New York Hillbilly

Did it a few times then it dawned on me, "If God wanted me to fish in the winter he wouldn't have closed the lake!". Who am I to argue? I take my beagles and chase rabbits.

I would love to bring my beagles and come hunt rabbits. There was a fella who used to post pictures of his rabbit hunts, on one of the beagle sites, and they were very impressive! Nice pictures, thank you for sharing.

Hey Grizz I just wanted to make a point on what you said. I agree with your statement that "people that are gonig to make stupid mistakes in life can't be avoided... in anything", and those I say are called accidents. On the other hand, a person who deliberately aims a gun at something they think is, or might be, or probably is, or I thought it was, or oh please let be, a deer, and pulls the trigger is a dangerous idiot. I don't care how desperate, excited , if there was low light, no light, fog, snow, rain, or if the person shot at was in full camo, head to toe brown carharts or blaze orange, or whatever other excuse someone might come up with. A person who aims at anything and pulls the trigger, no matter what the target is, without "knowing" it "is" what it "is", and causes damage to another person or another's property, should go directly to jail and stay there. That is not an accident as far as I'm concerned. It is negligent, reckless, stupid, and a criminal act.

I have a buddy that claims he see's one every year by his camp by Black Lake. He says they only see it from June through August. Must be a "summer squatch"!

That fella in the Tacoma is pretty impressive to put three deer on the ground in one deer drive! All kidding aside, I hope he's OK that must have been scary.

Hey WNYBuckhunter............I was only half funning around in my post, but that discretion thing has really been tossed about here as it applies to application of game laws. And, "Just because something has wheels, doesnt make it illegal to hunt from.", you're right. Like you, I looked into that too and as a result did the very thing you are considering. LOL! It's a beautiful thing so far to scout from on crappy weather days, but as far as actually hunting, I prefer actually being in the woods with my back pressed to a tree. Oh......and back to the deer stand........it is motorized to climb up and down so here we go again! Can I get a ruling.......is this a motorized vehicle?

You won't believe it but with the tuft ears that's what I was thinking. I just surprised myself.....lol

I would have to pass. I have never been good at hitting a moving target, and I bet I'm a hell of a lot worse at shooting a target when I'M the one running!

Holy smoke................a gargoyle!

Billy Ray Buck!

When I used to hunt public land I used to get to my stand in absolute darkness out of fear of being shot at by some ya hoo if I was walking in low light conditions. Even in the dark I would carry my flashlight, and so help me it's the truth, would be singing loud enough to hear, "do dee do dee do...don't shoot me I'm a man.....do dee do dee do....I'm not a deer....don't shoot me". LOL....how sad! Now days I get on stand about 15 to 30 minutes before light. It's tougher for me to drag myself out of bed in the morning and I can't see any reason to stand in the dark doing nothing but get cold and listening to deer walk by that you can neither see nor shoot. And I have always HATED getting busted by a deer i the dark and having it startle me with an incredibly loud snort. About have a heart attack every time.

