Doc

I haven't sold a fur for a lot of decades, but there's still a lot of trappers in business who have places to sell their hides. Back then there were fur buyers everywhere. Locally today we have the Genesee Valley Trappers Assn. that holds periodic fur auctions. I'm sure that no matter where you are located there are buyers somewhere not too far away. You might want to make an inquiry in the trapping forum on this site. I believe Eddie is right. The fur market is not at he top of its game right now. But if you are interested, go to a well stocked magazine rack and pick up a copy of Fur-Fish-Game and toward the back there is always a run-down on what furs are going for. It seems to me that Northeast coyote pelts were going for somewhere between $15 and $25 depending on size and condition (I'd have to re-check that). That should help defray some of the gas and ammo money used hunting those critters. It might even pay to take a few of those dead dogs off the hands of your coyote hunting buddys. Doc

Just imagine you are one of these deep pockets execs on an African safari. $45,000 probably wouldn't even make you blink. Hey, there's a lot of money out there these days. None of it in my pocket mind you, but there's a bunch of people who look at $45,000 as toy-money. Take a trip up to the Rochester yacht Club or head down to that place in Victor that sells Corvettes. Example are everywhere ..... lol. Some of those people would buy one of those guns just to say they have it. Doc

There seems to be a particular scope magnification that shows up in about 90% of any sales flyers advertising scopes. That would be a 3x-9x variable. Fact is that I have a couple of them on my rifles myself and am quite happy with them for 100 yard target and general varmint shooting. BUT.... I must say that my best target groups ever shot were with a strange gun (belonging to my Brother-in-law) and a strange scope that I had never shot before, which was a .243 with a variable scope set at 24X. It brought the bullseye up so large that it really looked like I couldn't possibly miss. And by golly, I didn't miss. the 5 shot group was under a 1/4" at 100 yards. So the question is, aside from price (his scope cost a bajillion dollars) why would anyone settle for just a common 3x-9x. Ok, I know one of the answers ...... a 24X view of a deer 20 yards away would probably look like a huge wall-to-wall brown pile of hairs. Are there any other drawbacks to the higher magnification scopes? What size magnification would you chose for deer hunting, if cost was no object? Maybe there is another selection that gives a good field of view but a higher magnification than 9x. Doc

What's interesting is that we have had several test WMUs in the state for a few years now, and I don't know if anyone is gathering any scientific data or making and publishing any official and credible observations. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places, but it seems to me that it is kind of a waste to be conducting trials without paying any attention to the results. Doc

And when you get it all figured out, let me in on the secret. I can't get them interested either. I do get an occasional fox to come in, but never a coyote. I'm going to try covering a bit more ground this winter. Start hitting the backroads and cover some miles by car instead of trying to pack all my crap around the hill on foot. I just can't cover enough ground. Maybe driving from one calling area to another will put me in contact with more coyotes. Who knows. It's worth a try .... nothing else is working. Doc

Well, I honestly have never gone to one of these places, and I guess I am picturing the worst ..... lol. I must say that if the animals I'm hunting don't even look like the wild variety, and the hunt is even a bit bogus, I can't figure out why I would want to go and spend exhorbitant amounts of money for pork that I could buy cheaper from a farmer. Really ...... what's the point. Those two little piggies in the back of that truck would look real good as a nice head mounts on the wall. I can picture them now next to the stuffed Rhode Island red chicken on the end table and the holstein shoulder mount. Maybe you could rent the new hog game call .... you know, the one that goes "Soooey - Soooey" when you blow on it. ;D Maybe you could take out the one with the collar around it's neck, laying over next to feeding trough if you can figure out how to get an arrow through that welded wire fence. Ok, so now I'm getting a bit carried away. However, on a serious note, I could be completely wrong about the whole set-up, but I really don't believe it would be anything that I would be interested in. That doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with it, but it just isn't my thing. I just can't warm up to hunting anything that comes running waggling its tail when it's called ...... SORRY! ..... Couldn't help myself ..... just kidding!! Doc

And I think back to the days when all we had was a rope tied around our waist. Probably would be dead by now if we had ever had to actually use it. Nobody really knew any better, or if they did they weren't telling anyone. Doc

