nyslowhand

Per Wikipedia: " Despite its popular support, the CCC was never a permanent agency. It depended on emergency and temporary Congressional legislation and funding to operate. By 1942, with World War II and the draft in operation, the need for work relief declined, and Congress voted to close the program "

I get these close-ups too, but mine are mainly at night. At that time I'm assuming the red light that comes on when cam is activated is what gets the deer's interest. Or maybe the LED flash...? Some deer are very curious, while others are spooked. In my experience, it's the does &/or younger deer that seem to be more curious. Hello.AVI

Super cool knife, fer sure! Like the Damascus blade, but also like the added touch of the file work on the back of the blade within the handle area! Don't you have to maintain the blade to prevent corrosion? Kind of makes this a show piece rather than a functional knife...JMO!??! Very nice all the same!!! Almost TOO nice to get bloody. LOL

The crossbow legislation that was tacked on to the new budget got removed. Now you're in this dreaded cycle of trying to get these companion bills out of the black hole Environmental sub-committees, again! If history repeats itself for the 3X time, these bills will sit in the sub-committees until the last couple weeks of current leg session (1st 1/2 of June). When they will be ignored and never see the light of day! As bizarre as it is, it will take a huge letter, email or phone call campaign by the majority that are in favor of these bills to overcome the minority "squeaky wheel" lobbyist! Government workings at its' best (sarcasm!). Looks like another banner year for our elected officials regarding unproductivity, in-fighting and their childish pouting over their vetoed pay raises. Confused as to why the implementation of Xbows isn't handled like the county referendums were for rifle inclusion in the regular season on a county level...? Anyways... Here we go again. Need to start contacting your legislator, IMO esp the sponsor & co-sponsors of each bill with your yea or nay input. Which hopefully appear in the linked text I quoted above.

Irks me too, but that situation has been around for decades. Probably as far back as the party permit era. No way around it w/o annual competency certification of weapons per license purchased, stricter penalties for violations &/or more DEC/ECOs. Which none of that will happen! Which means the "no" items aren't dead, just taken out of the budget bundle and must be passed via the legislature as separate bills!!!!

Doesn't the outfitter set out bait with stands over/near it? Assuming the rifle stands are for the possibility of the max 100yrd shots...!?! So ... guessing majority of shots will be in the 10-40yrd range?? JMO - Dust off the 12ga, invest in a better scope if needed and research the very latest in 12ga sabot technology. Always have the 308 as a back-up option and as others have mentioned - more than enough of a "bear gun" to get the job done! Save your $$ on another gun cabinet dust collector that might only be used once or infrequently at the range. With the $$ saved buy something nice for the significant other, the ROI or "happiness factor" is much greater!! LOL

Couple other situations come to mind after re-reading other responses. IF you can log a wetland area, DON"T. The heavy logging equipment will create deep ruts rendering paths almost useless for anything other than foot traffic. IF.. you require the logger to go back with a dozer and fill-in the ruts, the financial gain from logging becomes less to the landowner. The changing of the terrain or plant life from this bulldozer work may also create issues with the town &/or DEC. Optimistically - Deer don't care if an area is a wetland!! If you get an unusually wet April -> October season, they may simply skirt around deep pools of standing water. In my former ~40ac of wetlands, the deer have historic bedding & food sources and the travel routes between are only marginally impacted by unusual seasonal wet areas. Pessimistically - wetlands = mosquitoes galore!!

All the above plus a little FYI. A misconception a lot of people have is that a "wetland" is a swamp or boggy area. Wetlands are typically low lying areas with poor drainage and at times clay soil compounding the drainage issue. They are not necessarily wet areas year round, of course depending on seasonal snow or rainfall. At least in my county/town, DEC designated wetlands are assessed at a lower tax rate. Which is great for rec/hunting lands, but could be an issue if you ever wanted to build a home in the future on the property. Believe each town handles the provisions of building on or improvements made to wetlands a little differently. In my instance & town I owned wetland property within, had to prove my pre-fad 12'x24' shed that was placed on a gravel pad was outside the 500' building restriction. Also for my specific land/town, IF ... building a home near a wetland w/o public sewer at the roadside, a waste system could get more $$ than a basic septic tank & leach field. You can get wetland maps that are overlaid onto property tax maps from the DEC. That is, IF.. the property was previously surveyed visually for wetland designation and typically "wetland" surveyor tape posted. In my instance, there was no specific reference as to location of any flora/fauna that designated the land as wetland. Simply an outline of the area designated and crudely overlaid onto a county tax map..

