Doc

This back end of the bowseason has been a big disappointment. The wind and rain is starting to get to be a bit ridiculous with no end in sight. Not that that is unusual for late October and early November .... lol. I have learned one thing this year ..... Just because we have an extra long season, it doesn't pay to waste any of those early days. It was easy to make excuses about how it was too hot or too this and too that. I wish I had some of those days back now .... lol.

I used this day for checking out my gun stands and getting them all fixed up and ready for Saturday. I dragged my bow along just in case something weird happened, but it seemed like a more suitable day for getting things organized for the up-coming gun season.

What's the problem? Just buy a half acre and trespass on everybody else's land. Isn't that the way it's done these days? .... lol.

My cameras are showing just as many deer (in fact a lot more bucks) and they are all showing up after dark, where just a month or so ago, there was activity all day long. My theory? ... the leaves are down now and cover has evaporated. Perhaps they are a bit more aware of just how much they stick out. Also food sources are in the middle of change right now. Patterns have changed. Also, the woods is full of hunters (small game and bow). Also, rut movements are kicking in. Bow season is an extreme time of change in deer patterns.

Any reason why you have to check your gun exactly where you intend to hunt?

I have been shooting my .270 a lot since I bought it. It's just fun to shoot. But it would be a good idea to do a bit of practice of my bi-pod shooting sticks just to see how well that works. I have my gun zeroed at 100 yards. That is probably farther than most of my shots will be, but it seemed like a good place to have it given the terrain and density around here. What distance do you all set yours at? Probably sounds like a dumb question, but this is my first year with a deer rifle. At this point I am just full of dumb questions .... lol.

Yeah, but all summer long including just a couple weeks ago, they have been wandering around all times of the day. This has been a rather sudden change Seems kind of weird.

The good ol' head-shots are exactly what came to mind when I saw that picture in another thread of a deer wandering around with an arrow stuck through it's head. They blew a big old broadhead right through the head of that critter and never touched anything that would directly kill it. Pretty close to that tiny brain target, but not quite git'n-er-done. Nasty result. There is a lot of stuff in the head and neck that is just plain non-lethal (at least not immediately lethal).

Last time I checked the cameras (yesterday) out of 157 deer pictures, not a one of them (buck or doe) was in daylight hours. Not even one. That is a first for this year. That covered about one week of time.

I read the study by that Minnesota outfit, and I agree that high speed rifle bullets will fragment when they hit something. Their claim that shotguns are less safe than rifles was completely based on the fact that ricochets from a slug hold together longer. However, that is just one aspect of the travel of the projectile. I think they came up a bit short on proving the case that rifles are more safe than shotguns. But both sides of the argument carry enough unknowns that I figured it is worth a try. We'll see what the trial period brings. I just hope everybody keeps a little concern in their minds before pulling the trigger or this may turn out to be a very short experiment and I will have bought a very nice rifle for nothing.

I have a camera that overlooks a trail very near the house. Yesterday, I got a picture of a couple of jerks walking their dog through the posted line right onto our driveway at a point where the whole yard and house are completely visible. It's a wonder I didn't lose that camera. What a brazen act of trespass. If you look close, you can see through the spruce, the corner od a yellow metal posted sign. What you can't see (but they clearly can) is the sign on the back side of the apple tree that they are walking right past.

I do have a procedure that I incorporate into my still hunting (gun only) that makes it almost seem like an all day "sitting" hunt. I move very slowly .... I mean very slowly .... for about 15 minutes to a half hour and then sit for about the same time. Always moving into the wind or across the wind. I repeat that over and over throughout the day. It's kind of like an all day moving "sit". It avoids the boredom of watching the same trees and bushes all day and helps to maintain sanity.

Yup .... Some kind of sling or strap or attachment to my back-pack is definitely on the agenda for the near future.

Why do they always look pissed-off?

That's exactly the one that I bought yesterday, except I got the "bipod" version. I spent a lot of time checking out the two side by side. There was a pretty substantial difference in price. But it seemed that the extra leg made a big difference in steadiness. Apparently I am lot more wobbly when it comes to right and left movement ... lol. That "trigger" style adjustment is great. It works real smooth. The bipod is a lot more bulky to carry and that was one of the reasons I spent so much time figuring which one to get. But in the end, I opted for the more steadiness of the extra leg.

It sounds like most of the mid-day sightings are linked to the rut. So far this year, the only big bucks that I have seen are on my camera with pictures that were taken between 9:00 pm and 4:00 am.

