Doc

Actually, I have seen a lot of racoons out and about in the daylight. What is not normal is for them to be "walking real funny and making noises". However there are other diseases besides rabies that will cause this that are common to racoons. One that comes to mind is distemper. But whenever there is any doubt, safety is always the best advice. Shooting the critter was a good idea. That may have prevented the diseased animal from spreading its problem to other animals.

That's the great thing about getting old ..... this thread is so old, it seems new to me. That works good on TV re-runs too. It's just like seeing movies over and over .... for the first time .... lol.

This thread reminds me of those disgusting ads that they insist on putting on TV..... usually right around suppertime. You know the ones where they show this pathetic looking lady whose face is all mangled up from cancer surgery or the one where you have to listen to "X" number of minutes of some guy wheezing and coughing. What the hell is the matter with these people. These people have absolutely no class or taste forcing such stuff on the entire population in some kind of false notion that these ads will stop someone from smoking. All it really does is gross everyone else out. I've got 5 years smoke-free, and choosing to quit had nothing to do with any incessant parade of gross disgusting images being posted on my TV set. Where does all this crap end .... Are we going to be looking at open-heart surgery showing the dangers of obesity. Or how about some nice pictures of someone with diabetes having a leg chopped off. That all would make lovely pre-supper viewing.

Well, it's just a theory but it is getting to be fawning time. The does are ditching last year's fawns so they can begin giving birth to this years crop of fawns. For a lot of last year's fawns, this is the first time they have been out on their own. Perhaps they don't always make the best decisions around traffic when they are on their own.

I'm not sure what the difference is between a "sting" and "entrapment". But we all know that stings are a common legal tool for law enforcement.

I wouldn't be surprised if all of the deer attention to cameras comes as a result of human scent on them. Also, there are plastic smells and manufacturing odors that these things carry forever. They just smell completely out of place. The industry has spent a lot of R&D money on calming down the flash and noise features of these cameras, but there will always be those stray scents that come with the camera and stay with it. It was interesting back before my Cuddeback "white flash" camera was stolen, I noted that even with that violent blinding flash, the deer kept coming back. They actually got used to it and I had several doe & fawn groups that had no problem with it. On the other hand, I had several of those nose shots where the deer came right up to a camera and got a good whiff of it, and they never came back again. It kind of gave me the impression that they will put up with a lot of sound and visual nonsense, but they really don't like that scent thing.

Great bunch of pictures! You can't beat a beaver pond for action.

I guess nobody knows how the law will effect this. Fortunately the federal version got shot down by the legislator friends of gunners. As I understand it, their version would have made this maneuver an official ownership transfer and would have required that an FFL holder get involved with official paperwork when guns are moved from one household to another. I have no idea if the so-called NYS Safe Act has any such provisions.

The way components and reloading supply prices are going, there may come a day when the number of grains of powder will become a consideration for us reloaders. Some of these powder hogging cartridges may make us wish we hadn't been so extravagant on the caliber size selection.

Lol ..... "Eye Booger". I thought I was the only one that called them things that...... lol.

Yes, getting back on topic ...... I have to say that most of what I am doing right now in preparation for the up-coming season is just maintaining my archery skills with a little rifle practice stirred in. This time of year is one of my busiest with yard clean-up and maintenance along with preparing and putting in a garden, and also some great fishing opportunities before the weeds and slime overtake some of my favorite fishin spots. So time is limited. Later on this summer, there will be a lot of trips up the hill and over by the creek to see just how the food sources are coming and what kinds of tracks and trail-use there is. I also will begin freshening up some of the traditional ground-blinds and looking for new spots. But a lot of that has to wait while I participate in some of my life that actually exists outside of deer hunting. Spring and summer ....... great time of year with a whole lot of non-hunting related things to do.

Interesting how this thread has gone .... lol. I suppose it was inevitable that it would eventually devolve into name calling. Surprisingly, it stayed as an actual conversation for a long time. By the way ..... What is a goober? Last I knew, it was a chocolate covered peanut.

