Curmudgeon

I've heard grumbling in Otsego County where the Amish have become prevalent in the past 10 or 15 years. I don't know of any prosecutions for poaching so cannot be sure if any of the complaining is true. Around here you hear all kinds of things. I don't have any Amish within a few miles of me so I have no personal experience with their hunting practices. I usually give one Amish family I know a extra DMP after Thanksgiving if any have not been used.

I was just reading the post on the poor printing on licenses and tags. It occured to me to share something I heard. A DEC Wildlife Technician I have a good relationship with goes to the larger deer processors in the region to examine deer. He told me that DEC law enforcement has asked the techs to provide them with tag information from all deer. His understanding is that any hunter that did not report these deer to the call-in number, or on-line may be ticketed. I know it makes sense for DEC to do this reporting automatically but I liked the old mail-in tags. They were easy to mark up and remember to stick in the mailbox. I find myself distracted and tired after hanging and skinning a deer. It is easy to forget to make that call or log into the computer.

I was at a gun club meeting last week. I met someone new who had moved here from NJ not too long ago. He was singing the praises of buckshot for deer hunting. He wants NYS to make it legal. I learned when I was young that buckshot results in many wounded deer. Not according to my new friend who has shot them while they were running full speed through heavy brush. I asked him about range. He said he killed a big buck at over 200 yards with buckshot. I have to believe that many deer are hit by shot in all kinds of non-vital places to go off wounded and maybe die. I initially resisted changing 4F to rifles because I don't trust some of the people who hunt the area near my home. Now I wouldn't ever want to go back to slugs. Yes, there is an increased risk from jerks who sky-line deer. However, I the precision of a rifle. I can't imagine pointing a shotgun at a deer 200 yards out and throwing a charge of shot in its direction.

I asked my friend who works in Yosemite NP, and comes here to hunt every November, how hunters were reacting to the ban of lead ammo for hunting in CA. He said he had not heard much of a reaction. He also noted that he and his friends had already switched voluntarily o lead-free shot for bird hunting. There is a really good, factual, and easy to follow video on lead bullet fragmentation on this site from the MN DNR - http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/lead/index.html . Click on on-line presentation. This shows what happens to a lead poisoned eagle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWxFRjLPPXo . It is intended to elicit an emotional response but still worth watching.

I had a similar situation and thought I knew who owned the stand. I gave that person a short deadline to remove the stand. I told him if it was still there on a certain day, I would assume it was not his and dispose of it. It was gone the next time I checked.

My brother brought a young woman he knows to my place to hunt a while back. She had taken a course on hunting for women and had no other experience. She had gone out with a friend of hers - another inexperienced woman - several times and together they had not even seen a deer. She has hunted here during the late season for the past 2 years.During which time she has seen numerous deer but not yet shot one. The first day she hunted here she volunteered to field dress the first deer shot that day - just for the learning experience. I talked her through it. She was here with me and some other grey-beards this past weekend shooting her .243. She was having some problems with the scope she had mounted herself. She said something that got me thinking. She said that it was great to have some experienced people to help her because when she goes to the range, she has to figure everything out on her own. She has joined a club near an upstate city. I am having trouble figuring out why she is so on her own at the range. She is in her mid-late twenties, attractive and friendly (at least here she is). Is it her? Is she not comfortable asking men she doesn't know for help? Is she concerned they might hit on her? Is it the club members? Does having a woman there change the dynamic? I don't really know. I think her experience at the range is odd. We are mentoring her. We're a bunch of grandfatherly guys that help her out. I'm putting her in the best place on the property on opening day. It's time for her to shoot a deer.

Mike - I had been unaware of this legislation - just too wrapped up in my own stuff I guess. I shared the petition link - and a link to the text of the legislation - with a network of friends. I hope it generates some signatures.

I just read a couple of articles on copper bullets from MN - http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mcvmagazine/archive.html?keyword=copper%20bullets http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/277937621.html?page=1&c=y

Let's set aside the possibility of a leak. Are you saying that drilling under someone's land and forcing them to sell their personal property is not a violation of individual property rights? Now regarding contamination, there are multiple issues of health and safety which the industry wants to ignore beyond water contamination: the highest ozone pollution in the country is in a gas field in rural CO. Read a little about Dish TX and what happened there. You believe they drill too deep to affect my water. Are you aware of the geologic faults that have been mapped in Otsego County? Are you aware that the lubricants in fracking fluid are causing small earthquakes along such faults? Do you know enough about geology to assure me the faults are not a pathway for contamination? True, most leaks are around well casings. That is no comfort if they drill next to my property line. My daughter worked in this industry before going back to school for her Ph.D. She told me the "best case scenario" for me if drilling went forward in NYS was someone would drill a dry hole near me and they would give up on my area. There are so many concerns about this technology, caution and patience is warranted. Others are now the guinea pigs for this industry. Let's see how well they do as health studies continue. There has been a lot of propaganda from both sides. Let the industry prove the legitimate negative claims are not true before they put me and my family at risk. The gas is not going anywhere.

So, if I want to preserve my property rights and pure water, how do I fit into this "theme"? Do you like the idea of home rule, or do you think the court should have ruled that towns have to accept it?

No, you don't have to sell them anything. The Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law allows them to drill under unwilling landowners. The gas company must have leases to 60% of a unit. I think a unit is a square mile. The units can be defined by the gas company. They can gerrymander a large lease into units to take advantage of unwilling owners around it. The process is called Compulsory Integration - http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/1590.html. They must pay you royalties for the gas you don't want to sell. They get to meter the gas they pay you for. They are not allowed to set foot on your property - but they can drill under your feet. It is an outrageous violation of property rights.

