New York Hillbilly

Congrats Zeek and Cynthia! I've had limited days bouncing between here and my daughters in Rochester. Everyday home though has been in the woods morning and afternoon watch, with about a 1 1/2 hour break mid day to take care of business. I've passed several doe and was busted by a nice buck. With time running out, this mornings wind, snow, and cold convinced me to take any legal buck offered. As so many say here, he is by no means one of my big deer, but he is just as special to me given my efforts, time constraints, and the excitement of the new grand baby on the way next week.

In the pine tree for comfort more than anything. Pretty close range and lots of cover with few open spots. A little windy and here comes the snow. Bring it on!!! Good luck y'all!

Gave it a couple days rest and spent the time with my daughter and her husband. They are about to gift us our first grandbaby, and we wanted to help and visit them a bit. I hung their Christmas lights while there. Now I'm back in the gravel pit stand hoping to put some meat in the freezer. Good luck all who are still out there!

Congrats on the buck, TF. Nicely done!

Hey Doc, you clearly get fired up over this subject. Given your statement that; "I have no blame to assign to the dogs themselves because they are just doing what they instinctually do. It is a shame that the animals have to pay for the lack of responsibility of their owners.", demonstrates your real anger is directed at the owners, and in effect the dogs are going to take one for the team to make the point. Further evidence of your displaced anger; "These "house pets" had little trouble reverting back to their historical predator instincts. We were damned irritated that some thoughtless, irresponsible, S.O.B. put us in that position." I'm not sure why you seem to take issue with my use of the term "house pet", which accurately describes my experience with deer running dogs. However, that is typically what I have encountered. As one example; my farmer neighbor as much as told me I was nuts that his dogs would run deer, because they were always laying there on is lawn when he came home. You should have seen the look on his face when I showed the trail camera pictures of the deer going by, and then his two fat, black labs in pursuit. I'm sorry you and Grow, had such troubles, and I fully get the anger, angst, and feeling the need to protect your property. However, when it gets to the point of laying awake for a week in a haymow with rifles, peering out waiting to ambush dogs, it appears to me, you're health and well being may be paying as great a cost as your livestock. With todays technology, and cameras everywhere you turn, perhaps a better alternative is to catch the dogs in action as I was able to do, and turn it over to the authorities. My guess is shooting the dogs lets the so called owners off easy and solves their problem, not necessarily the person being harassed, as they may open themselves to potential civil and legal action. In any event, I'm glad your issue has been resolved. Not to make light of the subject, but I can honestly say you are the first person I have ever known that has "lost sleep by counting sheep". Peace!

After reading through this thread a few thoughts. As a life long dog owner, I have had german shepherd, lab, shitzu, dachshunds, mixed breeds, and currently a Westie, and a boxer (maybe pit) mixed 9 month old pup. Mostly though, I raised, trained, hunted, and successfully field trailed beagles. While there is much to be said for the role breeding practices, breed personality, and instinct has in dog behavior, far more has to do with the time spent socializing, training, and being a responsible dog owner. Dogs that are provided human socialization, interaction, and training learn their place in the human pack and what is expected, acceptable, and what is not. "Bad dogs" are in my experience a reflection of either ineffective, I can't be bothered and wish it stayed a cute puppy but it grew up, reckless, lazy, or in some cases, pathological and maybe even criminal owners. Some feral dogs have feral humans as role models! I don't blame dogs, I blame the people who fail them. My grandfather used to say "the first rule of training a dog, you need to be smarter than the dog". That said, a few other things. No dog life is equal to a human life in my opinion, but that does not give free license for anyone to shoot a persons pet unless their personal safety and/or property is at risk. That does not include shooting someone's dog because it is annoying you. Dogs running deer in my experience is either the result of bored, unsupervised, family pets who have found a fun way to burn off energy, most of the time with at least one dog buddy. The ones I have seen are usually full bellied, sleep at the owners feet at night when they get home house pets, who's owners will flatly deny it's possible that "our dog would do such a thing", any more that there kid would cause the fights on the school bus. In fairness, in my neck of the woods it was the "locals" or lifelong country folk who took exception of leasing or confining their dogs, not the "City" folk. But, that is just my experience, and coming from an almost lifelong country boy. The other deer running has been the undesired behavior of hunting dogs, including more than one of my beagles. The drive to hunt by scent, and to give chase, is so bred into hounds that they simply will run at times until they collapse from exhaustion. Literally! It's a whole other story on hounds and hunting to get into, but suffice it to say, when even the best trained beagle is locked on a rabbit, or heaven help us a deer, they do not hear you and the only way to get them off is to intercept them. My beagles would no sooner attack a deer than attack me, but they sure could cause a nuisance, or maybe even get hit by a car or cause a wreck if chasing a deer across the road, and sadly they don't look both ways, nor do they read posted signs. Most beagles with time and effort can be broken from running deer, but some cannot, seeming to like the more powerful smell of deer over rabbit. However, even the best of them still can backslide into the behavior, and it's unthinkable that anyone would shoot someone else's dog in the field if they saw it happening. Lastly, deer season coincides with small game season, and small game hunters have every bit the right to be in the field as a deer hunter. I do both, but will admit that I would never take my hounds (when I had them)out during deer season, for the very actions of the guy in the article and people who endorse such behavior. Nuff said! : )

