Doc

Many years of hunting has taught me that right from the initial shot on opening day, the deer are well aware that the game is on. They go into full survival mode and use every trick available to them to elude the invading team. And, by golly, they are damned good at it too. That is indeed a competition.

You're right, and it is unfortunate indeed that these people have to create all kinds of intricate facades and are not able to be honest, naturally occurring human beings. But my impression of all of them is that they are as phony as a three dollar bill. Each one of them is some kind of manufactured cartoon version of themselves. And then they try to lecture us on events and conditions of the world. I sure don't need an annual TV show to expose myself to that kind of arrogance and phony posturing. What they get from most is not respect, but at best, simple tolerance.

No gas grills for me. I am switched over completely to charcoal and wood. If I want to cook with gas, we do it all the time with the gas stove in the kitchen. But if I want that outdoors flavor, I need the smoke and flavor that charcoal provides. And if I am really serious about top end flavor, I have facilities over in our picnic area for a good controlled wood fire. Now that is "outdoor grilling" with all the benefits and features that I am looking for when I want a grilled chunk of food.

First of all, we are not trying to put a label on hunting. The idea of calling it a sport has been around a lot longer than any of us. We are not coming up with something new. Further as far as showing the infinite ways that it really does involve competition and strategy and winners and losers, and all the other aspects of sports, there really can not be any argument that it fits any definition of a sport. The fact that it may have additional features, emotions, or whatever does not preclude it from being a sport. All sports have their unique qualities and variations and challenges and independent features and differences, and hunting is no different.

These recipes aren't like the ones that end up with, "Throw away the meat and eat the board" are they?

Yes, but for those that do make it, success is like some kind of lobotomy was performed on them. It takes only a short period of time before they begin to believe that they are somehow superior people who need to spread around their liberal, pinko, political crap so that they fit the expectations of their cohorts. That's fine except that they are in our face with that BS constantly and always seem to have the platform to spew their crap in a non-stop fashion. These award shows are just another platform for them to barf-up their left leaning garbage, making them look like the complete idiots that they are. Why would anyone want to waste precious time listening to that. And yet the shows draw enough ratings to continue being in our faces year after year. That is the truly scary part of it all.

This is one law that could be self-policing. All you have to do is make it so that any stand in the woods after a certain day is up for grabs by anyone who wants it...........End of problem.

See, that's the reason I never got all excited about goose hunting. I have yet to see any agreement on how great tasting they are. And then, some of the recipes that people concoct sound more like they are trying to cover up the taste with all the marinades and stuff that they cook the meat in. If I have to bury the flavor of the meat in all kinds of glop and goo, then I don't see the point to spending hours out in a freezing blind with snot dripping off my nose and my clothes slowly soaking through. Come-on, can't somebody rant and rave about the tremendous flavor of wild goose meat?

Lol ..... I didn't watch the festivities because they seldom get it right. As far as I am concerned, all they have to do is look at which movie had the highest ticket sales, and send them a trophy. You don't have to wreck a whole night's programming to do that.

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?