Those of you that are junkies of the mountain man era movies, there's a couple of forgotten greats as good or better than Jeremiah Johnson.... Mountain Men with Mr NRA, Charlton Heston and A Man Named Horse with Richard Harris, also a couple of "Horse" sequels. Also with Harris is Man in the Wilderness, which many think the updated version (The Revenant) of Hugh Glass' adventures are loosely based on. The Godfather (& GF 2) were a couple of my all time favorite movies and of course the book too! Over exposure on cable TV has sort of run them into the ground somewhat! Don't think there's a month that the GF series isn't played on some channel. Of the same genre, Goodfellas is also a good movie. Being a "Baby Boomer", the Viet Nam war movies are deal to my heart. Platoon is great, but so are either of the Apocalypse Now movies depending on which version you prefer. Lot of pretty good Eastwood movies also! From the spaghetti westerns to Josey Wales to the Dirty Harry series to a few of his movies from the last 15yrs or so. Okay, so I've been a fan since his Rowdy Yates era on Wagon Train. The dude has been prolific! Lot of great comedy movies over the years, just not worthy of any Top Movie List. A few that come to mind are many Bill Murray or some John Belushi movies and naturally Weekend at Bernie's. NO Sandler movies will ever make my Top List, very few are even worth sitting thru a 2nd viewing!!! The real classics movies thare from the 1940's to early 60s. JMO, might be my shortened attention span over the years, just can't sit thru a B&W, character study type of movie with no attention grabbing action.

Try this link: FYI - 1st 7min is about diaphragm use. http://www.growingdeer.tv/archive/category/hunting-and-tactics#/how-to-use-a-diaphragm-mouth-call-clover-food-plots-and-more The main thing they forgot to mention is trimming, bending, fitting the OTC call to the contour of your mouth before you can effectively use one like they are instructing.

Not related, but just got a new 4k upscaling 55" TV and blu-ray player, both with USB ports. Can't wait to see how the 1st trail cam videos play on new s/u! Anyone had experience with this? Do you lose resolution? Sorry, got off track!

Quite the bait pile to boot.....

Dude, VERY cool!!!

Isn't April 1st the deadline for submission of the new NYS budget? IRC, a lot of these so called "pork belly" add-on bills get stripped from the budget in the late hours of the budget talks. Hopefully will might know something by 1st week of April!!! JMO - IF the Xbow bill does get stripped from the budget submission, it will have a hard time getting any interest among legislators as a stand alone bill as recent history has shown. Anyways ... If you're for or against any full inclusion of Xbows, now is the time for your emails/phone calls to your legislator.

There is no "perfect" tree stand. They ALL have their benefits & drawbacks! Once you get to a point in your life where that feeling of youthful immortality fades, security (and comfort) takes over & becomes your primary concern(s). Anymore, for this old fart, only XL ladder stands with gun rails, higher arm rests, wider comfy seats, larger platforms, better construction and lots of extra HD ratchet straps. With my wussy side revealed ... I did spend years hauling around a climber. More power to those that still tote them around and have nerves of steel while going up/down a tree in the dark with a climber. Never considered a hang-on tree stand. Just something about being ~18' up a tree with a smallish platform/seat and lashed to a tree that brought out my inner wussy-ness! LOL. Can see their benefits, just not for me!!!

Trail cams are the proverbial double edged sword when used as a scouting tool. They can give you some "inventory" data (BBs in the vicinity &/or antlerless deer's home-base), their summer habits, a security tool and a great resource for entertainment (photos or vids). Mostly useful when used over time as historical habits or patterns. I did it only one year and will never again... hunted an entire bow season based on what BB habits I'd seen on cams during the summer all the way thru the end of Oct. Then ... POOF, disappeared! Back to the OP's question ... Nothing beats boots on the ground and time (years) in the woods, period!!! It's been a proven strategy for 1000s of years and something many need to get back to. JMO.

Nothing new with this issue, been around for about a decade. Rage user comments seem to be divided between Love' em or Hate 'em and not many uses in the Just okay middle ground. I've never considered using them due to all this controversy, (JMO) but if you have the slightest lack of confidence in what you send down range at a deer, use something else. Can't speak to the Rage usage with compound bows, have always used fixed BHs. Did try mechanical BHs when I got my Xbow, with a lot of apprehension!!! First thing I do when I get settled in my stand is to grasp the blades and make sure they are snugly nested. Like another member mentioned, one & done. Every expandable I've ever shot once, whether a hit or miss goes into the practice BH pile. Might seem like a waste of $$ to not simply replace the blades, but it's merely a confidence issue for me.

