Doc

I often wondered just what a person's attitude toward hunting would be like when they are raised in a big city without ever having any exposure to hunting or other outdoor activities, or even any interaction with nature at all. I wonder just how easy it might be for such a person to develop an anti-hunting mentality. With all the meat products coming in nice sanitized little styrofoam packages, and the only media (news, radio, movies, etc.) treatment of wildlife being fuzzy little cute animals that can actually carry on conversations and deal with each other with emotions and always coming from a euphoric place of peace and tranquility where they all live idyllic lives, concluding by dieing peacefully in their sleep of "old-age"...... except for those terrifying encounters with the EVIL HUNTER. Suppose all these images were stuffed into your head since birth by everyone of influence in your life including parents, teachers, politicians, and even peers and classmates. Can you imagine the kinds of grisly images that would develop in your head whenever the word hunter or trapper was mentioned. It's an interesting thought because I believe that there have been several generations that have been raised in exactly that way. So when we think of these anti-hunting wackos, it is useful to also think of what forces in their lives made them that way. I believe that the key to combating anti-hunters and at the same time improving the hunter population decline lies somewhere in understanding the forces and psychology that turns a non-hunter into an anti-hunter and working through well supported groups towards discrediting those influences. This is not something that we can do standing alone on a one-on-one basis, but really does take the power of pro-hunting organizations and our individual support of those organizations. There is a whole cultural force of society that is moving against us and has been for decades and it's not just the organized anti hunter organizations alone. As long as we all believe that we can afford to nit-pick our own hunting advocacy organizations and finding all kinds of reasons to not join or even worse yet, spending great time and energy bad-mouthing them, that societal movement against outdoor sports will continue to accelerate. I guess it's our choice.

I saw the movie, Red Dawn and I have to say that as entertaining as it was, I didn't for minute confuse any of it with any form of potential reality. It was very entertaining to believe for an hour and a half in a fantasy scenario of a bunch of highschool kids all of a sudden becoming expert marksmen and award-winning military strategists. But lets not let fantasy get confused with even a hint of reality. I really don't think that I would fare very well with my old Ithaca Deerslayer against an out-of-control United States military or any other well organized and equipped military force. How many hunters actually possess any kind of fully automatic rifle and an adequate ammo supply capable of lasting longer than 15 minutes against a full assault? I suspect that a band of hunters would have a real problem holding out even against the old Iraqi Republican Guard ..... ;D . Sure I would try, but anyone who has taken any note of the modern weaponry possessed by almost any military power foriegn or domestic, has to admit that the average hunter is at a complete and hopeless disadvantage and only slightly better equipped than a group of irate citizens brandishing pitchforks and hoe-handles. I wonder if I could shoot down a cruise missle with my shotgun . So as a good reason for supporting the 2nd amendment, national security probably is not a very realistic one. You want a good reason for the 2nd amendment today, you might better be looking at personal home defense. There is something that is not only a current and very real issue, but also a reason that truly does make practical, realistic, and very necessary sense. Especially when you consider how totally inadequate police response times are. Your personal and family protection are indeed completely in your own hands. Armed you likely will be able to defend yourself. Disarmed you and your family are probably dead. That seems like a much more urgent reason for the right to bear arms than national security.

For those loyal DEC supporters, I think they believe that that is exactly what they are supposed to do. The standard party line is that permits are allocated by our game management agency because they believe they should be filled in order to manage the deer population. Of course we don't all believe that, but those that do probably should not be bad-mouthed too bad. They are simply doing what the DEC tells them is needed for good deer management. Frankly, I don't have a bit of confidence in their statistical methods of management, but whether by actual proper knowledge and procedures or just plain good luck, I have to admit that recent results seem to be acceptable in my hunting area at least. I also have to admit that I couldn't do their job any better or even as well. So if other hunters are following the recommendations of the DEC and filling whatever tags that are issued to them, I guess I will not fault them for it. In fact, I will say that if they are able to actually fill all their tags then it's likely that the herd is not in terrible shape wherever they are hunting.

I think that the only reason that nobody is being screwed with by new fad management plans and off-the-top-of-the-head ideas such as shortening the gun season is simply because the DEC is not having anything to do with any of them. And frankly, I am not bothered by that fact at all.I can bust on the DEC right along with the best of them, but in our area at least, I really have to admit that the deer herd condition in recent years has been pretty acceptable.

