Golf and Photography

[john101477]

Today I went and played Golf at a local club, won't tell you my score but rest assured that my mind was not on golf. That had to do with the amount of deer, mainly Big Bucks that were on the course. Again a missed opportunity for great photography. I have noticed in past outings that the group of guys you are golfing with tend to get upset when you pull out the camera instead of grabbing your club or iron. The bucks in the area are just now hitting the rut and wanting to mate. I was literally 10 ft from a buck trying to run down a doe to do just that. The scene was amazing, my cousin and I trying to whip out our camera phones to capture horrid images. I doubt I will ever be that close to the action again, But friday morning I am going to give it a heck of a try. I bet I hear the words "4" yelled at me a lot.

[Steve (FloppyDog)]

Sounds like you may have a good opportunity John. Try clacking the legs of a couple of tripods together.

[john101477]

Yeah I am pretty excited. Being a deer hunter and conservationist, I felt that I would take the year off hunting because the last few years have been very bad for deer. This year just happened to be an extrordinary year. Most of my family got drawn for special hunts and everyone got a very nice buck including two trophy size (for the area). Then to see 15 plus bucks in a 150 acre area was spectacular. Almost like being in kansas. Anyways, super jazzed about Friday and then Saturday my family is headed across the hills for the day for more animal watchin and family time.

[Steve (FloppyDog)]

Yep, I've taken about 18 or 19 years off hunting. Not for philisophical reasons, just plain laziness. I haven't even sighted-in any of my rifles, or even fired them now for years.

[john101477]

oh I love to hunt, But I feel as though the DFG have miss managed for to long. I sit and listen to grandpa and even how it was when I was younger and can see the substantial changes. In highschool, I did a field study for the DFG on the tehama deer herd covering 4 counties and the numbers were 10% lower than 8 years prior. It was a heck of a learning experience.

[Steve (FloppyDog)]

Yep, it seems dealing with DFG is usually a learning experience in one way or another. We gave them a 10 year right-of-way on our creek once for a project that was supposed to increase the fish population. All they really succeeded in doing was making a mess out of the banks, and if anything I think they actually brought the population down.

[john101477]

That is amazing Steve. I would be pissed beyond belief. an area in Idaho we used to hunt when we could go out of state changed their policies and opened up doe hunts for residents. the population and quality of animal has diminished severely. 15 years ago, you could go and get a monster in both meat and horn. now even the size of the animal is starting to decrease. My last buck from there was about the same size as I could shoot in Cali.

[Steve (FloppyDog)]

I haven't looked at the stats here but the deer seem smaller these days so I'm guessing the same may be happening. We used to have both sexes the first week, then buck only. Some years they'd issue 2nd licenses if the numbers were high enough. But not now.

Hunting here isn't what it's cracked up to be anymore. It's more dangerous now as there's too many people, property is more difficult to access because of problems with hunters etc. When I was a kid growing up in Montana, Dad and I would hunt in the morning. Then, cut wood all day and hunt again in the evening. Often we wouldn't see but a few other hunters (if any at all) during the whole day. Washingtion is a different story. There's less viable hunting ground and more hunters. Plus there's a lot of inexperience which translates to ignorance and disrespect of property.

[john101477]

I have uncles and cousins in washington. anymore they prefer to go out of state or do an air drop in at some remote location.