Don't you think social media only adds to the trophy hunting mentality, thus encouraging bragging rights??? JMO, but I feel "let 'em grow" is merely a side effect of this. Granted, I haven't gone back thru all 11 pages to catch up, but... Bet no one has brought up the fact that harvesting mature buck in the pre or early rut stages takes them out of the breeding pool! And just who do you think fills this void, younger bucks?? Don't get me wrong, I'll shoot a nice, mature buck in Oct just as fast as the next hunter! Merely food for thought, rather than fuel for the fire. My vote is for choice and NOT legislation! If you want legislation to dictate what your neighbors shoot, can't you see this is a rather selfish way of imposing your own (hunting) beliefs onto others??? JMO. Some how the DEC has gotten itself involved in hunter satisfaction, not sure why!!!

I quit wearing a wristwatch years ago when I started carrying a cell phone. Aren't they more of a fashion accessory anymore??? Careful DOC, the CIA might be hacking your wireless weather station!!

Look around the web to see if these specific VHS tapes might already be available on DVD format. Usually less expensive than having them transferred to DVD or buying a $$ converter for such a limited use. Old VHS players are a dime/dozen. I have one I'm going to throw away. Assuming it still works since I haven't used it in ~10yrs.

Too funny! I was thinking along the same typical "sports" rules, a halftime, 7th inning stretch, 2min warning and the one I like the best is an overtime period with 1st to score....! So Moog, per SportAccord I'm assuming sexual activity falls within their definition of a sport? Pretty sure Bill Clinton would disagree with your take about a stogey being a disqualifying factor. Oops, goes back to the topic about old farts saying inappropriate things! Sorry, couldn't control my thoughts.

Couple of small wrinkles to the above ideas. Don't you think what the DEC observes at these venison processors might be ~99% legit tags. So what are they really logging into their reports? Don't you think there are numerous Billy Bob shops that cut up deer in their garage as a part time job and really don't care if the deer is tagged, while flying under the DEC's radar? We all know the harvest reports are in the ~45% range versus what deer are actually harvested.What about the mistakenly harvested yearling bucks that the hunter doesn't want to waste his tag on & processes the venison at home. Then there's the yearling bucks, either button or less than 3" that get reported as antlerless, legally? Sure you might use an antlerless tag & check the buck "box", but how's that info used as reportable data? Granted the DEC has no way to accurately report actual (100%) buck harvests in an age structure method. Surely not criticizing anyone's opinion or claims, I just don't get a warm 'n' fuzzy feeling about what's been offered as actually being truly fact based or an accurate representation of what's really happening. My opinion, take it or leave it! What's the answer.... Surely not legislation prompted by unhappy. "squeaky wheel" hunters attempting to force their neighboring hunters to hunt as they do. Proposed by legislators that might not have the slightest clue. Then voted on by legislators who I'm certain don't have the slightest inkling about the proposed legislation's merits or ramifications. Literally a political Hot Potato!!!

Call it what you like and participate how you want!!! Been a lot of different threads on the forum about "Why you hunt" and a lot of diverse reasons. So I don't expect this time trying to put a label on it being any different. To me it doesn't involve a lot of athletic ability, other than trekking or dragging! I view hunting as more a game of strategy, like chess. Call hunting a sport, obviously there is a clear winner &/or loser as there is in any sort of competition. There are no silver or bronze medals nor does your winning/losing record have much influence on rematches. Putting 2 different opponents in the woods with completely different skill sets is hardly worthy of calling it a sporting event. Okay, obviously there is a form of entertainment involved in hunting, but nothing like other forms of sports mentioned. For me & why I hunt has little to do with a "sporting" activity. At least in my mind.

OMG fasteddie, thought at our age being a fashionista wasn't necessary. Kidding! Have worn glasses for almost 60yrs and I've tried them all. From my experience I've found the cheaper the frames are, the more likely you are to have issues with them. Not to say $300 frames from W&P/Reed are 3X better than the Walmart $100 ones. At least for me I'm more concerned with having a reputable optometrist examine my eyes and give me an accurate lens prescription than what the glasses (frames) look like. Over the years I've encountered issues with lens prescriptions done by the cheapo eyeglass houses (Sears, WalMart, Sterling, Pearl, etc). This is maybe the only expenditure I don't scrimp on!