Doc

I think what really bothers me (and here is a comment for those of you who worry about loss of personal liberties), Is the fact that the government has taken on the position of mass modifying the behaviors of the people. What they learned from this anti-smoking activity is that any behavior of the public can be curtailed or modified through the use of taxation, and public advertising campaigns using our very own tax dollars. They have also learned that these practices are super-effective even against behaviors that are deeply entrenched in our society. The other lesson learned is that this powerful tool of the government can be used against any behavior or activity. Yes obesity has been mentioned. Alcohol is another great target. Perhaps we can look at the government taxation of gasoline as a behavior modification activity to curtail fuel consumption. But then when all this government manipulation has become completely institutionalized, imagine the other things that can be attacked and eliminated in the same way. Things such as hunting or gun ownership, in fact there is no real end to which the system can be used. The first thing to be done is to begin a massive public campaign against whatever targeted activity. That paves the way for more and more increasingly invasive restrictions and financial pressures that are all tools available to the government. So when you see these kinds of activities being conducted by your government, try to resist becoming a cheering section, and understand the true invasiveness of these tactics.

Hey, by the way, speaking of how this wacky year might effect the bugs, I was working over in a picnic area next to the house and I was driven back in the house by mosquitos. Other years at this time of year I generally have a week or two of bug-free work time. And then when the bugs start it has always been the black-flies that start the season off and not mosquitos. Well I have to say that they are out there and really hungry already. Maybe a result of the mild winter????

Luck has nothing to do with where I chose to live. However, I have noted that I hunt along-side of a whole lot of city folks who hunt the very same state land that I do and apparently don't consider it that much of an imposition to hop in their car and drive out here. Another great thing is that none of them feel it is necessary to set up their stand in my hedgerow, 50 yards away from my home ...... lol.

Well, won't that effect the effectiveness of calling if most of the breeding happens to finish before the season opens in May?

I think we all have pictures of us smiling as we clutch the antlers that we just hacked off the head of a dead deer. I don't recall that much of an uproar over it. The other night, I watched Larry the Cable Guy with a handful of nutria tails that were snipped off for a $5 bounty down in some southern state. I don't expect that there will be a huge uproar over that either. So what's the big deal?

However, to get back to the topic, I have done my thing with quitting tobacco, and I believe that I have earned the right not to be harrassed nightly by ghastly images of disgusting health problems on my TV. I realize that not everybody is so damned sensitive to these disgusting displays, but it does upset my evening to see somebody plop a black oozing lung into a stainless steel bowl (especially if I am about to dig into a nice meal of venison liver and onions ..... lol). I do wonder how such images affect young children. If it upsets me, I can imagine that there are some children who don't need to be looking at that kind of crap. And then there is the actual question as to whether any of it is really doing any good. Believe it or not that is a question that even the government experts didn't seem to be able to definitively answer on this news broadcast that I was talking about in the opening post. And yet they intend to pursue this same ghastly display in an even more graphic fashion at assumedly an ever increasing expenditure of our tax dollars. Several here have talked about how they quit when they were finally ready, and how that had nothing to do with the government behavior modification activities. I know exactly what they are talking about. When I quit, this medical pornography was not polluting the airwaves. I simply made up my mind that it was time to quit.

You know, I have been hearing these statistics about how much tobacco costs in health expenses, and I still believe that that particular stat is a very heavily massaged one that fails to take into consideration how much quicker smokers actually leave the health and insurance system. Does anyone imagine that when people quit smoking that they begin a long life that will never wind them up in a hospital, intensive care or extended care? Do people think that non smokers simply pass away peacefully in their sleep? How about those non smokers that are now living to ages that they would never see if they smoked? I'm talking about the 80 and 90 year olds that are sucking up nursing home space and being kept alive at the massive expenses of constant daily medication and intensive care for many more years than smokers. Doesn't that make some of those statistics seem just a bit over-inflated. kind of like somebody left another half of the calculations out. Certainly there are plenty of reasons for people to quit smoking, but I don't buy that these are the people who are driving health costs out of sight. Most of us are going to exit this world and leave behind a bundle of medical expenses both preventative, maintenance, and desparate attempts to extend our lives. And that will be true whether we die of smoking related causes or something else. Yes it may sound a bit cold-blooded to contemplate, but it is very likely that smokers have been actually cutting short their drain on society's medical resources by dying younger. And it may very well be that the non-smokers and other health obsessed people are the ones who live to that very old and medically expensive time of life. Make sense or no????

