Doc

You are absolutely right. I have watched a red-tailed hawk working my lower field. He is absolutely flawless. He never misses. The rabbits are lured out in the field at dusk to eat the grass and Mr. Hawk sits in the top of a big old cherry tree where he can see the whole field. When the rabbit is far enough out into the field, he comes down and like I said, he just never misses. I've watched hawks and owls in the woods looking for squirrels, but they aren't quite as good at that. Those squirrels are quick and tricky. They also have their audible warnings that put the whole bunch of them on alert. Over the decades, I have watched the hawk and owl population explode everywhere. Quite possibly they are simply out-of-control and having the predictable effect on prey species. However, don't be expecting any 5-year plans that will promote hunting these species...... That ain't going to happen.

I have to say that deer management is a whole lot easier than small game management. if we think the DEC has a credibility problem when it comes to deer population estimates and targeting, just imagine if they were to try to come up with a number of squirrels per acre ..... lol. About the only management scheme for small game that I think might have some impact would be predator control, and that doesn't seem to be very popular at the DEC right now. They seem to be more interested in protecting every predatory species in some cases, total protection.

Oh listen to Mr. Dictionary ..... lol. Any time I enter into a game of chance where I have a possibility of losing out to others, its a competition. And while there are many today who keep trying to tinker with the rules of bow season bow season to make it more like a gun season, there were many good reasons that bowhunters worked for and were granted the benefits and rules that we have today and I am not as eager to throw these hard earned benefits away as some.

I don't know why they always use that qualifier, "if done properly". We all know that there will be a certain number of cases where it is not done properly. The more wells, the larger the odds of environmental disaster and the greater the odds for some landowner having his land value plummet to zero. The criteria should include, "what are the consequences for innocent bystanders now and in the future if it is not done properly". Or, "is it possible to make the process fool-proof so it is safe even when government regulations fail to control the process". Or "Let's first discuss how we are going to guarantee that this process will happen properly before approving anything". Instead we are dealing with an attitude of "Let's cross our fingers and hope that all is well, and if an occasional accident should happen ....... oh well .... too bad for the neighborhood. : They really take that saying quite seriously: "You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette" .... lol.

Yes, there are several advantages that bowhunters get over gun hunters including their own season and an either sex tag. There are reasons for all that and that is why we have to fork out additional money for the priviledge of hunting with a bow or muzzleloader.

Yes ..... a lottery is a competition.

The competition involved is in another whole batch of additional lottery participants. It's just like any lottery, more participants means more chances to be rejected. From a bowhunter's standpoint those odds are significantly higher than they are right now. For the gunners, they too may see some extra rejections because of the bowhunters and muzzleloaders selection success. The fact that it is a "lottery" means there are some losers. I have yet to see any kind of lottery (including the DMP drawing) where everyone is accepted. And also, you are ignoring what has become a traditional over-rejection rate with the now-usual freebies that don't become available until the lottery has ended. Typically that happens at a date that would be well into bow season. So yes, just like any lottery there is competition with winners and losers. And unfortunately the bowhunters are left out of some of that as I just explained.

I am a great fan of getting exercise doing useful things. So the homestead provides a lot of projects even though some may consider a lot of it "make-work". However, I must say that as stated before, we do a lot of just plain walking (not along the road). It's an activity that the wife and I can do together. I also have a killer hill to climb. And when I say "Killer Hill" I mean that literally. Our next door neighbor had his heart give out while climbing that one. When winter gets here, we will be also going to the YMCA on a regular basis. These exercise things are not really optional for me, so I do tend to push it a bit.

That's true. I suspect the greatest buck hunters are the ones that zero in on doe movements.

"If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all" ....... ;D

Well, they haven't exactly made that clear have they? Are separate draws proposed for each different season or would the permit lottery be done for each hunter only? And how about those post lottery tag give-aways that has been going on for a few years now. That would be happening after the bow season was well under way right? It seems to me that bowhunters might just be getting screwed out of those for approximately half of their season or better. I don't know ...... it seems that the devil really is in the details - details that they haven't even thought of yet.

I didn't know that it was Bow hunters and Muzzleloaders (us) against the gun hunters... Yes, whether you like it or not this proposal does put bowhunters and muzzleloader hunters in competition for DMPs with the regular season hunters where such a competition never existed before.

I fell into that deal of a lifetime too ($50 lifetime license). I still have a couple of years left where I have to pay the full shot for the bow license. But even at that my total bill comes out a lot less than it used to be.

Yeah, I keep hearing about something called shin-splints or something and I know a lot of guys that ran when they were younger,but can't hardly even walk anymore because of arthritis and other major knee, ankle, and hip problems that they blame on the running they did when they were younger. That's why I asked the question. As far as deeply inhaling motor vehicle exhaust (bus, truck or otherwise), logic kind of tells me that that can't be real good for you regardless of whether you are running, walking, or on a bike.

By the way, don't think that you can't get it in the middle of the winter. While clearing brush, I have gotten a few blisters from it. It's not just the leaves that can get you, but the sap of a broken or cut vine can do it too.

