Doc

I remember the wide-eyed expression on the faces of my two sons the year that my wife took my boots and put them in the ashes of the fireplace and then made tracks from the hearth to the Christmas tree and back. That kept them believing for a couple more years.....lol.

Yes, 3 deer about 20 yards off the corner of the house just watching us. My guess is that some hunter dropped the game syllabus out of his pocket and the word has already spread. Now all we need to figure out is where they are getting the calendar from.

Ha-ha... That was my new word that I invented "Quitcherbitchen". It seemed to fit at the time.

Actually, as hunters, we are already an interference to Mother Nature's management efforts. We do have our noses stuck deep into the process some of us remove animal numbers. Others apparently work on adding numbers. Right? .....Wrong? .... your guess is as good as mine. But as long as we are paying the big bucks for all these college educated dudes, I guess whatever they say, and whatever laws they conjure up, that is what I will abide by. I don't always agree with them, but they are the ones we pay for the management processes. Might as well use them.

Yeah the driveway is all plowed and the front yard is criss-crossed with deer tracks and so all is well in the world. In a few hours, the driveway will be filled with cars of our family members. The din of conversation and laughter will fill the house. This year we are having some nice big prime ribs as the main entrée. And the men and boys will all gather around the living room recounting each and every detail of all the hunting adventures (win, lose, or draw). Oh yeah, and all the young hunters will be passing around their phones with pictures of harvested deer and trail cam pictures. Every year the Christmas gatherings get more and more important and meaningful. Ah yes, these are the traditions of Christmas. I hope you all have those same or similar kinds of festive gatherings as our family has been blessed with. It is a great time of year. Merry Christmas to all of you and your family members.

Thank you for at least starting some thinking about one of hunting's biggest challenges. These are the kinds of discussions we should be having instead of all of the hot-button fad management issues. Probably the first effort that should occur is to try to list all the reasons that hunting access is being denied. I know that back in my early days, posted signs were an oddity. Farmers had no time to go wandering through the woods, finding his lot line and tacking up posted signs. Most of the farmers didn't even get to see a lot of their land, or even care who the heck was hunting on it. The land provided firewood for heat, and occasionally syrup, and other than that, non-tillable land was just something that they inherited from those that came before them. Today the family farms are broken up into smaller parcels and are owned by people who jealously guard there little piece of heaven. Others have experimented with allowing hunters on their property only to have it all abused and eventually over-run and totally out of control. And then there are the litterers who treat the landowner's property like a landfill throwing used beer bottles and candy wrappers and such wherever they happen to consume the contents. Also much of these smaller parcels are already saturated with friends and family already hunting there. Now we have the growing problem of hunting leases where a handful of people will band together and tie up large tracts of hunting land. It gets posted up and frequently goes under-hunted. But the landowner gets his taxes paid and usually a bit of cash left over. All these things are just natural evolution of land use over time. All understandable and not likely to reverse unless some very creative and imaginative thinking is put into figuring out new and innovative ways. But now we know how we got here and what is driving these land lock-ups. Maybe this is now the place to start brainstorming solutions. Let's have at it.

You know, instead of us here in the "lib" states whining and stamping our feet over the fact that our high state taxes are causing us to lose out on the full potential of the tax cuts, maybe we ought to be doing something about our state legislators who run the state government like they have an endless pit of free money. It seems to me like you all are getting ticked off at the wrong people. Maybe it's not so bad that we are getting a boot in the butt by having our tax situation being highlighted with this tax law. A little reminder of the conditions that we have allowed to fester here is not a bad thing.

Actually, when it comes to safety regulations like legal shooting hours, it is myself that I am worrying about. And that applies whether I am hunting my own land and trying to be protected from trespassers, or hunting public land. These people who are always talking about that cardinal rule of being sure of the target and what's beyond for some reason make exceptions when it comes to stretching the shooting hours into twilight conditions. I like the idea of minimum standards when it comes to safety. And I always like strict adherence to all hunting safety laws.

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It is pretty scary how many people think that game laws are just a suggestion and can be abided by only if they feel like it. I wonder what other laws they have found to be just a suggestion. I know that I will never feel completely secure when trying to walk home when the light is fading. It kind of makes you wonder what is in the minds of others who think they can see in the dark and just how far they are willing to push the envelope as you are walking by.

One of the aspects of coyote predation on deer that I have always been curious about is the deer that die during a harsh winter that they don't even touch. Just the running of deer in deep snow or crusted snow when temperatures are bitter cold and the winter season is stretching into the spring season, is a source of stress that can turn lethal. As I listen to coyotes chasing deer across the side of the hill, I have to wonder what the cost is in valuable calories and critical fat reserves, even when they never lay a tooth on them. I have never really seen any studies on the impact, but I know that depending on the severity of the winter, many deer just barely make it and come into spring pretty close to depleted of essential fats. Yeah, we know about weather related starvation losses to the deer herd that has indeed impacted deer numbers in some areas for several seasons. What we don't know is how many of these casualties are victims of excessive stress due to chasing during critical times in winter. Just a source of curiosity.

Look, you have to call an end to the day at some point. I would personally like it not to be up to each hunter's discretion. Personally, I have hunted locations and conditions where even legal shooting hours were a bit questionable. A heavy hemlock woods with heavy overcast or rain can become pretty darn challenging toward the beginning or end of legal shooting hours. Move those hours apart another another 1/2 hour on each end, and in those conditions you have a very hazardous situation. The other thing that sometimes has me calling it quits early is the importance of finding that "first blood". I would just as soon not have to rely on flashlights to locate those initial drops of blood.