I don't even own a pistol, so if I want to carry a firearm, I have to get one of those long trench coats.

I take it the biopsy came back with no cancer? This is getting to be a very sad story. I know how attached to a dog you can get and these kinds of things are never easy things to live through. I hope your pooch turns around shortly and starts getting better.

Love those occasional "deer nose" pictures. In case any of us think the deer are not aware of our cameras, those pictures always help to tell us that we are not fooling anybody .... lol. We're just fortunate that most deer are tolerant of our gadgets in their livingroom.

I guess I kind of go along with this too. I have never heard anyone say that a buck picks a bed for life .... or even for a year ... lol. The idea that the same bed is used over and over regardless of the time of year and circumstances of changing seasons and food sources really is very hard to swallow and does not hold up to my experiences and observations locally. Yes, they do re-use the same general area occasionally. But if it turned out that a buck was all that predictable, there wouldn't be a whole lot of them left. I suppose it is possible that habitat in some places is so limited that there may only be one spot in the buck's home range that is suitable for bedding and they have no choices, but that sure isn't the case where I do my hunting.

I have to wonder .... is there any real limit as to how much money Cuomo can throw at this? It seems like kind of an unfair fight when he has all there resources of the state at his fingertips and we have to rely on donations. I do believe that if you have unlimited resources, you can defeat just about anything thrown at you. Constitutionality usually comes down to judicial interpretation. So those with the best and most convincing mouthpiece are most likely to win. If you can hire the best and incent them with unlimited amounts of money in order to get their best efforts, it may not be an exaggeration to say that it is a forgone conclusion that you will win. Ever hear the saying "you can't fight city hall"? Well, this is the same kind of thing only it is an entire state we are taking on. I hope I am wrong. Perhaps there are still some judges that can see how money is affecting the case and cut through all the B.S. to come up with a decision based on real logic and law. I really hope so. But I have to admit that I am a bit pessimistic.

I used to be on the mailing list of an outfit called Leader from Vermont. They sold everything imaginable for maple products production. It's been a few decades since I last got anything from them, but back then they had very reasonable prices and they did have some products designed for the home hobbyist.

I suppose Cuomo and Company will be using our own tax dollars to fight against us. And they will probably be using the best lawyers that our money can buy.

In terms of not understanding all the little nuances of this new assault on 2nd Amendment rights, some of that might be excused because as already noted in this thread, there are plenty of people in places of authority who are totally confused who probably wouldn't normally be if the law had not changed the operating parameters so dramatically. It's not like the law isn't laced with verbage and content that will be keeping a lot of lawyers busy for years to come. I believe that gun dealers are completely over-whelmed. And acting independantly, they have no chance of doing anything significant about this law. They pretty much are relegated to interpreting the law as best they can. They know that a mistake in interpretation can cost them their license and even some potential jail time. I do understand them being a bit timid. A lot of these guys will likely be going out of business.

Here is a link to the actual report. There is a lot more interesting info in it. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf

So, by now it has to be getting obvious that gun ownership is very much in danger. Those that used to comfort themselves by saying "Oh no, that can never happen", are maybe starting to get the inkling that it can happen and is happening. Hopefully it will inspire the apathetic among us to finally get off their rumps and begin to get involved. Supporting the NRA and/or your favorite gun advocacy group is a good place to start. Letter writing and phone call campaigns to keep politicians aware that we are still a force to be reckoned with is another important step. And as Sits said, get out there and vote and vote correctly. They have perfected a way of harrassment that is becoming very effective. They have found ways around the 2nd Amendment, so it no longer is a time to just sit back and let someone else do the heavy lifting. The anti-gun people are making huge strides. We can either sit back and let it happen to us, or we can start taking a hand in making it all happen the way we want it to happen. There's no point in trying to run away from it. Other states and the federal government will eventually follow the lead of NYS. This is a national problem that needs a national approach. And fleeing the state is simply putting off the inevitable.

