Doc

Man! that's an awful lot of "firsts". First deer, first trip up a tree with a climber, first time butchering, first time field dressing a deer I would imagine, and there you are with your first deer harvest picture. You broke a whole lot of new ground yesterday. Well, congratulations on all those "firsts". Well done.

Can you still read it? If so, I wouldn't worry about it.

I believe that coyotes are cannibalistic. I know they will eat foxes in a minute if they catch them. They eat small dogs, and I believe they would eat each other given the opportunity.

It looks like a long time yet before we can crank up the centerfires for coyotes. Also, I have a brand new .270 rifle that hasn't had a round put through it yet because of that regulation. My rifle range is in my backyard which is the woods. By the time I'm able to shoot the darn thing there will be a couple feet of snow to wallow through. That really wacks hell out of coyote season too. I wouldn't even consider hunting coyotes (or foxes) without using centerfire .... In my case that would be my .223. I do understand that they don't want people in shotgun areas walking around with centerfires. However, it does sound like there are no restrictions at all in counties where rifles are allowed...... Even during the late bow/muzzleloader season, because they have purposely incorporated that one stipulation: "in any county or portion of a county where deer hunting with rifles is prohibited during the regular deer season". Am I reading that right?

Yeah, invite him out for a couple of hours of bench shooting with something that isn't a "baby gun". After a few shots and a good shoulder mashing, keep on with the shooting session until he is ready to accept that "baby gun". I'm having a hard time with this idea of a kid mocking such a super expensive gift. Somehow that just don't seem right.

I often find Field & Stream in the racks at the doctor's office. I have found some pretty interesting articles in it. ...Just not enough to subscribe. I already get more magazines than I can read.

It's pretty well understood that environmental laws and regulations are put in place to protect the availability of the critters that we often complain about having such a heck of time getting. Imagine if there were no such laws. I think that would be a case where we would be rightfully complaining about not having any luck or even any animals to hunt. Even with occasional flaws, be grateful for the legal system that protects what we are trying to harvest.

Any suggestions for full or partial removal of surface rust on traps?

Dad put the peep sight on it just before he gave it to me. It originally just had an open "V"-sight. That gun is deadly accurate. I guess there must be some story behind the missing stamped data. I'm thinking it may have been because it was marketed under other brand names or stores brand names, and they wanted to keep it clean to have the most versatility in marketing.

That is what bothers me most. I know we have some inexperienced and new hunters on this forum, and it really bothers me that there are people recommending low percentage shots without the proper disclaimers about the tiny sized target they are choosing rather than the much larger higher percentage kill zones. I'm hoping that none of the newbies or others that are tempted to follow or experiment with some of this advice about head shots don't head out to test this out and start choosing targets that are tougher than they need be. It may sound very "preachy", but I believe it is important that some of the strange shot selections don't influence the choices of others. And by the way, this notion that head shots are a nice clean miss or an instant kill, really is some very bad info. I have seen enough evidence to the contrary, and the consequences can be pretty gross.

I seem to recall someone mentioning that they didn't have to wear a backtag in the Northern Zone, but I don't think anyone explained why. Or the better question ..... why do we have to wear it down here in the Southern Zone.

So why didn't they take the extra step and give it some ATV features so you could drive it from your truck to the tree and they hook it up to the tree and take the whole thing up with you. Maybe that is phase two to be introduced in a year or two ..... lol. Hey, with a little more engineering, we won't even have to walk to go hunting. We can take all the effort out of hunting eventually. Just sit back and ride everywhere .... ha-ha-ha.

Isn't that weird that you are required to display a back tag in one part of the state but not the other? What do you suppose is the reasoning for that? You would think that it either serves a purpose or it doesn't regardless of what area of the state you are in. If it doesn't really serve a legitimate purpose, then it would have to go under the category of arbitrary hunter harrassment by the DEC.....lol.

I still recall the deer that I heard wheezing and gasping for air a bunch of years back. I put her down in a mercy killing. When I got up to her, I could see that her windpipe had been blown apart by a neck shot. Her attempts at breathing were causing a super loud rasping wheeze that I could hear long before I could see her. there was almost no blood at all, so I have no idea how long she might have had to live that way if I hadn't have coincidentally been there at that particular time. Again, looking at the pictures in the Deer Anatomy thread it is amazing how much area in the neck is not immediately lethal.

I knew when I did my scouting that I was in for a tough year. The wacky weather around the blossoming time in the spring absolutely destroyed ALL of the wild apples. And then the very few acorns that we actually had never filled out and dropped early leaving us with absolutely no acorns. What I learned is that when both of those failures happen, the deer take on a very random feeding pattern, and traditional heavy trails disappear and new very faint ones appear as the deer tend to scatter a bit. I never did get onto any patterns. Oh by the way, we have no agriculture so there was nothing to work with there either. Gun season was the usual decent start just before legal shooting hours on opening morning and then .... nothing. I think everyone went to sleep under their favorite tree and then left early from boredom. In other words, nobody was pushing the deer. The days after the opener were completely dead. I mean the silence was deafening. So I am already frustrated beyond belief to the point where I am looking forward to next year in the hopes that things will get back to normal again as far as the deer food situation. Weather-wise, I have no complaints. In fact the wind that usually tears up most of the bow and gun season was pretty much absent for most of the days. And I guess there were a whole lot more dry days than usual. The only thing I would say is that this time of gun season, it would be nice if we had a little bit of snow to make the bedded deer stand out better. And I do want to emphasize the word "Little" ... lol. I don't need two feet of snow to have to wallow around in.