Hey Makwa don't let it get to you. Like several others here, I could care less if they make it mandatory or not. It's not that I "don't care" about anything, because I do, but I have to pick my battles or crack up entirely. LOL! And, if someone shoots me on my own land when I'm wearing blaze orange and still says they thought it was a deer, it should be prison forever for that person. That is nothing more than out and out murder, not an accident. Law or no law you can't cure stupid, and even if it were made mandatory you might be right and people will still get shot. But, you have to keep something in mind. Comparing things where you live and hunt, Manitoba, to here in New York, is apples to oranges so to speak. I know because I was born and raised, and hunt here. I also have had the opportunity to hunt in Quebec, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, Canada. In Manitoba there is about what, a million people? Multiply that number by 19 to get the population of NY. And just by the numbers for every potentially unsafe moron in Manitoba we likely have 19 of our own. LOL! Scary thought! Additionally, the lay of the land is a lot different here. Whereas we talk about acres, and woodlots, you people (at least when I was there) refer to the "bush" and chunks of land measured in "sections". Hunting land here might be a few acres or less in the middle of a subdivision, a farm, orchard, or maybe state owned public forest which can be substantial in size as in the case of the Catskill's or Adirondack's, but access can be difficult. When I hunted in Canada I don't recall ever hearing another shot, not even in the distance. Prior to owning my own land I had several experiences of hunting on "opening day" when I was absolutely mortified when the shooting started. I honestly used to position myself against the widest tree I could find so I wouldn't get shot in the back of the head, and where I could see anything approaching me from the front. This is not an exaggeration! And sadly, in my lifetime, twice I have heard the fire rescue alarm go off on opening morning and felt sick to my stomach wondering and then finding out on each occasion that a hunter had been killed. Thankfully, things are a lot safer hunting on my own land, but it is still a different experience than you are probably used to. If you have never been here, and get itch in your ear to try it, just let me know and we can see what we can do for next season. Oh.......and how did a rebel like you manage to not get kicked out of Canada? You sound more suited for someplace like Montana with all that anti government, anti liberal stuff. LOL! Well at least if you pinch your finger in one of your traps you can get it fixed thanks to the socialized healthcare, without going broke. Hey, it just dawned on me. You have socialized medicine, mandatory blaze orange...........good lord we're becoming Canada! Peace

Bubba ain't kidding about that TV being too fancy for his neck of the woods. I have family up his way and when I went to visit they were still using needle nose pliers to turn channels because the knob was missing. And if that wasn't bad enough they were fighting nonstop who's turn it was to adjust the rabbit ears to get better reception. The toughest part of that deal was getting the damned rabbit to stay sitting on top of the television.

Hey Elmer I think there is a way..........."outlaw stupid people". Nothing ever "looks like a deer" and gets shot at in my book. Accidents can and may still happen, but anyone that ever claims they "thought it was a deer" and shot should do "mandatory jail time" as far as I'm concerned. No exceptions!

Gizmo285, Filling my eyes with such wonderful sights, you sir are a true artist! My mouth is actually watering as I stare at that incredible pile of smoked sausage. Hats off to you!!!!!!!

Thanks for the kind words folks. I'm glad I was able to share it with you.

I vote grenade...I hate coyotes. Good luck to all of you who kill them, you are all unsung heros in my book.

I have taken several bears, years ago in Canada, by gun and bow. My family enjoyed eating each one of the bears. Like any other animal, you need to pay attention to how you handle it after the kill, and in preparing it for cooking. We liked the meat cubed and on skewers after soaking in "speedies" over night and cooked on the grill. The kids went wild over it! To the wide eyed amazement of my neighbors at the time so did their kids. LOL! I would say however, the bears we shot were in way back "in the bush" as they refer to it in Canada. I might not be as quick to jump on the chow wagon to eat a bear that has spent it's life time raiding dumpsters and the town dump as some unfortunately do these days. A fella I used to work with years ago talked about the wonderful time he and his wife and grandkids had "over the weekend" once. I will try to say this as close to how he said it to me, "watching the momma bears, daddy bears and their little baby bears playing and eating at the dump, it was beautiful..........nature at it's finest!". Honest to goodness I almost choked! Something in my minds eye says watching a bear walk around with an old dirty diaper around in it's mouth, or some other nasty garbage, is certainly not nature at it's finest! Oh well, to each his own. Bon appetite.....lol!

