CROSSBOWS IN NEW YORK

Got an email yesterday morning from Mr. Dick Nelson (outdoor writer from The Register – Star & The Daily Mail). He had apparently read my blog and was inclined to ask me a question.

“How do you feel about allowing crossbows in New York's bow and gun seasons?”

Well, I thought for a moment. (I felt like I was being tested.) I want to qualify my answer by first saying that this opinion is specific to the Southern Zone of New York. As always, I think safety-first in all aspects of hunting; so crossbows should be the same.

Here it is, the solution to all the fuss about when crossbows should be allowed:

I believe that crossbows should be allowed in every big game season. There are some rules and regulations to be adhered too, but the minute amount of compromise needed, is a minimal intrusion or inconvenience.

If you want to hunt with a crossbow during the archery season then crossbow manufacturers must be able to throttle down the speed at which a bolt can leave the crossbow. That speed should be no faster then the fastest compound bow. That’s it -- that’s fair.

If you want to hunt with a crossbow during the regular rifle, shotgun or muzzleloading season, then all you have to do is wear a 12 inch square patch of hunter orange on the back of your outermost garment and a 12 inch square patch of hunter orange on the front of your outermost garment. If you want to interchange one of those squares, with a hunter orange baseball cap or pullover hat. That’s fine with me, also. That’s fair ---- and safer too.

Now, what did we accomplish here? We got more hunters back in the woods. We break the ice and set a precedent for mandatory inclusion of hunter orange in certain aspects of hunting. We have initiated another deer management tool and we have created more industry and commerce to help the economy. Ladies and gentlemen, we did all that and we did it safely! We showed the rest of the world that hunters are responsible people (again) by implementing a safety regulation even though it slightly intrudes on a personal right. Ladies and gentle sportsmen, we have an opportunity to look like we know and care about what we are doing! Let’s get ‘er done!

ANTLER RESTRICTIONS & HUNTER ORANGE! SHOULDN’T COMMON SENSE PREVAIL?

When you talk to hunters, it never fails, that one of two issues (and many times both) are always controversial. The subjects of antler restrictions and hunter orange never fail to raise the ire of dedicated outdoorsmen. The resounding negative response by naysayers in both cases is “loss of freedom”. I have a real problem with that response. See, some sportsmen see the inclusion of both into the regulations as an encroachment onto their regular hunting routine, instead of looking at the bigger picture.

ANTLER RESTRICTIONS

Antler restrictions are a management tool to insure age diversity in the herd. The naysayers quote the NYSDEC biologists as saying “there is no biological need for antler restrictions”. I have heard this mantra for a few years now. There premise is, that regardless of the ages of deer they will breed. That is true! The resounding difference is when they breed! Ask yourself this question. Do timely breeding cycles insure less Winter mortality? In fact, ask a wildlife biologist those words. The fact, that when young bucks are doing the breeding, a larger percentage of does do not get bred until the 2nd and 3rd cycles. This is a scientific, biological fact! The result of being born from those cycles is that fawns are born later and subsequently are smaller and less prepared to handle the following Winter climate. Taaa Daaa --- Death ensues when the ice and snow start to pile up here in the North East, and as we all know, that happens quite frequently.

In cases of extremely harsh Winters, (and we have plenty of those) does have the capability of internally ingesting their fetuses. Does that are bred in the 2nd and 3rd cycles are more likely to have to do that. Now, that may not be a “biological need” to you, but it certainly is to those deer. The NYS DEC does not have a reliable way of accounting for live deer in this state, nevermind, dead deer, or never born deer. They “manage” by reactionary and preventative measures. They will tell you “that as long as deer are not dieing en masse” then they are successfully managing the herd! Shame on them! This is obviously a deer health issue not a hunter “freedom” issue.

If you still don’t believe me? Ask yourself why the NYSDEC proffers and suggests that antler restrictions should be included in viable management plans on private property? Yes, they do! It’s all over the DEC website and at the 20 recent DEC deer meetings they included large posters in their presentations posturing EXACTLY those sentiments!

The vast majority of hunters surveyed (67%) by the DEC were in favor of antler restrictions. In democratic societies the majority rules. That sounds like freedom to me!

HUNTER ORANGE

It saddens me that the topic of hunter orange is looked at as another “freedom” issue. It is clearly a safety issue that if common sense would prevail could easily be implemented. This should be a regional issue and any application of a law including hunter orange would be better then nothing. To save a life, to avoid a deadly tragedy, it is hard for me to fathom the logic applied, to lump this issue as a loss of freedom.

