Curmudgeon

Given the responses so far, I'm glad I voted against the constitutional convention.

There is a large group of neighbourhood hunters that do large drives - 20 or more people sometimes. We have managed to avoid convicts for the most part, except for some difficulty years back with them not understanding why they couldn't be hunting my property when Christmas tree sales were in progress. A serious conflict happened Sunday. They did a drive that had a deer running on the skyline between my place and their shooters. One sent 2 bullets directly towards me. The deer was between us. I was a little lower than the deer and 600 yards away. A second shooter also fired twice, sending a bullet through branches near my nephew. I was a bit too low for the first shooter to see me when he fired. However, I only had to gain about 6 feet in elevation to be in full view. In any event, they had to know they were sending bullets into my property or beyond, an area with people. After the shooting, I stood in the open with my full orange showing, waving my orange hat. When I got the first jerk's attention, I gave him a high one fingered salute. I have no idea who he was, only that he was hunting with that particular group. He saw me. I never saw the second shooter though he or she had to be close by since the deer was still in my sight when those shots were taken. I bumped into some hunters a short while later and vented. They hunt with an in-law of that family so I know my anger - already communicated - will be communicated through others. They allow a lot of people to hunt with them. I'm sure no one is going to fess up to doing it. I'll be talking to one of the brothers about it but don't expect much. Why is it that people lose all sense when they see a deer? Behind me was a valley 600 lower in elevation with 2 hamlets. If the shots were high enough to clear my place, they would land down there.

We butchered 4 deer today. In a few days I should have some more interesting bone yard shots. I took the card out of the bone yard camera while I was there. There are some interesting red-tailed hawk shots and a red fox that have been picking at the bones. There is also a shot from gut pile #2, covered with some of the local ravens.

I get eagles regularly in the bone yard. I posted a photo of 2 together in someone else's gut pile thread a few weeks ago. There were some gut pile eagle photos posted last fall. Gut piles here the last 2 weeks lasted less than 5 hours after daybreak because there are 20 ravens around. That doesn't give eagles much time to find them. The ravens cache a lot of food so it disappears quickly. There are many gut piles since yesterday. The 2 I have cameras on now haven't been touched. That's better than getting 2500 photos of ravens. Maybe I'll get some mammals.

So, my young, female mentee - now an accomplished hunter - shot a big doe an a mature 8 point this morning, one right after another. My 83 year old dad shot a doe. Dad went home. I intended to help skin the 3 deer after lunch and a quick nap. However, I fell into a deep sleep. When I awoke, the hunter and my misses had all 3 skinned.

I sent a photo to the dog warden. She may try to trap it after the weekend. We'll be butchering the harvest Monday and dumping the bones there. The warden has a big live trap for dogs.

I set the camera on the second gut pile too high. Lots of photos of redtail and raven heads. From the bone yard, a starving dog we can't get close to, and a flying squirrel.

I'm saving the bucks for the crew coming Friday. I need population control!

Thanks Wooly. I love how they move. Here are a couple of the 2500 shots from the boneyard that I found when I returned from the Dacks. in 468 the redtail is mantling. That is a possessive posture that covers the food. It is only done when a competitor is nearby, usually of the same species.

Mike, I could have but I'm heading to the Dacks this morning. The misses probably wouldn't have liked cutting it up alone, especially the second in a week. I'll get another doe before the rifle season.

For the last 1 1/2 hours, a doe and an 8 point buck have been keeping company in the pasture directly behind, and downwind of the house. She is feeding. He stays 10 yards downwind of her. She moves, he moves. There is a light screen of brush between them and the house. I can see them fine at 50 yards but the camera wants to focus on the brush. I go outside and move around. The doe watches. The buck, which was laying down when I last looked, does nothing. A few times she moved a bit too much. He quickly trotted to a position downwind again. I intended to do some work out there but chose to leave them be.

Can you refer us to something published? Preferably, peer reviewed.

