Archives for September 2013

Wisconsin Senate Passes Crossbow Bill

September 18, 2013 by Charlie 6 Comments

The bowhunter’s crossbow

Read Update Crossbows are now legal in WI

On Tuesday September 17, 2013 the Wisconsin State Senate passed

SENATE SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT 1, TO ASSEMBLY BILL 194 ssa1_ab194

authorizing a crossbow season in Wisconsin. All Senators with the exception of Senator Mark Miller voted for passage. This revised bill is the same as the original Assembly which was passed earlier this year with the Senate’s additional amendment 1 giving the DNR authority to change the crossbow season after 2 years.

Many think this is the backdoor for Wisconsin Bowhunters to later gain restrictions on crossbow hunters after the attention dies down. The Wisconsin Bowhunters have made no secret of their dislike for crossbows especially if these crossbow hunters are allowed to hunt during the rut. Apparently after years of having the rut period to themselves many “bowhunters” feel entitled. Originally they had proposed accepting crossbow legalization only if the crossbow season were to close mid-October and not reopen until December. Crossbow advocates may have made a mistake accepting this compromise, Wisconsin Bowhunters are well connected inside the WDNR giving them ability to influence regulations.

Hopefully, in 2 years all of the crossbow opposition’s fears will be laid to rest as they discover the crossbow is just a bow that casts an arrow just like any other bow.

Nonhunters I have spoken with wonder why all the hoopla and controversy on this issue. They sum the situation with something like this-

“The deer ends up dead. Why does it matter how?”

Good question.

Search for Internet Connected Hunting Cameras and everything else

September 6, 2013 by Charlie 1 Comment

Do you really know who is watching you and when?

There is a search engine, Shodan, available that searches for internet connected devices, any internet connected device. The search can be narrowed down to a device which is not password protected, by longitude and latitude, IP address, street address, city, county, state or a device in which the user has not changed its password from the manufacturer’s default. This includes all household devices such as thermostats, baby monitors, security cameras, webcams, cell phones, just to name a few. Of possible concern to hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts some of their devices include GPS, phones, any camera that is capable of automatically uploading photos including the new trail cameras.

Shodan is the Google for hackers searching the internet of things. Many people saw this coming some are wary while others are on the “oh what the heck I don’t have anything to hide” page. Well to this latter group think again, read this story in Forbes about a man who was awakened in the middle of the night by a voice in his 2 year old daughters room; it was a man talking over the baby monitor!

Fortunately at this point charlie carries no internet connected devices while hunting or while enjoying the outdoors. To the distress of many including mrs elk, not even a cellphone. He has always viewed them as electronic leashes. Now that all this tech can be turned into real-time monitoring he thinks he has been proven right in that respect.

So how can we use Shodan to scout for game?

Search for active GPS units in known hunting areas during hunting season. Better yet if you know a hunter who consistently bags a trophy or has good success getting whatever the game you seek. Then find that hunter’s GPS and phone IP address to watch in real time while they are hunting. Of course a savvy hunter with productive secret areas to hunt is going to turn off all their gadgets while hunting. But will they? These days more and more people feel too insecure to be “disconnected” for extended periods of time. Certainly at some point he is going to check in with the wife- Bingo you have his stand location!

Or search for the new generation of trail cameras which upload pictures immediately to a remote server or cell phone. Bingo you have pictures of the deer along with GPS coordinates of the camera’s location.

Unethical you say, perhaps, but how would anyone prove the competing hunter did any hacking? Besides is it hacking if there is no encrypted protection on the device?

Heck charlie was upset when Google Earth pictures of his home clearly showed mrs elk working her garden and the license plate number of his Suburban clearly visible. Then a computer nerdy friend educated him about Meta Data which he wrote about in Your Secret Hunting Location and Metadata Now his mind is spinning in new directions. If you can help him stop spinning; please feel free to try.