Unsung heroes--- unwritten stories

Well, I THOUGHT there would be exploits and stories, war songs sung and war dances danced.  The guns are now silent, and the war songs and dances never came... But the brown dog and I, we soldier on.  We apologize in advance for our personality disorders.

Painting of Chesapeake Bay Retriever at Old Ebbitt's Grill, Washington DC.

"Life is Short"- another "vaguely related to hunting" post

Bones of Bucks Past

Inspired by Bone Collectors

Sporting? Ethical? Flat-Out Wrong? discuss.

from today's Ithaca Journal.

February 12, 2009

Dave Henderson: Two bills sure to anger some sportsmen

There are any number of bills wandering about the Democratic-controlled legislature these days that concern, if not frighten sportsmen, but two recent ones have provoked immediate controversy.

One, Assembly Bill A00924, would amend Environmental Conservation law to authorize the use of crossbows as legal hunting implements for able-bodied hunters. Crossbows are currently allowed for severely handicapped hunters, but the Assembly bill (which has no Senate counterpart yet) would allow for a special crossbow season.

It would also allow the use of a crossbow on private property in any deer season — a stipulation that will render those vehement anti-crossbow members of the bowhunting community apoplectic.

The bill calls for a minimum 14-inch bolt (arrow), a safety, a minimum limb width of 17 inches, a minimum draw weight of 100 pounds and maximum weight of 200 pounds.

The bill's justification states that "in states that allow crossbow hunting, including Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio (and now Pennsylvania) crossbows appear to be an important recruitment and retention tool for hunters.

"Further, these states found that crossbow use has not resulted in a decrease in bag limits, nor has poaching increased. As expected, where crossbow hunting is permitted, it has been documented as a safe, responsible and popular means of hunting, and it has had no ill effect on wildlife resources or on any other group of sportsmen."

Virtually identical bills died in the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee in 2005-06 and 2007-08, but Commissioner Grannis, whose party is now in the majority in both houses, has now indicated an interest in seeing it passed.

The second controversial bill is Senate Bill S1598, which would require all pistol permits (outside of New York City) to be renewed every five years, for a fee, and for all first-time permit applicants to take a safety course.

The renewal is currently required in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester and pre-application training in other counties.

The bill's "Justification" notes that "Firearms are clearly a lethal product and the owner of a firearm must know how to operate it and store it properly to prevent needless death and injury. The state requires a person who is going to operate a car to prove that he or she knows how and issues a license. Similarly, the state needs some assurance that an individual knows how to safely use his or her firearm."

License renewal would help account for all licensed firearms in the event of theft, death or other change in permit holder's condition.

This bill will definitely have life, since the sponsor is Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, chairman of the Codes Committee. There is a companion bill, A801, in the Senate.

•••

"a safe, responsible and popular means of hunting . . ."

Hunting poetry . . .

Been a while since we've had a decent setter blog posting, and inspired by Josh's recent post . . . .

Here's an excerpt from "Field Sports," a poem by William Somerville, an English poet who specialized in poems of the chase:

When autumn smiles, all beauteous in decay,
And paints each chequered grove with various hues,
My setter ranges in the new shorn fields,
His nose in air erect; from ridge to ridge,
Panting, he bounds, his quartered ground divides
In equal intervals, nor careless leaves
One inch untried. At length the tainted gale
His nostrils wide inhale, quick joy elates
His beating heart, which, awed by discipline
Severe, he dares not own, but cautious creeps
Low-cowering, step by step; at last attains
His proper distance, there he stops at once,
And points with his instructive nose upon
The trembling prey. On wings of wind and upborne
The floating net unfolded flies; then drops,
And the poor fluttering captives rise in vain.

Don't you just love that? ahhhh.

My setter ranges in the new shorn fields

Heroes of Sporting Art: Pathwalking Moose Hunter

Hey gang,
Once again it is time for another installment in our "Heroes of Sporting Art" series of postings. Today we have A. B. Frost returning with a print of "Pathwalker and the Moose." As you can see at right, here our hero PW is walking down the path to the moose he has just slain with what looks to be a Winchester repeater. (Newsflash this week: Winchester will no longer be making guns in its New Haven, Connecticut plant after they close the plant later this year.)

I ran across the following film footage of a newscast about Vermont moose hunting. The short 4 minute film can be viewed with either QuicTime or Windows Media Player 9.

For folks who can't get enough A.B. Frost, here is a closeup detail of the moose hunter print. PW, it looks like your hands are cold without gloves--and how do you get the moose out of the woods, anyway?

And while we're on hunting art . . .

How about Winslow Homer? I've got a couple in mind, here's Hound and Hunter. From the description at the Artchive http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/homer.html :

His Adirondack paintings have the astringent completeness of the Michigan woods in early Hemingway. Perhaps no painting has ever conveyed a hunter's anxiety better than Hound and Hunter, with its flustered boy in the dinghy trying to get a rope on a shot stag's antlers before its corpse sinks, lurching to and fro in a cave of forest darkness and disturbed silver ripples.

Off topic question: Would a deer's corpse sink? I thought I remember Heberlein telling us about the deer that dropped in the Iron River--it floated, no?

While we're looking at sporting dog art . . .

Here's one for Keith, and with a Cornell connection for all the rest of you "smart guys"--Louis Agassiz Fuertes's painting of a Chessy with some ducks thrown in for the bloodthirsty among you.

Biog info from the New York State Museum at http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/virtual/collections/fuertes/ :

Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1874-1927), was born and worked most of his life in Ithaca, NY. By the time he was eight he was already deeply interested in observing and drawing birds. An important part of his inspiration came from the work of John James Audubon whose Birds of America he pored over at the Ithaca Public Library. By the time he graduated from Cornell University, he had already begun publishing his illustrations. His first commission was from Elliott Coues of the Smithsonian Institution, leading ornithologist of the day. This quickly launched him into a very active career. He became the first person to make a successful living exclusively as bird artist. Just as Audubon influenced every bird painter since the early 1800s by "drawing from life", Fuertes added to the tradition by presenting birds not only accurately, but also capturing their natural and behavioral characteristics. The extent of his influence is summed up by Roger Tory Peterson, the most famous and influential bird artist of more recent times. "We can accurately say that there is a "Fuertes School" of bird painting even to this day, more than four decades after his death. Nearly all American bird artists have been influenced to some extent by the bird portraiture of Fuertes".

It's kind of fun thinking that this portrait was painted right on good ole' Lake Cayuga. And needless to say, I'm sure we can all agree on the vast superiority of the Chessy over other retrieving breeds in such big water situations . . . .

Side note: I believe that Fuertes painted a large number of different dog breeds as illustrations for a book about dogs. If I figure that out later I'll post the book title and publishing info.

Find the cocker spaniel in this picture . . .

It just can't be done.

Which just goes to show you, Mr. Mike, that, even though your chick may get the pup, this hunter is definitely going to get the bird.

And as everyone knows . . . a bird in the hand is worth two in bush.

The One, True, Correct Way to Hunt Grouse

forget labradors
setters with choke bored noses
are the way to go