Doc

Think about it.... how tough is it for a deer to see 20 or 30 feet in the air simply by using their peripheral vision. When I'm walking through the woods, I can see way the heck up in the air without even tipping my head. The farther away I am the higher my peripheral vision can pick out items. How high would you actually have to go up to be completely out of sight of a deer at say 30 or 40 yards? Somebody said something about relying more on cover than height. I think they got it right. If your going to pick out a tree that looks like a telephone pole, I doubt you can get high enough to be out of sight. Deer will look up? ....... Darn right they will. I've seen them do it.

I have been a ground-stander for a few decades now. I developed a pretty significant fear of heights that finally kept me out of the trees. That little problem made me develop some effective ground standing techniques that have produced a fair amount of success, and a real appreciation for the super-excitement of being at ground level, eyeball-to-eyeball, with all kinds of deer. I was a little slow to get into the "pop-up" style of ground blind, but starting last year, I have added this item into my groundstand hunting. Most of my hunting is still using natural blinds, but these things have their place. One thing that may not occur to everyone is that these blinds do offer some level of rain protection that can possibly save a hunting day that otherwise might tempt you to stay in the house. Properly brushed in and concealed, these blinds can be a useful addition to anyone's hunting gear.

This is an interesting use of the term "Target Panic. I have never heard it referred to as relating to buck fever, but I suppose the same kinds of physical/mental things are at work with both. Back in the 80's, I developed true "Target panic" while I was tournament shooting, and even today it sometimes briefly rears it's ugly head. My target panic involved severe uncontrollable exaggerated flinching while squeezing the realease trigger. It is truly a maddening situation. Other target panic that I have heard of involves what they call "freezing". That is where the shooter absolutely cannot get the target pin to move onto the bulls-eye. I guess there are other mental maladies that are similar and all travel under the name of target panic. Buck fever however is something that I only experienced once, and it didn't even involve a shot. I had a huge buck that played me for about a half hour. I watched this beast wandering and pacing around at about 30 yards with just enough brush covering him that there was no shot. He got me so worked up that I sincerely doubt that I could have shot if he had actually come to my side of that brush. I have never experienced anything like that before. Usually I don't get that kind of prolonged closeness to a buck of that quality. 1/2 hour and antlers sticking out all over finally took their toll on my nerves......lol. By the way, he never did come through to my side of the brush. He finally just left and it was quitting time, so I left too. But that shaking and light-headedness that is usually associated with "buck fever" is a feeling that I will never forget.

When is the last time you came across the perfect tree that didn't need some trimming of a limb here or a branch there in order to get a shot to the trail? State land or not, I can't remember a single instance where some shooting lane trimming didn't have to be done. So I wonder how many people strictly abide by some of these regs. I have always tried to, and it has cost me more than one deer because of it. Oh and by the way, it appears that all this stuff goes out the window for some non-hunting uses. We have a network of mountain-bike trails that have been hacked throughout the woods in the state land down our way. That includes logs cut, saplings removed, branches snipped, some pick and shovel work hacked into the hillside, and splotches of paint globbed all over the trees. And apparently that was done with DEC assistance and knowledge.

No drops over night, although that would probably make it go away quicker.

Probably not legal, but check with your regional DEC headquarters to be sure. Different categories of state land have different restrictions. Also, being on a non-state right-of-way, I'm not sure if or how that might change things.

Oh, she's just a ball of good news ...... She just couldn't help but mention that some cases of this uveitis that linger for too long are treated with an injection of steroids directly into the eyeball. I made it clear that that was not likely to happen ..... lol. I've actually got another week of eye drops before she wants to see me again. 2 drops a day for pupil dilation and 1 drop of steroids every two hours. Ever since she started talking about eyebal injections, I'm sure I have seen some instant improvements.....lol. Her best guess was another two or three weeks before it's completely fixed. I'm hoping that only part of that will be actually affecting vision to the point where I can't shoot. By the way, ever since this happened, I've been seeing all kinds of new deer (bucks and does) wandering across my yard well within legal shooting hours. I think they have figured out that something is wrong, and they just have to stop by and rub it in.

