Doc

It's never good to have a sudden increase in the level of human activity when you are trying to bowhunt. But in future seasons, you will see the population increase. This might be a good time to explore some other hunting areas nearby that aren't quite so ripped up with activity. Get ready for some excellent hunting next year and thereafter. Doc

And a man wanting to hunt with a gun should hunt with a gun ........ so what's the point? Doc

Now that would be interesting to see what the rationale is behind those exceptions. Isn't it nice to have consistancies in the laws across the state? What a place! Doc

I am very conscious of checking the tag to make sure that the material that it is pinned through is substantial and that the pin is hooked up properly and I have had no problems with it. I also put a strip of duct tape across the access slot in the tag-holder. Since I have been wearing a back tag for 50+ years without losing it, I guess I would consider it to be a non-problem. I do think it could be extremely useful in identifying trespassers without any unnecesary confrontation demanding ID. Also, I can see where it might be useful in identifying poachers. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. One thing is for sure ...... No back tag, no ID. Doc

I have heard this claim before that some people don't need to practice. And usually that means that somebody eventually will get that call for help in tracking his rump-shot deer. I hesitate to say that it is impossible to be gifted to that extent in archery, but I have to say that I am always skeptical (to put it in "friendly" terms ..... lol). I think I would put such thoughts definitely in the category of over confidence. Doc

Well, we all know it happens even under the best of conditions and the best of marksmanship. However, if there really was too little light, that is a bit harder to understand. I have never seen legal shooting times where there was too little light. As far as the adequately cleared shooting lane, that is something that experience will teach over time. People laugh at my shooting lanes because they are cleared out completely and often look a bit overdone. However, I have had deflections caused by some of the tinyest things that I would have sworn couldn't effect the flight of an arrow. Now I take no chances, and pre-season preparation of stands means that nothing is left in the shooting lanes. Relative to the "high shot" comment, I've had some unhappy experiences with that too that involved perfect shot execution, but lighting quick reflexes of deer. That phrase, "jumping the string" is certainly no exaggeration. It can happen and does happen and can turn a perfect shot into a high hit or even complete miss over the back of the deer. Doc

I took the day off. Doc

I'll bet a lot of guys do not report because the 48 hours has gotten past them. Some may not even be out of camp within 48 hours. I think this will help reporting compliance. Doc

I always thought it was from the trees being rubbed. But then, how would the color wind up so uniform. If antler color was the result of some applied substance, wouldn't the color be blotchy or more built up in some parts of the antlers than others? What I have noticed is that dark colored antlers are of uniform coloration. Doc

It would be interesting to see just how NRA backed candidates stacked up against their opponents from an unbiased source that was not quite so much of a pinko origin. You really have to look in some very select sources to find a story of this sort.....lol. When you consider just how many candidates there are across the country that the NRA issued opinions on, it is no real trick to cherry-pick a handful of races that didn't go the NRA's way and try to make a big story out of that. Doc

It means that I will have an opportunity to get home in time to actually catch the local weather and hear what their bogus story is about the following day's weather and wind direction. as it is now, I am just getting off stand a few minutes before the 6:00 forecasts are starting and I'm in bed before the 11:00 news. Doc

Yup! we had a dug well on the property that was in the woods about half way up the hill (about the last place you would look for such a thing). It was years before we ever discovered it. If there had been an incident of someone falling into that uncovered well, we would have played hell in court trying to prove that we didn't know of its existance and that we were not negligent in terms of maintaining a hazard on our property. While the liability laws have been modified, there are still a lot of things that you are still liable for. Unless you are a lawyer, I doubt there are too many landowners that know exactly what they all are. But victim's lawyers know them all. Doc

There is only one thing that makes taking a buck more difficult than a doe. That is the sheer difference in numbers of each. I have never seen a doe making a rub or scrape, announcing their presence and habits. I have never seen a doe begin to spend every waking hour wandering around in search of breeding opportunities. I have never seen a buck take on the role of "look-out" like the does are accustomed to doing throughout their lives. I have never seen a buck have to provide the intelligence for offspring. By far, the doe is the more alert, the most defensive minded, and the smarter of the two. The only reason that does eventually turn out to be easier to take is the fact that they outnumber the bucks by a huge margin. So while we often pat ourselves on the back for harvesting bucks, it is the doe that can prove to be the more worthy prey to match wits with. Doc