Speaking of trimming brush, I suppose it might be useful to mention the care that should be taken when doing the high-wire act in the tree-tops trying to remove those branches that want to dangle down in your arrow's path. I've seen guys running around in the tree-tops like some sort of chimp, dangling from one limb and stretching out to cut another. You can mangle your body falling from doing those kinds of acrobatics just as easily as falling from a treestand. I don't think I have any good safety equipment to recommend for those excusions out on a limb other than to recommend not chosing a tree that needs that kind of dangerous pruning. Doc

For a gun collector, the price would probably be worth it just to have a one-of-a-kind. For me, probably not. However, it would be interesting to see how the mechanism worked. It seemed to be awful smooth considering all the functions the bolt was doing. I didn't notice what the caliber was, but it seemed to be something that was setting the guy back pretty good. My guess is that it might be something developed for the African large dangerous game kind of hunts where a quick second shot may be worth considerably more than just money. Reliability would be the next question and of course the video gave no clue about that. That would be something best judged with hands-on inspection and use. Doc

Interesting looking "wild boars" ...... lol. That's the main reason I never went to one of these places. It's hard to figure out which ones are going to make you feel like you are hunting in a barnyard. Doc

Yeah, NYB took that over, I suppose because nobody else was doing it. I think those (archery and pellet gun shooting activities) are the best features of the event. How many of those kids might never get chance to shoot those things and spark an interest as a result? Actually the whole thing is great for introducing youngsters into the outdoor sports. The different exhibits and presentations show kids that there is something beyond the latest electronic gadget. And the participation activities are probably the most effective of all. Doc

And to emphasize that point, take a look at the list of various "Stakeholders" that are defined in the blurb on the DEC website about CFTs (Citizen Task Force). Farmers, hunters, foresters, conservationists, motorists, the tourism industry, landowners, small business, etc. You will find more eligible representatives from what I call the "anti-deer forces" than you will those that want to see more (or any for that matter) deer. http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7207.html We may think we rule the roost where the DEC is concerned, but our influence has been eroding over the years. As far as the DEC managing "the deer herd to meet the carrying capacity of the land", I'm afraid that in reality, it looks like their primary concerns are the impacts to financial interests around the state, and how best to keep satisfied, and quiet, "stakeholders". Doc

In spite of that misfortune, you can still consider yourself lucky. Yeah I know it's hard to understand how anything about that could be considered "lucky". But there are a whole lot of people who have taken that same kind of fall that have had a lot worse results, including death. We always feel so darn invincible until some of that reality is brought to us in a rather unpleasant way. I hope that foot starts getting better soon. You may have some additional difficulties this season, but you'll probably figure out a way around it all. There are others that will never figure out a way around the results of a serious treestand fall. Doc

I have some huge chunks of cardboard that I have been accumulating for future archery target construction. Anyway, at 20 yards, it's pretty hard to completely miss one of those if you even have the gun pointed in that direction. Having it bore-sighted first would be ideal, but as I once said in a previous thread, when I get done sighting a rifle in, I have plenty of fire formed brass to reload .... lol. I haven't sighted in a shotgun from scratch since 1969, but I will say that I would definitely go out and find someone to bore-sight the old shotguns before I put my shoulder through the meat-grinder. I'm not a real big fan of shotgun shooting. That's why each year, I try to check out my scope with just 3 to 5 slugs just to make sure the scope hasn't moved. It's funny how when you're shooting at a deer you never do feel any recoil, but every 12 ga. slug fired off the bench seems to mangle that shoulder. Doc

No.....live ammo is not the sort of thing you want to have laying around on the ground. That might have been a good thing to bring to the attention of someone of influence at the range. Perhaps they might want to reinforce the rules in some fashion or put up a sign or two that list rules and regs. You wouldn't think that people would have to be made aware of some of these things, but .......oh well. Some times you do have to state the obvious to people. Doc

One comment that I remember hearing on that program is that the wild varieties of pigs have longer legs and that may be of some assistance in getting that speed. But by golly, they are awful fast. That's one of the things that adds a bit of danger in a wild boar hunt is the way their speed can turn you from the hunter to the hunted. One of the things that I have repeatedly heard as a major reason for the rapid spread of their range is that often, hunters will illegally trap and transport these things into new areas for new hunting opportunities. The other thing is the proliferation of game farms and pay-to-hunt operations that raise these critters and then have them escape. All pigs are pretty darn hard to contain. I remember that from the old family farm where over the years we lost a few domestic hogs that figured out ways of getting under fences. So, it's not hard to go from an area that has no pigs to an area that has a growing herd (herd ..... is that the right term?) of them over-night. Doc