So yesterday, I went over to the creek/swamp that I spent quite a few years of my youth trapping muskrats. I was doing a bit of scouting for setting up my new trailcam for some wildlife photos. I don't know why I never noticed it earlier, but it appears that the muskrat population has fallen to near zero. None of the sign that that area used to be filled with. No droppings on logs, no houses, no trails through the underwater weeds, no feeding stations, pretty much nothing! And from what I am seeing on this thread, it appears that this situation is not very unique across the state. And yet nobody seems to know why. I would think that authorities would be very concerned about the potential demise of a whole species.

That was my thought when I saw the picture. It looks like he could have been pinned in that position just from the weight of the tree. What a way to go that would be.

I just heard on the news that the government intends to step up the number and the grossness of anti-smoking commercials. Now let me start out with the fact that I have been off cigarettes for more than 4 years and I am in no way a fan of smoking. So really I have no dog in this fight other than the fact that I am getting more than a bit disgusted with seeing pictures of diseased lungs and other disgusting health maladies being posted on my TV set. I payed good money for my TV, and I also pay a hefty amount monthly for cable, and I don't feel that a TV should be used to disgust the viewer. Yes we can turn it off if we don't like it, and I have indeed switched channels because of some of that garbage advertising. And it has happened where I turned from one channel to another and ran into the same kind of advertisement. There comes a point where the rest of us (who are now in the vast majority) are being put through a campaign of poor taste and disgusting images simply because of the over-the-top zeal that has gripped the entire mentality of those concerned with insisting what's best for the rest of the population. This all has been bad enough, but when I heard that they are going to be going deeper into this bizarre and repulsive campaign I started to wonder just when people are going to say "enough is enough". It no longer matters whether we are fans of smoking or not. It's getting into an area involving just plain decency and good taste of forced TV programming (at taxpayer's expense I might add). I don't smoke and I am offended by these gross images constantly being forced into my TV viewing. Just a little rant that was touched off by that news item ...... It doesn't do a bit of good and yet I feel just a little better having written all that down ..... lol.

I have been in heavy wind storms in the woods where just about every other sound is over-powered by the sound of the wind whipping through the trees. Also not every breaking tree makes a whole lot of noise. Plus deer don't always react to every sound in the woods. Some of these deer that have been around a few seasons like to locate the origin of a sound before they react. I think that something like this could easily happen.

Anybody have any theories as to how this extremely early seasonal change might affect the turkey breeding season? Does anyone think it may touch off early breeding? I don't have any idea, so I'm just asking.

That's a great idea! By the way I also used their comment feature on their website to give them an ear-full on their wonderful marketing move.

That is an old saying that I grew up with. It doesn't always work though ..... lol.

I'm surprised that doesn't happen more often. I have seen trees and heavy limbs come down in the woods several times over the years, and they weren't always that far away. And some of the crazy winds we have been having this year ..... well, the woods can be a dangerous place .... lol. By the way, I wonder what is wrong with the carrion eaters there that they haven't stripped that carcass long before the picture was taken. That deer would never look anything like that at that stage of decomposition if it were laying around here.

I never do use any locking systems, even when mounting it to a tree. The area where I use any of my cameras is on private (posted) land and in areas where nobody ever goes or even wants to go. The creek/swamp area where I will be using it is not a very friendly place to casually hike around in, and if you don't know where the beaver channels are located, walking around in there can get you pretty wet .... lol. Also, with the amount of cattails and swamp grasses and downed willow trees, you would pretty much have to step on it in order to see it.

I know they have an excellent gasketing system, but they really don't make any claims or warrantees relating to total submersing. Yeah, maybe it would be alright, but I can guarantee that at some time each year that swamp will get flooded, and with a nearly $200 camera, I really don't want to take the chance. I took the whole float system down to the pond to check it out, and it is very stable. As far as current and wave action, there are only a couple of areas where there is any, and I'll be staying away from those. Even in the most violent floods, the creek takes so many twists and turns that almost all of it never really gets a whole lot of water movement going. It just slowly comes up and then slowly goes down. I suppose the swamp kind of acts as a reservoir, and the water just simply spreads out rather than forming a torrent. I'm very familiar with how this body of water works since I have been around it all my life and spent a huge amount of time as a youngster trapping every inch of it. I have provided a generous length of rope to tether the whole thing off with so the angles should be very shallow and there should not be any tendency for tipping. It's not the kind of floatation system that would work everywhere and in every kind of situation, but it will work well in this specific waterway. I just kind of figured that I should make some attempt at trying to avoid potential disaster. I'm fairly confident that it will work in the situation that I will be using it.

