Doc

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.

Will moving water set off the motion-detector of a trail-cam?

I have to wonder how many of the hunter-heroes that we see on TV actually engage in this kind of hunting. Many of us sit around and amazed over the massive racks that these guys routinely take every week and shower these guys with something near hero-worship. Maybe this video gives a little different perspective on what kinds of hunting tactics may be behind these consistant trophy hunters who pose as hunting experts. Could be these guys are just a different kind of "market hunter" who are catering to a different kind of market. Is it all just harmless? Well as the guy in the video points out, such footage would make powerful recruiting media for the animal rights people. It's rather easy for someone to paint all hunting with the same broad brush that is being shown here.

No, the texting while walking thing was a joke (see above). The other so-called "common sense" laws that I mentioned, involving texting or using phones while driving are anything but a joke (for obvious reasons). Sure you would think (and hope) that people had "common sense" enough to know that that stuff is a bad idea. But anyone who has been paying attention out there has seen otherwise. Some may think that those kinds of laws threaten the foundation of our democracy, but just like DWI laws, they do serve a purpose as an attempted protection from those that apparently don't have that "common sense". I don't relate any of that stuff as being on the same level as the McDonalds fiasco. That sort of thing relates more to the letigious nature of society, and the court systems and juries who also seem to have a shortage of common sense.

Good point. Since all the crossbow enthusiasts on this forum claim that a x-bow is archery and deserves to be in bow season, why all of a sudden is it necessary to split it out in this forum. Which way is it?

I knew this would be a good topic. Lots of good info here ..... thanks guys.

The "law against texting while walking" I assume was a tongue-in-cheek joke regarding the woman who fell down the stairs while texting. But there are a lot of these kinds of laws that people complain about that are really needed to protect other innocent by-standers around them. Yes, they have to do with what would be considered common sense, but in some cases lack of common sense can kill people. For example, texting/phoneing while driving is a great example. It appears that a lot of people over-estimate their abilities to multi-task effectively ..... especially when it comes to driving. The latest episode was where I was pulled up to an T-intersection and I was in the lane to the right of this woman who was busily yacking on the phone. All of a sudden she decided she needed to turn in my direction. It didn't seem to bother her that I was there waiting to get out. Whatever was going through her mind had nothing to do with driving. I guess the old man still has pretty good reflexes, because I got to that horn just in time to keep her from driving through my front fender. Actually, I see it all the time where people are driving erratically down the road and , sure enough ....... they are out in la-la land on the phone, with no clue what the heck is happening around them or what it is they are supposed to be doing. Needless to say texting while driving is even worse. I really don't understand this obsession the public has with constantly being wired up for conversation. Are they really that lonely or has life gotten so boring for them that they need these kinds of distractions, 24/7? Yeah, I'm darn glad they make some of these "common sense" laws. Now all they have to do is to start enforcing them. NYS could go a long way toward balancing their budget if they just started enforcing these texting/phone laws .....lol. There's a whole bunch of people out there that are ignoring that one.

What a great price!

Then does anyone have any idea what the heck they are talking about?

So how popular is hunting in England? Is it something that a lot of people are involved in or is it kind of a rare activity? Do they have a lot of open government owned land that can be hunted? Are the licenses expensive? When you say "it is difficult to get a rifle in England", what kinds of restrictions do they have on rifle purchases and ownership? Yeah, I know ...... a whole bunch of questions. But I am really curious about such things. I never have found an occasion to talk hunting with someone from England who has actually done it there.

Buried about half way down the article was something that I have never heard about. They were referring to a "State Land Access Permit" on Long Island. "A State Land Access Permit is needed to access DEC managed lands on Long Island. DEC processes around 5,000 of these access permits each year". Do you guys actually have to have some special permit to access state land? Do they charge for this? What is the purpose of such a "permit"?

What this article puts into words is exactly what a few of us knew even before the license fee hikes. I for one never did expect to see the additional money put toward actual DEC needs. I also did not expect to all of a sudden see the addition of fish and wildlife management activities. What has caught me a bit by surprise is how quickly and blatently the state government grabbed up that sudden windfall of money. It really amounted to a massive tax for government general spending, plopped on the backs of sports men and women. And we didn't even get a thank-you.

In most instances, its not "mis-management". It's simply no management at all. But maybe that's not so much of a bad thing. Some of the recent attention that I have seen on state land is aimed at turning it from hunting and trapping land to activities that attract constant crowds of hikers, bikers and such with construction of a maze of mountain bike trails that pretty much blanket the entire area. Nothing much for the critters of the land, but simply exploitation for amusement and recreation. Unfortunately this constant assault throughout the spring, summer, and fall months doesn't co-exist well with hunting.

Is there really any way to identify a buck from a doe simply by looking at a track or series of tracks? Or is there anyway to tell that a track was probably made by a buck?

I think the strangest thing I saw on state land was very late in the afternoon, way up on the hill in the middle of nowhere. I was on stand, and all of a sudden this wacky looking dude dressed in flourescent pink tights came bounding through the woods like some kind of gazelle. Needless to say that pretty well screwed up that hunt. That was the beginning of many such encounters during bow season. I guess when gun season opens up they all head for cover because I have never seen a biker, hiker or jogger up there after opening day. It's a new day in the state woods now, and some areas are being taken over by non-hunting uses. It's a bit hard to get used to after all the decades of non-interference from such activities. But I guess if you are going to hunt public land it's something that must be accepted.

That'll be interesting to see what they turn out to be. That's too bad ...... I do like those Grannies. But then I already got two of them out in my orchard so that's probably more apples than we can eat anyway. Mystery apples ...... I like that .....lol.

I'm thinking they are probably pretty hard to trap. They don't seem to do anything without a whole lot of worrying and checking. It's a wonder they ever get around to eating anything .... lol.

Oh boy ....... politics and religion. Two discussion topics that are guaranteed to wind up to eventually erupt into warfare. Probably not the best of forum topics. Always excellent trolling bait though......lol.