Doc

By the way, who is the insurer so we don't do business with them?

Hang in there and good luck with your case, and the new bill. It sounds like you are doing all that you can.

I'm not much of a fan of civil wars. The outcomes are never guaranteed and the style of govt that results is always in question. We lucked out on our one and only civil war in terms of how the system of government basically was preserved. And that was because the feds won. Who knows what kind of government we would have wound up with if the south had won? Regarding the 10% of population being enough to win a civil war, I have to point out that warfare is a whole different animal since the revolutionary war. We are not dealing with muskets anymore. Can 10% of the population stand up against missiles and such? I don't think our deer rifles would get us through the first day of an uprising.....lol. Seriously though, there may come a time when there is no other choice, but let's not be in too much of a hurry to rush to that end. Sometimes such ambitions can wind up throwing out the baby with the bath-water.

Happy Birthday.

So much of this thing that we all do has to do with heritage and things that pop up in our own history. We all have hunting in our blood if we look back far enough...........All of us.

Is our society still capable of drawing lines and paying the ultimate price for their convictions? Hell, do we even have convictions anymore? Does anyone see people leaving their jobs and their livelihoods and their comfortable suburban homes to march off to war?

This sounds like one of the few bona fide reasons to contact a good lawyer. I assume that you have done that.

Those that want to test themselves a bit might consider building your own long bow, and arrows and knapped broadheads and then getting a deer with that kind of equipment. It is something I always wanted to do, but never got around to it. It is an interesting thought to do it the Indian way.

I agree with airedale, these kinds of argumentative threads should be taken off into private messaging, just to maintain a little peace in the forum. Let's not get sucked into another one of those thread-fights. The two of you can battle it out privately.

This is only one example of the cruelty of disease in the wild. I have seen rabid animals and those with distemper and others that I simply didn't have a clue as to what their problem was. It is not a very kind ending that all the critters face. I've witnessed the massive deer yards over in Honeoye where you could see deer that were just waiting to die from starvation, and the deer that were too weak to clear fences that were just hanging there until they died. It's pretty brutal stuff to see.

So many great points! Although the demise of small family farms was mentioned, I think the difficulties that this poses for hunting has to be emphasized. Down here in valley country I have noted that back in the 50's and 60's, before I was old enough to hunt, I used to hike along the ridges of the valley and would go more than 5 miles through the woods without ever seeing a posted sign. These lands were owned by farmers who didn't have the time to be running through the woods tacking up posted signs. Besides, they didn't really care who was hunting up there as long as they stayed away from the buildings and their critters. Then farmers got old. Their kids went off to more lucrative work, and the little 100 and 200 acre farms came on the market as the farmers retired and got busted up into 5 acre lots as the city people began to invade the rural countryside. every little parcel became ringed with posted signs and all the land that used to be great hunting areas became inaccessible. I have watched so many great stand areas that I have lost to development of little farmettes and just plain residences. I have seen houses constructed on top of some of my old favorite stand-sites. Today people have to beg to hunt the few stretches of woods that exist. In many cases, crowded state land is all that is available. Some of the last hunting land can be hunted if you have the money to lease the land at ever growing prices. All this stuff works against hunting and now hunting land scarcity is a factor also.

Now that's getting too damned brazen. He's probably looking for somebody's pet to eat. I've got a 1000' driveway, and the other day I saw one of these guys walking casually up the driveway toward the house, without a care in the world........In broad daylight. He never got as close to the house as this one, but I thought that was kind of ballsy for a wild animal. It brings to the forefront that without hunting and adequate trapping, these critters are at the top of the food chain and are starting to lose their fear of humans. They are not harmless little doggies, and need to have that fear restored.

I will say that the constant and incessant bragging and putting down those that hunt differently than you do, gets pretty damned disgusting in a real short time. But you know that and still keep on doing it anyway. I don't think that anyone is telling you that your attitudes toward hunting are wrong, so who here needs to hear you constantly blathering about how great you are and how all others are all doing it all wrong. I don't know how this can be news to you, but that is not for you to say. That all fits in with my earlier comments about how these kinds of comments are part of what is driving our numbers down. Nobody needs to hear that kind of crap all the time from anybody. It seems weird that anybody has to point that out to you. I think you have to be intelligent enough to understand how those kinds of comments can get pretty incendiary in a hurry. I have to wonder what kind of a personality has to keep trying so hard to impress people. You hunt the way you want, and nobody really cares. It's just common decency to spare us all the bragging comments and put-downs for those that have different hunting goals than you have.