OK, my cam-float device has been modified from a Moultrie mount to a the new Cuddeback. Now all I have to do is go over to the creek/swamp and do a bit of scouting. I am going to use a lot of the same techniques as I used for trapping years ago. I think I am ready now in case of a flood. The styrofoam easily supports the camera and the rope will allow the whole thing to simply float up and down instead of floating away or going under water. The problem is that I am going to be trying to take pictures of the critters at ground level, and that whole area has a habit of flooding up to a couple feet above surrounding ground level. So I had to get a bit creative or run the risk of periodically dunking the camera for a several hours at a time. I know they are semi-water-proof, but I wouldn't expect them to tolerate a full burial in water for any period of time.

The flash pictures were very good. clear, sharp and good color. Yeah, I think the deer picture was a pretty tough test because the time was just about when the camera was thinking about going to flash. But it was the only deer pic so that's the one I decided to post....lol. All the other pictures were some grumpy old ugly guy with a scruffy white beard. The 4 "D'-cells work great. They do add to the overall weight. The one thing I don't care for is the fact that you have to remove the cam from the tree in order to make settings, and to install or remove the SD card. That seems a bit awkward. But the attachment to the tree if via a sliding insertion into a pre assembled mount on the tree, so it happens fairly fast. Over all, I think it is probably worth the exorbitant amount of money ($189 at opticsplanet.com) they are asking for it. I'll know better as soon as I get a feel for how long the thing will keep on functioning. It really seems built like a tank, and manufacturing and design takes in a lot of thought about some of the strength and ease of use. Now I have to go downstairs and study the wonderful custom designed "floatable cam mount" that I built for the Moultries and figure out how to adapt it to the Cuddeback. The shape, size and mounting features are all totally different, so it may not be an easy thing to do.

All is well in the trail-cam world again. I got my Cuddeback Attack (White-flash) the other day and was able to test it out last night. I'm pretty happy with the quality and other things about the way it works. This picture was taken at a very ugly time of night when the sun had just gone over the hill. It was that time when the camera has to figure out whether to use the flash or not. I do think in this case the flash would have been useful, but still it isn't that bad of a picture. The sharpness could have been a bit better, but it really isn't that bad for a trail-cam. Apparently the trigger speed is as they advertise I took several pictures throughout the day where I walked at different speeds through the picture area and for the most part, I wound up pretty close to the center. I was never able to get anywhere near out of the picture. So I'm happy about that. I think it's going to serve my purposes very well.

I don't know ..... I'm no vet, but I do know that that joint is a fairly complex part of the leg and by the looks of it, it will never function again. I have seen deer that got along just fine with a rear leg completely missing, but they didn't look that unhealthy. I kind of wonder if there isn't more wrong with that deer than just the obvious problem.

I enjoyed that one too. I never see any coverage on the olympics archery competitions. The networks simply ignore that as a sport. It was great to see some in-depth video of these people who are expert shooters. Some of them are simply "shooting machines".

I'll tell you what's real ugly ..... my brother-in-law was shooting 5 arrows at 5 different spots and still got a robinhood.

On what basis did he grieve the taxes? I would guess that it was on the basis of assessment...... the grievance system that I am already aware of. I think he might have a hard time taking on the school district claiming that you need tax relief because they are not operating efficiently and frugally ..... lol. But then, maybe there is some kind of legal remedy for getting relief from a spend-thrift government organization like the local school system. If there is I would like to know about it so I can use it.

And of course the most important reason of all that they shoot what they shoot is number 4 ....... Because the bows and equipment that the pros shoot are given to them free from their sponsors and if they want to keep their sponsors they darned well better shoot their bows. In your 100 yard test (make that 100 meters), perhaps you might want to invite Darrell Pace along just to get a real good comparison between the accuracy of a super hopped-up compound vs. a recurve in the hands of a guy that puts most of his emphasis on himself rather than the speed of his equipment.