Nice buck....congrats! Oh...and I might be inclined to bring that "boss", a tenderloin. : )

I'm ready for a little dumb luck so I can have a potluck! : )

Coming from this in a different angle. Sitting in the gravel pit. Hope it works. On my hill it seems every time they go low, I go high. Hey, where did I hear that before? Hahaha

Weird morning. Buddy that missed yesterday connected with a medium sized doe, and said a buck passed between our two stands. He did not take the shot at the buck for safety concerns. My other friend in one of my other stands saw 9 does, and 3 bucks. Two spikes and a 6 point. He shot and missed the 6 pointer. All I saw was one deer, I think a buck, on a dead run across the field without stopping. Re-learned: 1. Make your plan. 2. Stick to your plan. Had I gone to the stand I originally planned to I would have filled a tag. Most, if not all, of the deer today passed my originally chosen stand! I'll be back in the woods after charging my phone.

That's a "ruff" way to lose your job! : 0

I was too afraid to read it.. It's gonna be getting dark soon ! Hahaha

Thanks for the comforting information on rats, as I fumble for my nitro! Lol

Not to belabor the issue, but as I look and survey my current surroundings, and marvel at the carnage, I'm left wondering, "is there anything a rat won't chew?". Please say "humans"!

Changed it up again. Sitting in the what's left of the old trashed out camper shell, I have sitting at the field edge. Don't know if the deer will be moving, but the rats over my head sure are. I hope the deer drop by, and the rats don't drop in! If the later happens you might just see my tail bounding across the field!

Short version of a long story as my phone died when I wrote the first time from the stand. We started a little late this morning as he was later today than usual. On way in, my buddy never stats to his stand before he sees two bucks chasing a hot doe across the field. He said back and forth they went across the field. Finally all three pass in front of him and he pulls up...."click"...no round in chamber. Eight pointer walks off after the doe. He tells me he said a real bad word out loud, chambered a round and then fired at the spike. This shot I heard from my stand. This time he misses at "50 or 60 yards". The spike then runs off behind my house and likely across the road, none the worse for wear. In meantime my other buddy in one of my other stands shoots twice, and sends me a picture of a nice doe. These guys are having all this action, and for me it was just a nice sit in a tree tent. Back at it again this afternoon.

Up, dressed, a quick warm English muffin and bottle of water, then out the door. Just peeked out the door and snow is on the ground and coming down still. Hope to have a fruitful morning! Stay safe all fellow hunters, and kudos for your persistence.

Watched a small doe walk around by my stand and then eating apples for better than an hour. Was a much more comfortable sit, out of the wind. Going back to the same stand in the morning. I did leave the woods today to take my wife to lunch. It is our 38 year wedding anniversary. I was back on stand by 2PM. : ) Now, I sit in the car for a while as she shops in the first mall she has been in for the past year. There is nothing anywhere close to this on the Kenai Peninsula. We are a great match, me the hunter, and she the gatherer! hahaha I'll by her something pretty when she's not around to see. Hey look, it just happens I'm in front of Dick's Sporting Goods.

Congrats on your success!

Sitting in different stand this afternoon. Cozy in my tree tent although it is getting pretty tattered. Overlooking scrub apple orchard. Fingers crossed and warm!!!! Whoo hooo. Now we just need a deer to show up for the party .

Holy crap is this wind blowing! Trees just a creaking and I'm curled up in a blow down trying to stay out of it. I think the deer are doing the same. Nothing moving up here other than my shivering !

If that's a two man stand I'm on my way over!

Hey...if I squint hard enough I think that red squirrel has small spikes!

I didn't come all the way back from Alaska this late in the season to sit in the house. But, with the wind from last night still whipping and gusting still, maybe I should have stayed in bed. Lol. Other than does in the field on my way in, all is dead still here!

I'm not going to get on here and say how many deer I have killed and/or lost over the years. I will say however, the killed category has been many, and the lost few, but even those few lost were too many as far as I'm concerned. Every bit as troubling is the extreme numbers of deer I have found dead on my property, shot and unrecovered since 1991. At the end of the day, gun or bow, it comes down to shot placement. We can try and convince ourselves all day that deer will live when we blow it, or can't find them after shooting them, if it makes us feel better, but it doesn't change the reality. As I said before, bad things happen under the best circumstances, but I'm convinced that in most cases, and it applies to me too, when it has gone wrong, it is something the shooter did or did not do, not the deer. If we are to learn from our mistakes we need to own them, and not make excuses or seek comfort from others telling us we are OK, and the deer will be OK too!