Take cover! Hunting season’s here again

J

JellyFish

Take cover! Hunting season’s here again
By Howie Carr
Boston Herald Columnist
Friday, November 24, 2006 - Updated: 07:09 AM EST

Hot damn! Shotgun deer-huntin’ season starts in these here parts Monday morning, and what in tarnation will any red-blooded, pickup-truck-driving, Budweiser-swilling toothless good ol’ boy be doing come Monday at dawn but tracking Bambi, or, failing that, Bambi’s mother?
As John Kerry would say, Can I get me a huntin’ license here? Only if you’ll tell us where you saw that elusive 12-point buck, Senator.Yessirree Bob, huntin’ season only comes around once in a month of Sundays, but what the Sam Hill is going on with all this here posted property? Buncha danged flatlanders buyin’ up old Billy Bob’s back 40 and telling everbody from the Rod and Gun Club they can’t hunt? This ain’t Russia, bub, we’ll hunt where’s we damn well please.
Look, I have nothing in particular against hunters. I just like to make sport of them once a year. Of course there are way too many deer, and some of them do need to be harvested. But it’s amazing how many two-legged varmints also get harvested. Hunters are like motorcyclists and pit-bull owners - they blame everything on the 1 percent. Riiiiight.
Here’s a story posted Tuesday in Gainesville, Fla. A wily deer ran between two hunters, one of whom opened fire. Toll: no deer, one hunter wounded. The spokesman for hunter safety, whatever that is, lectured the readers: Treat every gun as if it is loaded.
And every hunter, too, he might have added.
Let’s go down the annual reading of the fallen Nimrods, and this is only partial, the more amusing incidents. All of the following occurred this month:
Mississippi - A 16-year-old Diberville high school student was killed by his 20-year-old stepbrother. The game warden lectured: “Know your target before you shoot.” I’m guessing they knew each other.
Maine - A teenage hunter in Penobscot County shot off his toe and part of his left foot last weekend when, according to a press report, the 17-year-old decided to double check the gun to see if it was empty. It wasn’t.
New York - A 49-year-old hunter in Livingston County was shot in the back by a member of his own shooting party who mistook him for a fox.
Kentucky - Two youths near Williamston were wounded Sunday after a hunter fired at a rabbit and the teens were caught in the line of fire. No charges were filed against Elmer Fudd. The wascally wabbit escaped.
West Viriginia - A 44-year-old hunter climbing into his tree stand on the first day of deer-hunting season Monday slipped and was left dangling for six hours, with a broken leg and severe hypothermia, until his father-in-law discovered him. The worst part of it was he couldn’t even reach his beer.
cw-3Minnesota - A 14-year-old hunter was killed by a 45-year-old who mistook him for a deer. The dead Nimrod was wearing blaze-orange hunting pants and coat, and a camouflage baseball-style cap. Haven’t you ever seen a deer in disguise?
Utah - A 27-year-old Box Elder County hunter accidentally shot himself in the chest while crossing through a fence, according to a local TV station.
Fence one, hunters zero.
Illinois - A 79-year-old man and his German shepherd were found shot to death inside his car parked alongside a road. The two were preparing to take their daily walk when a hunter opened fire on the car. According to a TV reporter, the hunter says he was shooting at a deer. A deer with four wheels and headlights, apparently.
Ontario - A 60-year-old woman wearing a red turtleneck sweater in the woods was gunned down by a hunter who mistook her for wild game. A week earlier, the dead woman had called the Provincial Police after a close call by another trigger-happy Nimrod.
Wisconsin - A 19-year-old was killed by a hunting buddy who mistook him for a deer. When he went to the location, he discovered his friend had been shot. How many more, Mr. Speaker? How many more must die?
I could go on, until a half hour before sunrise Monday morning. But you get the picture. Watch yourself. Elmer Fudd is in the woods. He’s armed and most likely, he’s also drunk.

http://news.bostonherald.com/columnists/view.bg?articleid=168837&format=text
 
I wonder what side of the fence that prick stands on... [thinking] What a bafoon...

I love when they start quoting incidents to defend their opposition to hunting... Maybe he should see how many women and children were killed on the road this past weekend... Will he be against cars then?
 
