Doc

I have a whole shelf full of Lithium Ion batteries and chargers taking up some the rare space in my shop. Are those things actually safe. It seems that I have heard of those kinds of batteries that sometimes decide to burst into flames. Has anyone else heard anything about that kind of thing happening, or did I hear that wrong?

What's with Canada burning up and sending their smoke all over us? That damn north wind doesn't seem to be turning direction at all. Yesterday, was a stinking orange day all over the Northeast. What is it like up in Canada....Has anyone heard? By the way, we have to be darned careful around here too. The leaves in the woods are dry like tissue paper. I worry because our house is kind of in the woods. If anything got started here, we would be in a pretty tough position. Yeah, I have insurance, but who would want to rebuild in a stinky black burned out woods? We need rain!

We all are so ready to blame other people for our loss of activity here, when in reality, we simply have a participation problem. We have over 9,000 members here and the actual number of participants is a tiny, tiny, tiny, percentage of that. Nobody wants to log into a site that is likely to only have only a couple of new topics and always posted by the same people. That's not a knock against those here that do post (thank Heavens for those members), it is a knock against those who don't. I know that it is the same with almost any forum. It is always difficult to get the bashful members to post anything, but it sure would be great is some of the silent majority here would speak up and post something. And then when they do, we have to encourage them by not trying to bash their efforts. I know this is a hard time for hunting related topics. It is almost a dormant time of the year for hunting issues, but there still are a lot of issues and outdoor activity subjects that could be posted and discussed. How do we get people to participate? Anyone got any ideas?

I was just getting ready to say, "Where are the graphics?", while I scrolled down until I finally got to the "pay-off" pics. Nice job!

I don't really use trail cameras for hunting purposes. I have not found it very useful to learn the night-time patterns of deer. I don't hunt at night. So I think that using cameras to assist our deer hunting is quite over-rated. I kind of like to see what kind of critters are wandering around in the dark around our place. It is just interesting photography. So here are these people telling us how we have to take pictures. That kind of fits in well with all the other ways that people are trying to control everything that hunters do.

I have seen some pretty amazing trick archery shooting, and it really makes me wonder just how good any person could get if they really dedicate themselves to trick shooting. First of all it requires a commitment to pure instinctive shooting. Most of us are hunters and automatically get into the defined sight-style of draw-anchor-aim-release. We have automatically been conditioned to rely on all the crutches of tournament style of shooting. Instead of letting our eyes and brain do the yardage calculations and the drawing and execution of the shot. We rely on fancy arrow rests and jillion dollar sights and rigid archery form that we have been taught. I watched Stacy Groscup knocking wooden discs, hand-thrown out of the air holding the bow sideways with his feet. That breaks every kind of archery style rule known. The human brain is an amazing machine when you let it do its thing. Take for example a quarterback firing a touch-down pass at a crossing receiver whose distance and direction is ever changing and while a gang of goons are running at him intent on tearing him apart. And how about an outfielder throwing the baseball toward home-plate. Where is the sight on the ball? So, has anyone tried to see exactly what they could do using pure instinctive shooting. Not gap shooting or any of the other "sighting" tricks, but pure instinctive. I never did, but I find the idea of it all quite fascinating.

Is it a fact that no new members can join this site? Do we need Burmjohn here to accept new members? If that is the case, then I agree, the site is doomed. But I am not sure that is the case. I am curious as to whether we still have new members joining recently. Our site Owner has been MIA for a long time. Have we not had any new members since then?.....just a question.

I was off doing other things when all this stuff happened, so I probably have no business commenting on any of this. But you can imagine the shock when I heard bits and pieces about all of what has been going on here. But I can tell you that pot-stirring and heated emotional responses and such are not something new here and any other forums. It all goes hand-in-hand with expressing opinions. Many of you have no idea how crazy things can get when outdoors people get together to express opinions. Talk about emotional and anger and lack of civility......ha-ha-ha. Over the 13 years that I have been on this site, I saw some of the greatest growth in membership and activity happen when we had the most bitter controversies raging. Things were pretty darn lively and interesting here, to the point where people were logging on every day just to see how the war was going. That is why I found it hard to believe that anything or anyone could cause the kind of upheaval that I have seen on my return here. But like I said, I was not here when all this took place, so I guess I don't have a lot to say other than trying to get up to speed on what all has happened.

That's it! That's what that goofy bird was doing right in the middle of my driveway, while I had to sit there waiting for him to dance off to the side of the road. I was close enough so I could just see him over the hood of my car. He was in no hurry to escape.

You aren't the only one that has made that mistake of thinking it was an old tractor trying to start. When I was a youngster, That's exactly what I thought that sound was.........For several years before someone straightened me out regarding grouse drumming.

Aren't they the goofiest looking bird that you've ever seen. I had one in my driveway a bunch of years ago, and he was doing some weird kind of dance in front of my car. I have no idea what it was all about, but I suppose it might have had something to do with a nest somewhere.

It bothers me to hear anyone here celebrating the fact that some of the more controversial members are now gone. Yes, I know there are some that work at being controversial, but some of those people have also been responsible for the site maintaining opposing viewpoints that provided a complete discussion of the issues that we outdoors-people frequently encounter. This site grew from controversy. I have watched what has made this site become one of the most outstanding NYS hunting and fishing forums from the day of its inception to its high point. I have watched the place grow from nothing, and I know what made this forum work. It would be a shame to have the site neutered because people become afraid to express their opinions, feeling they will be labeled as "pot-stirrers" and such. The site has lost some of it's spirit and interest lately. Maybe we could use a little pot-stirring. Let's not choose to run away like others have done, but let's also be a bit more tolerant of opposing opinions and even encourage discussion and controversy.

