Padre86

Well if it is a glitch, hopefully it gets fixed. I think this idea is novel and appropriate for a place like NY. Upstate counties are generally in favor of less government interference and regulation, with obvious exceptions of course (like where I live). But the fact is the only reason the SAFE act got enacted was because of NYC's higher population which gives it greater influence in the house and governorship. If those people elected the politicians responsible for the SAFE act, let them have those regulations, and let the upstate counties figure out for themselves what regulations are and aren't appropriate. You hear about similar issues with cougar hunting out west in states like California, Oregon and Washington; the more heavily populated coastal regions get riled up and vote, based on emotions more than anything else, to outlaw certain forms of lion hunting (or in CA's case to outlaw it all together), while the outdoorsmen, hunters, farmers/ranchers and rural residents have to live day-to-day with the implications of those shortsighted policies. It makes no sense to me why someone living in Seattle, who doesn't hunt or farm, should be able to dictate policies that apply to someone living in the eastern part of Washington.

I can't tell if my vote and information was accepted or not. I filled in all the fields and clicked "support this bill" but I get no confirmation that my vote was registered or accepted.

Where is it at?

Anyone else here heard of this huge debate going on about how to classify the new Boreas Ponds acquisition up in the Adirondacks? It's a tract of land that was formerly owned by a paper company and was recently turned over to the state (via The Nature Conservancy). I think the APA put out several proposals, all of which included allowing some measure of motorized access, but many of this state's environmental groups got angry that there was no option for excluding all motorized traffic (which would require a full-on wilderness classification). More on the land and surrounding discussion here: http://nysnowmobiler.com/2016/08/boreas-ponds-wild-forest-or-wilderness/ and http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2016/11/boreas-ponds-paddlers-perspective.html#comments So what do hunters here think of this?

Well if you can get a bead on one, more power to you. I've seen a few as I travel through the ADK's, and it's been a bit harder than what I expected to actually find and take a Turkey up there, at least in my experience. I think adding a Turkey call will greatly help in your hunt.

Steve Rinella's "Meat Eater" show is pretty decent IMHO, and he always seems to have something insightful to say on the show and on his podcast. It was definitely more focused towards big-country type hunting that you see out west, but still it's interesting. His show seems more focused on the culture of hunting in general than it is on getting the "trophy" shot that you sometimes see emphasized and glorified on other shows; I think there have even been episodes where he walked away empty-handed.

That's definitely not saying much. Deer are sparse up there, turkey probably more so. Though the funny, and somewhat deceiving, thing about Turkey in the Adirondacks is that I'll see them a lot more than I see deer. They tend to congregate in the open grassy areas you drive by along the main Routes (28, 30). The problem is those lands are often unhuntable (not a word I realize) for a number of reasons: privately-owned; too close to occupied dwellings; conditions for a good, safe shot might not always exist. So yeah, you can see them up there, sometimes quite frequently. But actually finding them in a position where you can take a safe and legal shot might be another story all together. I hunt a bit up int the Blue Ridge Wilderness and Moose River Plains Wild Forest; I've seen Turkey quite a bit while driving the main and side roads and marked their positions on my GPS. The issue as stated above is that those positions tend to be on private land or too close to occupied dwellings. I've hiked into nearby state land in an attempt to find and ambush any Turkey paths leading into those "off-limits" areas, but I've come up dry so far with those methods. Either the Turkey don't stray too far from their preferred pieces of land, or I wasn't in the right place at the right time. As others have said, I think hunting deer and certain small game offer better bang-for-your-buck up there in the ADK's. For Turkey, you either need access to a good piece of private land (preferably with some open field) up there, or you're better off hunting Turkey in some nice agricultural land outside of the ADK's.

I haven't shot 280. How does it compare to .308 or 270?

There seems to be a dedicated bunch of houndsmen who hunt coyotes in various parts of NY. There is a website: http://www.kcshounds.com/ where a lot of them gather and talk if anyone is interested in that type of hunting.

It's actually a method that seems to have a lot of traction, especially out west in the more open terrain. Coyotes, like wolves, have an inclination to investigate and challenge other canines in their territory. A solo or pair of medium-sized decoy dogs seems to be an effective way to lure them in. Does anyone in upstate NY use this method?

I'm not saying that all people change with age and experience, but some do. I would bet dollars to donuts (that's a phrase right?) that some of the crucial blue-collar votes that got Trump into office were considered "hippies" in decades past. The young kids that you referred to earlier are 'young and dumb' as the phrase goes. Everyone tends to start out that way but over time they learn and mature...I have faith that will hold true for this generation as it has for those of years past. I wouldn't worry over the current academic environment; like I said it's been that way for a while now. And it doesn't influence people's thinking as much as we are all led to believe...there is such a thing as free will and independent thought.