Why are you guys so concerned about what someone else is dragging home to eat? Is it some kind of bragging thing that is supposed to convince people that you are some kind of superior he-man hunter......lol. Is that what all this chest-beating is all about. Take whatever size deer that fits your needs and stop worrying about what others are taking.

An interesting news story from The NY Times and other mainstream media outlets indicates that in an effort to preserve his Iran/nuke deal, Obama got in bed with the Hezbollah drug dealers. Yeah, sounds like a made-for-TV crime drama, but there's a lot of people taking the story seriously. https://nypost.com/2017/12/18/obama-protected-hezbollah-drug-ring-to-save-iran-nukes-deal/

It sounds like you guys keep a loaded gun in the house or garage. What do you do to disable it from access to any in-house or visiting minors? You can probably tell that I have zero experience with muzzleloaders....lol.

I suppose opinions are primarily based on what your idea of hunting is that you were raised believing in. To me, hunting has a lot to do with challenge and accomplishment. Yes, there is a lot more stirred into it all, but the primary ingredients for me is matching wits with a critter that is a survival expert in their own environment and that has opportunities and a willingness for evasive escape. My version of hunting has no slaughterhouse mentality that regards hunting as simply killing or food gathering. To me a hunting trophy is not something that you buy. You earn it. There is a long ways from what is called canned hunting, to what I consider to be "hunting". Personally, when I say I am a hunter, I don't want anyone confusing what I do with any of these guaranteed hunts. Hunting has been too much of what I am and what my life has been about to be degraded by the one-sided activities of canned hunts.

I always get a bit nervous about heaping new restrictions on hunters at a time when hunter numbers are falling. In the long run, it could do more damage to game management than good. As bad as dwindling hunter population is, there is also what I perceive as dwindling enthusiasm where hunting has become a 1 or 2 day event for many (maybe even most) hunters. I think plaguing them with all kinds of heavy restrictions or rules that limit their opportunities or bag limits will not reverse that trend. Let's not always be looking for ways to frustrate people out of the sport with all kinds of new restrictions and regulations.

I think that if you are looking anywhere for a nice buck on public land, you will have to modify your methods to a more aggressive style of hunting. Unless you get very lucky on opening day, and catch the older deer by surprise in the initial hours, it doesn't really take them long to adopt a "hunker down in the daylight hours and move in the darkness" survival mode. Their reaction to the pressure of heavily hunted public land is nearly flawless, and you will have to eventually carefully invade their "survival hideouts". Sitting on stand for hours will be pretty much a waste of time after the initial first hours of the season. The older bucks didn't get older by stumbling around aimlessly through the woods making a target of themselves.

Well, I guess in truth nothing really needs "thinning". Mother Nature will take care of populations through wildly fluctuating populations that go in and out of control strictly by heavy epidemics of disease and starvation. I have heard that argument from every anti-hunter I have ever encountered. I guess our attempts at wildlife management is indeed a complete waste of money since Mother Nature already does the job for us. As far as that nonsense that hunting causes coyote populations to increase, that flies in the face of the experiences of ranchers that have successfully kept coyote populations at bay to the benefit of their livestock. It truly sounds like some kind of study that was funded by PETA.....lol. I suppose that since coyotes manage their own populations, then disease and starvation must also be a major factor in increasing the populations in the same way that hunting and trapping does. At some point one has to call BS on that crazy illogical theory. As far as the impacts of coyotes on other species, I am not as concerned about that as many are. But in spite of arguments to the contrary coyotes do reside at the top of the food chain here in NYS, with no natural predators other than the anemic and unmotivated efforts of hunters and trappers. And I think that the general opinion of biologists is that no species should be allowed to go uncontrolled ..... even if they do look like cute little fuzzy puppy-dogs.

I remember years ago, one of the major networks did a hatchet job on hunting that they called "The Guns of Autumn" or something like that. The impression left was that all hunting consisted of canned hunts. I'm expecting another one of these assaults on hunting to be aired anytime. I really hate to be associated in any way with these kinds of representations in the name of hunting. I would have no problem with it as long as they didn't call it hunting. What could possibly be the big thrill of resting your gun through the fence and drawing down on some deer laying there chewing its cud next to the feeding trough. I suppose it is the same mentality as those scum-bags that shoot farmer's horses and cows every year.

Can you imagine some lowlife that will probably be spinning some yarn about the great hunt that he had. It's a shame!

That's pretty tough hunting when you need a periscope to see over the snow.

There is something I will have to check out. Was that a whole-body suit or just a heated jacket?

If there is any season where the crossbow/muzzleloader would be appropriate, I would guess weather like this would be it. I will be looking for success stories with the bow here with our forum members just to show that it is possible .....lol.

Yes there must be some way that it can be done, but I find it real hard to imagine. I find myself having to change my sight settings when the weather changes to the point where I have to start piling on the layers. There is a strain to reach a complete anchor. There is an awkwardness to the whole shot set-up, and a definite variation in accuracy (not making it any better, I might add). Maybe there will be some success pictures appearing here to prove me wrong. But so far I haven't seen any.