BMO Response Page

BMO Response Page

This is a compilation of your archived feedback as it was submitted. Bookmark this page and you will be able to read what your fellow hunting camp members say. CAUION:These are unedited remarks! Feel free to post your comments via the FEEDBACK page to remark about anything you read here. All entries will have the author's first name and e-mail listed so you can contact them regarding their thoughts and comments directly if you wish.

Received week of June 29, 1998

I have seen heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (No, it's not Northpoint on a Saturday night no matter what Curt says) I have been to the new Cabellas store in Owatona MN. It is worth the drive, believe me. I think they have every item from the catalog and then some. I was able to check out the tree stands and only one of them looks strong enough to actually use. The "Remington Rifleman Ladder" in the fall catalog. By the way, I got my antlerless permit booklet today from the Michigan DNR. You must apply by August 1. Don't forget. (Respondent's first name) Steve (Respondent's e-mail address) SBHVA@aol.com

Received week of July 6, 1998

July 4--Dateline : The Farm...Steve not suffering from heat stroke. Report of July 3 of 14 deer in the field, all bucks, no does, mostly 8-pointers, 4 very big eight pointers now corroborated. Greg P. and CJF watched with ever alert SJB on 4 July 1998 and saw, for starters, 19 deer in the field. When finally sorted out, the 14 that stayed included 10 bucks at once. Five (5) were 8 pointers ! Steve said these did not include the 4 really big boys he saw come off of Fred's the night before. Therefore, 18 different bucks were sighted in two days. A new record I would believe. And, by my figuring, 9 were 8-pointers ( 4 biggies /SJB ; 4 in North field / all; 1 in East field / All ). Your reporter in the field (clover field that is) // Hubert "CJ" Fahlstrom
Ran across a great resource article on deer ageing. It's complete with photos...now all we need are some deer to age. DB

Received week of July 20, 1998

hello from wisconsin! baiting. not a bad idea as long as it's well thought out. and remember, it really resembles work, so do give it some thought. in our area, there are countless bait piles on our perimeter, so we have taken the position that deer just might travel between bait piles and somehow stumble past our stands we have also noticed that with baiting, the deer movement patterns may vary slightly, but i don't think this would be cause to make major changes in stand locations, etc. one thing to consider is that bait piles can attract other critters (like the big black variety) so it is suggested that baiting be kept at a respectable distance from the cabin. it's also interesting to see large amounts of corn in the tummies of our downed trophy when there are no corn fields for literlly miles around! so before baiting, check to see what the baiting habits of your neighbors are and how your efforts can effectively serve your needs before hauling a truck load of pumkins and corn on your back good luck!! (Respondent's first name) joe (Respondent's e-mail address) jsmader@lakefield.net

Received week of July 27, 1998

don...i love the buck monkey web page. look forward to updates. one suggestion: try using a lighter colored text in the left fram area of the home page (eg. topics, email etc.) it is hard to read the text in this area. keep up the great work. your fellow buck monkey (Respondent's first name) john
EDITOR'S NOTE: This guy has trouble seeing antlers too we're told...says they look too much like tree branches!

Received week of August 3, 1998

I have just noticed the first installment of the BMO, This really happened to me!. Way better than Outdoor Life. How about the story of the Deer Trumpet at the Wallace Pub! (Respondent's first name) can't remember

Received week of August 10, 1998

(Steve Choice) ON (Send Curt's story to the X-Files.) ON (I like the idea of a free date with "Ellen", what do I have to do?) ON (Favorite deer rifle) any caliber as long as it is a Husqvarna (Elevate) My Stand (Comments and suggestions) I am afraid that memory is starting to fade for some of us. The mushroom cloud story dates from 86 or 87 since it was my first or second year at camp.SB (Respondent's first name) Steve
I stand corrected. It was only recently, after undergoing regression hypnosis therapy, that I regained even a fragmented amount of memory of that event. I'm feeling much better now. DB (respondent's first name) Can't remember