Well, things are starting to improve ........ slightly. Still can't see a damned thing through the peep-sight, but I can see a little bit of difference from a few days ago. I've got to tell you all that I am just about as ticked off as I can be. I struggled through all the crap weather, the rain, and the near hurricane winds and now that the weather has turned good, I can't even get out there. And then to add insult to injury, yesterday as I was heading out for the eye doctor, a very nice 6-point took off about 30 yards from my back door. I'm not sure, but I thought I heard him laughing as he went....... . You guys have a great season, and I'll be joining you all as soon as I can.

The last time this happened, I got wacked in the eye with a pine limb. Most people would just have a sore eye for a little bit, but with me that sort of thing always seems to turn into some big-deal infection. I suppose I can live with that, but this is the first time it's happened during hunting season. That really is aggravating.....

I always had a motto that I work to live, not live to work. My life does not belong to any corporation and I always made that perfectly clear to anyone that asked about it. Yes, I took pride in my work and found satisfaction from doing a good job. BUT anytime I began to feel that work was unfairly dominating and dictating my lifestyle I always made adjustments. I never regretted that.

Well, mother nature has figured out yet one more wonderful way to screw up my bow season. The other day, I was brushing in one of my pop-up ground blinds with pine boughs and golden rod. In the process of gathering armfuls of golden rod, I managed to get a bunch of seeds in my right eye. No big deal, just a minor irritation .... right? Of course not. I managed to get a hell of an eye infection from it that has me taking eyedrops every two hours, and I can't see out of my right eye. Can't see anything but blurry fuzz, and that doesn't work real well through a peep sight ..... lol. they have a funny name for it that I can pronounce but not spell. I've had this happen a few times before and it usually lasts at least a couple of weeks. The season hasn't exactly been real wonderful so far, and I sure didn't need this! Oh well, I guess I'll just have a bit shorter season than everyone else to get the job done. Not going to let this get me down. There still should be enough season left after this eventually goes away to get me one of those furry critters.

In a lot of respects that's true. If you look at the two heaviest times of the year for roadkills, you will find them at times when fawns and does are suddenly separated. One is when they are busted up by the chase phase of the rut and the other is in the fawning time when the does get off by themselves leaving last year's fawns on their own for perhaps the very first time. They really seem to get screwed up, and you'll find a lot of these youngsters hit along side the road. However, that is just another test of life for the whitetail. Simply another case of survival of the fittest.

This is the only one that I have seen in a couple of years. I know there's a few around, but things are thick around here, so they can walk very near to you without ever showing themselves.

Yesterday, I got the FIRST buck pictures of the year...... a 6 point and a spike. That's two pictures out of 210 pictures since August. I was beginning to think all the bucks had left the county. So far I have found 2 rubs and no scrapes. That's pretty strange for our area. I'm not real sure what is so different about this year. However, at least things are looking up a bit.

You know, some of these incidents of mis-identification of targets kind of point up the fact that these guys are not really picking out a lethal target spot on the deer. In other words, they are just trying to get a bullet somewhere in the deer. They obviously don't know or care what end of the deer they're shooting at. I generally over compensate by not shooting at any running deer. Yeah that may be a bit extreme, but that's just the way I handle shot selection. The guys firing off these 5-shot volleys that you hear where guys are just spraying the woods with lead, they really aren't all that concerned with where they hit the deer, but instead are relying just on blind luck. Well, sometimes luck turns out to be bad. If you can't tell the difference between a human and a deer, then you sure aren't trying to place the shot. I guess when people develop sloppy shooting habits, there often are some pretty ugly results that can occur.

Actually Franklin County Beat Lewis county although it was not a fatality. A guy shot his brother in the shoulder with a muzzleloader. No other details were given in the AP article in the paper. That's got to really make a mess of a shoulder ...... yick!

What a battle we all go through as we make our way through life and try to balance those things we need to do for our future and the futures of those in our family versus our other passions of life. That battle is behind me now, and am reaping the benefits of retirement. However in the years along the way, I did do that balancing routine, and in fact did pass by some opportunities in favor of enjoying those outdoor activities that my life has always revolved around. Sometimes I was able to turn down that overtime, or rearrange my work schedule a bit, or just plain refuse some assignments. My decisions were not always popular with the bosses, and maybe cost me some opportunities for advancement along the way. But the times were such that a guy could get away with that and still do pretty darn good anyway. I do believe that was a different sort of time when employees were actually valued and not merely treated as a disposable commodity. In all fairness, I do recognize that the bulk of my life was spent in an era when I did have those choices available. Those choices may not often be available today. Some guys are doing whatever is necessary just to stay employed. That does indeed trump hunting and fishing and so on.....lol. But if you feel decades getting by you with no real life experiences other than what happens at work it might be useful to check those priorities and see if some adjustments can and should be made. What puts all this into perspective is when you suddenly realize that your getting a bit old, and you get a chance to look back on it all. No one wants to say, I wish I had taken more time for this and that. The only time to avoid that fate is right now while you are living life. I think I did a pretty good job with that balancing routine. I hope others take the time to do the same.

