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Technology doesn't always make for better hunting
When my hair was red and I had a bit more spring in my step, I would spend hours in the field watching deer and looking for big bucks. We waited until this time of year and would miss a good TV show just to watch deer.
I used to say that deer became interesting in late August because, by then, their antlers were well formed. During that time, I watched deer rub trees, spar, fight overhanging limbs, make scrapes and breed. In the spring, I have watched them give birth.
It's interesting to watcher the interplay between a bachelor group and how a subservient buck will show his submission by licking the face of the dominant animal. Seldom do these family groups fight, but let an outsider show up and things can get nasty.
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Sometimes, a deer would never turn its head so that we could compare both beams for symmetry or length of points. In fact, there were times when points couldn't even be counted.
Then we had to wonder if the deer's rack would be intact by the time hunting season came around. Accidents do happen and they do fight.
I once downed a big buck with every point broken off at the main beam on one side. I would have liked to have seen the buck he was fighting with. It was probably a spike.
While we enjoyed those days of preseason hunting, today's hunters can do it differently.
Instead of sitting in the woods or fields for hours, wasting time that could be well spent watching your favorite TV show, today's hunter places a digital camera on a tree and takes photos of passing deer.
Then, he can sit in front of his TV and study the rack to decide if it is big enough to go after.
These trail cameras are triggered by a form of electric eye or motion sensor and are the latest gizmo in hunting.
I know hunters who travel hundreds of miles just to place a trail cam along a likely deer trail.
Technology has indeed caught up with hunting.
Arrow nocks that light up, arrows that beep, sights that automatically adjust for shooting angle and rifle scopes with built-in laser range finders all make things easier.
The next thing you know, we'll have little nuclear warheads on the end of arrows.
But are things really better?
I guess that would depend on who you ask.
It is easier today to pinpoint that large trophy buck. But there is less ground open for hunting and fewer deer to hunt.
Also, old-timers like myself would say there is something missing when the hunter depends more on technology instead of hunting skills.
All of those hours in the woods tuned one's senses to the outdoors, the sounds, sights and smells.
I know many who consider themselves outdoorsmen who don't know a hickory tree from an oak, or a pokeberry from an elderberry.
There is a certain magic in sitting with your back against a large oak, watching a corn field when a 10-point buck steps out.
All the trail cams in the world can't give you that. You can set your camera and fasten it to a tree and return days later to check for photos. But there is nothing like meeting that buck in person in its own environment.
n I was talking to Larry Moore, a hard-hunting and successful hunter of my generation, a couple of days ago, and he said he does not doubt that we have fewer deer than we had in the 1970s. I agree.
I blame the fact that I live in Wildlife Management Unit 2-B, with its extended antlerless season and high number of doe permits. But Larry lives along Brush Run in Unit 2-A.
Bobby Rogers, another excellent hunter, agrees with that assessment of the deer numbers and he lives in Greene County.
n Don't forget that the season for resident geese begins Sept. 1.
Pheasant hunting may be a thing of the past, but we do have geese everywhere.
If you are going to take part in this hunt, a state migratory bird stamp is required in addition to a federal duck stamp.
Hunters must also use non-toxic shot, no lead, when waterfowl hunting.
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