do understand your concern. It's probably that pesky global warming.....right?

But no one has explained how you use a non-visible vital area as the size object to make the theory work. Also, the vital area on different sized deer varies immensely depending on the age and the size of the deer. This is not the first time that manufacturers have tried to use the size of the deer to guess the yardage. Back in the olden days (early 60's) there was a site that used the size of the distance between the back of the deer to the brisket, using properly sized ring sites. The theory didn't sell all that good back then, and they had tangible features on the deer to go by (the physical distance from the top of the deer's back to the bottom of the brisket). Maybe I'm being a bit too picky about the accuracy or I am just not really understanding the theory, but I know the size of the vitals can vary a whole bunch depending on deer size. I also am not crazy about using the size of the vital area that I cannot see because it id inside the deer. Maybe it is just a case of "close enough".

I've been all over their ads, and the only ball that I see is an imaginary basket ball that covers some non-visual vitals that you really can't see. I still don't get it. I sure still must be missing something here. The only thing that I can figure is you look at the deer and try to imagine the vitals inside of the deer, and then fit that hidden area between the "V" and which ever part that looks about right has to be the correct distance. Seems like a whole lot of guess-work and also relies on all deer being the same size (which they aren't). It bugs me that I can't understand the concept.

Oh wow! I never thought about the fruit trees being pushed ahead of what is healthy for the harvest. That could be a problem this year. But I wouldn't be surprised if it all turns around befor winter is over.

I kind of missed whatever it was that made people so upset that they had to throw in the towel and leave here. Frankly, I have been here pretty near to the very first days of this site, and I kind of enjoyed the fact that we had a spirited set of controversies here. It gets pretty boring when everybody sits around and agrees with each other. The kumbaya thing is not really suited for forums. For the health of hunting, and this site, I hope that this situation does not change the nature of this site as a place to debate and air out all differences. I think hunting, fishing trapping and all the outdoor activities that we talk about here need a good airing out to keep these activities on a balanced keel. And if a bit of passion shows its face here, I for one think that is a good thing. I always figured that outdoors-people were all mature enough and level-headed enough to discuss whatever subjects that come up without picking up our toys and going home. But apparently that is not the case with everybody.

Just finished some pretty aggressive pick and shovel work of about 4 hours, cleaning up the entrance to a new ATV road that I now have from a recent logging operation. Not bad for a guy that will be 80 next year.....lol. When I got done, I sat down on my folding hunting stool and just sat there for about an hour. I have never felt so completely relaxed. 65 degrees with a strong wind blowing, basically sitting in the middle of the woods in the sun, so damned peaceful and totally relaxed. I finally forced myself to head into the house. I really had no desire to go in, but dinner time was getting near. I feel sorry for those that did not get a chance to get out and enjoy this February weather. I hope you all had a chance to get out and enjoy this rare February event. Sorry about you guys that want to get some ice fishing or snowmobiling in, but today in western NY (and most of this winter), those activities are just not in the cards so far.

So sorry to hear about the fire. It is a scary thing. I know that I am of the age and retired, and don't think I would ever get back to normal if we had a fire. I always thought that it would be worth the time and effort to take a walk through the house and take a video of each room and the contents. That's the thought......Now all I have to do is to actually do it.

I believe you have me confused with someone else when you say that I was ever against any AR style gun. My biggest problem with them is I can't afford one. I never bought any semi auto gun for the same reason. And of course the only real difference between an AR style rifle and any semi auto rifle is that the AR's are black and nasty looking. Is that how you form your opinion about what guns should be available and what guns make you a killer? Does the color of the AR's frighten you? Do you label people as being "nut jobs" because of the way they enjoy using their gun. Are you really that judgmental? Do you hate all gun owners who are not hunters? Do you have something against them? I know people who belong to gun clubs and only shoot competition. Does that make them "nut jobs" too. I find it interesting how emotional some of you people get over the color and fashion of a gun and the people who own and enjoy them. Try using a little logic instead of trembling and cringing over the color and style of a firearm for a change and then your arguments may actually worth listening to. Oh and by the way, if the laws on gun and ammo sales bothers you so much, understand that those worthless and ineffective laws were passed by people with the same illogical, emotional, paranoia and arguments and biases that you have shown here.

Alright......This page explains the theory of the range-finding capabilities of this sight: https://ezvsight.com/about/stadiametric-distance-ranging-how-it-works/ They show a 13-1/2" area on a deer that supposedly represents the vital zone. This is what is supposed to be aligned with the stadia marks. My question is, what are the physical features on a real deer that define this exact kill zone? I'm sure I must be mis-reading something here, but honestly, I just don't understand it.

I guess I am a bit thick-headed, but I do not understand the system. I know they talked about the 13-1/2" vital zone that they use as the width that is to be aligned somehow on the deer that apparently is always standing at right angles to the hunter, but what features on the deer identify the 13-1/2 inches? I saw where the transparent deer had some lungs to align the tick marks on the "V" contour, but I have never seen on a real deer any features that are visible that are exactly 13-1/2 inches apart. Can somebody explain to me what it is that I am not catching on to here? What is it that's going completely over my head?

Was he excited or what.......lol Not that I blame him. What are the odds that he would get that exact timing. The one thing that I noticed was the was the moose shook his whole body to get them off. It was so fast and violent that it almost looked like he was having a fit or something. It made me wonder if deer shake their whole body like that to shed their antlers. Has anyone watched or seen a video of a whitetail shedding its antlers. I always assumed that they were rubbed off on trees or came off accidentally when the bond to the pedicles loosened adequately. I never considered that it was possible that they might go into a full-body shake like that moose did.

The dreaded AR style rifles are simply a black version of any other semi-auto rifle that thousands of sportsmen use throughout U.S. hunting seasons. Don't let the color and shape of a rifle encourage you to be an enemy of those who would stand up for any of the dwindling rights that we still have left. There is no need to cower or cringe whenever someone shows an interest in protecting our rights. Save your fears for those who would happily take them away.

Hunting must have been some pretty serious business back in the old days. Most of these guys never cracked a smile in these pictures.

What's the current price on gray foxes?

From what I have seen of this winter so far here in Western New York, there really is no need to feed the deer. They can still graze if the wish to. I wonder how much longer this mild winter is going to be around.

Back when I was a kid, (late 40's thru early 60's) there was no such thing as coyotes in the Finger Lakes Area of New York state. The fact is I never recall any serious discussion of coyotes anywhere in New York State. It just was not an issue or subject of discussion. Even in my trapping days there was never any discussion about trapping them or having them messing with any of our sets. Now today they are all over the place. How does something like that happen? Does anyone have an authoritative reason for this change?