Doc

I just think that hunting 50 yards from someone's house is a bit tacky and unnecessary. In terms of the safety aspect, I believe it is more than just a function of distance. There is always the question of adequate back-stops, and the direction of the shot. I don't want anyone standing 50 yards from my house and shooting straight in my direction. I can't imagine anyone liking that idea. And yet we talk about legalizing such a practice. There might be something a bit un-nerving looking over toward your neighbor's place and seeing someone getting ready to loose and arrow in your direction at 50 yards. We do some target shooting at 50 yards and beyond, and we have a standing rule that regardless of shot distance, everyone is behind the shooter ..... always! ....... even at 50 yards and even farther. So why would I expect that my neighbor's house can act as my backstop for my 50 yard shots? Would you like to have to call your neighbor and ask if he was going to be shooting before you or your family felt safe using your backyard? The 50 yard rule would allow exactly that to happen.....legally.

I'll tell you what works for me. If for some reason I take off my outer BO jacket or whatever, it immediately gets hung on a limb right next to where I am working. That is true whether I still have some blaze orange on or not. No need to bring anything extra along. Simply don't throw all your blaze orange on the ground. It doesn't do much good there. Hang it up. Also, what ever shirts I have on underneath are always a pretty bright color as well. I don't leave myself unprotected for even a second. Spending all your deerhunting life on fairly high pressured state land tends to make you always super safety conscious. Of course, it all depends on how much of a gambler you are. For me when the stakes are my life or perhaps an arm or leg or two, I don't tend to gamble hardly at all.....lol.

I wonder why this is a state law anyway. Why shouldn't such things be determined by local laws that can be tailored to the specific conditions, needs, and requirements of the municipality? That way, if some township feels the need to reduce their deer population, they can make whatever specific modifications to their own law to enable whatever they feel they must do.

I have used a shotgun on squirrels. I actually don't relate that to any kind of marksmanship success or failure....lol. Generally, I am looking for a quick meal, and don't really try to apply a whole lot of "challenge" to the activity. It's simply meat-gathering .... pure and simple and I'm not very interested in shooting only at "posing" squirrels.

That's the one kind of hunting accident that I have never been able to understand, but yet one of the most common. What is it about a human that could possibly look like a deer? It is hard to imagine how someone gutting a deer out (or any other kind of activity) could look like a deer. But yet every year it happens. If you are trying to "place" your shot and avoid wounding, how do you look at a human, mistake them for a deer and place a round in the kill zone? Obviously there is still the old "spray and pray" style of shooting going on out there. One thing we all have to realize is that not everyone out there is as careful as we are. In fact some are just plain reckless and irresponsible. So it's always a good idea to hunt defensively. Fortunately, most of us do.

As usual your reply makes absolutely no sense, but I know it is important to you to have the last word, so have at it ....lol.

Yeah, I was wondering how long it would be before you started that kind of stuff. I knew you couldn't keep up a decent discussion for very long.

I'm trying to stay positive, but I've got to admit that it's pretty darn frustrating.

Personally, I do not think the path to strengthening hunting lies in randomly eliminating regulations and controls. In fact I think that is the quickest way to watch public respect, tolerance, and sympathies for hunting erode. As soon as we begin to think that our right to hunt trumps the rights of property owners, we should be ready for a huge shift in public attitudes against hunting. Yes, hunting access is an important feature, but not at the expense of respectful and safe distances from the homes of others. That's just the way I see it.

I already agreed that the DA is a dork. As far as jumping to conclusions, I will leave that to others.

If that is the way it is worded, I would consider even a garage or shed to be a structure that is "in use". All of those things are structures that could have a person in them at one time or another. That is probably the common thread that runs through the whole statement. It doesn't sound like it has to be a structure that is "lived in". Again, it could be one of those laws that can be pulled and stretched to fit any kind of ticket that law enforcement may feel a need to write.

Oh damn ..... I knew I'd be stepping on somebody's toes with that remark. Sorry about that. It was kind of meant to be funny, but still probably represents how I would feel if I looked out my window and saw some guy in a treestand grinning back at me. I still feel that 500' is a decent and respectful distance to maintain from somebody's home (it really isn't all that far). And I also have to say that such proximity to homes and all the activity that takes place there is absolutely not my version of hunting. It may be fine for others and that's ok, but for me it's not the hunting experience that I want. So I repeat .... It's not a law change that will get support from me.

I haven't heard of any requirement to report a harvest, but I would imagine that they would be real appreciative of any info on taking any of these critters. You might think they would be interested in where any were taken and maybe even some vital data such as gender, weight, and if it can be determined ... age. I think the DEC is the first phone call I would make if I ever got one.

As I understand it, it is not only the farmers that catch hell with exploding hog populations, but resident wildlife and habitat also get beat up by these things. Understand that they compete (very successfully) for the very same food resources that our game birds and animals compete for, only excessive populations of hogs would make them the winners in that competition. They are "eating machines" and very good at altering habitat ....... not for the better. They are definitely a non-native species that we could do without. I would love to hunt pigs also. I think it would be fun. However, if I ever really get the urge to do so, there are plenty of states down south and out west that are already infested with them and who would truly appreciate our help in controlling that infestation.

Seriously ...... Doesn't hunting usually get associated with wild things in wild environment? Urban hunting ..... doesn't that have a rather strange ring to it? Why are so many bowhunters concerned with being able to cozy up to other people's homes. Probably the last place I would ever want to hunt is next to someone's home. That would absolutely ruin the whole atmosphere of the hunt. I don't know, that's just the way I feel about it, so efforts to change that law will get no support from me. Those that get some kind of voyeuristic pleasures from that kind of hunting will have to fight that battle without me .....lol. 500' is about as much encroachment on people's privacy as I am willing to go for. I have no safety concerns when it comes to bowhunting closer than that, but it just seems right to me not to force my hunting into people's backyards.