I was complaining and protesting loudly about this very subject, twenty years ago. For several years I was a representative from our Rod and Gun club, and then an officer to our county level sportsmen's organization. My major complaint at the time was the fragmentation of the farms that was occurring as several land buyers were swooping in and purchasing as many of the large farm parcels they could from the aging owners who fell behind in their taxes, as cheaply as possible, far below the lands actual value, and at times only for owed back taxes. The practice at the time seemed to be, buy big parcels cheap, clean them of any and all marketable timber if the farmer had not already been forced to do so to pay taxes, chunk the land up in parcels, and then sell them to others as a place to build and live, or to have as hunting land. I expressed the very concerns mentioned in the article about the difficulty to manage deer and other wildlife populations, the potential restrictions that could be imposed on hunting, the likely hard feelings between neighbors, and a list of other reasons to watch the trend of chunking up and selling off farmland. Very few seemed to share my concern then, and to be honest I finally just tired of "wizzing in the wind", and with all that goes on in ones life, I tired of grumbling and instead devoted my time and efforts to things like my job and raising my family. Funny how things go full circle though and this is an important consideration and the right time. As this very moment our town is working on their new comprehensive plan and I will bring this up at tonights meeting. Thank you for bringing this up at this time and making it fresh in my mind.

Dinsdale, Glad you liked it and feel free to use it when and where necessary for educational purposes. lol! Peace

I had posted in response to an earlier thread, I planned to hunt with my grandfather's Savage Model 99. The original plan was that I would take a deer with my grandfather's rifle and then clean it and put it away. I wanted to take a deer with his rifle as a tribute, and out of my love and respect for the man who looked out for me, and my brother and sister's. Because we grew up without a father things were hard growing up. If it were not for the milk, bread and peanut butter runs to our house that my grandparents frequently made, there would have been nothing in the house at all to eat at times. There would have been no birthday cakes, no Christmas presents, and nobody to look up to, or to respect and fear just enough, to keep us in line, and to learn the value of working hard and trying to do “the right thing”. Well my plan changed somehow and as a result, me and this rifle have spent many hours in the woods together this season, and I have enjoyed every minute. Because I have not hunted with open sights for many, many years, I limited myself to only shooting 40 yards and under. Prior to opening day I put a group of three shots all in the heart of my paper deer target at 40 yards and was confident at that distance. Since opening day I have passed on no fewer than a dozen little bucks and countless does all well within my self imposed limitation. Each time a deer has presented an opportunity I have just sat and watched as they came and went. For what ever reason I just did not feel pressured to kill a deer, yet. I had even thought maybe at 53, I had just finally lost my edge. Then, this morning after watching between 15 and 20 does walk up the hill about 60 yards away I had a thought. Maybe the reason I hadn’t shot a deer thus far was because I didn’t want to put my grandfather’s gun away. I was enjoying sitting in the woods with his rifle. It was like he was there with me, and it was a good feeling. I remember he spent so much time working at his business and taking care of family he never had time to go hunting himself. In fact I could not recall ever in my lifetime him going hunting at all. All he did was work until he sold his business and retired, and by then he was to old and tired, even though I frequently asked him to go with me. I do remember however, him sitting and cleaning his rifle from time to time, and then putting it away in his room. He seemed really proud of his rifle and kept it nice. Maybe while sitting cleaning it, he thought back to his days hunting in the Adirondack’s, with his hunting buddies, in their old canvas wall tent, with the smell of a smoke fire and a deer or two hanging from the meat pole. I’ll never know because he never said and I never asked. I wish I had though. But, he was at least on the outside a gruff man, not the type to express his inner feelings or likely to admit he even had any. The feelings were obviously there however. I learned that he as a boy and young man, he had loved the outdoors and hunting in particular. In fact somewhere in the family there are even some stories written by him as a child about “how to trap a rabbit”, and “how to start a camp fire”. It amazes me, so much of who I am is who he was. And while he didn’t speak much, it was his actions that said the most about the things he felt inside, like quietly cleaning his gun, or driving my grandmother to our apartment to deliver something for us to keep us going. Again, quietly, without celebration, or any expectation of anything in return. With my vacation winding down, the need to return to work, and my epiphany this morning, I decided that today, “we”, will kill a deer. I positioned myself on side of my hill, in a head high golden rod/over grown brushy field. It is a field that separates their bedding area from a woodlot that then leads to the cut over corn fields where they feed at night. There is a five foot wide mowed swath that cuts through the middle of the fields from behind my house all the way to the top of the hill. With a small fold up stool shoved into a small thorn apple tree that has taken up residence in the field, next to the mowed trail, I sat in ambush. I was sucking on a Worther’s candy, trying to stay awake, and listening for a deer to come through the golden rod. A gray fox scampered across the trail about thirty yards from me and made me realize that any shot I would have was likely to be quick. A five foot window was not that much, a bit like jump shooting rabbits. I repositioned my self slightly, because I knew with very little doubt which way the deer would be traveling, based on my years of hunting this same hill. With the Savage rifle at the ready, my heart began to quicken it’s pace as I heard a buck grunting, and crashing coming towards me. I had the very real fear a deer might run headlong into me because they were coming so fast and I was so well hidden. As the crashing and grunting got closer a doe jumped into the air only feet from me and cleared the trail entirely. More grunting and crashing and then a great big doe leaps out onto the trail and readies herself to leap again. Before she can jump I was already on her, and with the bark of my grandfather’s rifle she is laying dead in the middle of the trail. I was totally impressed with effectiveness of the rifle, and a wave of emotion swept over me. I stepped off 18 yards to where she was laying in the trail. I then took a long quiet moment to reflect, give thanks and pay my respects. Once back at the house, I called my uncle who had given my grandfather’s rifle. I told him about how the deer hunt went and he said “I’m happy you killed a deer with grampa’s rifle”. I asked when he thought the last deer was killed with it prior to today and he said, “Back in the 1940’s” Well, it’s been a lot of years, but me, my grandfather, and his rifle got one today. Now I’m going to clean the rifle and put it away for the season.

