It was yesterday, November 6th when I was deer hunting at dawn, not far from my home in southern New Hampshire.

I had just “still” hunted a hollow and several ridges with very little  sign of scrapes or rubs.  I just arrived at my car when two pickup trucks approached. The lead truck was Fish and Game checking licenses. The officer approached while two men from the other truck, hopped out and began recording video with high end camera’s, bobbing and weaving pointing their cameras at me. “What the….? Ok what’s up with this, I was thinking?”

I smiled and waved for the camera’s though I hadn’t a clue what was happening. “It’s a beautiful morning, isn’t it”, I said…cracking a smile. 

The Conservation Officer was polite and asked to see my license. I showed it to him. All fine, he said now that is a “fine old muzzleloader”, or something like that. Referring to my Pennsylvania Flintlock I laid on the ground.

I said yes, it is, I built it! A camera man In awe of the rifle said, You built it? Yes, I went on. One of the camera men took his video camera and scanned the rifle as a “thing of beauty” I believe. “For Sure, I thought to  myself”, as he video’d the rifle as it lay on the soil emphasizing the daisy flower patch box originally created by German Gunsmith Jacob  Dickert of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania during the American Revolution…

The Conservation Officer gave me some tips as to where he’s seen some of the deer hang out near here! “Thanks”, I said!

The lead camera man said;  “Have you heard of Northwoods Law?” I said yes. He said, they were filming for it and asked permission to use the footage.

Having done nothing wrong, I said yes and asked that I sign a paper giving them permission.  I did so because I want to see what they do with the footage. 

The fact is we New Hampshire Hunter’s are not only,  law abiding. all else being equal,  but we often hunt the hard way with primitive weapons, bow and arrow and Muzzle Loader and are very successful.

Nearly all of us, I believe,  are seen by Fish and Game doing things right! Law Abiding!

But that is boring, isnt it?

It is the few rotten apples or suspected rotten apples that provide the chase scenes aired by Northwoods Law that can create a negative image.

You be the judge!

So we shall see. Below NHFG announces the Northwoods Law Season 3 in New Hampshire. It airs on Animal Planet. 

https://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/law-enforcement/tv.html

I hear the Governor of Maine was not pleased with Northwoods Law. Below is a follow-up article on why Northwoods Law in Maine was cancelled. 

https://www.mainepublic.org/post/what-ended-north-woods-law-maine

In retrospect, I did not like the way I was way-laid with camera’s running. I was doing a private thing. Hunting is not for everyone. If my hands were blood stained from gutting a deer and Animal Planet shows that footage to a  non-hunter or an anti-hunter my image would be, well not-so-good to an anti- hunter and a target for crazies.

And God knows we have crazy activists who are not law-abiding in this highly politicized atmosphere we live in today. 

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