I'm definitely not a fan of Ted Nugent ..................BUT ................... I really do wish I could defend the 2nd amendment half as well as he did in that interview. I wish I could instantly quote the stats as quickly as he did. I also like the fact that he did not allow Morgan to speak over him as is so often the technique of the anti-gun crowd. Apparently there was some language that may not have been appropriate or necessary, but in general I believe he stated our case very well and this time it was done in a fashion that might open a few eyes about what gunowners have been saying. I would say that he picked up a lot of stock in my mind with this interview and basically put Morgan in his place.

I read that article in New York Outdoor News, and basically it all sounded kind like "double-speak". If nobody is hunting them, and the population explodes geometrically as they claim is typical of hog populations, it simply sounds like the DEC is giving them a free pass to take over the NYS landscape. Certainly treating them only as a "target of opportunity" is not going to put a dent in their expansion. I would think a better policy while the population is still controllable would be to put a bounty on them and encourage hunting them. If they move out of the area, let the hunters of their new area aggressively hunt them also. I think when they say to not hunt them, they are basically saying that they have already given up on exterminating them. Shooting one here and there is a worthless ineffective policy guaranteed to allow the population to explode.

No, it's not "funny". It has no relevance to my comment or anything to do with my comments on blaze orange. The DA is a dork and obviously knows nothing of the law he is supposed to prosecute. Again, that has nothing to do with my reply. And as far as the mentality if blaze orange is made mandatory, you are simply guessing on that point and have nothing credible to base that claim on. Certainly this incident doesn't make anyone arrive at that conclusion.

Well, this whole fiasco has turned into an absolute nightmare. The L-50 that I bought worked great ...... at first. So I ordered another one. The 2nd one was a total disaster. It appears that it was willing to take the first picture ok, but then decided to turn itself off. No additional pictures, no displays on the LCD, nothing. Until I took a paper clip and poked the reset switch. Then I was able to get it to take another one picture. And yes I understand that there is a delay between pictures which I have set at 1 minute. There was one time when I actually got it to fire twice before it went back to sleep. Well these things will happen, so I returned that 2nd camera to Hayneedle for a replacement, which arrived yesterday. Guess what, that one does the same thing. So I filled up the original one with batteries and ...... yup, you guessed it. It too is starting to freeze up after the first picture. The only thing that will get it going is poking that reset button. So there you are. Three different cameras and each of them pretty much worthless. My next step is to try to contact Moultrie and see if there is something that I am doing wrong. It's pretty hard to imagine. It's just about the easiest thing in the world to operate, but who knows? If Moultrie can't help then I guess I will try to get my money back and forget the whole thing.

I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to look out your bedroom window and see some gomer grinning back at you at 50 yards from his tree stand ..... lol. It does conjure up a rather comical image, but I can also see how it might not be so comical to any non-hunter that this happens to. You think he might form some negative opinions about those damn, pushy bow hunters? Maybe not if he has just pushed the deer away from some of his expensive landscape plantings ..... or maybe he may just see this as a legalized intrusion that he might feel compelled to campaign against. Frankly, I have absolutely no desire to hunt in somebody's back yard. I don't want to listen to their TV set, or arguments. I don't want to watch cars pull in and out of their driveway. I don't have any desire to attend their family get-togethers from 50' away in my treestand. That just isn't my idea of a nice afternoon of hunting ..... lol.

Just got done reading the impassioned essay on the previous page that blames the notion of "fairchase" for all the losses that hunting has taken over the years. Apparently, because we try to keep some sort of lid on how we pursue game and attempt to apply some form of ethical approach to what we do, we are somehow feeding the animal rights movement. I can only say, "thank heavens for those that do think about, and discuss, and have passionate feelings about such things". If our sport cannot withstand self-scrutiny and internal microscopic inspection, then perhaps it isn't worth preserving in the first place. Not everything is "to each their own". Such activities do need to be subject to moderation and reason and discussion and thought. And every time I enter this forum, I am thankful that there are people who do not simply let the laws established by a bunch of politicians dictate their own personal ethics and opinions on how we conduct hunting. No it's not "to each their own". There is almost nothing that occurs in hunting that does not reflect on us all and the way our hunting activities are perceived by ourselves and those around us. The idea of "anything goes" is a far greater threat than anything done or said in the name of fair-chase.

It sure is comical to hear people trying to blame blaze orange for this incident. The fact that we commonly wear blaze orange while deer hunting really has absolutely nothing to do with what happened. To me that is a strange linkage. The guy got shot because of carelessness and unsafe target selection ..... plain and simple. And yes, perhaps if he had thought to hang his blaze orange clothing in a tree next to where he was working, that last minute flash of orange probably would have prevented the tragedy.

I guess we have to assume that the old guy really was shooting at his son, and that there wasn't some other critter between the two. But realistically speaking, I would say that this is a hell of a thing for him to take to the grave with him. I think in this particular case, justice will be extremely severe for a split second of misjudgement.

Nothing quite like a little "vigilante justice" to put the fear of God into these creeps that prey on law abiding citizens. Basically, I am not in favor of giving the bad guy the first shot before protecting yourself from a potential threat. No such freebies are given at my home.

It used to be that you could find a bunch of buyers with a half hour drive of anywhere. That sure has changed. I'm not sure whether they are still in operation anymore, but the Genesee Valley Trappers Assn used to hold seasonal fur auctions over in Honeoye. I haven't heard much from or about them in a couple years, but that might be some outfit you might check into if you live in western NY.