Doc

What an amazingly labor intensive way to solve a problem that could be handled for free.

It kind of makes you wonder why everybody was pinning their hopes on this gimmick then. It can't be taken both ways. If it is worth doing, then the potential for being a significant impediment to bow hunting exists. If it takes place and nobody even notices it, you have to wonder what was actually accomplished. This year will be a much better test because, as was pointed out, that thing last year was such an absolute mess (now you see it... now you don't .... oh there it is again ... quick, spread the word). It's hard to say just how many participants got "confused out of it" last year. Personally, as before, I believe it all much ado about nothing. I think it is pretty much a "window-dressing" approach to a serious problem that has its basis in hunters not taking on responsibilities of mentoring and encouraging new hunters. We have provided an opportunity to do what people have always had the opportunity to do (but didn't), patted ourselves on the back and walked away declaring .... "problem solved".

I agree. He should be voted out because of his vote on Cuomo's attack on the 2nd Amendment, not something so silly, trivial, and ridiculous as any stance on crossbows. Stay focused on what is important, and that vote on the Safe Act is as good a litmus test as I can imagine for anyone voting for civil rights, and the Constitution. Don't get sidetracked by meaningless, current, trivial issues of the day. I know that the pro-crossbow advocates have whipped themselves into a frenzy over this issue, but try to hold it together for at least one more election and aim your anger at something that is worth getting angry over..

I am not a real big fan of food plots as a hunting tool. But I will say that as farms continue to go out of production, and mature woods begin to take their place, It is not a real bad deal for some of this land to be re-opened and planted with useful food sources for critters. Having spent more than 1/2 century in the same area of valley country, I have seen 90% of the once-farmed land go out of production. I have watched huge fields go back to kind of useless "over-story" maturity, and I can say that it does impact deer numbers and quality. So when I see people opening up land for food plots, I may question the motives, but I never question the benefits.

Deer are super-adaptable and they know the difference between casual human activity, and the sneaky kind of predatory activity. Can regular consistent human activity change deer patterns? I wouldn't doubt it. So if cameras are being used to determine patterns, it could turn out that you are changing the very patterns that you think you are learning. I think that using cameras for checking out deer quantities and qualities in areas that you typically wouldn't hunt directly probably can't do any harm. I find the camera activity to simply be another outdoors hobby. I get as big a kick out of getting a coyote picture as getting a picture of a buck. I try not to let my camera activity interfere with my hunting activities.

I think the excess rain and cooler temperatures have taken their toll. The tomatoes are not as plentiful as usual. The peppers are tall and leggy and not coming on well at all. Broccoli are producing small heads and are starting to flower early. Brussel sprouts are not going to fill out. Great plants - no sprouts. Everything else looks pretty good so far.

Well, you have your definition of farming and I have mine. To me, managing deer patterns and feeding activities is a farming activity, and not a hunting activity. And I still maintain that anyone who engages in concentrated activities of that sort can raise some very impressive animals no matter what state they are in. And if they choose to shoot those animals and claim that as hunting, they can probably get themselves a TV program ..... lol.

Lol ... this is how this subject always winds up. I think that's why people start these topics. They know it will always degenerate into name calling and personal attacks. Seems to work every time.

Can you imagine the process of trying to vaccinate 120 deer. How much time and money will be wasted re-vaccinating the same deer by mistake. How many man-hours will be spent in this fiasco. 2 square miles doesn't sound like a big area until you try to perform some injection procedure on 120 animals romping around anywhere within that area. I hope they video this thing. I would like to see it.

My lifetime license came yesterday.

Running a full-time feeding program falls into the category of deer farming as far as I am concerned. That along with the super food plotting that they do and whatever other farm-style activities they do pretty much falls more in line with an agricultural venture than hunting (fence or no fence). I think you might be surprised what NYS could come up with using those same ag-type techniques.

Lots of peaches this year. I had to pull a bunch of these off the tree to keep it from breaking. That's the "good news" And now the bad news ..... this is as big as they are going to ever get and they are harder than a rock. And no, my feet are not that big.

Yes, you should all be planting fields of Rose-of-Sharon bushes. That's right, that mushroom shaped bush is a rose-of-Sharon with a welded wire fence around it. The skillful pruning comes courtesy of my local freakin' deer (soon to have antlerless permits hanging from their ear).

Thanks.

Lol ..... periodically, this subject comes up with different municipalities. They just have to go through the research and eventually blow off the idea as being totally impractical. Although I will say that with only "up to" 120 deer to deal with, it might work out for them. I will say in this age of unimagineable technology, there may come a day when they can get something like this to work. I never rule any of that stuff out anymore. To me, it seems like hunting is becoming a bit marginal as a population control in some parts. You may see the day when even the DEC starts looking into alternative population controls...... Never say "never".

Anybody know when Bow licenses and antlerless permits are available ..... or are they available now?

I'll bet there is a lot of "farmer-wannabe" attraction to food plotting. It is a very satisfying activity to spend some time on the tractor, creating something that wasn't there before. I have opened up quite a few acres over the years, particularly when I was a youngster working on the family farm. What a feeling of accomplishment. It was great to see a crop growing on land that was previously brush. I'll bet a lot of food-plotters get that same feeling of satisfaction at a job well done.

There is a cheap Styrofoam target at Walmart that broadheads and serves as a cheap disposable target that lasts a couple years. Form and consistency are worked out using regular field tips on my more expensive butt (the block). I generally have both set up and send a few broadheads down range with each practice session just to make sure everything is still ok with them.

Hunting the deer "as you find them" without modifying their behavior or patterns to suit hunting. I think that is part of what you are saying, and I completely agree. That all fits into the "challenge" of the activity.

It does seem to be a problem that gets worse every year, where people are struggling to find one of these courses that coincides with the busy schedules that everyone is under these days. But there still is a legal need for a "hands-on" portion of the certification. So, I guess I am a bit confused as to what is really accomplished by all this. Perhaps the idea is to shorten the time requirement of the "in-person" part of the course so that more courses will be available for easier scheduling. Is that it? Shorter courses = more volunteer instructors which then equals more courses available?

All I am saying is that if you want to be a deer farmer, you can do that successfully anywhere and it doesn't depend on any special soil. I would assume, since you are in the business, that you would agree with that.

That's a good choice of words .... "the kind of deer those guys make". There activities have more to do with animal husbandry than hunting. It has far less to do with what state it is, or what minerals are in the ground, than it does with what kinds of minerals they are fed and what kinds of food plots they are fed on. I will give them all kinds of credit for being great deer farmers, but great hunters?.....maybe not so much. Perhaps their time would be better spent raising their own Herefords or angus and then shooting them in the field. But then that wouldn't make for such a great TV show would it. Not to mention all the "hero" status they would lose.

It's nice to see how hunting looks in other countries. Thanks for the pictures and the descriptions. It all sure doesn't look like an activity for those that aren't in top condition, but the scenery is absolutely spectacular.

That's not really a good thing......lol. But all of this really does help understand the lack of credibility of their shows and others like them. If anyone ever had any doubts about how these people always seem to have successful hunts involving a constant parade of trophy animals, I guess this shows how all that really works, and it has absolutely nothing to do with hunting skills.

Maybe these guys are starting to get the message. I have heard a lot of complaints on the standard run of the mill fakery and boring lack of creativity. Who knows ..... maybe they are starting to react to the criticisms. I hope so.