I think the general trend, as it has always been, that people tend to be more liberal when they are young but generally become more conservative as they grow old (that applies to do a lot of different aspects of life, not just politics). I've always pondered where all the "flower-power" and "hippie" era people have gone to in this country...that was at one point considered the hip and trending cultural view in this country. But where are they all now? Sure there are a few holdouts: the liberal, "free-your-mind" college professor; the crazy old lady who puts all kind of political bumper stickers on her car; the quiet, nondescript old person who voted for Bernie. But by and large, I think most from that generation became more pragmatic and conservative as they grew older. I think the same holds true for our current generation of young ones: they are full-of life and optimism now and a lot of them are naively drawn to the "progressive" party...but give it time. They'll get older, have a family, have taxes and mortgages to pay, and gradually many of them (though not all) start to become more skeptical of the political fluff that many politicians throw out there (like "free" college for everyone). I'm not saying they'll all switch from Democrats to Republicans, but certainly they'll become more skeptical of politicians in general and will be a lot more likely to vote for their personal interests rather than party interests. Many Democrats don't want to admit to this, but many of the blue-collar voters who were instrumental in getting Obama elected twice, switched over to voting for Trump in this election...and I don't even think they did that because they liked Trump, but rather because they really disliked Hillary (and saw her as a continuation of Obama's policies which they also disliked). As for liberal ideology permeating our academic system, it's been that way for a while. And yeah maybe some kids get led astray by that crazy, ideological left-leaning professor for a bit. But real world life is the big equalizer, and once those young ones get thrown out of college and get a dose of reality, I think a lot of them, if not most of them, will evolve in their views and perceptions of American politics. So I'm not worried.

Your options when out in the "big woods:" 1) hunt with other people 2) quarter the game out in the field and pack it out 3) If it is small enough, you can carry the deer out on your back like so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhPp_m3Kz2k I wouldn't be dragging deer solo out in the woods if the distance was anything more than a mile....too slow and inefficient.

No, they can use dogs down, and in certain other states, because the hunting lobby has much more sway down there than it does in NY. The fact is, there are parts of NY's wilderness, especially remote parts of the ADK's, where the terrain and vegetation is just as challenging as what you see down south, and the deer are dam hard to find because of it. But you can't use dogs to hunt them, or even be afield with a dog, because there has been an adamant and vocal advocacy to keep so called "unethical" practices, like hounding, out of NY...refer to the law suit brought against the state about running dogs on bears back in the 90's if you want a more recent example.

Oh dam! I had no idea the deer did that when firearm season started up. Thanks for letting me know! Lol...all sarcasm aside, I've hunted pieces of public and private land that are located within a few miles of each other in the finger lakes area. The # of deer I'll see on a given day on the private land doesn't compare to what I see, or don't see, on the public parcel. The main reason for that is on the private piece it's me and one other fellow hunting whereas on the public piece there were consistently 4-5 other hunters in the area. The deer know where the pressure is.

I haven't been that far south to hunt yet. But I have been to a lot of the WMA's and state parks in the central areas of Region 8 and 9; my experience has been that there is a lot of competition out there for the first week or two, after which the deer become very scarce.

It is on you, if you're hunting public land; you and I agree on that. But the solution is where I disagree with you. The solution, at least for western NY, is to buy into a lease and make friends with a land owner. There are tens of thousands of acres of public land in NY, not even counting the ADK's. But the problem is there are also a lot of hunters competing for deer on those acres. Unless you've found a quiet piece of public land that isn't heavily traveled, of which there aren't many, your best bet is to find access to private land. There is simply too much hunting pressure on most the WMA's I have been to here in western NY for it to be productive or enjoyable. The ADK's and Tug Hill is a different story, but then again there is a night and day difference between the deer densities there as compared to the densities in western NY.

That is huge for a lot of working breeds. American German Shepherds breeders have, for the most part, screwed the pooch, pun intended. Very few American specimens are bred and capable of sports, tracking, herding, protection or police work. In fact most police agencies import their working dogs from Europe because they just don't trust American breeding, and most people who do tracking, obedience or protection work do the same. There's just such a huge gap in quality and health between what an AKC, show-person considers to be a good German Shepherd and what a professional handler or trainer is looking for. I've found the same for other breeds. A while back I looked into getting a Swedish or Norwegian elkhound for big game recovery. With the exception of one breeder up in British Columbia, all the breeders I read about were basically importing stock and breeding them for shows. There was no functional training or breeding going on, at least none that I have read about. Fortunately it seems that most of the American hunting breeds (hounds, retrievers, pointers) don't have the same problem, at least not to the same degree. It seems a lot easier to go and find a functional and well-bred plott hound or german wirehaired pointer than it is to go find a well-bred German Shepherd. I guess with how prevalent the use of hunting dogs is some parts of North America, that makes sense. It's just a shame to see some of these breeds, with such extensive pedigrees as working dogs, so watered down and tame so that some lady (or man) can run them around a show circle and win points....

I can't speak to the performance of .280, but I have a lightweight Savage Model 11 (20" barrel .308) which has worked well for me. With the 3-9 scope, it's probably just a tad heavier than what I would prefer, but I have no issues carrying that thing around all-day through ADK-style terrain. For mountain hunting (by which I assume you mean ADK hunting), .308 is a fine caliber. There is more than enough ballistic performance there to take game at realistic distances and there is enough umph to take down large ungulates and black bear. That and .308 ammo is fairly varied and easy to find.

Yep, but again that is only prohibiting hunting in a specific area along Big Moose Lake. There are pretty extensive tracts of land around Old Forge, and well away from those prohibited areas, where hunting is allowed.

I'll give that a shot.

Well, I'm not really well-informed on all the politics surrounding high-fence hunting operations, so I don't have an opinion either way on that issue. I do know that wild Eurasian boar, the type that are currently causing all types of damage in the south, aren't native to North America, and certainly not NY, and we should make an effort to keep their wild population here negligible. If the DEC's strategy to control their numbers doesn't work, maybe we should consider other methods. But so far, I don't see a need to adjust anything.

Chrome.

So are you pissed because you're not allowed to breed hogs for fenced-game operations? Or are you pissed because you're not allowed to hunt them at all?

It only seems to happen in a thread where I've already quoted other people in previous posts.