Doc

No, actually take the proposal for what it could wind up doing to the peace of mind of neighbors. reckless endangerment laws are great after an arrow is found stuck in the side of your house (or leg .... lol). If reckless endangerment laws were adequate to handle the situation, then there would have never been shooting proximity laws of any distance in the first place. I have laid out the scenario quite a few times already and there is no need for me to repeat it. 50 yards is simply too close to be safe.

I'm not sure how much of an effect it really has, but I do remember reading somewhere that prolonged low temperatures of a bitter winter has been partially responsible for stopping repeated infestations of gypsy moths because a large percentage of the egg masses where frozen for long periods of time. Winter may very well be another form of insect control. But again, I do not know that for a fact.

It really does feel like you have just executed a perfect shot. Getting two arrows to go exactly in the same spot can be quite a confidence builder. It also makes a great picture to show friends. Congrats on your first one. Now you might consider making that your last one ..... lol.

My problem with lowering the shooting distance of a bow from structures is purely based on safety. I do think it is irresponsible to consider only how wonderful it is for deer management. Just as it is wrong for antis to consider the welfare of animals over humans, it is equally wrong for us to do the same. Whenever I hear this sort of thing being proposed, I never hear anyone recognizing the fact that the very same leeway that is being proposed for hunting also applies to backyard target practice. I have not heard what the proposed legal remedy is for the homeowner who feels uncomfortable about having his family use their own yard because of a neighbor's legal but dangerous target practice arrangement. As far as suburbia not being my favorite place to hunt, that is absolutely true. I don't have any problem admitting that. I also have no problem with those who like that sort of hunting. However, my attitude on that is quite a different subject from what should be deemed safe or not.

I think it may be a mixed blessing. Good for some things and bad for others. I have no idea what will happen because I have never seen a winter like this before. All I know is last night I had two bugs that hit the windshield. On March 2nd, that is unheard of. Will be beeaten up by bugs this spring and summer? ..... Only time will tell. How does all this lack of snow affect the water table? ...... I guess we'll see about hat too. Will teh deer herd prosper? ..... Most likely. Will there be any affects on the turkey population? ..... We'll see. How about survival rates of pests and vermin? Am I going to be over run by mice and chipmunks? ..... I don't know. But as the year progresses, it might be interesting to see if we can spot any changes that we theorize relates to this strange winter.

On an 8-1/2" piece of paper, I can nicely fit 4 bullseyes or 5 if I want to put one in the center. That means 1 arrow shot into each individual bullseye. That also means no more expensive robin hoods. I have had seven of them, and realized that when the novelty wears off, there's nothing left but the need to replace arrows. Why did it take me 7 of them to figure that out? ....... little slow I guess ..... lol.

The DEC's stake in the argument is obvious. I have not seen a single move by them in recent years that was not aimed squarely at reducing herd sizes. That seems to be the only tenet of herd management that they are concerned with these days. I don't believe that they are even thinking about safety in this issue or about what is reasonable neighbor relationships when it comes to proximity issues. In fact, I seriously doubt they have even considered the non-hunting ramifications of such a law change as regards back-yard target practice. It seems that most discussions of this issue start off with a focus on hunting and never seem to get involved with the bigger picture around that. I frankly would not use their opinions as any kind of credible endorsement of the law change.

I think these videos are darn near of a commercial quality that maybe could earn these guys a few bucks. A few more of these kinds of hunts lumped into a full length video, and it would be every bit as good (and better) than some of the ones that I have bought.

I love these videos. It's hard to find any videos on predator calling/hunting that aren't done way out west. We have completely different hunting conditions and predator mentality than they do in the western states, so at least these videos are something that I can relate to.

I don't believe that deer change their intelligence just because they are in a suburban habitat. But, I have some additional requirements of my hunting that other people probably don't as regards the ambiance of the hunt. I try to make the hunt contain some illusion of wildness. That's just a quirk that I personally have, and I know it isn't necessarily something that others require or necessarily should be concerned with. I have no problem with that. Sometimes I do worry about consequences after the shot when hunts are conducted in areas of tight population. I guess I can imagine some nasty potential interactions with angry neighbors if my shot deer were to make it onto the property of somebody that really doesn't care to be forced into my hunting adventure .... lol. So anyway, maybe it is some of that that is creeping into my opinion about chopping the bow distance down to 50 yards. I guess I just don't like hunting around people.....lol.

