Doc

We went through an infestation too several years ago. It lasted about three consecutive years of defoliation. There was some trees that died, but almost all of them survived eventually. I have never heard of any major devastation of large areas that were permanently wiped out, but when you see it, it is hard to believe that the woods could ever survive that kind of damage. Usually the population of the caterpillars implodes. I don't know whether they starve themselves, or whether some disease of some sort wipes them out. But they will come to an end.

Yeah.......Here comes the Monday morning quarterback. But perhaps others who might have similar encounters might handle it with the DEC. They have access to rehabilitators who may be able to render some medical assistance to the critter with a minimum amount of risk to the people involved. If he died so quickly, there probably was nothing anyone could do that would have had any different end-result. I suspect that the leg symptoms were the least of his problems. I'll bet your theory about the car hitting him was probably right.

There is a strong connection between my hunting and our American culture and heritage. Yes, among all the categories of people, even we have such things as heritage and culture. We began this nation as a land of hunters, and it was the thoughts of that sort of thing that first interested me in all the outdoor activities that I have been into all through my life. There is also an element of independence even though if we had to count on my game harvests for our food, we likely would starve to death.....lol. Hunting also teaches the participants that meat does not come from trees or originate in cellophane wrapped Styrofoam packages.

Ha-ha-ha....It is man-killer kind of brush that will tear you up. Also there is no such thing as "Sneaking" through it. I have seen this stuff taking over the whole valley bottom. And yet the deer move through it with no problem. If a deer wants to spend the day in there, there is no one who's going to kick them out of there.

This topic is related to what has been happening with me. I am officially of the category of being, "older than dirt". Also I hunt primarily by myself. So what I have found is that my hunting is evolving into is a more local style of hunting (closer to the house). I used to measure my hunting in terms of miles up the hill and down the valley, never really considering what I would do if I ever got something. Hey, what the heck, I was young and eager and full of energy. Now my hunting area involves where I can get my ATV to get the deer out. So it is not a question of not going out, but rather how far I go to hunt.

So, it sounds like the majority so far feel that the drop in the number of shots is significant. So what does that mean? Fewer hunters?.......I have seen a lot of near empty state parking lots where years back they would be filled and cars parked along the road from over-flow. Different hunter habits?.......I seem to remember a lot more still-hunters who were quick to get walking. It does seem to me that with today's clothing and foot-gear, it is easy to stay on stand for hours and hours. So perhaps it is a situation where everyone is sitting tight, and so are the deer. Less huntable land?.....So much of my former hunting areas now have houses built there and posted signs. I remember when posted signs were a rare sight. Farmers didn't have the time to be doing such things. That's not the case anymore. Less actual hunting?.......To me it looks like deer season has become a 1/2 day event for a lot of hunters, and after the first opening weekend. everything goes dead. So there may be a lot of people buying licenses and never using them, or using them in a very limited way. So I am not so sure that a license count is telling the whole story. Is there a migration of hunters from gun to bow/crossbow?..... This is one that is hard to pin down, but I do know a lot of people who have been scared out of the gun season by all the (unfounded) fears of hunting accidents and fatalities. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Any other possible reasons?

I know that no one runs through the woods counting hunters, but I am curious what your impressions are of the deer hunting action that you have noted in shooting activity in recent years compared to older deer seasons that you have participated in in the past. Have you noticed any significant changes in opening day shooting activity?

I have to agree that the media and the FBI and the Democrats long list of dirty tricks have done a very thorough hatchet job on Trump. I hate to see their foul tactics rewarded by turning on Trump now. But we do still have a very popular potential candidate in DeSantis that so far has not been worked over by the leftist forces. But here is the problem. Trump is not a politician. As a total outsider he still wound up with an amazing amount of almost genius moves that brought the country back to it's prime. Economic perfection. Foreign affairs perfection. Things were pretty darn good and all this from a complete outsider. He definitely "made America great again". I believe that history will show that he was probably the best president we have seen in years with what appears to be a natural instinct to handle running the country. But he had a popularity problem because of his personality. Definitely a lot of it self-inflicted with a lot of help from the lefties who have perfected a talent for playing the dirty game of politics. Unfortunately the voters treat elections like popularity contests without a care abut a talent for running a country (example: Joe Biden). DeSantis has shown some of the same kind of talent for correct decisions on a state level, but will this translate into the kind of instincts that were natural to Trump? I don't know, but we will be needing the best team that we can nominate if we are to dig ourselves out of the total wreck that Biden has buried us under. And are we certain that the same kind of dirty tricks from the media and the Dems will not bury DeSantis as was done with Trump? They are damned good at it. Well the jury is still out We have to choose the best nominee, but we have to get him elected too. Choose well, or risk an additional 4 years of Biden. That's a terrifying thought.

We have large parcels of thick multiflora rose that will eat a hunter up if you go in there. Also, there is no quiet way in and around these huge patches of the invasive species. The thorns will tear at your clothing and skin if you try to move through these areas. It has been that way for a few decades now, and the deer have taken note that they can spend their daylight hours hunkered in these areas and never see a hunter trying to hunt these areas. You can try doing drives in these areas, and maybe, if you are lucky, you might make it out the other side with most of your hide. And the deer will merely walk circles around you and then hunker down again. I have not figured a way to hunt these areas, and I don't think anyone else has either.

Years ago, I decided that land was way more important to me than the home itself. So the first thing I did was buy acreage and live on it. I have to live somewhere, so I might as well live where I hunt. So today, the house and property have long-ago been payed off. Dad was right when he told me they aren't making any more of it. The price was ridiculously low by today's standards. Yes, taxes have gone up over the years, but they have gone up for the city and suburban folks too, and a whole lot faster. And yes, there was always the 45 minute commute each way every day. But it always served as relaxing quiet time. It never seemed to be any problem except on those ridiculous snow storms. I love the peace and quiet out here and the extreme privacy. It always worked for me, and my hunting land is mine to hunt and manage as I please.

American Ruger, .270 caliber

It is interesting to sit back and read the reminiscing of people who really have bothered to stop at least once to take note of how the human condition and attitudes have eroded over time. Seems like the older we get, the clearer it all becomes. I appreciate the thoughts offered by Mr. Hartman from his tractor seat, and I also appreciate Grouse for forwarding that article on to us. It seems like a collection of good thoughts to ponder once in a while.

Looks good to me!

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.