Actually, I have had situations this year and others where small game hunters have spent the final two hours of the hunting day shooting up the woods within a hundred yards of my stand. By golly, I do believe that really does ruin the hunt. I have had hunters go strolling along a deer trail that I intended to watch. I think there is a pretty good chance that screwed that spot for the next few hours. I have come out from my stand at the end of the hunting day only to find someone set up a short distance away from my stand cutting off the expected direction of a deer's approach. You don't suppose that I am a bit pissed when that happens do you? Anybody that thinks that increased pressure especially directly in the area that you're trying to hunt does not mess up your opportunities simply does not understand the nature of deer. And yes, while I do get pretty upset by these interferences, given a few minutes to cool back down, I realize that the shoe could be on the other foot. If I were hunting squirrels instead of bowhunting for deer I would be right out there with them shooting up the woods (and probably getting a lot more meat for the freezer than I have so far this season .... lol). So it is all very unfortunate, and understandable. Also, when hunter population gets a bit dense, there are always opportunities that my activities might inadvertantly interfere with other hunters. But to think that I am not irritated when those kinds of things happen, is simply totally misunderstanding human behavior. I may quickly get over it, but the reality that my whole hunt has been wasted doesn't really go away. Today, with land access being shut off more and more people are being crowded onto state land. I think it can be pretty much assumed that there will be a lot more cases of interferences. Don't be too surprised if these kinds of things upset someone who is trying to maximize the use of their hunting time. As far as people patrolling their posted property, I have seen hunters literally "take-over" land that was generously left open. Absolutely that turned out to be a situation that was unsafe, and which turned prime hunting territory into useless, driven-out, ex-hunting spots. Also, if you want to see hunter behavior at it's worst, just open your land to the hunting free-for-all. But get used to never again being able to pre-plan your hunt, or count on any kind of patterning or credible scouting. Land gets posted for a reason, and the signs are generally a response to abuse of hospitality. So, people have to do what they have to do. Unless we are the ones paying the exorbitant price per acre of hunting land, or are the ones that pay the over-sized tax burdens that this state just recently voted to perpetuate, or are the ones who create and maintain improvements on the land, I think we should probably limit the level of whining that we do about those that do take on those burdens. Sure, I miss those days when a posted sign was a rare oddity, but times change, population levels increase, farmers have subdivided their properties, and we have a considerablly more crowded world than we did then. You really have four choices. One is to buy your own land. The other is to hunt public land. Another choice is to find a friend that owns land. The last choice is to go to a pay-to-hunt property. Oh, and of course there is a fifth choice that a lot of hunters prefer and that is to simply disregard the rights of the landowner and trespass. Doc

I've put in a lot of hunting seasons, and seen a lot of changes, and I can tell you that each bow season interferences get worse and worse. I don't really think that most of the time it is anybody's fault. But with hunting land access shrinking, and more toys available, and some people with a lot of free time, it is a natural change. The problems that I have been having with small game hunters on state land is really nobody's fault. In fact, if I wasn't bow hunting, I would would be joining them (and by the way, I would have a whole lot more meat in the freezer by now .... lol). So, I think these things are just annoyances that we have to get used to. No need to think they will ever get any better and I fully expect them to get far worse with each year. Of course that won't stop me from whining about them, but in most cases, I do understand what's going on and I try real hard not to get too irritated. Doc

Drive-bys that involve crossbows??? I guess I've heard everything now.

It sounds as though everybody has heard a different story on how fish & game management is funded, and where our license fees and fine revenues actually go. It is interesting how something that should be super-public is so hard to find proveable, credible information on. Doc

Yes, it is a strange tradition that I really don't understand. It looks like a form of Haloween vandalism that got accepted and institutionalized .... lol. Doc

My stand was ruined again by small game hunters blasting up the woods all around where I was trying to get the deer to move a bit before dark. That situation is getting pretty frustrating. But the whole afternoon hunt was pretty much a joke. These guys kept up a steady barrage between 3:30 and 5:30. I don't know what the heck they are shooting at. maybe each other. I keep trying to hunt the area because I know there is a pretty decent buck that works that area. He's scraping and rubbing like mad, and if I could just get a break, I might be able to close the distance on that guy. I've seen him a few times. You would think that hunting on a Wednesday a guy might find things a little bit peaceful. But apparently no body works anymore ..... lol. Doc