Lol .... If only it were that easy. But the fact is that I have seen bedded bucks in the area that you are describing, no more often than I have seen them in the thickets and creek-bottoms in the valleys. Over on our side of the road where the prevailing westerly winds hit the face of the hill directly, leeward takes on a different meaning and the deer have a different set of rules. In fact, depending on what time of year it is, protection from the elements may not really even be that big a consideration. Sometimes concealment is their biggest priority and that explains the bucks that I have pushed from their beds in the heavy muli-flora rose thickets. Other times vantage points with lots of visibility suits their fancy. That would be for the guys spending their days on the hillsides. And yes, I have seen a lot of bucks that took full advantage of thermals, particulary over the crest on top of the hill around the big ravines. To say that all the bucks are located 1/3 of the way down the hill simply does not align with the 50 years of observations that I have had on this particular hunting area. In fact, that is not the first place I would look for a buck. Yes, I have seen them there, just like I have seen them in other places. And like I have said, if there is any correlation to beds, it is with the food sources for that particular time of the year. In fact, when they are hot to feed on acorns, I have seen some huge bucks bedded right in the middle of the woods with absolutely no logical reason for them to be there other than food. I think another big fallicy is that bucks go to some specific spot when day-break arrives and simply sit there all day long until sunset. Big bucks do feed periodically through the day. They get up. They move around (to a limited extent). And there has been more than a few people who have shot them at mid-day while they munched up acorns. So while I appreciate general rules of thumb, and the wise words of the experts, I have seen enough deer behavior to understand that they often make up the rules as they go along. I have also noted that what they are doing when the snow flies has little to do with what they will be doing October 1st when bow season opens. I also understand that they are slaves to their food and that food changes dramatically as the seasons change and so their patterns change (including bedding locations). If anyone is so fortunate to live in a place where the bucks never change their patterns, then they are fortunate hunters indeed. But down our way that isn't the case. And that makes things a bit tougher.

Actually that would make more sense. Deer/motorcycle collisions really aren't big news. A bicycle/deer collision resulting in a fatality would really be some a unique news story.

Yes, in my previous reply I noted, we are in a non-farming valley area, and I also mentioned the fact that side hills are one of the favorites. However, that choice is not related to any particular "leeward" side of the valley because if they are going to claim that side of the valley as their home range, that hill faces right into the teeth of the predominant westerly winds. The sidehill location of beds do provide a vantage point that is nearly unapproachable without the deer knowing your presence and they know it. I believe that is a good part of the draw to that location. When weather is a bit on the vicious side, I generally can find some deer bedded up in a section of old-growth hemlock. The interesting part is that I will find some deer there, but will also find beds scattered all over the hill and down in the valley as well on the same day. They each have their own idea of where they want to ride out a storm. Just in temperature alone, I have seen 10 degrees difference from the thermometer at our cabin on top of the hill and the thermometers at the house in the valley bottom. Generally speaking, the thickets in the valley bottom provide protection from wind when winter gets a bit taxing. Another point of interest is that many of those so-called bedding areas are seasonal. As I said, the food sources are what puts deer in a specific area, and the bedding areas at any particular time of year are not really all that far away. In the dead of summer, there is almost no deer sign anywhere on the top of the hill. In the fall, when the acorns are popular the top and side of the hill are the hot-spots and you will find bedded deer there. Late winter, you will find the deer in the lower parts of the valley, with very few tracks or beds on the hill. every season has its own set of patterns. Again, it is all food related and in the winter there is a consideration of shelter as well. So, bedding area locations become a pretty complex subject when you have fairly heavily forested hill country. A lot of the standard farmland rules go in the dumper when you change habitat that dramatically. Deer are not relegated to this particular block of woods and that particular ag crop. So many competing motives for bedding selection come into play in all sorts of combinations that I find very few rules that can be 100% counted on. Just generalities that perhaps hold true...... some of the time.