Doc

You don't recognize an element of competition between you and the deer? Is it not true that just like any other sport, your skills improve with practice and time? Like any other sport, do you not see the elements of challenge. No, it is not necessary to label it as a sport, but we all refer to it as the sport of hunting and if the term fits why not use it? It has been referred to for centuries as sport, and I do see elements of competition, strategy, winning and losing, developed skill, and all the features that are associated with sports and sporting activities. I also see no reason to avoid calling it a sport unless there is something about the political correctness of the term that some may feel that the anti-hunting crowd might be offended by. I am not affected by that sort of thing, and will continue calling it a sport as it fits all the criteria of that definition.

Kind of a small sampling, but it is interesting how all of those that responded that hunting is not a sport were clearly anti-hunters. I'm not sure what can be made of that, but apparently once you get outside the hunting community, the definition of a sport takes on a different emotional level.

The only time I will ever mess with a fly rod is when I am on the edge of a pond that hasn't got a tree anywhere near it. The middle of a lake is a great place for me to be whipping one of those suckers around, and even then I run the risk of burying a fly in the back of my head or somebody else's head. I have been known to puddle around in the shallows with a small popper on a fly rod for sunnies and bluegills. That's fairly safe.

Serious? ...Well, I can tell you that there are a lot of people who take their bowling, baseball, soccer, pool, football, etc. very seriously ..... even those that merely spectate. Also, I know a lot of hunters that do not take their hunting seriously, and some even go out of their way to keep from becoming too serious and intense. Educational/spiritual??? .... Probably not for the majority of hunters or even a very significant minority.....lol. There may be moments of spiritual reflection as I sit there waiting for the game to begin. Highly social? Yes, it can be but doesn't have to be. But then all sports have some element of social activity. The Super Bowl parties come to mind and all that TV sports programming is probably about as social as you can get. Do I do it to perform my ecological civic duty? No not really. I don't go out there saying to myself that I am doing it to control the deer population? .... No, that may be a wonderful outcome and useful by-product, but the only time I think about the benefits of hunting on the environment is when I am trying to win an argument with an anti-hunter ....lol. Otherwise my mind is filled with strategy and timing to make my competition with the deer come out in my favor. I wonder how many people walk out the door on their way to their stand for the express purpose of "helping the native vegetation. Again that is a useful outcome, but not really a motivator for participation. In terms of hunting for sustenance, the only people that I know that have to do that are a few very, very, poor families that happily take donations and all the deer that they can legally take. For them there is not much sport to what they do. But I think that most of us have not been in that situation in a long time if ever. Somewhere back in our lineage, maybe ......way, way back. So lets face it, we are in competition with the master of the woods, the whitetailed deer. We are pitting our efforts and skills and competitive spirit against theirs (and its not all one-sided either). We have rules, and a huge playing field, and a great competition. That sounds like a sport to me. There are winners. There are losers. and there is strategy and planning. There is equipment needed to play. By golly, it is a sport by any definition of the word!

I don't see anything in sporting activities that keeps them from being entertaining or enjoyable. Those are simply potential additional features. As far as taking life, I don't see that as being in conflict with being a sport. It is an irrelevant factor. I believe this is where the PC objections come in. Many don't want to consider taking an animal's life to be done as a sporting activity. That is a philosophical argument that has to do with "feelings", not definitions.

OK, now that we have all whined about the rain, I noticed that it has turned to snow and the lawn is covered. It would be nice if we could have other choices for a while ..... lol.

Yes, the more sources of news that come along, the more sophisticated methods and opportunities of corrupting and destroying the integrity of journalism. It has become a great competition to create and manipulate news to suit the editorial opinions and political ideologies of each news organization. We are left to believe whatever is stuffed on us regardless of what type of media it is. Somewhere along the line journalist moved from reporting the news to creating the news. They picked up an air of elitism, over-rating their abilities to become a source of guidance for us poor dumb masses. The best example is the annual endorsements of candidates, as though they are uniquely qualified to tell us who to vote for ...... What arrogance!!! They make up the news and then try to dictate what we are to think about it. Journalism has lost its position of integrity, if indeed it ever did have such a thing. The media has honed propaganda to a fine art and more news is not necessarily higher quality. More sources of news regardless of where it comes from merely means that there are more sources and opportunities of truth corruption. That is not better. It just allows us to talk ourselves into believing it is better.

Well, here I am doing one of the things that rain doesn't effect. It's also a good time to clean up the basement, the barn, the shop or any of the other indoor tasks that you have been putting off.

Dictionary definition of "SPORT" 1 An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, I think hunting, fishing and trapping all fit that definition. Every year I learn more and more about the "physical exertion" part of hunting. Do we compete? There is no doubt that it involves competition between the hunting individual and the prey. It may also take on additional features and motives, but the combination of challenge, competition and skill all are large components of a sport. Yes there may be PC reasons for shying away from the word "sport", but unless you are hunting solely for necessary, life dependent sustenance, sport seems to cover it pretty well.