It is not the place of the Moderator (or at least not this Moderator) to dictate or censor topics or opinions unless they stray from the bounds of legality or proper language. I use a pretty liberal standard. I am not here to decide what sides of issues that can be allowed on this forum. I do enter into discussions and of course have my own positions and opinions. I may even express opinions on the quality of a topic. But what I won't do is use the Moderator position to force topic selection or opinion censorship......even with silly ol' Sits ....... lol. I figure that when people have had enough of him, they will simply stop responding. If they don't, then his opinions are as good as anyone else's. Doc

Did you ever wonder when you hear those 5 rapid shots, just what the guy doing the shooting is seeing as far as a whats going on beyond the deer? Add to that a guy who is trying to take multiple fast shots and has a scope. Imagine how easy on any of his follow-up shots to all of a sudden see an orange suit just as the shot goes off. Scary stuff ...... eh? And you know what, there is nothing about a rifle that keeps a hunter of that mentality from doing that exact same thing, as someone with a shotgun in their hands. No difference at all. In fact there are no safety rules and attitudes that are one bit different with a rifle or a shotgun. There is one thing though. For the most part, the guy with the rifle can extend the consequences of his poor choices a bit farther. Doc

But as long as it has detail about the process, I sure would be interested in hearing it, even if it's some kind of canned response. It would just be interesting to see how that all happens.

I think I could buy into all that statistical stuff if there wasn't clear evidence that occasionally things go terribly wrong. I am remembering back in the late 80's and early 90's when the herd was basically out of control. I personally witnessed the massive yard at the end of Honeoye Lake, and the hundreds of deer standing in the field basically waiting to die. I assume that the staistical model was incapable of predicting and preventing that. Once it got to the point where it was publicly obvious, the only fix they had then was to flood the season with all kinds of excessive numbers of permits until the herd came back down. And then they over-shot the mark and had to slash permits dramatically because of all the (apparently legitimate) uproar about deer shortages. Now to me, that kind of see-sawing results is an indicator of a system that isn't working. They seem to simply be reacting (and over-reacting) to situations and not even using their statistics as any kind of preventive, predictive system. You can see it over and over in the cycles of reaction and over-reaction. I know that statistics can work wonders in many situations when used on things that lend themselves to it, but the results that I've seen in person and also viewing their own numbers shows a system that's not completely under control. However, getting back to the harvest reporting, I have never seen a system, statistical or otherwise, that could beat an actual count. Also, I am convinced that DEC personel have better things to do than visiting meat processors and typing data into a computer. I would think that since they are under a resource constraint, they might be more enthusiastic about something that would cut costs and improve accuracy.

I'm not sure just what the tresspassing laws are these days. I thseem to remember that NYS has two posting systems. One is per the regular penal law and the other is per the conservation law, and they are both different. What I have done is to make sure that I can always see at least 3 signs at any one time. That's not per any legal requirement, but I am sure that standard exceeds whatever the official distances might turn out to be. Also, it is a pretty practical way of guaranteeing that if anyone claims they didn't see the signs, they're lying. I'll be honest, I really haven't had a serious tresspassing problem. In fact when the snow is on, you can see a lot of bootprints that come up to the posted signs and then turn around and go back. Once in a while, I will see where someone will walk along the line. Seldom do they cross. Doc

Yup .... that's it. Hogweed. Real bad stuff. By the way, when I was a kid, I used to walk through poison ivy with shorts and never got it. I figured I was immune. A few years back while clearing brush, I got covered with it. Big surprise.

Yeah, the standard deer hunter uniform was those wool black and red checkered jackets (and sometimes pants) ..... lol. Blaze orange has been a huge improvement over those. Doc

I kind of wonder if that 200 yard claim isn't when machine shot. Frankly, I wouldn't expect that just any hunter could make it perform that well. Even though that's what they are trying to imply. What the gun is capable of and what the average guy can make it do probably are two entirely different things. Doc

I can't imagine that many wild pigs. I would think that if you ever let people shoot them for profit, those guys would be putting domestic pork producers out of business. Imagine a helicopter slaughter crew and a ground crew to pick up, butcher and sell them. That would be one heck of a business opportunity and would go a long ways toward solving the feral hog problems of the south. By the way, that guy doing the shooting was pretty darn good. I'm sure that's a lot harder than it looks. Do you suppose he was using buckshot? Doc