The Shooting Of the 9x8 On You Tube

The Famous 9x8 In Woods At Close Range

One of our readers just notified us that The McCarthy Brothers, Eric and Jarrad, who are elk guides affiliated with Elk County Outfitters, have recently posted a video to You Tube, of the shooting of the 9x8 that we have been discussing. The elk was killed on the first day of the season by Gary Kolenski.

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For more discussion of the issues surrounding Pennsylvania's Elk Herd Visit, Support PA Elk

A Computer Disaster-I Would Rather Be Photographing Than Dealing With This!

During the past week there were some very beautiful, dramatic lighting conditions interspersed with the mostly gray, overcast skies. I used the Canon 3-D with 17-40mm lens and a circular polarizer on both of these scenic shots.

Late Evening After A Brief Shower

Dramatic Clouds As Cold Front Passes

Unfortunately my experience with the hardware side of video production and photography has been a lot like the weather lately with a lot of problems interspersed with the few periods that things work as expected.

I was editing video last evening and left to do something else for a period of time, so I put the computer in sleep mode. I could recover from sleep mode with my Windows XP editing computer, but this was a new Dell XPS 9000 with the Windows 7 operating system. Two of the external drives were powered up. When I returned the computer would not awaken from sleep mode, so I had to do a hard shut-down by depressing and holding the power switch in.

When the computer rebooted, I tried to open a project, but got a message that the media could not be found. Long story short-both drives were hopelessly corrupted and could not be accessed (each were 2 terabyte drives about with one being 50% full and the other about 75% so there was a tremendous data loss) I tried drive rescue software to no avail. The drives had to be reformatted and all of the material must be recaptured. This is a daunting task as it involves somewhere around 100 tapes to get back to a minimal acceptable level of operation, and one must be there to start and stop the process of capturing each tape.

I love to edit video, but it is hard work and I sometimes wonder if it is worth the hassle. I am still shooting tape and each one must be captured to a hard drive. This is real time capture. It takes one hour to capture a one hour tape, with other time needed to set up the capture process. I had all of the wildlife footage I have taken since the beginning of 2007 on three external hard drives, which are always attached to the computer. Luckily one of the drives was not attached and a portion of another was backed up to another drive, but still it is a mind boggling amount of work to face.

PA Elk: Two Compelling Reasons To Expand The No Kill Zone

Acclimated 9x8 Bull: Killed In 2008 Season A Short Distance From This Spot

Protecting Acclimated animals is a must, but there is at least one more compelling reason to expand the No Kill Zone

A careful analysis of the ongoing controversy surrounding the Pennsylvania Elk Season as it is currently implemented brings forth at least two compelling reasons to expand the No Kill Zone.

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Pennsylvania Deer Season

The first week of Pennsylvania Deer season is rapidly drawing to a close, and it has been an eventful week. It seems likely that one of the whitetail bucks which has frequently graced these pages was killed on Monday afternoon, when he strayed across the boundary of posted ground and onto the property of a hunting club.

I was watching for roadhunters, when I heard a tremendous muzzle blast nearby. An investigation revealed that the shot was on the neighboring property. I saw hunters driving from the area and found blood by the side of the road where a deer was loaded. I later found where the entrails were removed. The testicles were lying there also proving that it was a buck. This animal was seen both in the morning and afternoon and was within 100 yards of the area of the shot when last seen. He has not been seen since, so it is 99.9% certain that he was the deer that was taken.

While this was likely legal hunting activity, much illegal activity does take place. Since this area has a large deer population and the ground is posted, it is a favorite spot for roadhunting. Road hunting is illegal under the Pennsylvania Game and Wildlife Code. Hunters must alight from the vehicle and get more than 25 yards from the roadway before firing at game. It is also a violation if they use the vehicle to locate the game in the first place.

It was raining on Wednesday afternoon, when a vehicle arrived in the area and stopped to observe a herd of deer in the nearby field.

Possible Roadhunter

Two persons are involved in this particular incident. A close look reveals that one is pointing a rifle out the window of the vehicle at the deer.

Hunter Pointing Rifle At Deer

This is not a violation if the rifle is not loaded and they do not fire at the deer , but it does create a very bad public image. It is possible they were only looking to see if any of the animals were bucks, but binoculars are the correct tool to use in that case. Many will not risk arrest to shoot a doe, but will take the chance to get a nice buck. Did they intend to shoot? I do not know, but
I was not taking any chances so I commanded them not to shoot and to get the rifle back in the window. They quickly left the area.

Young Whitetail Surveys The Countryside, Searching For Danger

During my past law enforcement career I charged well over twenty individuals for committing this violation in this same small area.