Lol ...... I took one look at the title of this thread and started laughing. "NY bowhunters unite"..... Now there's something you will never see no matter what the issue ... ;D

The DEC has some black magic, statistical management schemes. Those schemes all have "deer take" as a fundamental input. The whole system is based of that input. If we even partially believe that they have any clue as to what they are doing, we definitely are not helping what they are trying to do by breaking the law that states that you must report your harvest. So yes, if you believe in their systems at all, you have to believe that hunter harvest reports should approach as close to 100% as possible. In terms of other kinds of deer deaths, I would imagine that they have concocted some other statistical factors to account for coyote predation, car kills, disease victims, etc.

Yeah, actually there are enough people and groups interested in hacking on season lengths and for that matter, even any seasons at all. I think I will not join that crowd. I think hunters get wacked on enough already without us turning on our own. We don't need to be driving more hunters out of our ranks by taking more and giving less. That really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It seems like we want to shorten hunting seasons, reduce buck harvest limits, set further restrictions of what animals can be harvested and just about anything we can think of to frustrate and aggravate hunters right out of the sport. That is already happening without all these all these fad management ideas. How about we leave well enough alone and just worry about our own hunting and a little less about how to screw up everyone else's hunting.

Well, now that you mention it, I suppose it could be bigfoot dressed in a ghillie suit ;D .

Lol.... The only problem with that is that most of the members of that "army" are graying, balding, pot-bellied, old guys that have only enough stamina to nap at the base of a tree for a few hours during opening day morning. Also, they are armed with only shotguns and bows and muzzleloaders and some deer rifles. Not exactly the Rambo types or the kind of army armed with the kind of equipment that would be needed to defeat cruise missles. Let's hope that we never have to rely on that army for our freedom . On the other hand, having an unimpeded 2nd amendment right and a well stocked civilian population might give gang members and potential home invaders something to think about. That is something near-and-dear to my heart since I live 1000' away from the highway and well out of ear-shot of my nearest neighbors. Actually there are a lot of us rural people who one might think would be easy pickings for some of these criminal types ...... except for one thing. It is almost a certainty that each of us country folks owns a gun or 6 and knows exactly how to us them. That's why those guys stay in the city where people are terrified of guns and cheerfully support all kinds of ordinances disarming law-abiding citizens.

Right at the end of the article they provided a link to the details of the accident. Frankly, I think the guy is getting off real easy. It was one of those shootings that are real hard to envision or in any way justify. I'm sure that if I were a family member, I would be out for blood too. It was not a case of an errant slug hitting some unseen guy in the background. It was basically a "sound shot". Yes, there was a small amount of shared responsibility since they were both hunting after legal hours. But that does not excuse such reckless shooting. It sure sounds like everyone is bending over backwards to be as soft on this guy as they can. I would hope that the family will pursue a civil suit and at least exact some form of heavy-duty financial compensation to make up for what looks like a soft slap on the wrist by the criminal justice system. Until examples are made of these crazy people, I'm afraid that safety concerns for some will always remain the farthest thing from their mind. By the way, did anybody notice that this guy could wind up spending less than a year in jail for killing his "hunting partner"?

Obviously, the picture is terribly distorted due to movement, but my guess would be some large bird. Yeah I think the owl guess is reasonable. If it's not a bird, I would suggest that the guy that owns the camera should just leave the camera where it is and never return to that spot .

Snow is gone and has been replaced by mud, rain and flooded areas. In fact we have a flood watch in effect for tonite which means I will probably have 2-1/2 to 3 feet of water over the entrance to my driveway. This stinking rain is absolutely relentless. In fact for all the limited amount of use of the outdoors due to rain, it might as well be snow. Every normal spring-time project is dead in its tracks because every day has rain forecasted and thunderstorms predicted. It would not surprise me to see some of the shallow-rooted trees being tipped over if we get much wind. The ground is beyond saturated.

Hunting is probably the only thing that won't be affected by gas prices other than perhaps I will put in even more hours because I won't be able to afford anything else. I don't travel at all to do my hunting. My hunting camp is my home.

So I don't know whether that loud-mouthed abrasive personality is real of just some faked, made up TV persona and frankly I don't really care. I can only go by the public picture that he has so carefully cultivated for us. And so, I still say that that kind of personality is not something that I want to be associated with. And I feel no particular need to be buddys with or represented by such a person just because he happens to hunt. Believe it or not, there are a lot of jerks that many of us wouldn't want to associate with that hunt/fish/trap. Also, there are a lot of them that I don't want being any kind of spokesman for the sport either.

I still have a lifetime supply of the old autumn orange XX75 shafts that still kill deer just as dead as any of the more modern materials. I have yet to know anybody that can legitimately blame the loss of a deer to the material that their shaft was made of. So far be it for me to insist that anyone change arrow materials if they don't want to. As far as aluminum arrows bending, I have just one suggestion .... don't shoot them at rocks or logs.....lol. However if a mishap should occur, the worst that can happen is an obviously bent arrow that you are not likely to attempt to shoot again.