Normally I try to avoid stuff like this but this time I just can't. Instead of complaining your husband "only got ONE deer this year", maybe you should congratulate him on the accomplishment. Do you have any idea how many people hunt every year and never shoot a deer, not even "ONE"? Believe it or not some people actually choose to not pull the trigger and still enjoy their time afield. Something is missing in the world today. Everybody is worried that someone getting a bigger piece of pie than them, or in this case more deer. Buying a hunting license is to provide an opportunity to legally hunt for a deer, to enjoy time in the woods for that purpose, getting away from it all, a chance to think free of all the distractions, and lots of other things that are very personal to each hunter, it's not a guarantee that you will get a deer. A deer tag is not a coupon redeemable at your nearest woodlot that entitles you to a deer. Like so may other things these days, hunting seems to have lost it's meaning. It is a symptom of the age in which we live. Rather than measure ourselves constantly with someone else's yard stick and be envious, can't we take stock of what we do have and be thankful. We need to remember maybe someone out there does have more than we do, but there are also those who have much less. Ok, time for me to move on. Oh..tell your husband I said congratulations on his his getting a deer. And there is still time to fill that buck tag, and lots of bucks still out there. Best of luck! Peace

This morning I saw 15 to 20 does, in several groups, all heading for the same bedding area. When I came out for the morning and saw this post I had to smile, because it seems it was the same all over.

Welcome to the site Patrick and to the brother/sisterhood of hunters. Good luck to you!

Fisher? I have one living on my hill and has been here for the past couple of years. I didn't now what he was when I saw him the first time. I looked him up on line and discovered he was a fisher. Looks like a great big mink. He seem to just float over the ground, logs, and in and out of blowdowns, keeping pretty busy. I saw him for the first time this season the others day and was glad he was still around. Interesting thing by the way is that on my way of the hill last week, I had to stop dead in my tracks when I heard a noise that sounded like the grunts of a wild boar. It was the same sound you hear on that "hogger show" and it freaked me out a little. I never saw what made the noise but then while reading these posts on this site I saw one where it said a fisher makes a grunting noise. Makes sense to me when I add up the pieces. Anyway, yup, at least one fisher running around. I can't help in the mountain lion or moose department though.