Doc

There is another factor that was mentioned earlier but bears repeating. Bows kill with cutting, and guns kill with areas of flesh destruction. What no one is really equipped to say is just how many of those deer claimed to be archery wounds really turn out to be fatal or survivable. No one really knows if they can't recover the animal. It is possible and even likely that the reason for lack of recovery is that the deer survived. Deer have been butchered and sections of arrow shaft recovered inside. Broadheads buried in bone and healed over have been discovered while butchering. On the other hand, I witnessed a deer with its lower jaw dangling from its head. That one I can confidently say didn't recover unless he learned to chew with one jaw. I'll guarantee that wasn't done with a bow. Exploded bone and muscle does not heal very well, so a gun wound likely will give way to complications eventually.

Lots of pollen in that stuff too as those of us susceptible to hay fever can attest to.

I think that it stands to reason that more deer are wounded from a weapon that is more challenging to shoot. Frankly the whole purpose of the implementation of bow seasons is to provide a hunt using a more challenging weapon.....right? A weapon that is more challenging is likely to have more mis-cues than the latest and greatest techno whiz firearm. Heck, I would expect that flintlocks would produce more wounding than modern rifles. Even the beloved crossbow will likely have more wounding losses than scoped rifles. But here is the catch. The total numbers may not match what you all think is logical because there are fewer people afield with the more primitive weapons, so while the rate may be up on bows and such, the total numbers likely are not. So if you find a dead deer after the season, it is more likely to be a gun casualty than a bow kill.

What initially lured me to bowhunting was the fact that it is an up-close-and-personal kind of hunting. I really don't do anything to change that aspect of it. I am in it for the quality of the hunt and the excitement and challenge and the best way to achieve all of that is by getting shots where you could almost reach out and touch the deer. That's the kind of bowhunt that stands out most in my memories. For me it is not a test of marksmanship. I satisfied that itch years ago on NFAA archery courses and tournament shooting. Now it is all focused on the woodsmanship and actual "hunting" ability required to get next to wildlife and learn their movements and fool their senses to get those amazing close shots. If that all doesn't work out, there is always gun season to reach out and touch someone and get revenge for the ones that simply would not come into range...lol. Why cheat yourself out of those amazing close encounters by shooting a deer that is 30 or 40 or 50 yards away? 20 yards is really good, and 5 yards is great! My favorite bowhunt was the one where a doe came straight to the huge tree I was using as a blind, and I had to actually move around the tree as she went around the other side of the tree before I could actually take the shot. That's the hunt that had the adrenaline really pumping. That was the greatest hunt of my lifetime!

Ha-ha-ha ..... is that the way you would conduct a scientific poll? ...... Using social media? Look, I know that you feel a need to bad-mouth bow hunting in your anti-bowhunting campaign, but at least try to do it in an actually credible fashion. To be honest, I have found a lot more dead deer that came from gun season. Why? ..... probably because there are more gun hunters out there. Nothing scientific or credible about that statement, but simply a first hand observation.

I have found this to be true to some extent. I do limit my practice sessions....not to only one arrow, but I am very careful not to get into a duration where I begin to feel fatigued. I have had situations where getting into marathon type of practice sessions only result in training in improper shooting form and other shooting problems like target panic, flinching, etc.

I believe there are some deer that choose their bedding areas carefully and have learned the security that darkness affords them. They understand that we are out there to get them, and they are not going to make it easy for us. However, the forces of rut may just make him do something stupid that he might otherwise never even think of doing.

As once spoken by a wise man, "A man's got to know his limitations." Look we have not evolved all this way and created all this technology just to not take advantage of it when it makes sense and can maybe extend our enjoyment of the outdoors in a safe and sane way. Yes, I do some rather over-strenuous exercise, and maybe a bit too frequently. And yes I do climb that killer-hill behind the house, maybe a bit too frequently, But I also have an ATV that does the bulk of the climbing these days. That modern-day convenience may just make me last a lot longer than our unfortunate neighbor who dropped dead 3/4 of the way up the hill. It makes sense to me.

Yup, I remember when I used to do that with a $60 Ben Pearson recurve and a few bucks worth of Port Orford cedar arrows. And what was it when I bought my first compound (Bear Whitetail Hunter with the indestructible crow-bar epoxy limbs and 6 wheels)? I think that was somewhere around $80, and that was the bow that I killed the most deer with. By the way, I sold that bow for $100 about a decade after I bought it. Try doing that .... selling any bow for more than you paid for it ....Ha-ha-ha. Ah yes, but then I couldn't watch the pretty lights of the nocks go flying over the back of the deer now could I?.....lol.

With a gun, anything around 200 yards is safe from me. Around here I can't even see past 150 yards and most of the time, 100 yards is looking through a screen of trees, brush and saplings. My longest target range here at home to practice at is only 100 yards. I looked at setting up another bench at 200 and discovered that I would have to do a major tree removal project just to poke a bullet through the additional 100 yards. Why should I sight in a rifle for a distance that I will never shoot?

Well, he didn't get that big by making a daylight target of himself.....lol.

Oops!.... I just noticed the title said "tree stand", and I came down out of the trees decades ago ..... lol. My stands consist of solid walls of natural local materials on the ground, and that is where I do my bow drawing. I could be break dancing back there and the deer would not see it. Then I just let the deer walk by and if all goes right, I get a nice 20 yard or less, slight quartering away shot. That's if everything goes alright and the deer are on the trail. However what I have found is that unless they are on the trail of a hot doe, most of the bucks that I have seen are traveling at right angles to the majority of trails. Probably just scent-checking as many different trails as possible. But I have been caught more than once with bucks walking in behind me or out in front coming straight at me, offering nothing but face-shots, on no trail at all. What a helpless feeling that is. My stands will never work when that happens.....lol. But that's all part of hunting for me .... you win some and lose most.