I used to work with a guy who bragged that he could hold a coffee cup sized group at 50 yards ..... Consistantly. And by golly I and several others watched him do it at will. But I'll never forget that particular season when he came into work to report his 5th wounded loss. That's right, 5 lost deer in one season. That the year after he had three lost deer. And yes, he was taking shots at deer at 40 and 50 yards. I'm not going to say that it can't be done because I know better. However, I think there are a lot of people out there that think that archery range accuracy can and should be duplicated in the woods. Of course just like this guy at work, nobody will ever tell these people that archery range accuracy does not translate into deer hunting accuracy without a very healthy dose of luck involved. My take ....... long range shooting is great fun on a field course or an Olympic competition. I'll admit that it is truly magical to watch that arrow arc way up in the air and finally drop down into the target. But bowhunting has always been considered to be a close range kind of hunt where the emphasis is put on the "hunt" rather than the shot. There is nothing about modern day archery equipment that has changed any of that. Long distance hunting ...... that's what they invented rifles for.

That's how it always starts. First get the public used to the idea by floating a rumor. When it looks like it is being accepted, start cranking the prices toward the next milestone. The $4.00 /Gal rumor went over well and sure enough ..... here we are .....$4/gal. Works every time.

Look, I'll make it real simple ...... I don't like the guy because of his loud-mouth, arrogant, irritating personality. I 'm sure he is not the kind of guy I would like to hang around with or be anywhere near even if he had nothing to do with music, TV, or hunting. Inside of 15 minutes anywhere near that kind of person with that kind of abrasive personality and I'd be looking for the exit. Sorry, but I simply don't like him. So sue me.

Lol ..... That does kind of sum it up doesn't it?

Sure, I like to see them too. I think they're kind of neat. However that doesn't mean that just like any other critter, they don't benefit from a bit of thinning. I doubt you will ever put much of a dent in the population, so you can hunt them and still see them in the wild. It's kind of like the little old lady that hates deer hunters because she likes to see them. Well, we have plenty of hunting and still have plenty of deer. However, what I don't really like to see is just shooting them like rats and leaving them lay in the woods. That fur is just too nice to throw away, plus it's worth a bit of money. I know it happens, but it really seems like such a waste of a resource.

Yeah, but even the internet outlets have to deal with item transport in one fashion or another. I really can't think of any segment of the economy that benefits from excessive gas-gouging other than the gas producers themselves. Frankly, I see it all as a matter of national security. Anytime our economy is under direct attack, our international status, leadership, as well as our future sovereignty is under attack. But, from the president on down, nobody else seems to see it that way.

The guy definitely brings it all on himself. All these little vid-clips always seem to be aimed at just trying to get attention. What ever ya gotta do to try to keep yourself relevant .... eh? I don't blame him. It's probably an age thing ..... lol.

Very recently I read that the European cost for a gallon of gas is $9.69 (adjusted to U.S. dollars). When we start approaching that level, I think our entire lifestyle, and economy will be seriously and negatively impacted. And yet there seems to be nobody of any power that is actually concerned. What do you suppose these kinds of petro-costs are doing to inflation? Aside from our own personal finances, just about every purchase here and abroad are impacted by gas. These inflationary pressures are not being ignored by those that hire us. One would think that there might be some extreme pressures brought to bear on oil producing nations to pull in the reins of this warfare on our economy. It's getting to be time that we start attaching some strings to our overly generous taxpayer funded foriegn financial and technological assistance to these countries before our entire economy becomes trashed. It may also be time to quit merely shrugging our shoulders, and start explaining to our legislators that we expect this problem to start receiving some attention.

It's very weird ...... There's nothing that he says that I actually disagree with, but there's something about the way he says it that makes me feel like I just heard the ravings of a drug burned-out madman. What a shame that his message is so mangled up in all that pycho-babble that he actually takes thoughts that I hold close and turns them into something that would turn off just about anyone who hears it. I've heard him described as a spokesman for sportsmen and women, but there is a sound of lunacy whenever he supposedly speaks on our behalf that seems to have a very negative affect to anyone listening. Our spokesman? Not in my view.

I sure would like another kind of tasty thing around to hunt, and I do like pork (although I have heard mixed reviews on the taste of wild boars). But some of these critters seem to be of a real nasty disposition. One thing I really don't need is some 400 pound tusker charging out of the bushes while I stand there with just my bow and arrows for defense. Also, the damage that they do to the habitat is something that we probably wouldn't appreciate too much either. However, I'm not sure that we will really have much of a choice in the matter since they seem to be expanding their range northward all by themselves.