No you don't ..... or at least I don't. Tell me, how does stomach contents taste? .... lol. Not everybody considers the same parts of a deer edible as the next guy. Yes we pick and chose. I don't eat kidneys .... some do. Am I wasting venison? Probably so, and to me it's ok. Some guys don't want to pick and pick at the neck until every last piece of meat is gotten, I fully understand that. Somebody doesn't like liver or heart, that's up to them and their likes and dislikes (I happen to like liver and heart).

I like the idea of practical in-the-field demos during hunter safety training classes when this is practical. It can display in understandable terms just what is trying to be put across by the safety rule of verifying the background. It IS a judgment call on almost any shot that we take in the field. And I think it is good to pass along a few visual examples for the students to base that judgment on. That was my concern. Simply stating that hunters should be absolutely sure of their target and what's behind it is really just glossing over a very important point. Their needs to be a few guidelines, a lot of discussion, and some general guidelines that define what is really meant by the "what's behind the target" part of that rule. Obviously we are not talking about earthen backstops with completely cleared foreground and background. The fact is there really is some odds-making going on in the hunter's head with every shot. It is interesting all the different answers that were given for these two scenarios. That's the way it is in real life too. Everyone interprets safety in different ways.

Well, for most of us it will be a new experience, and if some of us are a bit nervous, I think it's understandable. I think those nervous thoughts and feelings will fade with time.

I have done quite a few all-day sits during the prime days of gun season. Other than that it pretty much drives me absolutely berserk to just sit there looking at the same trees hour after hour. I never got into hunting to test my mental endurance .... lol. It is recreation ... right? I usually spend a few hours in the AM, and then a few hours in the PM. In between, I do some scouting to see just where I should have been sitting.

It sounds like there are some private parcels that are more congested than public hunting lands.

When talking about confidence in any of the DEC/Cornell projects, I can only look back historically at the deer management results which provide tangible, credible, observable, evidence of their credibility. So when it comes to my confidence, I have to say that I would be more confident if I saw more reliable and believable results. Looking back on history, I remember the late 80's and early 90's when populations in western NY ran rampant, and the huge yards (one of which I personally observed) and subsequent population controls actually required via starvation. That was one extreme failure of the statistical model. Then it was not too many years ago when the reports from all over the state talked of extreme deer shortages some of which still exist today. And only after several years of massive public outcry of hunters across the state was there a sudden and significant cutback in permits. To me it all looks pretty much like the statistical activities are for show, but the real management technique is more that of reacting to observations or reacting to conditions that are allowed to get so far out of wack that reversal policies have to be put in place. Looking at how the whole system is based on statistical voo-doo based on tiny samplings, and none of it is ever physically verified until the population situations get extremely skewed that they are obvious even to the casual layman on the street, I have to wonder why anybody has any confidence in these systems. So now they want to apply the same techniques toward an AR decision. Why should I have any confidence in it regardless of what outfit does the numbers. You ask what I would have more confidence in and my answer is neither of the choices that you offered. I would have more confidence in a result arrived at by a near 100% survey of affected people. And there have been numerous posts here on this thread that describe viable ways of doing exactly that.

Anybody here ever hear that buzzing sound of a slug going overhead? It does make you a bit more sensitive to such things ..... lol.

My 1969 Ithaca Deerslayer has gotten more deer than I can remember. It certainly is a very capable gun. possibly the old critter deserves a nice comfortable retirement in the gun cabinet. But absolutely not because it is not up to the job. However, to put in any decent amount of practice with the old guy always turns out to be one hell of a punishing shooting session. My new .270 can be shot all day without any accumulating muscle crushing. I don't really expect to use the long range capability of the new gun even though that capability will always be available should the occasion arise. But there is no question that the accuracy of the weapon is superior to that shoulder mangling 12 gauge. There is an additional level of confidence available knowing that I have shot a few hundred rounds through the .270. As an aside, there is also the benefit of being able to reload ammo.

Thankfully, this thread is taking a different turn .... lol. regarding the ethics of shooting something that is not consumed, I hate to hang the requirement of consumption on legitimizing hunting because before you know it people are claiming that the only justification for hunting is as a food harvest. That of course would eliminate varmint hunting, and shooting rats at the dump, and crow hunting, etc., etc. I am not going to feel pressured to eat the next fox or coyote I get. I would just as soon not even start going down that path.