Something went terribly wrong in the design of that bird. The face looks like somebody swatted him in the face with a shovel. He's about as aero-dynamic looking as a bumble bee. But I guess he has learned to cope......lol.

I don't know how I feel about this, but as the hunter population continues to slide, we will be experiencing more and more situations where hunting cannot cope with the growing populations. And when that happens, we begin to see the ecological and wildlife hazards that some species can cause when they become more plentiful than we can control. We have not experienced the problem here in NYS ....... yet, but those who have in parts of the country where these things are flourishing, describe a huge problem with very no other solutions. I know poison can have plenty of unintended consequences, but some of the documentaries that I have seen show another kind of catastrophe that is just as ugly as the consequences of poison. Frankly, I don't know enough about the poison they are recommending to make any comments, but the selection of the right poison probably is where the choices have to be done correctly.

Critters! It's kind of fun to see just what is wandering around out there when it gets dark while you're inside on the couch watching TV. To me that is the best use of trail cams.

I probably just know how to do it, but the trail cams don't do a lot for my hunting. Maybe someday I will learn how to use them in a useful way to pay off while I am on stand, but right now, I get a bigger kick out of getting pictures of all the other kinds of critters than the thousands of deer pictures that I have gotten. And in terms of learning anything about the deer patterns and where that mythical monster buck can be found when I am hunting, I guess I'm too dense to be able to put it all together. Maybe it will all come to me some day, but probably not.

You have room for an 8-1/2" x 11", 4-spot, target on that butt. Save some money and go to individual spots.

It's hard to tell the size, but I'm thinking coyote. According to the picture above, there are no similarities to a dog.

Well look, there really is two parts to the safe shot rule: 1. Identify the target (not "pretty-much", but absolutely without question) 2. Be sure what or who is in the line of fire behind the target. (pretty much impossible at night or with a flashlight) How on earth can you satisfy both of those requirements in the dark, or in a flashlight beam? How can you know for sure what is just outside the beam, moving into the line of fire? This is one target ID problem that blaze orange has no hope of solving. The dangers of night hunting are obvious, and I think unavoidable. So what can be done about it?

So is mange something that the critters can get over, or is it always something that sooner or later will kill them?

Now wait a minute folks. Winter has not thrown in the towel yet. Some of the most devastating storms that we have gotten in the past have come in March. I can't remember the year, but I do remember one year where I had to hire a payloader to clear the driveway after one of those March storms. No pick-up truck with a plow could handle the 3+ feet of wet, sloppy-gloppy snow that came that year and my 1000' was not something where shoveling by hand was even considered.

This is looking like a repeat of last year. I kind of like this global warming stuff .......lol.

Been there.....Done that. Oh, not the motorcycle, but I have had some huge squatty old oaks that had weird shapes to them that just made great gun stands.

The facts are as they fantasize them to be. Their facts are fanciful creations that suit their versions of anarchy to justify and excuse whatever chaos and mayhem that they need to give themselves their version of purpose.

Don't forget about our boy Chuckie Schumer and his merry gang of obstructionist. Democrats who are doing everything in their power to keep Trump from assembling his cabinet and carrying out the needs of the country. These are people who put politics ahead of the welfare of the country. Yes, they are democrats. And that is why we care about the democrats. And we have the roving gangs of burning and looting rioters who perform their acts of lawlessness in the name of democrats. And then there is the major media with only one exception that is even willing to mention all those positive things about republicans that you want to hear about. It is not on the media agenda to let the American people see positive successful alternatives to their socialistic ideologies. Their party affiliations are aligned with the democrats such that they become the overwhelming mouthpiece of the democratic party. Actually the post makes the brilliant point that the ones the left likes to portray as the heartless haters are really the recipients of more hate from the left than the libs want to admit to. That was clearly demonstrated best by the guy who was beaten in the street for voting for Trump. I think the article posted by Rattler was one of the most on-target pieces of concealed truth that puts the whole subject of just who the haters are in this country in a nice concise little package. I know the libs really would just as soon that nobody would notice, and when somebody finally points it out, much effort is expended attempting to disregard it and to get others to send it back to the hidden shadows. But that doesn't make the dirty little truths contained in that article go away. So why do we care about the democrats? ....... Because they are the glue that holds all these haters together.

Can coyote survive in the wintertime with the loss of that much hair? I would think they would freeze to death.

I have huge brush piles every year that I burn during winter months. They really are not located in any area where a brush-pile fence would have any use. However, brush is a major building feature for my hunting blinds (gun and/or bow).

He has cleverly found a way to get his message out without filtering it through the commie media. If tweets are what it takes, then tweets it is! Televised press conferences are another of the very effective ways to get the real news out and Trump has shown that he is very adept at "forcing" his achievements out to the public. The guy was masterful in the way he man-handled the press. It is about time someone stood up to these socialists and showed the world that the mainstream media has been taken over by enemies of the country and our way of life.