Over here in Bristol, I had a visit from a bear that bent the pole on a couple of bird feeders right down to the ground (it was 1-1/2" diameter iron water pipe and he pulled it down like it was a clothes hanger. On the second night he grabbed the trash can and strung garbage up through the woods. I keep the garbage in the shed now, and I rigged up an elevated bird feeder that runs on a a cable from the kitchen window to a tree at the edge of the woods (about 12' off the ground). He never came back. The next house down the road had a big old muddy paw-print against the outside wall. Not sure what he had in mind, but it looked like he was wanting to get inside. Yes, it was interesting, but your right, I didn't really appreciate the intrusion and the damage.

Quote: "The big lie is that there is any difference between most of the politicians of either party." When you apply that age old question of, "Are you better off today than you were during the previous administration, it all comes very clear as to what the real differences are between the GOP and the Dems. Anyone who has lived through both administrations should never ever confuse the differences. There definitely are a lot of ideological differences between the two parties.......BIG-TIME! That is not just theoretical anymore but is being demonstrated with new revelations every day. Are there some bad apples in the GOP?........Sure, that kind of goes with the frailties of the general political system unfortunately. But when I look at the whole of each party, and the base ideology of each, and even the extent of corruption there is no doubt in my mind that there are some very huge differences in the direction and vision for America. I can clearly see the direction that the Democrats are taking this country vs. the direction that the Republicans have demonstrated in the past, and can see a HUGE fundamental differences in the visions of the two parties.

Just as the author of this article pointed out, I too have seen the increased movement of deer during a drippy, drizzly light rain. I also have noted that their senses seem to be dulled, almost like they are walking around in a severe funk and extremely miserable which also can be a huge benefit to the hunter. I think also that the scent is knocked down to the ground a bit, and the falling rain screws up their hearing a bit too. All good things. However my most serious hunting is with the bow, and there are a few serious drawbacks to rainy weather hunting too. Hunting with a bow in the rain does not forgive a shot that is not absolutely perfect. I like to wait a bit after even a good shot before trying to take up the blood trail. I have had blood trails that all but vanished in the rain, depending on how heavy the rain is or gets to be. That aspect is not so bad with a gun because a reasonable shot will put the deer down within sight or definitely not too far after the shot. The most obvious drawback is that unless you have a tent-style pop-up blind, the comfort factor for the hunter can be lacking. I have yet to find acceptable rain gear that does not eventually fall prey to leakage or internal condensation.

The value of heavy arrows and heavier broadheads for penetration has been a known benefit for years. However, light weight heads and arrow shafting gained popularity when the search for arrow speed and flat trajectories became the focus of archers. I would imagine that flat trajectory is still an important feature even with crossbows....right? I wish he had included the variations in trajectory due to 7x added weight. It would be interesting to see what the difference in impact point that the additional weight makes. Maybe it isn't all that significant, but it would have been interesting to become part of the test.

Fires are such nasty things that happen all too often. I hope everything works out all right for you. It certainly looks like you dodged the bullet as far as the house is concerned. It could have been much, much worse.

Great Job! You should make up a couple of them and practice with them and then see if you could get a deer with one (any deer). I often thought it would be a great accomplishment to build a longbow and an arrow or two and take a deer with that kind of self-made archery equipment. Imagine how it would feel to take any deer with homemade archery equipment. I think I would be tempted to have even a doe mounted with the home-made bow and arrow hanging directly underneath.

What you could see was a little puff of white dust when the aspirin got hit. He threw them up himself so they weren't very far away from him. But still an amazing feat. This was a great show because I got to see it in person, and not just on TV. It was a long time ago but I believe it was at Creekside Gun Shop near Holcomb, NY. That place has been history now for quite a few years. Some of the things that these guys can (or could) do seem to be super-human. They are all instinctive archers and somehow internally between their brain and arms and fingers could pull off these amazing trick shots. But then think of what a Quarterback in football can do with an awkward shaped thing like a football with his target zig-zagging down the field and a pile of monster coming to destroy him. That's all instinctive too. Throwing a baseball is also instinctive. There are some crazy things that some humans can do without sight pins.

They had to run???? The last time I ran was back in high school. And as I recall that didn't last too long. And I was only carrying my gym shorts and a tee-shirt.

Here are some signs that some of you might find amusing (or useful).

I remember a guy that I saw put on a show with all kinds of primitive weapons (mostly archery). His name was Stacy Groscup. Read that he died in 2005, so the show must have been before that. He was shooting aspirins out of the air and shooting disk out of the air, and shooting his longbow from a prone position, if you can imagine that. He held the bow with his feet and shot flying targets that way. It was just one trick shot after another. He also used a blow-gun, and axes and hatchets, and knives. The guy was phenomenal. Anybody ever hear of that guy?

Now the question is, what would your group have looked like if you had been using a fixed 20 yard sight-pin instead of the EZV sight? Also, were you using that oval shape on the target to set your EZV to determine the yardage? And of course the final question is where will you find a deer with that convenient circle on its side? I know it sounds like I am just being a smart-assed jerk, but these are real life questions that a bowhunter has to ask when using that site under real-life hunting conditions. Is it really good enough to replace a fixed pin site?

I guess deer ticks must not have been all that much of a problem back in the old days. Those guys are getting up close and personal with those deer.

Every time I see a collection of these old-timey hunting pictures, one thing stands out that I do not find with today's hunting pictures. It seemed to be a rule that if you were to get your picture taken with the animals that you have taken, you must not smile. Why do you suppose that is? What were they thinking that made such pictures that kind of serious business. Today's hunters are usually smiling from ear to ear.