But it is even more scarey that laws are written in such a sloppy way as to promote page after page of discussion in a forum (not just this thread but the others that have popped up recently). I am amazed at how many require calls to the DEC to get clarification. I am even more amazed at how many of those answers that you get back involve long explanations adding qualifications that don't exist anywhere in the actual Environmental Conservation Law. The official interpretations are exactly that .... "interpretations" or basically opinions. And another scarey thought is that the opinions that you get from the DEC offices, or from individual ECOs may or may not agree with the opinion that you get from the arresting officer as he writes out your ticket.

Yeah, I was looking at just how perfect that demo tree was. Kind of reminded me of a telephone pole .... lol. I'm not saying that it doesn't work on some gnarly old twisted, lumpy tree like 95% of the trees that I have seen in the woods. But the video would have been a lot more credible if they had used a more common tree with a few imperfections in it. Also, even if I wasn't afflicted with a fear of heights, I still would be very skeptical of taking that first ride up the tree. However, I was impressed with the creativity and ingenuity of that gadget. Like I've always said, there is absolutely no limit as to what level of technology that can be applied to hunting. Anybody who thinks there is simply has not been paying attention to what's been going on with hunting over the recent decades.

It just might be that this thread has uncovered why you hear so many shots and see so few deer actually being pulled out of the woods .... lol. Seems like some guys are passing up the much larger target for a tiny lower percentage target. Sounds more like an ego thing than a meat thing.

Here are some pictures of my Marlin model 81 that show more detail than what I was able to describe in words. This might help with determining if your .22 is indeed a Marlin mod81. Hope this is of some help.

I may not be the most prompt guy in the world, but as promised ..... Something weird about the camera/lighting .... the gun and scope are not green but black.

Taking advantage of our "Deer Anatomy" thread, I was looking at the last picture on the first page. That is the only one that really shows the location and size of the brain and also clearly shows all the other areas that can be hit if you are just a couple of inches off. I too have seen a deer with it's lower jaw swinging like a piece of hamburger. Not real pretty. Yes it is a lethal shot. Lethal in that it will eventually starve to death over a rather long period of time until (if it's lucky) the coyotes take it down. Meanwhile on that same picture, we see this huge heart-lung absolutely lethal target. To me the choice is rather obvious.

http://lbfc.legis.st...gun_webpost.pdf Here is one of the links to the study. However, let's try not to hijack the thread. If you want to dispute this study, please start another thread.

Somehow it just doesn't feel like hunting, does it? There is something to be said for hunting in an area where you can feel a connection with nature with some pretense of wildness to it. At least that is the way it is with me. I don't want to hear neighbors arguing, radios blaring, doors slamming, and kids screaming and playing. And then there is the thought of some bloody old deer flopping around in the some neighbor kid's sand box while little pre-schoolers scream in terror ..... Well, ok that's a bit of over dramatization ..... lol. However, it is a fact that once you shoot at a deer in those kinds of compressed population conditions there is the reality that you have absolutely no control over what direction and how far that critter will run, or through how many yards it may go before (or even "if") it drags itself to a halt for good. It's not the kind of impression I want to leave on the neighborhood as the story gets repeated and embellished over and over and maybe even with some gruesome pictures. Sure isn't my kind of hunt.

Sure is comfy, as you can tell by the stool, thermos and big bag full of my famous fried egg sandwiches ..... lol. No way for a deer to sneak up on you. And gun rests on three sides. I build these things for all day hunts so comfort and convenience are important.

If I didn't know that my knife is downstairs, I would have thought that was a picture of it....lol. I bought mine years ago at the flea market at the National Hunting and Fishing Days at the region 8 DEC headquarters for $5. Pretty darn cheap! I didn't expect much in terms of quality, but the price was right and it looked cool. Well, the first thing I discovered is that having sharp edges on both sides of the end of the blade is not a real good idea when gutting a deer I managed to cut my finger with it. I took a grinder to it and eliminated the short length of cutting edge on the top side of the blade. After a while, I realized that the darned thing had held it's edge for a heck of a long time, and yet when I did have to sharpen it, it was very quick and easy to put a super scarey sharp edge on it. That was when I started to suspect that I had a knife with some rather high quality steel in it. I've had that thing for decades and have used it for everything from skinning squirrels to hacking down some sizeable saplings. It basicly does everything I could ever ask of it. If it had any collector value, I destroyed that when I ground that second edge off. But then, I'm sure whatever value that it may have has been surpassed by all the years of actual use and all the years that I may continue to use it. In other words, it ain't for sale at any price.