Having been involved in local election politics, I can state unequivocally that opposition to fracking cuts completely across party lines in rural Otsego County. A long-term Republican Councilman lost to a first time independent in my town last year. This is unprecedented. Fracking was the single issue that separated them. Until more is known, I don't want this in my neighborhood. My VJP is correct to a point. The science about fracking is growing daily and it doesn't look good. I own my whole watershed but according to NYS law, if my neighbors go along with the oil and gas companies, they can drill under me and I can't stop them. For those of you who think fracking is a good idea, how can you support such a violation of individual property rights?

I came across this ad in the local pennysaver. The auction may interest some of you who are willing to drive to West Winfield in Southern Herkimer County. http://pennysaveronline.com/display/ads/auctions/ - click on JR's Discount Groceries.

I probably provoked some of that rant because: 1) I like coyotes 2) I do not have any personal problems with coyotes 3) I believe the science that says killing them just increases their reproduction resulting in no net change in population 4) There have been coyotes my whole life and plenty deer most of the time. My intention is not to provoke, it is to try to get those who have not yet learned a visceral hatred of these animals to educate themselves. If that requires pointing out some of their good points, so be it. I would be outraged if coyotes got into my sheep. However, the deer do not belong to me. Wildlife is the property of the people of the state.

Interesting. I've had sheep for 40 years and only had them attacked by domestic dogs. That is not BS. Not that some people don't have a problem. Some do. Good management practices are important. God's dogs are here because there was a big vacant niche. They are not good or bad. They just are.

Wow. Incredible story! Another good thing about coyotes, they eat cats. Not necessarily bobcats, certainly domestic and feral cats. I have a photo sequence of a bobcat on carrion. Two coyotes approach and keep moving along. I don't know if their avoidance was due to the cat or the camera flash. The cat had a high tolerance for the camera. Yes, back to my trees.

This conversation reminds me a hunt some years ago. I was working around the edge of a beaver meadow. I had a doe tag so didn't need to look for horns. The oddest looking brown thing was out in the meadow. It's back was horizontal. It was clearly alive. It was the size of a deer. However, it looks odd. Turns out it was a trapper bent over, head down, checking his muskrat traps dressed in Carhart overalls during the southern zone deer season.

I need to buy 8 before winter for research. Last year we used some cheap blinds and one Ameristep. I just looked at the price of the Primos Double Bull - pricey. Good if you are buying one for the long haul but beyond my budget.

Steve et. al. - Four Seasons is a criminal. No different from the guys who jack-light the big bucks. No different from trespassers. However, my concern is less what goes on in his little corner of Jefferson County than that he may actually influence people like Gun Jammed who are looking for legitimate advice. Coyotes do not ruin anything. If you have good habitat, you will have plenty of game - coyotes or not. Coyotes have been across the state for longer than most of us have been alive. They are not new. Some years I hear them some years I don't. That is not a measure of their presence. And, 3 or 4 coyotes can sound like 20. What will ruin your property is too many deer. I took a walk around Harriman SP in Orange County. If you want to see what too many deer can do, check out the understory. It which consists of 2 species - mountain laurel and barberry. I have been struggling with an overpopulation of deer for decades. I have used DMAP and nuisance permits. I have had to control rabbits to allow berries to get tall enough to bear fruit. Too many squirrels eat my grafted nuts. There is no lack of small or big game. There is no lack of coyotes. Are the coyotes in 4F incompetent? I take time to control invasive species. If the deer had their way - eating only the native plants and ignoring the invasives - the brushy areas would be monocultures of bush honeysuckle. The understory of the woods would be just buckthorn and garlic mustard. Four Season's approach is not only short sighted, it is actually harmful to the ecological health of his property. I'm not talking about his attempt to control coyotes. Maybe his illegal hunting does have an impact on his small area. What is harmful is encouraging an overpopulation of deer. Gun Jammed - Do some reading. Do some research. Work on habitat. Listen to the professionals not the criminals.

"Don't confuse me with facts, my mind is made up!"

FYI - The Posted Signs conversation (under land management) got off topic and has been about coyotes for the past week.

Hillbilly - You made the Curmudgeon laugh out loud this morning.

Isn't this a beautiful animal?

True, but statewide, overall the herd is too large.

Belo - You say I said "it hurts a deer herd to hunt yotes". What I actually did was to ask why someone would want to increase a herd that is already too large. I speculated that if enough coyotes could be killed continually to increase deer numbers, those numbers would negatively impact forests. The idea that coyote hunters could achieve such goals is hypothetical and impossible. Deer numbers are too high now - thus the >50% anterless harvest - so yes it could be inferred that increasing them is not good for the herd. However, since it would be impossible to achieve such a goal, it is a moot point. It does not hurt the deer herd to hunt coyotes. If has no effect on deer numbers on a regional or population scale. Unless an unrealistic, unsustainable amount of energy is put into killing them, there is no impact on coyote numbers. Someone might be able to have an effect in a small area for a short time but young animals looking for territories will just keep moving in from outside. Coyote and deer populations are not affected to any significant degree by coyote hunting. People hunt coyotes for recreation, to get out in the winter, to socialize, for some income. If you believe hunting them changes the amount of other game you hunt, consider doing more reading, more research, and show us the science.