Doc

I have seen an awful lot of hunting seasons, and yes I think there is a very big difference in today's hunters vs that of hunters back in the late 50's when I started hunting. It is true that antlers were always the standard in deer hunting. Yes everyone wanted that big ol' 12 point that everyone claimed to see and no one ever got. But they were happy with the 4-point that they got and wanted everyone to see it. Today's hunters feel an entitlement to that 12 point. Those that get a 4 point today are ridiculed and belittled. I have to wonder how that little change impacts the enthusiasm for hunting. So now hunters start off with expectations that they will get some trophy deer or must feel a total failure at hunting if they don't. There are plenty of TV programs, videos, to make them feel that way too. So now in an effort to fare well in the hunting community, more and more people are devoting thousands of dollars to buying and locking up land. They spend ungodly gobs of money buying tractors and other ag equipment hoping to lure the neighbors deer onto their own property. If the state would allow it, they would be buying feeders to put their deer at an exact spot from their blind in an attempt to buy their way into what they consider hunting success. We have even created scoring systems to tell us when we can declare success and be happy with our abilities. There is no cost too high when it comes to buying a trophy. No, I doubt that we will turn around in a couple of years an wonder where everybody went. The changes are a very slow evolution, but they are there. Are they good changes? Time will tell. They are not changes that enthuse me, but then I don't have that many years to worry about it....lol.

I'm not too sure that license holders represents the number of those actually hunting or the actual level of participating hunters. I know people who annually buy licenses "just in case", and never step a foot in the woods. I also have noticed that actual participation has severely dwindled among even those that do make it out. Judging from the cars at state parking lots. and hunter tracks in the snow, and the level of shooting, I would say there are a lot of one-day hunters that take opening day to hunt and that ends their season. Many days hunters become 1/2 day hunters. All that is very different from deer seasons past. Yes, they all get counted, but do they really hunt. Then too, just a raw count of all hunting licenses does not tell you much about whether they are hunting deer, geese, squirrels, or again, just carrying a license in their wallet in case somebody coaxes them out into the woods. Also look at the variety of separate licenses sold today as compared to 30 or 40 or 50 years ago.

One thing to remember with all these vehicles is that they all stop the same way as any 2 wheel drive vehicle. They can get you going a lot faster than their ability to stop just like 2WD. Also, we use to have a saying that 4WD allows you to get stuck in more inaccessible places .... lol. I suppose that still applies with today's vehicles too.

Oh how we long for the wonder years of Obama when we had a professional politician in the office. You should have voted for Hillary if you wanted a socialist status-quo who was all polished up and full of the BS that keeps the citizens in line.

Ha-ha-ha....Now there's some pretty creative historical re-writing. Getting pretty darn far away from the facts with your Reagan comments. It's ok to have an opinion, but try to ground it in a few facts just for credibility's sake. I hear your concerns about "entitlements". We've got to keep that "free stuff" flowing, don't we? We are "entitled" to whatever free stuff we can get from the government. We're getting downright dependent on it.....lol.

How about we add another wrinkle into the question. What if that's not your deer? You are not blood trailing it and have simply spotted it laying there. Do you trespass to check it out to see if it is salvageable and perhaps recover it, or just let it lay there to rot in hopes that whoever shot it is on it's trail?

I'm all for giving anything new a chance. Show the deer something they may have never seen before. Something that may work well where you hunt is my style of still-hunting. It requires massive amounts of patience and confidence that every log , dip, and blow-down contains a deer. I describe it as a cross between standing and still hunting. It amounts to stepping forward incredibly carefully and slowly for about 20 yards and then standing (or sitting) for about 15 minutes carefully glassing every stump, log, tree-base and patch of ground ahead, then moving another 20 yards and repeating over and over through areas that you have jumped deer before. If done right and with the wind right, this kind of a still-hunt can be quite productive when the deer have shut down daylight activity. It is like slightly mobile stand hunting. Movements are all done with the same kind of slowness and care that you would use if you were closing in on a deer that you can see. It's damn near painful, but is effective.