I thought it was kinda a funny article except where people had been killed by someone's ineptness.
As long as there are idiots out there doing things like this, there will be articles like this.
Sort of like how bad cops make it tough for the rest.
 
JonJ said:
I thought it was kinda a funny article except where people had been killed by someone's ineptness.
As long as there are idiots out there doing things like this, there will be articles like this.
Sort of like how bad cops make it tough for the rest.
Click to expand...

Hot damn! Shotgun deer-huntin’ season starts in these here parts Monday morning, and what in tarnation will any red-blooded, pickup-truck-driving, Budweiser-swilling toothless good ol’ boy be doing come Monday at dawn but tracking Bambi, or, failing that, Bambi’s mother?
Click to expand...

Do cop articles start out as...

"The veteran makes a routine stop, rips the old lady out of her car, beats her down with an asp because she tried to get up. All this while he doesnt knock over his box of donuts... That's right folks it's ticket season and the cops want to meet their quotas"

That article was over the top, at least when an LEO is written on it has an ounce of no-bias reporting... [thinking]
 
While the article was certainly over the top, the fact that he has factual evidence from which to launch his tirade is pretty bad.

I tell you this, I have made zero effort to try to find a place to hunt deer in Ohio due exactly to what Carr alludes to. I felt safe in the relative isolation and expanses of Kansas. Not here.
 
Howie is almost always on the side of law-abiding gun owners even though he does not (he claims) own a gun himself. But he does go after hunters every year.

The problem is, hunters are the ones who give him the ammunition (pun intended) to do this.

The flip side however is how many millions of hunters are out there and don't get hurt? (As far as we can tell, the mighty squirrel hunter Jellyfish has always been one of these safe hunters.) Yet we never hear that side of the arguement.
 
derek said:
Do cop articles start out as...

"The veteran makes a routine stop, rips the old lady out of her car, beats her down with an asp because she tried to get up. All this while he doesnt knock over his box of donuts... That's right folks it's ticket season and the cops want to meet their quotas"

That article was over the top, at least when an LEO is written on it has an ounce of no-bias reporting... [thinking]
Click to expand...
Well I guess I made a mistake by calling Howie's column an article. It's not a news article but a commentary or editorial. And yes, many editorials or commentaries about LEOs are and have started out that same way.
 
You guys have to understand, this is an opinion column designed to piss you off. Howie does this every year. I don't think he's against hunting but he LOVES to zing hunters with this column. It's the same one every year but with new hunter mishaps included. It's called an "evergreen" column in the business. [laugh]

He knows he's going to get massive flames from hunters in email, phone, etc. I've heard him talk about it on his show.
 
Howie Carr is simply put, an a**h***. Regardless of who's Ox is being gored,
his opinions are as worthless as he is. The only thing that I've read from him
that is worth reading is his book about the Bulger Brothers and that is mostly
history put together by his editors. I believe he is Marjorie Egan in male drag
as the content of most of his work is as worthless as hers is.

TBP
 
Is it over the top? sure.

But... lets get one thing straight... it's strictly an opinion piece. And if
you know howie, it's strictly tongue in cheek more than anything else. I
don't think you're going to see him writing letters to MA politicos to get him
to ban hunting or pit bulls,for that matter.

The scary thing is, he is right, at least in part. I have close friends who
refuse to hunt in most parts of this state anymore due to what we refer to
as the "yee haws" going out there and shooting at anything that moves, and
also breaking a bunch of game laws or hunting where they're not supposed
to. It happens with enough frequency in this state that the EPs and the
like can't catch even a portion of the offenders. I'm well aware that
there are plenty of responsible hunters, but the ones that are
reckless are more than a mere statistical anomaly. Does that mean I think
we should ban hunting? Hell No. I honestly don't know what is the best
way for the hunters to deal with these issues, other than self enforcement
or reporting illegal activity, or promoting education and safety. Adding
more laws and other BS is obviously not the answer, though. (MA has
enough worthless regs as it is, with hunting, guns, and otherwise).