To the best of my knowledge, the only game animal that can actually distinguish the color orange, is the turkey. You can’t tell me that the inclusion of hunter orange during the Southern Zone Big Game Season would not save somebody, or some family the horror of losing a loved one in a hunting accident. It just stands to reason that something could be amicably worked out to lessen the “freedom” (sic) loss. The big game animals typically have no response to the color, but more the movement of the person wearing the color.

It annoys me that hunters do not see the value in making our tradition safer and more appealing to a squeamish public whose only perception of hunting is the danger that surrounds firearms. Not that we need to appease any of the hate mongers, but being able to say that hunting is the safest sport may go a long way in the decision process of a parent whose kid has an interest and no outlet and that parent, must make an intelligent decision.

It embarrasses me to tell you that a few years ago the New York State Conservation Council’s Big Game Committee voted down a proposed resolution for the council to posture for hunter orange. The council is a very large organization that claims to represent 300,000 sportsmen. How they can just forego some semblance of a law pertaining to such an important safety issue is beyond me? In my opinion it is irresponsible to do nothing! The vote was 9 – 1. Guess who the 1 vote was?

We hunters have a long way to go to get to nirvana.

THE ONE BAD MEAL I EVER HAD IN DEER CAMP

In the old days my hunting club was famous for one thing. No, it wasn’t the hunting. It wasn’t even our dedication to conservation. Hell no! It was our unbelievable dinners! You never headed up to camp and worried about being hungry. The thing you worried about was, if when you got home your uniforms and suits still fit.

We were blessed. We had a bunch of older members who did not participate much in the hunting anymore. Hell, one guy rarely brought a gun with him. These men were “socializers”. They did all the shopping, all the cooking, most of the drinking and they were the “liaisons” to the local townspeople. While way past their hunting prime, they were the first ones to open camp. These incredible men, who for most of the year were subjects of their own individual afflictions, would again come back to life, revitalized! The call of the wild was in the air. It was hunting season!

Every October at the regular club meeting, the president would gavel the members till quiet and under the “guise” of new business would ask for volunteers for the “housemother” position for the upcoming seasons. First the archers, Big Bob W’s hand would go up. “I’ll take the first week of Bow”. Back then, there were not a lot of guys “into” the archery season. In my early years (mid 80’s) there were about eight guys who would regularly schedule vacation time for the Bow Season. Big Bob W. was famous for his “leg of lamb”. Guys would start drooling at just the mention of it. The president again would slam the gavel. “What about Gun Season?” The old skinny irishman in the back of the room, who had been holding his own court, raised his hand. Thank God! Old Tommy Gordon stood and said, “hey ffffkco, I’ll take the first ffffing week of gun”. The howling would begin. Everybody knew Tommy, or FFFFing Gordon as he was usually called, ran a great camp. He got the job done and there was always plenty of tomfoolery. FFFFing Gordon could break a man’s balls and leave him scarred for life. The housemother designated chores. If you got the toilet, it better be clean. If you got firewood, it better be stacked neatly. If you were new and got the sink after dinner, you were in for a long night. FFFFing Gordon would have a couple of guys clearing the table. You’d be in the sink, another guy to your right drying the dishes that you handed him. He’d hand them to another guy to be put on the shelf; except instead of going on the shelf, they’d be handed to a runner out the back door of the house. He’d run them to the front door and hand them to one of the table clearers who would smear them with leftovers and the process would begin again. I’ve seen guys in the sink washing dishes for two ffffing hours before they realized that they had been duped. Laughs, unfffingbelievable! That’s the kind of man FFFFing Gordon was, he ran a tight ship. He was a great cook and quite a character, all 95 lbs. of him.

A typical meal in camp was a big roast (beef or pork, big enough for 25 grown men), three different fresh vegetables, bread, butter and gravy. I’m telling you, 45 minutes before the sun went down, you’d be in your stand salivating and hoping the sun would go down just a little faster. Just to get to dinner! The man could cook and no amenity was left unturned!

As is the custom in just about every camp, guys bring things. They bring stuff to make camp more enjoyable. Some guys would stop at the Entenmann’s factory and grab 20 boxes of different cakes and donuts. Some guys would bring huge bottles of Chianti, and some guys would bring fruit and candy. I would stop at a friend’s store and purchase his best Genoa salami. If you craved it, it was there. One guy had a son that worked in McDonalds. He clipped a big box of frozen hamburger patties. If you came out of the woods for lunch it was easy enough to slap a couple of patties on the grill and be enjoying your lunch in short order. We ate like kings. Every meal, you just could not wait to get to the table.

