Doc

My hunting area is not very typical in that we have had an unusual growth of non-hunting land use on the state land which comprises the main part of my hunting turf. The land no longer gets the summertime rest that it used to, and there is year around human presence on the land. Bikers, and hikers have established trails everywhere and they use them throughout the summer. So there are changes occurring in terms of where bucks feel safe. I also think that some of those safety areas can be changed by any small change in biker/hiker patterns. so it probably should not be to surprising that rut signs move from one year to the next now. I am still trying to adjust to all this activity and it's causing a lot of confusion. I suppose the deer are adjusting and confused too. Doc

Yeah, I'm an old one-eye squinter. And I too have that occasional super-flinch. Maybe I'll try your fix. It is a gosh awful mental disease that can really disrupt a good shooting session. It doesn't happen very often, and never happens when I am shooting at a deer. But man, it can be a nightmare on target shooting. The fix that I have always heard is to stand close to the butt (so you can't miss), close both eyes and practice shooting. It never worked for me, but that's what the coaches all recommend for target panic. My problem is that I never know when it's cured because it is not a regular thing. It always comes back when I least expect it. I'll try shooting with both eyes open just to see what it's like. Maybe that's the kind of thing that will change the "sight picture/mental reaction". Doc

Yup!!!! That's the one. I knew it was a Jan....something. That thing has paid for itself a long time ago. I know a lot of people head for the pro-shop to have every wounded vane replaced. Or like Fitzy said they just keep shooting them that way. I don't have to do any of that. I just fix them myself. Doc

I would have bought that one if they had offered it. I still have to buy my bow license every year because that wasn't included. They had no old geezer bargains on the lifetime bow licenses and I'm pretty sure that I would never get my money's worth if I paid the big bucks for it now. Doc

Have you ever had another hunter go skulking by your stand right at that perfect time in the afternoon when you expect to see that buck that you have been scouting. They usually come right from the direction that you were figuring the buck would be coming from. Nobody's fault, but it is irritating. :-\ Doc

Dirty little bugs!!! Actually, we aren't having a whole lot of luck with ash trees anyway. I'm not sure what's been getting into them over the past couple of decades, but they aren't exactly the picture of health around our area. They get up to 10" or so and next thing you know they're dead. I wonder if these critters might move on to some other variety of trees when the ash trees are gone. Anybody know? Doc

I think it's a real good idea. There seems to be a couple of people here who are craving the use of crossbows, so why shouldn't they have a place to discuss their favorite weapon. They can talk about bolts and stocks and stuff. Doc

It's kind of like a Shoppers Guide for crooks looking for specific weapons to steal ...... eh? A burgular's shopping list ..... lol. From the article in the New York Outdoor News, it sounds like a lot of fancy computer work was used to hide the originator of the internet posting. I think we know it is something done by one of the many anti-gun groups. It's just a question of which one. It's just some more harrassment techniques by anti-gun zealots. Unfortunately it was aided by the stupidity of the government policies.

Oh horror of all horrors!!!! This surely a sign that the world is coming to an end ..... lol. :'(

The best thing is that it is data that is relevant to the exact land that you hunt and not something based on theories and facts from miles away or as average data on average land. And you can customize it to suit whatever information you want to gather and analyse. The other good thing is that it takes the burden off your memory. Everything is written down and organized. When you talk about hunting conditions in your own hunting area, there is the confidence and credibility that you know exactly what you are talking about. All you have to do is look it up. Yes it takes a bit of time, but it is time that is spent doing something interesting. Doc

Dave- Do you have any state land near you? Sometimes that can work out well a trapping territory as long as it isn't over-run with people and their pets. Doc

Maybe there are some trappers from NYC that could cast a little light on this, but my impression would be that the trapping opportunities there would be very limited. I'm not from NYC and in fact was only there once in my life, so I could be completely wrong on that. One thing to also keep in mind is that the law says that you have to visit all traps at least every 24 hours, so if you have a massive commute to get to the trapline, that might be a hardship. That's all the bad news. Now....The good news. As far as having your own land to trap on, I would guess that an overwhelming percentage of trappers use other people's land and public lands as their trapping territories. In fact I have read quite a few articles where people use their cars to cover their traplines, making sets in culverts and ditches that are along side the road. So, you don't have to own hundreds of acres to trap. Trapping techniques like anything else is always easiest to learn if there is some experienced person to teach you. But, trapping is also one of those things that is quite easy to start learning from a book. And most of the tips and techniques can be picked up simply by observing the critters and their sign that they leave behind. I would suggest that you go to a well-stocked magazine store and pick up a copy of Fur-Fish-Game. They are usually filled with all kinds of trapping articles. Also, there is always a full page ad that advertises trapping books. I highly recommend these books as basic primers for trapping. A lot of them are exactly the same as I used years ago (55 years to be exact). They were written by some guys that really knew their stuff. I'm sure there are other books available too in other places. By the way, one of those books that I mentioned has to do with tanning fur. It's kind of a one-stop shopping all in that magazine. Also, they have regular reports on fur prices and a jillion ads for traps and supplies so you can rough out prices for getting started. Good luck and let us know how you make out. Doc

I have seen a few years when the rut activity (rubs and scrapes) seemed to be nearly non-existant. Strangely enough, that did not mean that there were no bucks in the area. It just seems that periodically they simply won't leave any visible signs of rut. I've never figured out a pattern or reason for that. Doc