Received week of August 24, 1998

(Dave Choice) ON : I have taken the Buck-Monkey Test) ON : (Send Curt's story to the X-Files.) ON (I like the idea of a free date with "Ellen", what do I have to do?) ON (I have read the Monkey-Advice Page) ON (I bait) ON (Favorite deer rifle) 243 (Elevate) My Stand (stand choice) arkansas
EDITOR'S NOTE: It's probably not the person from Arkansas you may think of first.
(Other choice name) Ron (Favorite deer rifle) Ruger M77 7MM Mag (Elevate) My Stand (stand choice) Pennsylvania (Comments and suggestions) Here in good old Pa. bait hunting is illegal so all of us honest hunters really know what a true whitetail hunting experience is all about. Not that I am against baiting, but for all of you hunters that do bait, I think you should try a real whitetail hunt by calling, stalking, and driving deer to really get a true appreciation for the art and sport of hunting our most elusive big game animal. thankyou for reading and many pleasant and safe days afield. (Respondent's first name) Ron (Respondent's e-mail address) KKirsch@mindspring.com
(Favorite deer rifle) .257 Roberts Open Sights (Elevate) My Stand (stand choice) wausaukee, wi (Comments and suggestions) the .257 Roberts with open sights is the best shoot gun for taking running shots. I know. It's so fast that if you have brown in the sights, you've got venison (Respondent's first name) john

Received week of September 7, 1998

A hunter's remorse is excellant! (Respondent's first name) Greg (Respondent's e-mail address) ditch@execpc.com

Received week of September 28, 1998

(Favorite deer rifle) Browning A-Bolt .270 (Elevate) My Stand (stand choice) Acorn Flats (Comments and suggestions) Acorn Flats is a mythical place in the heart of Buck Heaven. A place where the rut never ends and the season last 365 days a year. (Respondent's first name) Palmetto Jack
(I bait) ON (Favorite deer rifle) 7mm-08 (Elevate) My Stand (stand choice) NC (Comments and suggestions) I Bait! I am looking for good home-brew bait concoctions,... similar to the marketed varieties under the names: 'Deer Cocaine', 'deer cane', etc. Also, good food baits and how to spice them up! (Respondent's first name) Jesse (Respondent's e-mail address) jmansfield@pinehurst.net (Add me to the BMO e-mail list!) ON