You know, I keep hearing all that, but have never had anyone ever offer a source of that data.

What the heck ...... you actually found some snow and ice for pictures.....lol. Those are some great pictures, and I guess you have inspired me to get out tomorrow and climb our "cardiac hill" and see what photo opportunities there are up there back in the badlands. Love seeing those pics. It kind of reminds me that there are a lot of things besides deer to take pictures of. Thanks for posting them.

I've got a feeling that deer are pretty tough no matter where you might find them. Unless of course you are talking about my front yard around this time of year .... lol.

If it is deemed necessary or useful to have special days set aside for a youth hunt ..... IF ..... I would actually prefer to give up the last couple days of bow season, or the first couple days of gun season. to me that would cause the least disruption of anybody's hunting. I know there are bowhunters that highly value those rutty last couple of days, but from what I have seen, success on those last two days is more a case of good luck with incredibly poor odds, than good planning. Generally at that time the deer are simply running random patternless movements that are almost impossible to key in on. So, FOR ME, that would be the least painless time to throw this special firearms season in. Of course I am still not convinced that such an event is either necessary or useful, but there seems to be a lot of "feel-good" pressure to stuff that sort of season (along with every other "catch-all" disturbance) into bow seasons.

Since most states consider blaze orange laws to be hunting laws, I sincerely doubt that the law would be extended to the general public, and probably would simply be made a condition of participating in big game hunting. One would hope that they would use some level of practicality and common sense, coupled with the fact that it is likely that there never has been a hunting accident that has involved "walkers, dog walkers, bike riders, etc." being mistaken for game. The reality of it is that these people have pretty well vacated the woods when the season opens. However, I have seen joggers running down the side of highways that are fully clad in B/O when gun season opens. And while that is a bit overboard, credit them with having more native intelligence than a lot of hunters who should know better but don't, and play Russian Roulette during the deer seasons with their camo suits. By the way, don't imagine that NYS would be paving new ground with a blaze orange law. The great majority of states (40 of them) have some form of B/O law in place with no apparent negative results or any of the problems or difficulties that many are imagining.

I'm not sure what kinds of legal hoops one has to jump through to have someone arrested for reckless endangerment, but I'm sure it is a much more serious level of offense than violating a firearms proximity law. However, the shooting proximity law is already on the books, and in terms of archery equipment seems quite adequate. The changes to that law that I have heard about simply involve slashing the distance. I have heard nothing about removing the law and letting some other category of law serve the purpose. So as I understand it the intent is to simply lower the limit for archery shooting and let the consequences fall where they may. As far as the Irondequoit bowhunting control, I'm afraid that the newspapers left out most of the details of the extent of restrictions that are placed on participating bowhunters, so I have no idea as to exactly how those hunts are conducted. But I believe I heard that the bowhunters used are specially qualified by the authorities and are nothing like the back-yard target shooter who props up a foam target and starts firing away. I don't believe that the Irondequoit hunt is thrown open to the general public for uncontrolled participation.

As a do-it-yourself home project, I have absolutely no interest in homebrew construction. I have very little talent or abilitiy or patience with such things. As far as buying one of these from individual tinkerers, I am a bit concerned about the risks and cost. From what I have seen so far, there is no reputable manufacturer building and selling these things in a mass produced fashion, so again their is the risk thing. My guess is that this is most likely not a way that I am willing to go. For many, it might be a good idea but for me I think I will stay with the standard established trail cam manufacturers and do as good as I can.

I really haven't found a source of homebrew cameras to get cost and procurement data from. My initial reaction is that they might be out of my price range. Also, I wonder about such things as warrantees and returns, etc., just in case something were to go wrong. My understanding is that these homebrew approaches use standard digital cameras. That does make me wonder how they have weather-proofed them to eliminate such problems as condensation, rain, snow, freezing etc. I guess there's just a few too many questions without any reliable source of answers.