It's just another reminder of the other ways that animal numbers are controlled by Mother Nature. This is just one of the alternatives to hunting. The populations of critters will be controlled, either by a bullet or a trap, or by the suffering of disease, starvation, and predation that over-population results in. It's just the way that nature works. The animals do not peacefully die in their sleep of old age. People have to be kept reminded of that.

Our culture is changing, and not necessarily in a good way. Hunting is just another part of our heritage that is being stripped away.

Well, there is no longer any doubt that hunter numbers are crashing, and I have a feeling that most of those left are much less motivated as they used to be. So, the question is, what are your theories as to why we are losing hunters hunter activity?

This just is not his year. Watch for him in the future. If he can get his campaign structure right in the future and he is not running against such a strong candidate as Trump, He will be a force in the future. Maybe in 2028. I liked the class with which he withdrew and threw his support to Trump.

It is like I always say.....It is not the Politicians that are responsible for our sad broken state. It is the goof-ball voters that vote them in and those that do not vote them out.

He became a deer hunter (Gun and bow) long after I was already established as a hunter. My Grandfather was a "city guy" who never did hunt. I guess I was the initial hunter in our family.

I have one big buck hanging on the wall that I had spotted and patterned and killed (Costs have limited me from mounting more). Hanging right next to it is a little antler mount of a 5" spike which was the first archery deer that I ever got. The fact is that it is that spike that brings back the most satisfying memories. That happened 47 years ago and still I can tell you everything about that hunt and the huge sense of satisfaction that I felt. For me that was the "greatest hunt" ever. Of all the deer that I have ever taken that was the one where I can remember every detail, and emotion. That was the most prized animal that I have ever gotten. The good news is that way back then there was nobody harping about scores and how I should have passed that one waiting for a bigger one. I have taken much bigger deer since then, and they all fade into faint memories when compared with that spike. Great hunts for me are more about the surrounding circumstances than any measured-up antler lengths and spreads. I can even tell you of hunts where does have had my hands shaking. I appreciate antlers, but they are not the end-all and be-all of hunting for me.

I can't really think of how I became started on this lifelong need to hunt. Yes my Dad took me squirrel hunting once when I was little, but I don't remember that as being a very pleasant experience. It was cold, and his version of squirrel hunting was to sit still and wait for the squirrels to become active again. Then several years later, I found an old draw-knife up in the shop and fashioned a pretty decent longbow out of hickory. And with some willow arrows, I went up in the hay loft of the barn and started hunting pigeons. I got two and had my mother cook them up. That hooked me on hunting. And then there was the trapline that I ran. While that is not actually hunting, it does kind of result in the same kind of thing. Then too, I enjoyed reading books about the old pioneers and their ways of subsisting, and that put a bit of adventure and even historical culture into the notion of hunting. All these things fashioned an appreciation of the outdoors, that has lasted through the years and among so many other outdoor activities came the need to hunt. So as it turns out, there really was no one who introduced me to hunting. My rural life and so many other outdoor activities promoted my interest in hunting. In fact it was me that introduced my Dad to archery and bowhunting.....ha-ha-ha. But that is a whole other topic.

I believe that there is something in our DNA that reminds us that our basic humanity is rooted in a predatory background. Yes, most humans tend to try to fight that basic built in factor of human existence, and some of us are a bit more honest about our need for the chase and the kill. We have always been meat eaters, and there is the need for the kill if you are going to eat meat. That is the result of a predatory existence. The need to hold a death-match with some other critters is written into our human genetics. We have a basic need to hunt that is much older than ourselves. There is a competitive aspect to hunting too as we set our efforts against prey animals. It is us versus the natural abilities that nature has given our prey. It's another thing that is written into our genetics. Yes, I know that it makes some people uncomfortable to face human nature in this way, but I believe that this is the basic thing that motivates us even when we don't care to think about it in these terms.

How did you get hooked on hunting. Was there some individual who talked you into trying hunting?

This is a question we hunters get asked quite often. So what is your answer? what makes a person spend jillions of dollars and all kinds of hours out in the freezing cold with rain dripping of the end of your nose, or wallowing around in snow with half-numbed toes? Are you really that hungry?.......lol. No there is something more basic and deep in your make-up that drives you. What is it?

I do not agree.