The following story ran in the Sunday, Sept. 27 issue of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Deer baiting has and will continue to be a "hot" issue here. Am looking for your opinions on this story (see end of story for ways to participate). Thanks for your help! By Kevin Naze Press-Gazette correspondent
DNR warden Dave Sabrowsky has seen it all in 21 years of conservation law enforcement. One thing he said he's seen enough of is deer baiting. "It's out of control," Sabrowsky said. "I personally believe that there is a higher percentage of illegal deer being killed today than there was in the pre-1980s, and baiting is the catalyst." In 1977 — his first year as a warden — shining and shooting deer at night was the most popular method of poaching. That all changed in the 1980, when the fine for an illegally-killed deer increased from $100 to nearly $2,000, and a shining curfew was enacted. "Our statistics will show that deer violations and shining complaints just about fell off the face of the earth," Sabrowsky said. "That's also when the deer herd really started to take off." When Sabrowsky started, a lot of the veteran wardens told him you could take 50 percent of the legal kill and that would be the illegal kill. Nobody believed that, he said, until the 1980s, when statistics showed it was probably true. The number of deer registered during the nine-day gun hunt in 1979 was125,570. Five years later, the kill had more than doubled to 255,726. There have been 14 straight gun harvests in excess of 200,000 since then. Six of the last nine have been over 300,000, including the all-time best of 398,002 in 1995. "There was a tremendous illegal kill out there, and the reason it tailed off was everybody was afraid of that $2,000 fine," said Sabrowsky. "But you know how people are, eventually they forget. " Baiting began to get popular in the mid-1980s. "That has now become the method of poaching," he said. "Everybody who baits is not a violator, but every violator baits. I don't think that anybody can argue that in the north country, baiting is the catalyst of violations. It's happening out in the woods, it's happening behind cabins and it's happening behind houses." Sabrowsky said he has been contacted by those who are frustrated over illegal baiting activities. He recommends they go to the spring Conservation Congress hearings to suggest rule changes. "They just throw their arms up in the air and say, 'It's not worth it. There's nothing we can do,'" he said. Sabrowsky has introduced resolutions to outlaw baiting, once on state property and once as a statewide ban. "They didn't get anywhere, mostly because our department is afraid of the fight that will happen," he said. "I've heard every pro-baiting argument, but we should be concerned about ethics and what's going on. There isn't anybody out there that would condone the baiting of ducks or wild turkeys, yet we still allow it for deer, and I don't understand that." If baiting were outlawed, Sabrowsky believes people would turn others in when they found illegal baits. "I really do think the majority of hunters don't like the idea of baiting, it's just that they're frustrated and they don't know what else to do," he said. "They want to compete with the neighbors so they do it themselves. But if it was illegal, at least it would be the start of the control of the problem."
DNR wardens say baiting is behind increases in illegal taking of deer a day or two prior to the gun deer season, and illegal after-hours shooting with bow and arrow in December, when snow silhouettes deer that move into baits. "It's the mindset that they've been feeding the deer, so they have the right to take one," Sabrowsky said. "The truth is, deer used to move around a lot more when they hard to search for their food. Now that deer are getting wise to baiting, they're feeding so late that we've even seen some guys rig up lights in the middle of the woods." In recent years Sabrowsky has arrested men sitting well past hours who were using borrowed tags and excessive amounts of bait. DNR pilots occasionally spot large bait piles and report them, but more often than not wardens rely on citizen tips to catch violators. Many times, it's hunters who report illegal activity. Such was the case when Sabrowsky was tipped off on an archer who had already filled his tag, but kept hunting. The Langlade County warden sat within view of the baiting site on a day when closing hours were 4:45 p.m. The poacher came in at 3:40, baited and left. At 4:30, Sabrowsky heard him return, and by 5 p.m., he made his contact. The result? An arrest for hunting without a valid license, hunting after hours and an unregistered snowmobile.
Deer don't have to be killed for violators to lose their equipment and hunting privileges. Just ask the man who was arrested for hunting after hours over an excessive bait pile during a closed season. He was using his bow during the state's muzzleloader hunt. Last year, Sabrowsky arrested a man who shot a buck at 11:30 p.m. as it approached a hanging feeder behind his cabin. The poacher was using a rifle equipped with a night vision scope and infrared flashlight. When Sabrowsky commented that the shot wasn't that loud, the man said he used his used lighter charges in his own reloads. The man even asked if he could remove the night vision scope before the rifle was confiscated.
Bear baiting is generally accepted among hunters. Bears wander large tracks of land and aren't near as predictable nor abundant as white-tailed deer. But baiting deer seems to have divided hunters, angered non-hunters and has led to territorial confrontations on state and national forest lands. Should it allowed as is, restricted more or banned entirely?
E-mail wildtimes@itol.com , fax 920-487-2330 or write Baiting Survey, P.O. Box 233, Algoma, WI 54201, no later than Friday, Oct. 2. Results will be published in an upcoming issue.

(Favorite deer rifle) 300 savage (Elevate) My Stand (stand choice) amberg (Comments and suggestions)----i can vouche for the .257 roberts. shoots flat as a pancake would be even better in the hands of a marksman. can easily find the hole in the tree next to the runway makes a big noise. now, a 300 savage takes a real man to carry that! makes nice hole in deer. they don't hardly even bleed!!!--- (Respondent's first name) joe

I smell something sort of what I once smelled while on WYCC duty in Copper Falls State Park cleaning out the women's can...or is it just in my head? I also am having a difficult time buttoning my shirt due to a swollen neck. What the heck are those hairy, smelly brown spots on the insides of my knees and why do always pee on them when I go to the can? My head is getting kinda black and blue from rubbing my itchy head on the side of the garage. And what's with me feeling the constant urge to scrape up leaves my feet instead of using the rake? It's weird...I don't get it...do you?!? Suggestions???nsh

Received week of October 5, 1998

(Steve Choice) ON (I have taken the Buck-Monkey Test) ON (Send Curt's story to the X-Files.) ON (I like the idea of a free date with "Ellen", what do I have to do?) ON (I have read the Monkey-Advice Page) ON (I bait) ON (Favorite deer rifle) my tirteem inch magnum (Elevate) Myself (stand choice) gordy's trailer (Comments and suggestions) usully i got m hangn by the opner, then i wayz m, theyz mor tendr that way my thirten inch magnum pokes a hole in m that a trojan cud drive thru..ugly exit wound tho sometimes(Respondent's first name) bob (Respondent's e-mail address) 13"magmun@uper.com (Add me to the BMO e-mail list!) ON