On all my 100+ yard archery shots, I always hang several wind socks down the shooting lane. And I only shoot at the old sway-backed bucks that can't hear or see and have no likelihood of moving away from the arrow. The good thing about these shots is that you always get a second, third or even fourth shot at those old deaf, blind, toothless, bow legged, arthritic ones.

I think it's more a case of having some friendly discussions with them and explaining the situation and obtaining permission to shoot within the 500' rule, and don't worry about the technicalities of the law. In the interest of good neighbor relations, it sounds more like a case of mutual accommodation and agreement rather than looking for legal loop holes. Unless they are already known to be poop-headed A-holes, in which case, you may have to rely on the technicalities of the law.

Well, I think this summer has been on the colder side of typical. And at times it has had some very large amounts of precipitation. If those patterns continue into the winter months, it could get ugly. But I am not worried. I just bought a winch for the ATV for lifting and lowering the snow-plow. I used to do that manually...... Not fun! When that sucker got loaded up with wet gloppy snow, I had to really grunt and get all my body weight into it to lift it up. But now I'm ready. By the way, I have noted over the years that deer will go right past their chosen foods just to munch the hell out of expensive landscape plantings and anything in the garden.

Well, in all fairness, owning your own land does not guarantee that you won't have neighbor-problems. And some of the situations that I have heard and read about would make this situation seem pretty tame by comparison. But there are a lot of situations of begging and groveling that owning your own land does do away with.

They work well and are an ingenious bit of engineering. Cheap (sheet metal) and effective. Of course today they have been replaced with all kinds of expensive machined parts that do exactly the same thing.

Back in my younger years (1986-ish), a group of 4 of us co-workers planned a moose hunt up in an Ontario, Canada township of Shining Tree. Actually it turned out to be two archery moose hunts. The first one was an ATV hunt where we reached our calling areas via ATV or took canoes out on the lakes and rivers and made some cow calls. The first hunt provided some close situations but no connect. The second hunt was different. We left Three Bears Camp and drove miles on back roads, parked the trucks, unloaded a boat and motor into a lake and used that boat to tow two canoes. We went to the end of that lake and then had 150 yard portage into a second lake and off into the end of that one. We were in deep! We set up camp (tents) there. It was weird to be out of sight and sound of anything resembling human activity. No lights, no sounds other than moose splashing around across the lake. We started paddling around a swamp nearby and found some tracks and scat, and even a few pretty well established moose trails. Laid out our plan of attack and then went back to camp. We caught a mess of pike for dinner and relaxed around camp ready to hunt the next morning. By 9:00 AM or so, we were quartering up a bull and heading back to camp. We had to hire an outfitter just to satisfy the Canadian law and to guarantee tags, but we were completely on our own as far as the camping and hunting went. The expenses were split 4 ways, and the cost was absolutely dirt cheap. We used dried food, and supplemented meals with some great pike that we caught. Some of that freeze-dried food that they sell is some great stuff. We ate like kings. Would I do anything different after those two experiences? ....... I wouldn't change the 2nd hunt one bit. It was perfect! That wilderness experience was something that I will never forget. It was absolutely the best hunt I have ever been on.

I begin preparing the shot (drawing and aiming as soon as I feel that the deer's vision is adequately blocked and when the shot is immanent. The set-up usually is for a 20 yard or less shot. There is always something out in the shooting lane and along the trail that I have measured to be 20 yards. When the deer reaches that point and is broadside, I am in the zone, and ready to release the arrow.

And then there was Stacey Groscup that would shoot hand-thrown aspirins and life savers out of the air with recurve, longbow and compound. I watched him do it! Huge range of skills out there.

Wouldn't it be fun to add up the costs of all of our equipment and gadgets and go-fasters, bows, arrows, releases, maintenance tools, licenses, this, that, and the other things, and now lighted nocks. Throw in an armful of guns and ammo and maybe some reloading equipment and a little gas for transportation, Yipes! Did I leave anything out? ..... Probably. Now distribute those costs across each pound of venison. Yup....It's a disease. Lighted nocks? ..... Why not? ....lol.

When faced with these kinds of issues, I really like a written interpretation from those that might be knocking on your door if your interpretation does not agree with theirs. Also, be sure that the local and state agencies don't have their own separate laws regulating their interpretations of such things. Try to get an e-mail response that addresses your specific situation to file away in case you get challenged.

Water in Bristol can be a problem depending on the location in the township. There is a lot of black sulfur in the ground, and drilling an expensive well can still offer up only nearly unusable stinky water. Down in the valley, we have sulfur and quick-sand and heavy mineral content (iron).....all problems. Also, there are a few places in town that don't seem to have a whole lot of water of any sort. A couple of years ago Bristol Center had to pipe in public water that came many miles over the hill from Canandaigua Lake. They just could not get any reliable useful wells down there. Take a tour around the neighborhood and talk to as many neighbors as possible to see what their experiences are. Also contact a local well driller (I don't have any names. My guy croaked many years ago) and get some guidance from them. Chances are they have put some wells into the area, and they know what the local aquifer is like. They also may have some alternative suggestions. Probably there will be no cheap options.

I usually go too far away. I'm hunting a mile up on top the hill, and have to listen to my wife describe all the deer that walked across the front lawn down at the house.

So, what are your thoughts on the ethanol treatment additives? Not adequate? I regularly use the marine grade stuff in every 5 gallon gas can.