Well, inspite of all the weeping and wailing and fake disgust with albany, I see that for the most part, the state vote went pretty liberal as usual. As they say, we get the government we deserve. I guess I won't be putting a whole lot of stock in the mass whining about NYS and it's government anymore. We had a chance to do something about it and didn't. By the way, from a sportsmen's and gun-owner's perspective, the state election was a special disaster. I'm happy to say that the elections for national offices went much better as the nation's voters really did put their votes where their mouths are (at least in the assembly). Doc

Check in with the DEC. They monitor the effects of starvation on road-killed deer (marrow checks), and I'm sure they would be happy to educate you on incidents of starvation along with those that result in death, as well as the dangers of over-browsing, habitat destruction, etc. due to over-population. I think I probably would take their word over yours on matters of that sort and they have published volumes on the the subject. But if you don't want to read "volumes" on the subject, just invest a phone call and see what they have to say on the subject. Starvation is a natural part of the whitetail life to one extent or another. It is always just a question of whether they can outlast the winter even in the best of years. Some do and some don't. And yes, excessive populations that over-browse their habitat can precipitate massive starvation losses. I've seen that personally as I described previously. By the way, starvation is starvation whether it occurs in yarding conditions or not as well as regardless of weather. The basic cause for starvation is lack of food whether that lack of food is aggravated by yarding, extended or extra-harsh winters, extreme environments or whatever. These are all normal environmental and behavioral conditions that deer must cope with. So there's no point in discounting those conditions in this discussion. Doc

The idea of using doe permits to "right-size" total deer populations to keep them in balance with habitat, is a useful and necessary tool, and really has nothing directly to do with AR. I really wish I had been into photography back in the 80's. If I had been, I would have been able to post pictures of the horrific deer yards at the south end of Honeoye Lake. That was a picture perfect example of deer populations run amok. It was quite an eye-opener. There were hundreds of deer standing in the woods and in the fields, pretty much just waiting to die, standing right along lumps in the snow that were deer that already had. I have never seen deer in such a pitiful state. The fences had some corpses hanging from them of deer that tried to jump them and didn't have the strength to clear them. Along the East Lake road, you could drive right up to deer that didn't have the strength to move out of the way. They destroyed the habitat for quite a few years thereafter, as they ate everything that they could reach. The population readjustment came as a rather catestrophic population collapse that wasn't a real pretty thing to watch. The only thing that has kept this from re-occurring is the antlerless permit management tool. Once you have seen how deer populations can get out of control, you really don't want to see it again and it gets real obvious real quick that herd population control (doe harvest) is a necessary thing. Now, having said all that, I do believe that things can be taken way too far to the other extreme as well. In fact, I have seen that too. It is entirely possible that that is what people are experiencing in PA. I'm not a regular visitor down there, so I don't know. Population control is a tricky thing, and apparently not real easy to get exactly right. However, I do defend the efforts to do so because I have seen what happens if you don't do an adequate job ...... and it's not a real pretty thing to watch. Does the antlerless harvest impact the buck population? ...... I can't see how it couldn't. After all, it from does that bucks come last time I knew. Not only does a certain percentage of the antlerless harvest contain button bucks, but fewer does are going to produce fewer buck fawns annually. That's pretty easy to follow. The other side of the coin is that not harvesting enough deer can cause fewer bucks for the reasons stated above. So, if you want to maximize buck numbers, you have to do a very tricky balancing act. And the tool used to pull off that balancing act is the antlerless permit system. You really can't manage a herd at all without it. Doc

Ha - ha ..... Now there's a picture of a happy hunter, and for good reason. Nice buck .... congrats! Doc

See, that's where that internet computer hunting would have been perfect for bowhunters who can no longer pull back their bow. Your never too old to work a keyboard. Maybe they could come up with a version that uses a bow. ;D If you could still work your fingers, you could claim you are still bowhunting. That would be much easier than using claymores. :

I will be ready! If the rest of this season goes the same as the beginning, I will be ready for revenge. Those deer that have been laughing at me and staying just out of range might be a bit sorry that they have been messing with me.