I remember one Saturday night towards the end of the season. There were about 8 -9 guys in camp, but most were leaving the next day. FFFFing Gordon was the housemother. He was in a conundrum over what to serve for dinner. There was lots of stuff still in the fridge, but since camp was closing down soon he wanted to make sure that the big freezer was empty and turned off. The only thing left in the freezer was about 30 of the frozen hamburger patties. The light went on in FFFFing Gordon’s head --- AAhhhhhhhh – MEAT LOAF!

Ya know the old expression that “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”?

FFFFing Gordon yelled “two minutes till dinner”. A couple of guys grabbed the vegetables from the kitchen and set them on the table. Others were in the bunkroom and hustled to the table. We were all seated except for FFFFing Gordon. From the dining room we could see FFFFing Gordon fussing and cursing in the kitchen over something. With that, he appeared in the doorway of the dining room holding a big roasting pan. Somebody yelled, “smells good, what are we having?” FFFFing Gordon laid the pan on the table and kind of backed away as he muttered “ffffing meatloaf”! One of the men leaned over and sliced about twelve 1” portions and filled each man’s plate. It was like poetry in motion. Almost simultaneously we all took our first bite. Almost simultaneously we all shrieked the same thing -- “FFFFING GORDON”! Yeccccccch! OMG it tasted like a combination of sawdust and corrugated ffffing cardboard.

Funny how unfair life is! Of all the great meals that man cooked. Of all the funny shit that man pulled. He will always be remembered for that ffffing meatloaf!

RIP Tommy

THE NYS DEC IS DRAGGING IT’S FEET ON ANTLER RESTRICTIONS ---- AGAIN!

They say that they are going to do another “formal survey” to assess hunter preferences for potential strategies to alter buck harvest.

I say the DEC is mired down in a “prevent offense” tact that is typical of a large bureaucracy. Instead of stepping up and forward they went one back and two to the left! We went through this same trial and tribulation in regard to antler restrictions just one year ago. The DEC did a survey to which they set the parameters. By all accounts (including there own) antler restrictions were acceptable to 67% of those surveyed. Then, after pressure from only two county sportsmen’s federations, one of which was way outside the targeted implementation area. They reneged on their own criterion. Now, they want to look at it again. THEY are fishing! They say that there may be other management initiatives to be considered. I say, “stop the nonsense!” Have we learned nothing from our neighboring state Pennsylvania? Several years ago Pennsylvania was desperate for a management plan to help solve their burgeoning population problem. The PGC under the direction of Dr. Gary Alt told hunters across the state that “Antler Restrictions” along with doe and habitat management would not only rectify the problem, but that hunting could once again become a prideful commodity to the state and the hunting community.

It worked, and Pennsylvania has become a heralded model in the conservation community. New York also has a golden opportunity to exceed the model. Let me explain. Pennsylvania hunters had antler restrictions shoved down their proverbial throats. Residents strongly resented this intrusion into their hunting routines. It took several years for the residents of Pennsylvania’s hunting community to realize the benefits of the plan. New York, on the other hand had initiated a pilot program in two Wildlife Management Units (2005). The following year they expanded the program to two more units. The plan has become so popular that many more units requested to have it initiated in their counties. Representatives of those counties have stood before the NYS Conservation Council screaming for the council to posture to have the pilot expanded to their areas. The DEC originally (early 2009) decided that since there were NO biological reasons NOT to implement and expand the program, that it would survey and satiate a majority of hunters. In the Fall of 2009 they held “deer” meetings and again surveyed hunters about their concerns. At all of the meetings antler restrictions were a main topic of concern. Now, they want another survey again in early 2010. On, and on, and on again, treading water against the tide of time. WRONG! The precedent had already been set for institution and initiation. The gradual implementation in the 8 new WMU’s was the next natural step forward. Instead, they have once again opened the door to criticism by their trepidations and malaise, and have further alienated dedicated sportsmen and women.

The NYSDEC has had the benefit of seeing how Pennsylvania hunters have gradually embraced their plan. They laid the groundwork for a successful inception of our own plan and now they are shuffling their feet to the tune of “As Time Goes By”. In the scope of deer management we should have already moved on to insuring better habitat management. When will they wake up?