How about the question when someone walks into your home and spots the deer mount hanging on the wall ....... "Did you shoot that one?" Nope, he come ripping down that hill back there and smacked into the wall and that's as far as he got ........ Here's your sign.

I think that's a good idea. I'll see if I can find a new entrance spot. Although I think they are not confined to one spot anymore from what I have seen. I kind of agree with the idea of moving cameras frequently. I think if someone were to come up with a list of suggestions for successful trail-camming, that would have to be one of them. That is something that I was hoping that this thread might lead to ..... a large list of dos and don'ts along with reasons. I have to believe that we all have developed a few rules that help eliminate deer pattern disruption. This idea of trail cam use is still pretty much in it's infancy, and there appears to be a lot of things to learn about it all, and darn few resources for tips & techniques.

See there's the problem with baiting laws. Legal for some species ..... illegal for other species, even though they all eat the same stuff. So now the CO has to judge intent. Yeah like he's a mind reader. It gets into some interesting disagreements. And then there is the laws against feeding (applies to bears and deer). More interesting interpretations. Anyway, that is a long way from the original topic. All I got to say is those are some darn nice pictures and a lot different and more interesting than the average deer picture. Thanks for posting them.

It's possible that it might depend on the gun range and how frequently it is used. With enough de-sensitization through frequent use, I can see where the deer have to learn to adapt or starve ..... lol. Not being familiar with the frequency of use for the range that J.R. was talking about it's hard to say whether that is a similar situation. My guess would be that since the club is willing to shut down the range for all of bow season, it probably is not a range that gets that much use. So perhaps the situation that you are describing and what was the case at this club are not really an apples to apples comparison. It's like my range out behind the house. I'll guarantee you that when I am out there occasionally shooting, the deer head for parts unknown. But then I am not out there in a relatively constant fashion. At any rate, I really doubt that gunfire does a whole lot for trying to hunt patterned deer. I think the regular firearms season gives a clue about that....lol. I think I would be a bit upset too if I was trying to bowhuntg and somebody started ripping up the place with gunfire. In fact I had that kind of happen last year. I was on stand and some squirrel hunter (quite innocently) parked himself a couple hundred yards away and about every 10 or 15 minutes fired off a round or two at squirrels. Not a happy situation, but when hunting state land it can be unavoidable. As you might expect, the buck that had been hanging around in that area didn't show up in daylight hours that day. Not much of a surprise....eh?

I'm not sure exactly what you are disagreeing with me over, or what it is you think you read in my reply that you thought indicates that I condone drinking while hunting.

Unfortunately, a lot of laws are written in quite vague terms so that you really need the interpretation of a judge to sort them out. A lot of law is defined by precedents of other cases where the legal wording was insufficient. What a lot of this stuff boils down to is the personality of an individual ECO on any particular day. Has it been a long time since he wrote up any violations? Has he been having a bad day? Is he really confused by the wording and details himself? That's why I always recommend that anyone soliciting answers from the DEC, do so via e-mail where at least you have some kind of document that shows that your actions were backed up by DEC opinion. It may not be a legal document, but at least it shows an intent on your part to abide by the law. That should carry some weight in a court case.

It sounds like you probably have it right. You can hunt other predators over any form of bait. You can even watch bears come in and eat from it as long as you don't pull the trigger. That would be my assumption (which by the way means absolutely nothing legally). On the other hand, if you were to maintain a gargage pile in the woods for baiting predators, I wonder where the shear volume begins to convert it from predator bait to feeding bears (which is also illegal). In the case of your example, a gut pile is almost kind of a naturally occurring situation. It's almost like hunting one of the few bearing oaks that is in a parcel of woods. So, your question is a good one and maybe you should address that with your regional DEC headquarters.

Get used to it. That is the way society is moving. And by the way it's not just kids. People value different things than they did years ago. Hunting, fishing, trapping, and camping aren't cool anymore. Tech is in.