Yes, I can picture a parcel shaped like an airplane landing strip that if the shooting were done in the proper direction, it would be very safe. On the other hand, I have seen the average suburban lot that 99.99% of the suburbanites live on. Many of these don't even have fences between them. I will flat-out state that there is no way that any of these could be shooting any kind of weapon at 50 yards and be safe.I am waiting to have anyone reply to the very likely scenarios that I have laid out in previous replies. It is inconceivable to me that anyone could support a law change that would legalize that sort of risk even if we are not personally effected. I understand that many of us have that whole scenario covered by virtue of the size or shape of our property, but the law covers more people than just ourselves. Unless somebody can show me some proposed wording that will address the obvious safety concerns of so many properties, there's no way that I would ever support such a change.

I think the way so many of these recent attacks on bow season are actually gaining traction is that a lot of bowhunters have their own hunting grounds that are in one way or another controllable as to who, how many and what kind of hunters share the same area. They either own it, lease it, know the landowners or are related to the landowners. Therefore they feel insulated (and most likely are) from some of the effects of some of the recent changes and future changes that effect other bowhunters. For that reason they all have adopted the attitude of "let everyone else worry about their own situation ..... none of it affects me". I guess I could adopt the same attitude since my days of bowhunting are most likely limited, but I do have a loyalty to the sport that I have enjoyed almost all of my life. Having said all that, I do understand where a lot of this stuff becomes a bit overwhelming and where people eventually get to the point of giving up. I can understand how someone might adopt the attitude of pulling back into their own resources and let the rest of it go where it may. I still fight the tide a bit, but am no where near as adamant as I used to be. Just human nature I guess.

I am looking for reasonable quality pic that may be suitable for display. That means good clarity, good color, and good exposure. However, I fully understand that there will have to be compromise. I cannot afford the home-made set ups that use conventional cameras (i'm forgetting the term right now). So I do understand the limitations of most off-the-shelf trail cams on the market. But I do have some great photo opportunities of critters other than deer down in the swamp and creek across the road. (Mink, muskrats, beavers, coons, etc.) So I'm dealing with critters that are on their way from somewhere to somewhere and it may be only an instant when they are going by or on a trail. Consider how fast a swimming beaver comes into the frame and then is out. I know for a fact that deer very often can beat 4 seconds by a bunch. I have a lot of tail shots from some cameras that are much faster than 4 seconds .... lol. Being set up down at ground level, something like a mink may not be in the frame for long at all as they pass through some rather narrow openings in the swamp grass. The trigger speed will probably be more important for small critter photography than for deer photography. It is true that no matter what make and model camera you choose, somebody will have had a bad one or two. It's hard to use that kind of consumer judgements because it seems that just about all of the different manufacturers seem to have quality control shortfalls. But at least these kinds of opinions can give a kind of rough feel for what to expect. I'll be dealing with suppliers that have free shipping, no sales tax, no-questions-asked return policies, and free return shipping policies. So that kind of helps with the risk.

I suspect that shortening up the legal distance from structures for using a bow will definitely ensure that more and more municipalities enact those no-discharge laws. yet another unintended consequence. You will likely see subrban hunting opportunities diminish.

You know, if it was as simple as simply telling everybody that, we would not have people getting shot by other hunters. We wouldn't even be talking about blaze orange at all. But guess what..... they have all been told about being sure of their target in their hunter safety training, and we still have people getting shot. We can spout the rules of safety all we want and as often as we want, but there will still be people who ignore those rules, or who simply get too damned excited, or whatever it is that makes them throw all caution to the wind and blaze away at movement. So it is obvious that we need something besides these nice little safety phrases. Blaze orange is a poor substitute for safety-minded hunting, but there is no arguing the effectiveness of it. There just isn't. It would be interesting if only there was some way to measure just how many lives have been saved because of that little flash of orange. As far as non-hunters, I think they are more afraid of gun hunters than we are. They seem to vacate the woods while the season is in progress.

What is "fantasy fishing"?

There is no re-definitions of structures that will ensure that any kind of structure is guaranteed to unoccupied or in use. If a neighbor has a tool shed, there will be some time when he will be in it, approaching it or leaving it.