And so, here we are again. Yet another thread turned into a fecal blizzard. If we work real hard we can turn the whole sight into one big flame. We're well on our way.

Is running really all that good for you? I've heard a lot about how running can cause all kinds of over-stressed body parts, and yet I think I have never seen a time when there were more people running around on the roads. I think the growth in numbers of people running is only exceeded by the growth in numbers of people biking. By the way speaking of running (or biking for that matter) on the roads ..... How good can it be to be gasping in all that auto exhaust everytime a car goes by?

So now they intend to throw all the bowhunters and muzzleloaders into the DMP lottery system. That now puts us in direct competition with the gun hunters for DMPs. I wonder what kinds of new and exciting problems that will cause. I've always wondered how they work out the odds such that the late applicants have the same odds as the early applicants long before they have any idea what the final number of applicants are going to be. Ever wonder about that? Remember how there used to be an application deadline and the drawing didn't take place until they knew how many hunters were applying? Now with the instant drawing happening over a few months, how do they work out the odds that they apply to the drawing before they know how many participants they will have? Pretty confusing .... eh? Well, that question does not relate to the antlerless bow tags ..... or does it? At any rate, whatever guesstimates that they have been using, the errors will be significantly increased with the massive infusion of a significant bunch more participants. and we know that they have errors because there are always follow-on begging to distribute gobs of permits after the close of the drawing. We've all seen the panicky news releases hoping that hunters will take the jillion permits that the DMP system has denied to many of the first applicants. And this is the system that they want to throw bowhunters and muzzleloader hunters into? The problem is that bow season will be well under way before they realize that they have screwed up and now are willing to simply hand them out like candy. Sorry ..... a bit too late for the bowhunters. It sounds like this competition for DMPs might be a bit stacked against bowhunters.

I'll be honest with you, I have never found bear scat, or tracks around my area either until the three nights in a row when we had our garbage strewn up through the woods and our bird feeder turned into trash. And I have not seen bear tracks or scat since in the area. So if it were not for the quasi-domestic nature of bears and the obvious damage that they like to leave in people's yards, I would be swearing that bears did not exist here. I'm thinking that with a mountain lion being even more secretive, and perhaps even more of a long distance wanderer than a bear, it probably would take an unbelievable amount of coincidence to ever run across any sign of their passing. I am not ready to admit to the possibility of a reproductive population of mountain lions anywhere in NYS, but I at least listen to people who say they have seen one and apply some guarded credibility to what they think they saw, because I always allow for the possibility of a lone lion (domestic or wild)traveling around on its way to somewhere else. If that one in Connecticut did indeed come from the Dakotas, he got through an awful lot of states and passed through an awful lot of human population before he gave up the ultimate form of proof of his existance. Whether all these experts are reading the DNA results properly or not, and whether they are applying the proper level of analysis to their logic or not is up to somebody a whole lot better schooled in DNA science than me to figure out. I guess I won't be arguing their findings ..... lol. Well, I guess I can argue, but probably nobody would listen .....

I wonder if he shot into the water in front of the bear because he only wanted to scare her, or was it because in the excitement he missed by that much....lol. Also, as quick as that all happened, I am wondering if he didn't already have his gun drawn. I'm not sure that yelling at the cubs prior to the charge was exactly the right thing to do. To the sow, that might have been interpreted as an aggressive act toward the cubs. At any rate, it sure does make a pretty exciting video clip.

Probably it is because of the rural area that I live in, but I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would actually want to even hunt within 500 feet of someone else's house even with (and perhaps especially with) a bow. Personally, I would feel like I was infringing on other people's private space if I was skulking around their house that close. I had occasion to actually measure off 500' from my house once and was surprised just how close that actually is. It is close enough to hear conversations. It is close enough to watch cars come and go in the driveway. It is close enough to have someone's dog barking in your face all during your hunt. It is close enough to have any number of normal private activities that would just trash my hunt. I know hunting land is getting tough to come by, but are people really serious about wanting to hunt in other people's yards? I cannot imagine a situation that would supply a worse quality of hunt.

I will be interested in following this experiment. Keep us informed as to the results.

I think I replied to that comment when I said: "Do such laws ever stop such stupid acts? ....... perhaps not 100%, but probably it does stop some. At the very least, it gives the law something additional to charge these stupid people with."

Let me assure you that I will be trying to get myself up to speed on this issue as best I can. However, I must admit that if the DEC has conducted a sanctioned piece of research and determined that hydro-fracking is as dangerous to the welfare of the state's population as is being portrayed, why on earth would there not be a scurry of activity in the state legislature to outlaw the practice. That basically is the core of my question, and I have not heard a reply to that.

These are the things that I was talking about. The list of potential disasters is long and fairly impressive. This is what I would consider vital issues of public safety, which is one of the prime responsibilities of state, local and federal government. So the question is quite natural ...... Where are the government warnings and legal opinions on the propriety of these drilling measures? The French have outlawed it ..... do they have any studies or research to back up that position, or is it simply an emotional, "what-if" position. If they have research, we need it. It's hard to take a defined position with so little scientific info.