-Mike
 
Opinion pieces are designed to poke the reader into some kind of a response. If there's no controversy, no issue or nothing of interest then it would make for a very boring column. Howie's a good craftsman in that sense.

Mike, what parts of the state was your friend hunting in? My teachers in basic hunter's education warned me about hunting in MA as there are a lot of people in the woods here. I still went as I really wanted to squirrel hunt but I was also very cautious. I don't know what the story is in New Hampshire, if it's really bad up there or not.

I didn't see many Yee Haws running around the places I went hunting this season but then I was in some of the state parks and one or two of the WMAs. Norton has a lot of hunters but everybody seemed to be pretty well behaved from what I could see.
 
The Boston Patriot said:
Howie Carr is simply put, an a**h***. Regardless of who's Ox is being gored,
his opinions are as worthless as he is. The only thing that I've read from him
that is worth reading is his book about the Bulger Brothers and that is mostly
history put together by his editors. I believe he is Marjorie Egan in male drag
as the content of most of his work is as worthless as hers is.

TBP
Click to expand...

Yeah he is an a**h***, as are most radio talk show hosts. I've found
that most radio show hosts are either A. full of themselves. or B. boring
or only mildly thought provoking. I'll take A any day of the week, if it
means the entertainment is going to be better or more interesting.

I still consider him to be one of the better journalist/radio people around here.
Mainly because he's made a living out of exposing political hacks for what they really are,
and the like. This whole state is run by a bunch of criminals and borderline criminals,
and he's' one of the few that's been brave enough to expose any of them.
I'm actually pretty surprised that he's still alive, at this point, given the depth and
breadth of hackery that he's exposed. The other thing I like about him, is despite his
obvious conservative tendencies, he's not afraid to excoriate people with an (R) next to
their name, either, when they deserve it. Anyone who is a hack is fair game, regardless
of political affiliation.

Maybe I'm just biased because I agree with the "ox-gorings" he gives certain
subjects about 7 out of 10 times? 70% approval isn't bad, considering that
I see most radio and TV show personalities to be nearly 100% intolerable.
At least howie is often entertaining. I can't say that about most of the rest of
them. I disagree with him on a few issues here and there, but it hasn't
been enough to make me stop listening from time to time. There is something to
be said for someone that knows how f*cked up this state is, and is freely willing
to talk about it in a public format.

There probably ARE better talk show hosts... but certainly none that
cover the issues in this state, or at least, none that are willing to get
down to the nuts and bolts of the vast hack conspiracy that is MA.

-Mike
 
Last edited:
The Boston Patriot said:
Howie Carr is simply put, an a**h***. Regardless of who's Ox is being gored,
his opinions are as worthless as he is. The only thing that I've read from him
that is worth reading is his book about the Bulger Brothers and that is mostly
history put together by his editors. I believe he is Marjorie Egan in male drag
as the content of most of his work is as worthless as hers is.

TBP
Click to expand...

The Marjorie Egan comment is funny. That aside, Carr isn't a very talented writer. I think someone else mentioned that he does the same anti hunting column every year, more or less. I think the same thing applies to his ox goring columns, he just changes the names. Now, that might well be because MA is one big hack-o-rama, but still you would think he would find something else to write about. After all, Van Gogh only painted "The Starry Night" once.

A friend of mine read Carr's Bulger book. He also read Black Mass. He told me that everything that Carr wrote about Whitey was in Black Mass, which came out before. Neither my friend nor I think this is plagiarism, just that Carr doesn't have anything new to add to the discussion.

Much like his columns.

Gary
 
JellyFish said:
Mike, what parts of the state was your friend hunting in? My teachers in basic hunter's education warned me about hunting in MA as there are a lot of people in the woods here. I still went as I really wanted to squirrel hunt but I was also very cautious. I don't know what the story is in New Hampshire, if it's really bad up there or not.

I didn't see many Yee Haws running around the places I went hunting this season but then I was in some of the state parks and one or two of the WMAs. Norton has a lot of hunters but everybody seemed to be pretty well behaved from what I could see.
Click to expand...