Actually, he did not say that the people were $hitholes, but the countries are $hithole countries. And whether he actually said it or not, the countries he was talking about are indeed hotbeds of corruption and self inflicted problems and are indeed, $hithole countries that export their worst rejects to the US so we can support them.

There is an awful lot of "slickness" that is lacking in Trump. But then we didn't vote for a professional career politician, did we? But I do have to marvel at how he keeps the left all muttering and stuttering and completely out of their minds with his tweets. It is kind of humorous and likely strategic at the same time. He is controlling the dialog and not the pinko news media, and they just can't stand it.

It really surprises me that people are so quick to criticize the personality and style of this President. He has been straight with the press, the public, and his constituents. His tweets are simply efforts to thwart a very biased press coverage and reach citizens directly with actual facts of his accomplishments. Is he un-presidential? ..... Thank God, yes. He is a president that unlike all of his recent predecessors is treating his campaign promises as his bond. Now there is something new and unique. Does he relate in Plain English? ..... Well, by golly he does. That has not been a feature of those polished professional politicians that we have become used to having populated the office. How un-presidential (thankfully). Is he putting the welfare of our country first? Well, in fact he is. It has been a long time since we have seen any U.S President even think about such a concept. What is the matter that he is not paying gobs of money to the Iranians so that they can finance terrorists to attack us. Isn't that kind of the model of the prior President who apparently established the way his critics expect Presidents to behave. Why isn't this guy giving away the farm to all the global environmentalists. He is trying to establish the thought that negotiation is not a synonym for "give-away". And this guy wants to control our borders and the free-for-all access of drug runners and terrorist and all those who hunger for our endless freebies? .... how un-presidential! He has seen to it that the media is no longer running the country. His tweets have negated their strangle-hold on American policy, and we are being forced to make our politicians accountable to the people that vote them into office instead to the liberal demands of the mainstream media. What a novel concept and how absolutely un-presidential. Yes, given the presidential models established by those of recent decades, President Trump does not emulate any of them. Therefore he is guilty of being un-presidential, and thank God for that. No we didn't vote for the same old- reruns of the lib's idea of what they think Presidents should be. Trump's vision and goals are clear, unwavering, transparent, and focused on every issue that he raised during the campaign. Amazingly he seems determined to actually fulfill as many of those campaign promises as humanly possible. Now all we need is to break the inertia of the swamp and let him continue to guide the progress of his and our goals. If that turns out to be un-presidential I say bring it on!

I will say that if Trump gets most of his agenda through, and keeps his nose clean, he will wind up so wildly popular that it won't matter who the Democrats put up. This tax cut has almost sealed the deal. Now, if he can score a homerun with health care and patch up the security leaks along our southern border, he will win in a landslide election. I think this Democrat obstructionism is the final nail in their coffin. Oprah and all the pinkos that the Dems can dredge up will not be able to turn back the Trump tide. Their entire party platform consists only of a hatred of Trump. There is no substance to it. There is nothing that they are standing for that the American public will tolerate or see as a positive vision. As the last of the straws that they are grasping for continues to fall apart they will complete their free-fall into oblivion. Chuckie and Nancy are leading their party to absolute destruction. It's not really a good thing in the long run because I am a believer in a minimum of a two-party political system. But unless the Republicans self-destruct, we may be heading for a one-party system.

Look, the Democrats have one potential candidate that honestly represents the mentality of the Democratic party. He makes no apologies for what he is and honestly calls attention to what currently makes up the majority of the thinking of the Democrats. That's Bernie Sanders. He is the only one that honestly fesses up to his true identity as a flaming socialist. The rest of them all share his views, but are afraid to carry that label. Oprah is simply another of them that has all the mentality without the integrity of bearing the title. So why don't they simply adopt good ol' Bernie as their candidate and be done with it? Is that too honest for their tastes?

