jondee86 wrote:Countries are different... people are different... tastes are different. This does not make
one better or worse than another... everything develops in its own way according to the
rules of supply and demand and prevailing conditions.
Agreed. The sad part here is the massive waste and exclusion of food based on preformed opinion and misguided opinion - regardless of tastes.
Could we efficiently pasture just about everything without dumping so much corn fertilizer into the watershed that we have a dead zone bigger than most countries? - Yes, but profits would drop 5%.
My neighbor is actually dating someone that used to farm raise venison. (In American form - not quite CFAO but close.) They spent a lot of time fighting with disease and nutrition.
Deer need hundreds of well managed acres (or more appropriately ignored) land to properly thrive.
Some hypocrisy in that as deer thrive in numbers here because humans carve up the landscape and they thrive in all the little transition belts of green brush between homes, roads, and fields.
jondee86 wrote:Here in NZ 50 years ago deer were considered to be a nuisance and the government would
employ hunters to go out into the bush and shoot as many as they could find. These guys
were called deer cullers. One of my brothers was a culler for a couple of years and would
be out in the bush for weeks at a time living in a hut with another hunter for company. He
loved hunting with a rifle and later took up bow hunting to improve his stalking skills.
Unfortunately, a few years later, after he settled down and got a job in the city, he was out
hunting with a friend and was shot dead when carrying a deer back to camp.
Legitimately sorry to hear that. I'm hoping he was at least out doing something he loved. Nobody wins on something so pointless.
Apathy for not knowing what the hell you're shooting at gets no sympathy from me.
Even on private property I use a rope drag at least 2m long. (I've been shot with a broad head and lead, and shot at while walking through the woods while hunting - a few times, despite the head to toe blaze orange.)
The last time it happened a 1cm sapling got between my ribcage and a drunk shooter in a tree stand. Arrow deflected and I watched the fletchings fly by.
Stopped, called out. Guy came down from the stand crying about how he couldn't be sure he was shooting at a deer.
Somewhere in the resultant tussle I accidentally broke his trigger finger, wrist, an arm, a few ribs, and dislocated his shoulder, patella and ankle.
Patched him up, stopped the bleeding, bandaged what I could, hid his keys under his truck. Called the local game warden once I got back into town, guy picked up a DUI and multiple "So you're armed and drunk?" charges.
jondee86 wrote:When I was
clearing out my mothers house I sold a mounted head from a 12 pointer Wapiti he had shot
many years ago. Modern attitudes no longer favour stuffed animal heads on the wall.
Now the circle has gone full turn and deer farming is a big business. Venison and velvet
are exported to Germany and other countries. A good demonstration that the only constant
in this world is change.
Not surprising, and a great way to help negate a poaching vacancy(assuming poachers are satisfied bragging about trophies they didn't earn)
Personally I'm not much for the "let's have a bunch of heads on the wall judging me" decor.
That said, I very much love the idea of Japanese Gyotaku. Celebrate and document the harvest, but don't ruin it for the sake of a wall hanging.
Definitely a garage/man cave thing if I were going to bother with mounts.
(I also avoid large trophy bucks - rather take yearlings and does. Taste better, plus I'm inadvertently helping the local genetics for trophy males.
jondee86 wrote:Was out beating on the BM in a street sprint on Sunday. First couple of runs it was wet but
improved for the last two. New tires worked really well in both wet and dry so took six
or seven seconds of my previous best time
Cheers... jondee86
Giant woot for that. I've found softening things up a click or two for the wet can help - comes down to the car and drive style but helps if you react "slow" and preplan transitions.
I honestly think there's more to be had in your transmission flash/throttle mapping than most else for your wet times. You can really dial things in.
Watch rallying from the days 
) I go to stretch and walk around. Her puppies (linked together on bungie leashes) managed to get wrapped up around her bicycle. 