Central MA. I'm not sure what WMA area that would
make it. One of my friends used to hunt deer in MA, with a shotgun,
but stopped doing it years ago because extricating the animal turned into
being too much of a chore for him, with the condition his back is
in, among other reasons. He still spends a lot of time out in the woods
with his dog, though, and talks to a few EPs he runs into here
and there. He sees people hunting where theyre not supposed
to, among other things. I don't mean to overstate the issue- only
to say that there definitely are guys out there not quite obeying the
rules. Thankfully most of their transgressions do not appear to
result in real injuries being inflicted. Of course, some reports are
going to have a bit of bias... if you witnessed an incident firsthand,
one is likely to feel more strongly about it than if you heard it from
someone else. I will say this for one thing though... you hear more
stories/reports over shotgun season w/deer than anything else. I
rarely hear him complain about guys during turkey season or the
like. Maybe "deer fever" is stronger than the others.... FWIW, I
haven't heard anyone complain about errant squirrel hunters,
yet. [laugh]

-Mike
 
I take personal offense to his implication that all hunters are beer drinking drunks. I for one have never indulged before or during a hunting trip or ever while handling a firearm. The problem with a$$holes like him is there is nobody to counter his claim so what these ma**h***s read from him they assume is gospel.

Do I drink....well, yes only to excess, but never ever when handling or in proximaty to a firearm or ammunition.
 
Yeah, I got warned by a fellow hunter down in Norton that shotgun deer season brought a lot of yahoo types down there. He said it was better to stay away. He is a bow hunter and pheasant hunter. He was after deer with his bow when I ran into him.

Since I'm moving today I will not have the fun of being down there when shotgun deer season starts. So I won't know if he's right or not. I had no plans to hunt deer this year anyway as I have no use for all of that meat. I'm only one guy. [laugh]

drgrant said:
Central MA. I'm not sure what WMA area that would
make it. One of my friends used to hunt deer in MA, with a shotgun,
but stopped doing it years ago because extricating the animal turned into
being too much of a chore for him, with the condition his back is
in, among other reasons. He still spends a lot of time out in the woods
with his dog, though, and talks to a few EPs he runs into here
and there. He sees people hunting where theyre not supposed
to, among other things. I don't mean to overstate the issue- only
to say that there definitely are guys out there not quite obeying the
rules. Thankfully most of their transgressions do not appear to
result in real injuries being inflicted. Of course, some reports are
going to have a bit of bias... if you witnessed an incident firsthand,
one is likely to feel more strongly about it than if you heard it from
someone else. I will say this for one thing though... you hear more
stories/reports over shotgun season w/deer than anything else. I
rarely hear him complain about guys during turkey season or the
like. Maybe "deer fever" is stronger than the others.... FWIW, I
haven't heard anyone complain about errant squirrel hunters,
yet. [laugh]

-Mike
Click to expand...
 
Rather than debate the actual numbers of 'slob' hunters, people in this thread
and Carr simply paint a implied majority of hunters as such. Nothing is farther
from the truth. I have hunted Massachusetts for over 30 years and only
recently ceased more due to political reasons than anything else. I have
hunted private land (little of it available to the urban hunter), WMA's,
Quabbin, and a lot of other locations across the state from Colrain to Cape
Cod, from Plum Island to Great Barrington, and most places in between in
those thirty years.

I have run into some a-holes in my time. I would say the percentage of these
is under 1% of the hunters I have had the pleasure of meeting in the woods
and almost all have universally expressed their displeasure with the so-called
slob hunters.

Almost all of the people that complain about the slob hunters and perpetuate
the myth that the prevelancy is very large are non-hunters who haven't a
clue as to what the real figures are, are unwilling to take the time to find
out, and frankly, don't care too much to know the truth. After all, it's good
to be recognized as "One Of Those That Care More Than Anyone Else' so
truth and reality be damned.

There are rogue hunters, jackers, and others that Carr, being an a**h***,
paints the entire deer hunting community with the paint for their sins. Sorry,
I can't relate to this wonderful, everybody gets their turn in the ox-goring
barrel, because after all, he's a journalist.

Perhaps I should paint the entire military with a certain bent because some
soldiers commit crimes in uniforms. Liberals, journalists, and moonbats do, I
don't.

TBP
 

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