Doc

It would be interesting to hear from a lawyer to see if these things are worth the paper they're written on. Has anyone ever heard of them actually being tested in court? For many years, we had an uncovered dug well on the property that none of us knew about. I can see where that some slick lawyer for the plaintiffs might make a jury see that as maintaining a hazard on our property. As far as us not knowing it was there .... well, a plaintiffs lawyer might just shift the burden of proof of that to us .... I don't know. Tricky stuff, this legal crap. I'm not so sure that I would be put at ease by a piece of paper. Anybody know anything about such things?

Not to denigrate your vast expertise on the subject, but what you are really trying to say is prion. Sorry, didn't mean to butt in, but I just thought you might want to use the correct terminology.

No, I am just saying that people turn off whatever point you are trying to get across when you start that accusatory stuff. At that point, it all stops being a discussion. You might just as well stop typing, because all you are doing is preaching to the choir and nobody else is listening anymore.

You absolutely can't beat milkweed seed for telling the whole story on wind directions and reactions. What really gets interesting is when the seeds get a ways out there and you get to see that initial wind direction can be very misleading. I have watched these seeds start out indicating a favorable wind only to turn around a ways out and head right for the trail I was watching. I do carry a spool of thread and tie up about a foot of it to an overhanging limb just to serve as a quick and constant direction indicator. But when I want to know a bit more about what is happening when the wind gets a bit out there a bit, it is my trusty old milkweed seeds that I dig out of my pack.

Yes, I have had a buck follow my drag-rag ...... once. Did he think the trail was a hot doe, or was he just curious about what made that stinky trail? Did I really fool him or was he just being stupid? I have no idea whether the stuff worked as advertised or whether he just had nothing better to do than follow a curious scent that he had never smelled before. I guess I'll never know because just before entering my shooting lane, he lost interest and wandered off. I don't know, I have a lot of respect for the analytical abilities of a deer's nose.

Actually, I haven't found any organized daily movement from feed to any specific "bedding area". Yes they may move from open feeding/bedding to more secluded feeding/bedding areas. Bedding is actually part of their digestive process, and so they will bed in many different places. Note how many beds you will find right in the middle of a haylot (obviously made under cover of darkness). I have also found deer bedded in open woodlots where they had just finished foraging for acorns. On the same day you might find them bedded in the thickets. I really don't think there is this constant pattern of deer making the daily trek from their "bedding area" to their favorite ag field at night and then back again when daybreak begins. I think their movements are a whole lot more random than that. So back to the original question: I don't believe that there is a preferred compass direction in their movements, and I really believe that there is a complete randomness as to where they start out and where they end up.

See this is what makes you and others your own worst enemies in AR discussions. You invest a lot of common sense, pro AR arguments and then can't seem to resist throwing zingers like what is shown above. That term "selfish" is one of the most randomly thrown around words on this forum, and I got to tell you it does absolutely nothing but firmly entrench those that you are trying to persuade.

My biggest problem with these products is that there is no sure-fire way of knowing if they really work or not, or whether we are simply spreading around the results of the bottler's last beer. It's kind of like all these scent removal or scent suppression products. They can say what they want, but when it comes to credible proof ..... there's no way that you can verify that any of it really works or whether it is all simply coincidence.

Lol .... Something really wrong with that statement. If they have such a powerful lobby that they are dictating government policies, how is it that they can't get the taxes removed? The real story is that they have found that they can get away with all this behavioral modification without passing a law. They bypass the legal system and the American public applauds. Now we want to expand that corrupted method of governing with food. Once the genie's out of the bottle, there's no stuffing him back in. As they say, "We get the system of government that we deserve".

I'm not sure, but I believe that the ecoli scares and recalls have nothing to do with chemicals, but rather good old organic manure. Maybe some of those chemicals aren't all that bad after all.

Lol .... What's scary to me is that a lot of our food comes from places where the people hate our guts. Ah but then that's another topic ..... lol.

And of course, knowing what you are shooting at has absolutely nothing to do with counting points. I certainly know a deer is a deer even if I cannot make out the details of his point allocation or whether all three points are really on the same beam, or for that matter, whether he has any points at all.