Interesting you should say that because I have noticed the same thing. Not only that, but those that do show up seem to be mostly gone by noon. They're a bunch of part-timers. I'm afraid that even the hunters we have left are suffering from a huge lack of enthusiasm. A lot of them may be gone soon too. The bad news is that where the gun hunters have thinned out on state land, the bowhunters, hikers and bikers seem to have increased during bow season. There seems to be a shift from gun hunting to bow hunting, and now we have a lot of non-hunting use of state lands during bow season too. I'm not sure whether that is true on state lands or public lands in general across the state, but the parcel that I have hunted for 50+ years has changed in that way. Doc

I found a fabic shop that sells camo cloth and bought a chunk of it that's about 3' tall by maybe 12 or 15' long. Then I had my wife sew on little straps that could be formed into loops with velcro about every 3' along the top and bottom. With just a minor sapling frame, I can erect a temporary wall coming out from beside any large diameter tree or brush pile, brush the whole thing in and have a pretty good blind in a short period of time. The whole thing can be folded lengthwise once and then rolled up in a small package that lives in my backpack. It's always there if I find a hot new place that I haven't had a chance to build a blind at yet. Doc

So I went to the site entitled "Who's Packing? NY" and noticed that they have nothing stating who they are and why they created the website. Unless I missed it, the authors of the site seem to have gone out of their way to be anonymous. I sure would like to know just who is behind publishing that info on the internet. Yes, I see that our own state government saw fit to make that info public record ........ and that is an unneccessary invasion of privacy in its own right, but who are these people that thought it should be made available on the internet and what is their agenda? Doc

Yes the government has successfully completed an experiment in mass behavior modification, and the people loved it. I think we can look forward to this technique of massive public service announcements followed by ever climbing prohibitive taxation to get the citizens to "behave" and have government approved behaviors only. Now that they have proven the feasibility with cigarettes, I expect to see them coming after whatever they consider to be improper eating habits with the same zeal. Also, alcoholic products have not yet caught their full attention. That's probably not real far off into the future either. No, I'm not saying that tobacco is good for you, and I quit smoking myself. But what I am thinking is that the government is taking on a new role of behavior modification that makes me just a little nervous when it comes to the day to day habits of the people. It just makes me wonder when they might decide that hunting or gun ownership is an undesireable activity and start applying some of the same techniques to those kinds of things. Can't do it?? Too big a lobby?? Too many people involved?? No, that's the beauty of the cigarette experiment. The very same factors were involved. If it can work there, it can work anywhere, and now the government knows it. So yes, you are lucky to be saving all that money by not smoking, but remember the reasons for not smoking never used to have anything to do with cost. Cost is the government tool that was used for smoking erradication. And it has worked so well that they're likely to be using that tool on a lot of other things. Doc

Fortunately you don't run into those kinds of people very often, but any time you get that many people in the woods at one time, there has to be a certain percentage of irresponsible wackos out there. We can only hope that we survive them. Doc

That probably doesn't meet the requirements of self defense, and most likely even if you missed them, you would still be in a whole lot of legal trouble. I think the proper reaction would be to quickly put some big old heavy trunked tree between you and them and then hunker down. Nobody wants to see a gunfight develop out there in the woods .... lol. I will say that when somebody shoots at or toward another hunter that is dressed in blaze orange, you have to wonder if it is accidental or intentional. Doc

I haven't paid to have an arrow fletched in 45 years. That includes new arrows. I now use 4" vanes for hunting (R.H. helix). I used to use 5" profletch vanes years ago. I have that jig that does 6 arrows at a time. Sorry, but the name of it escapes me at the moment. Doc

Yeah, there are a few things that irritate me. Like the hunter that was posted within the 500 feet of my house and was so drunk he could hardly maintain his balance. And way more than once I have had hunters come up to me in the woods just to chat a bit (which I love to do). But then they stand their with the gun cradled in the crook of their arm with it waving back and forth across my mid-section or legs. And then there was the guy who rested the muzzle of his shotgun on the toe of his boot and leaned against the stock. These things put me in a bit of a bad position because I feel compelled to briefly come unglued and I react badly when I see such stupidity. It's a shame because I really do like to chat with people just to hear what they have been seeing and even get to know them a bit. And then occasionally some of them do these wacky things. Another thing that cranks me up is when I see on TV some of these Safari hunters (and guides) who grab the barrel of their gun, lay the stock horizontally over their shoulder and have the muzzle pointed at the back of the head of the guy in front of them. What the heck is that all about? Yeah, those kinds of things irritate me, or maybe to be more correct, they scare the hell out of me. Doc

I don't do a lot of turkey hunting, but I think I can see where turkey hunting might be a bit more dangerous than you might think. First of all there are a lot of goofy hunters out there who still take "sound shots". It sounds stupid, but it still happens. Then you have hunters sitting in the woods trying to sound like a turkey. Then you set up decoys that could conceivably draw fire from anywhere within 360 degrees. Some of that could be in line with the hunter. It's still something that requires an awful lot of irresponsibility to happen, but there are a few additional factors that kind of make the odds of something ugly happening a bit higher. Doc

Wooly- It just goes to show you that you can't see everything that's in the woods. Especially someone who is going out of his way not to be seen. I'll never understand the mentality of hunters wearing camo during gun season........ never. Doc

Yeah, it can be a pretty scary thing. I often thought that if my house got caught up in a forest fire, there is no way I would ever make it right. I could replace the house with the insurance, and maybe even put up a better one, but it would still have no resale value sitting in the middle of a black burned out area. Who the heck would want it? That's something you don't usually think about when you build in the woods. But it sure does make you paranoid about fire. Doc

Looking forward to seeing the video. Hope you post it here. Doc