I never had a compound bow. I stopped bow hunting with the recurve because life got too busy. Then, after decades of hard work, my shoulders went to hell. I grow and sell Christmas trees. Rifle season, Thanksgiving and the start of Xmas tree season fall within a 6 day period. A crossbow gets me 2 weeks of low pressure deer hunting. I got a big doe Tuesday (the gut pile in in my gut pile thread in the trail cam forum). I'm hoping to get another before rifle season starts. There are too many deer here. They are hammering my fir trees. I also have 1400 acres around me that no does are killed on. Half is off limits to hunting. The other half is bucks only - an anachronistic thing. My crew cannot kill enough does in the short time before family groups are traipsing about looking for the perfect tree.

I too found G-man's post somewhat bizarre. I was surprised. He seems so well informed on some subjects. Wolves are relatively easy to extirpate. They are genuinely at the top of the food chain. Coyotes are only the top of the food chain here because there are no wolves. Coyotes evolved in the context of wolves preying on them, and persecuting them because they were competition on some level. The evolutionary response was to increase reproduction under pressure. I am aware of 2 strategies: increased litter size; and, when dominate pairs - those that limit reproduction by young animals - are disrupted by one or both being killed, their relatively large territories are fractured and taken over by young animals. This results in a net increase in reproductive pairs. We (not me but some of you) have taken on the role of wolves in trying to eliminate coyotes. The coyotes in turn are reproducing like mad.

Coyotes are self limiting. I'm not sure about Fisher but I expect they are less of a problem than some will claim. The study in Albany county found they eat mostly squirrels. They do a reasonable job of controlling porcupines too.

The disappearing gutpile: The gutpile was new yesterday around 4:30. 2 deer checked it out during the night but nothing fed. At 7 am ravens and these turkeys showed up. I don't think the turkeys fed. 4 hours and 20 minutes later the gutpile was consumed by ravens and crows. This 11:19 photo is the next to the last. Done.

They've been trying to eliminate coyotes out west for more than a century, using all kinds of methods including strychnine. Besides being a bad idea, what makes you think it could be done here, now? What would be the point anyway ? More deer? I have plenty of both coyotes and deer. I'm one of those farmers who wants them left along. After 40 years of raising sheep without a problem, I prefer the coyotes I currently have, thank you.

Thanks everyone. Here's an update: Yes, it was a broadhead issue. The Mussy's were all over the place. However, the scope must have gotten bumped. I had multiple problems. The crossbow came with the cantilevered rail already mounted. I put the scope on but did not check the rail. I still have not because it will require removing the scope. I'm just treating the thing like a piece of grandma's china for now. After the season I will put locktite on it and crank down. It is good right now. I bought Rage 2" for crossbows. The practice head was holding 3" groups at 30 yards. That is acceptable since I will never shoot beyond that. Today I hung a big doe in the barn, so it works. The real thing worked perfectly at 15 yards. What a hole it made. I target does because of the ag damage. I let 2 small bucks pass, along with a yearling doe that is so tiny she could be mistaken for a fawn. The Rage heads come with an extra plastic sleeve so you can reuse them. Does anyone do this? The sharp edges are pretty rough right now. I am pretty good at sharpening things. I could probably restore the edge. At over $10 a pop, they are pricey.

Everyone with scavenger photos should feel free to share them on this thread. I posted my lamb butchering scraps on someone else's gut pile thread. However, I thought I would start one for the coming season. The lamb remains disappeared quickly. Look closely at these shots and you will see a colander shaped chunk of edibles. It is what remains when your render fat to make suet for the birds. These photos are not in order. The fisher checked it out first. The fox spent a lot of time sniffing, biting it, jumping back after biting it, then finally it dragged it out of sight. There was not sign of it this afternoon. A couple of our GPS tracked Golden Eagles just got within cell phone range after 7 months out of touch. I'll be posting selected research site photos here once that starts up in late December.

You went from coyotes killing deer to food lines at homeless shelters? Good to see nothing has changed around here. I'm glad I abandoned the politics discussions. On the bright side, here's a photo of a sun rise. The sun just made it around to line up with the camera.

Dave, Where are you? It is an interesting mix.

That's a lot of action for one gut pile.

Here's some more including 2 coyotes, 2 eagles and a fox.

Sorry, the ravens finished off your share.

We slaughtered and butchered lambs this weekend. I just downloaded some photos after chasing about 20 ravens away. Apparently, I have the camera a bit too close. Next trip up I will move things around.