Received week of October 19, 1998

Baiting should be illegal, If not for ethical hunter gratification, then just because it isn't needed. Deer have always made it without us to feed them. They have created insticts that allow them to make good choices in there diet unless conditions do not permit. In this case nature takes care of herself.(Respondent's first name) buck (Respondent's e-mail address) jjc32@hotmail.com

(Favorite deer rifle) 30-06 (Elevate) My Stand (stand choice) Menominee County deer blind (Respondent's first name) Kevin (Respondent's e-mail address) wildtimes@itol.com (Add me to the BMO e-mail list!) ON

Received week of November 9, 1998

(Elevate) My Stand (Comments and suggestions) Just got the latest issue of the BMU. Another classic!!!!!! Congratulations Mr. Editor. (Respondent's first name) Steve (Respondent's e-mail address) SBHVA@aol.com

Received week of November 30, 1998

A hearty thanks to the BMO1 for spiriting the camp onto Big Buck Contest victory in Wallace, Michigan. I personally got the call from The big Wallace, namely Wallace --- of Wallace's Pub --- in Wallace, Mich; wherein he pronounced, at 2:35 pm Central Swamp Time ( CST ), that yours truly, 2deep and humble, was bestowed sole second place honours (including 70 green ones -- samoleans that is ) in the Big UP swamp buck contest. In the immortal words of Ralph Kramden, "How sweet it is !" Thanks Don for registering me. Thanks Dan for hoisting beers at the weighing in ceremony at the Pub. Long live the Wallace Pub. Drinks are on me. // C.J. 2deep and happy. P.S. final tally: 5 Bucks & 5 other --- a great hunt.
Curt won 2nd place in Wallace's Pub BBC, and Dave won 3rd place. A near grand slam. Second place was drawing of registered deer and prize was 25% of pot (about $70) Third place, was a random drawing of all contestants entered (136 or so entrees) and prize was a Buck Knife (Dave, a buck is those deers that got brown things between the ears). Congrats... BMO1

Received week of December 7, 1998

(1998 Success) Trophy (Comments and suggestions)-OK, EDITOR: After a fun but obviously personnally disappointing 1998 hunt I find it necessary to respond to "rumors" and opinions of would be witnesses with regard to my efforts at clean shooting and sportsmanship in the woods (i.e. why i missed 2 bucks). First of all, for the record, I missed one buck each on the opening day and the following day. One point buck #1 seen and shot at 1:50PM, and buck #2 (2nd day) seen and shot at 11:45AM (just prior to the Packers/Vikings kickoff!!). Now that said, here's what happened. Day 1: At above time, turned toward the blind side of the moment. Can't hear anything as it is too warm now. Nice deer walking about 40 yards and maintaining same distance giving me a broadside all the way. "nice big doe" I think. Turns it's head slightly and it had way too many ears!! Center scope on deer and have a scope full of sunlight!! Deer walks nervously toward my right and I can make him out. Swear the cross hairs are on the boilerworks and let loose. deer digs in and gone. no sound no nothing. Wait . Go check. No hair. No blood. Spend better part of 2 hours arcing. For that matter I hope to get up there soon for another look. Can't figure it? Day 2: You know the logo on the home page of BMO? At 80 yards that's just what it looked like. Except deer was wrapped around bunch of trees to my left. I'm leaning on a tree and could stay there all day if I had to. Chose not to take a face shot as I didn't care to knock his jaw off (we had that happen once and will be damned if it will happen again). Deer made me and he twisted back toward his left giving me only a very small ally and a piece of his neck as he moved. Let one go and again no deer, no blood, no hair. Still glad I didn't go in for the goofy game. Never saw horns the rest of the season. Having eyes examined tomorrow morning. My excuse? I wasn't breast fed. joe --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Respondent's first name) joe (Respondent's e-mail address) jsmader@lakefield.net

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