Doc

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.

Aw geeze ... I never thought of that. That could be baiting ... lol. Soak the hay covering in salt before you add it onto the blind and you could get a lot of face-shots.

I hate recoil! I wouldn't even want to be watching while that thing was being shot. I'm surprised they didn't have to cart someone off to the hospital. It actually got right away from that one guy. He could have been wearing that in the mouth. About the only thing that I could see using something like that on would be tanks or trucks or something of that nature.

Try this one: http://scopeny.org/index.html

I always figured that two or three of the actual big round bales would make a heck of a blind if they were located in the right place and arranged in the right configuration.

Lol ..... Damn, you guys come up with a picture for everything. That was really funny.

A crummy $20 ..... why not? It's a very powerful public statement that is hanging out there every day for people to see. Also, I am not sure what took me so long, but I have finally signed up as a member of SCOPE. Seems like the time is right. Our problems are of state origins, so it seems logical to support the state gun owner advocacy organization. Membership is cheap enough and they seem to be the ones doing the heavy lifting here in NY. I think they need my support. They probably need the support of any gun owner. Something to think about.

Way back in the dark ages, I put in a service pole to feed the barn. From that pole which is along our main overhead line, I decided to run the line underground to keep it out of the yard. I buried it 4' down and housed it in leach-field pipe. I think it would take a backhoe to disturb that line. You might want to consider doing that when you replace the line. I was going to go underground for the main line into the house site but we were talking 1000' and the estimates that I got at the time were out of sight. The thought I had in mind was that we also have trees everywhere along the length of the driveway and underground would protect from wind, ice storms, heavy snow loads etc., etc. As it turned out, we were quite happy that we didn't. With the advent of cable and such, we wound up needing the above-ground poles to string the cable on. There is always that question of access when new wire technologies come along. As it turns out, the electric company is responsible for maintenance of the access line anyway, so they actually keep the trees trimmed away from the lines. In 38 years we have not had a problem with that part of the line..... lol, now I've done it!

Have you people been noticing these posters going up around the neighborhoods? At first I just saw a couple of them here and there, but now they are starting to pop up all over the place. It is getting to be a fairly powerful statement that is showing that Cuomo is flat out lying when he says that the majority of the people are for the Safe Act. I would love to see these things start showing up across the state and sending a very visible message that the revolt is not going away. I want the politicians to see these statements and start worrying that they are going to convert into votes against those that voted for this attack on the 2nd Amendment. They are for sale on the SCOPE web-site ($20). I am not sure whether they are for members only. It didn't sound like it as I read the page.

I probably have at least a year's supply of components and constructed ammo, but having gone through all of this serious "shortage" stuff for many months now, I am beginning to develop that "hoarder's mentality". I don't ever want to question whether or not I will be able to build a supply of bullets for my rifles, and so I want to increase my in-house supplies to a point where I don't have to ration my practice sessions for fear of running out of ammo. That doesn't mean that I want a bunker full of bullet parts, but I would feel a lot better if I had 4 or 5 years worth of stock on hand. That probably won't have any huge impact on store stocks, but when I get the chance, I want to continue to add to my inventory. I suppose that makes me guilty of having that hoarder's mentality .... lol.

Exactly how do you release a bobcat from a leg-hold trap? That has to be quite a trick.

I have mixed feelings about any DEC resources that are used to maintain or manage the numbers of a species that is non native to the state and that seems to require such a specialized habitat. It really doesn't seem to be a place where they are getting the biggest bang for their buck. I'm not sure ho many additional licenses are sold annually for the express purpose of hunting pheasants, but I wouldn't be surprised if the return on that forcing a population is miniscule compared to the costs. I would love to see credible numbers and be proven wrong. And I am not talking about game preserve birds either.