Well, that's a nice thought and it all sounds real good, but in reality, there will be people who are absolutely convinced that what they are seeing is a legal deer. And that later turns out to be a mistake. And anyone who claims that they never make mistakes .... well .... what can I say about that .....lol. In terms of the law, there probably is not one ECO that would let you off with that excuse whether it was true or not. It's kind of like having a faulty speedometer. You may believe you were within the speed limit, but that will never get you out of a ticket. But you did make a mistake. I'm sure somebody could say that you should have had that speedometer checked that morning to avoid making that mistake.

If I was to unknowingly shoot a deer that had CWD (and the odds against that are staggering where I live), I guess I see no difference between disposing of the remains in the woods vs. the critter dying and flopping there on his own.

Target panic and fatigue go hand in hand. take it from a guy who has been known to flinch a shot right off the 4'x4' back-stop .... lol.

This year, all my scouting has turned up random (not concentrated) deer sign in places where you almost never normally see deer, and little to no sign in the traditional travel areas. The drought has taken its toll on traditional patterns. This all means that my usual quicky scouting has to be a bit more extensive than I normally would do. I'm not real happy about that because all that extra scouting means more disruption and intrusion into hunting areas. But, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

You're not listening. I am not saying that AR should automatically be rejected because mistakes will be made. I am simply agreeing with those that have been saying that mistakes will be made. And there is no doubt in my mind that a large percentage of those deer that wind up laying in the woods will indeed be honest mistakes. And yes, I'll bet some spikes that wind up rotting in the woods are because of people who thought those 2-1/2" spikes were really 3". And that could easily mean that they really thought they looked like they were 3" or bigger. And yes, an ECO would not cut anybody any slack over that, but that still doesn't mean that the guy didn't truly believe they were 3" and maybe even thought they were even much bigger. The main reason that so few of them are left probably has more to do with the fact that they can put them on an antlerless permit instead of running away from the mistake. In fact it is likely that a lot of spikes are shot because they were mistakenly thought to be does.

Oh that kind of sucks. So if you run into a great deal where somebody is selling off an inherited collection or something, you can only buy one of them every 3 months. I suspect that that pretty much means that you will only get one of them if the prices are good, and the others will be long-gone when the 90 days is up. Can't for the life of me see the justification for that rule.

The question that always pops into my mind is, Why don't they simply declare tobacco a controlled substance and ban it which would be the honest way of conducting business? Instead they use the tax system to perform their behavior modification activities. When they had all their successes using the tax code for behavior modification, I knew it would be something that they would fall in love with and use freely in all kinds of situations. And all the US citizens cheered the methods and gladly accepted this corruption of the tax system. They loved it!

So the finger printing fee ($100) and the application fee ($120) are a one-shot cost only. Does that mean that you can add as many guns as you want to that same permit without any additional money?

I only experienced buck fever one time. I had an exceptionally large buck at 35 yards that was milling around just the other side of some brush. I could clearly see his outline and the antlers. There was a major trail that ran through that finger of brush that would have brought him out at 20 yards. He stayed on the other side for about a half hour milling back and forth. I have to admit that as the time went on, I was getting more and more worked up, especially when he made several false passes toward that trail that would have led to a 20 yard shot. I was actually getting a bit light headed at times to the point where I considered just getting the heck out of there and going home. And then after all that, he simply walked out the back side and left. I was almost relieved.

Not done yet eh bub? This is getting kind of creepy. Almost like stalking .... lol.

See that's what makes AR discussions a bit more complicated than just "yeah, I'm for them or No, I'm against them". I don't see it as being that simple. I think it is a management choice that requires a bit of local study and analysis. I hear people talking all the time like they would like to see AR as a statewide regulation. My take on it all is that here are specific conditions that make AR practical, useful, and maybe even harmless. It is not a one-size-fits-all kind of regulation. And yet I have to wonder if those management decisions and studies even enter into the minds of most hunters, or the DEC for that matter.

Ok ... are you done now with your foolishness? Do you feel better? .... lol. I hope so. Since we have been forcing all these people to read all this, it's time for one of us to call a halt. I'll volunteer for that.

I wonder why they don't do a bit of negotiating and see if one date or the other can be moved? I know the NH&F day is a national event and isn't likely to be changed for one location, but you would think the gun show would be interested in not having a competing event. Is the gun show a two-day event?