That was what caused me to drop my NYB membership. I am a real hardliner when it comes to mixing guns and bows. But there was DEC activity before The NYB and the Muzzleloaders hatched their brain-fart, and likely that was what got them all thinking about this "feel-good" plan. Likely there were some negotiations involved, and I am certain the DEC was right in the middle of it all because they had already shown support of that idea. But the significant point here that I was trying to get at is that those who are naïve enough to think that firearms can never be shoved into bow seasons, should really familiarize themselves with a bit of history, as well as learn that the injection of firearms into bow seasons already exists and with plenty of DEC support and plenty of people who already jealously regard all bow seasons as a target of opportunity just waiting for the proper precedents to be set.

She's a natural for the Democrats. What the heck, she made her fortune from giving away free stuff.

Approximately 10 years ago, I attended a "state of the herd" DEC meeting specifically to lobby against the DEC's support of an early muzzleloader season that was going to coexist with bow season. They were actively pushing for this, and not in a covert way, and also not in select areas. Any bow hunters that were paying any attention at that time will remember that. And of course in more recent years they have been threatening to push muzzleloaders into specific WMUs if the bowhunters did not begin to take more does out of the herd. Again, that was a very public position. So their bias is not even in question. It's history and not opinion. They are always looking for more efficient use of the bow season through allowing more efficient weapons.

No brush gun for me. I hunt with a .270 which likely won't hold together through any brush ....right? But that's ok. Most of my shots are fairly clear shooting lanes.

Just more evidence that they have a calendar and a copy of game regulations and seasons. Perhaps if you had listened very closely, you would have heard them giving you the raspberries.....lol. It could be that they wanted to come in and get warm for a while.

Alright.....You ice fishing guys are finally getting the kind of winter you all deserve. I remember hard water fishing back when I was a kid, and I have to say that I had a ball on Honeoye lake with pickerel. Damn, tip-ups were going off all over the lake. I wonder if these old bones can still take the cold.....lol.

I was checking one of the doves that was sitting on the wire that hold the bird feeder. Then I tried to imagine the thing without any feathers. Then I tried to imagine how hungry I would be if I had to dine on a couple of them. I have no problem with anyone hunting them, but I can't see wasting any of my time campaigning for a season. Good luck to all of you that want to put in the time to fight for a hunt for a couple of bites of dove meat, but I would sooner go to the store and pick up one of those Cornish game hens. I just think I am simply one who has too big an appetite.....lol.

Last I knew, crossbow inclusion into bow season was a NYS law ...... All of the state. What is your problem that you can't admit you screwed up? It seems to me that it is you who is twisting and squirming here and trying desperately to escape your own screw-up. You made an incorrect statement and I corrected you. Don't make more of it than it is.

It looks like a fun-gun no matter whether you use it on tin cans or squirrels. Just out of curiosity, what does a thing like that go for. Wish I had something like that to shoot in my basement right now. This frigid weather is getting me a severe case of cabin fever.

I do find it interesting as to how much money for hunting & fishing stuff there must be floating around if they are lured into taking another shot at it. Look at all the big-box stores there are now that deal in hunting and outdoor products. And most of them spare no expense when it comes to the facilities. Apparently hunters and fishermen have a lot of cash that these people are looking to glom onto.

I can't get too excited about a return of Gander Mountain. They had their chance to profit from this consumer, and they blew it. Since that time a few quality outdoor stores have come on the scene. I don't need Gander Mountain anymore.

Look, you made the erroneous statement. Be man enough to own up to it instead of just blathering on and trying to squirm out from under your mistake. We were, and have been, talking about NYS. The Northern Zone is a part of NYS. And my statements were not limited to only the early season either. My point was that muzzleloaders and rifles are already accepted in NYS as being a weapon that can and is already thrown in with bows. I know it and now you know it.

I just watched a program "Life Below Zero" that was showing dog-sledders up in Alaska where during a race, the dogs spent the night outside laying on straw. And that was with some real cold temperatures. Most likely it depends on the breed as to how well they fare in this kind of weather. I would imagine that the short-hair breeds don't make out so good. But I would bring the dog inside during this weather. It can't be real pleasant out there even for long-haired dogs.