Doc

The chamber may be empty, however, the rule taught today is to treat every gun as if it is loaded. That's a good rule to live by. I remember back in the early days, I talked to hunters that I ran into that thought it was a good idea to cradle his shotgun in his arm with the barrel pointed at my kneecaps. I had to insist that he not do that......lol. Another guy placed the muzzle of his shotgun on top of his boot while resting his arm on the butt-plate. I didn't converse with him for very long. Today people seem to be a bit more conscious of safe gun handling.

So, what year was it that mandatory hunter safety training was required to legally gun hunt? Some of the gun handling practices in some of these old pictures are downright scary.

That is a problem with many clubs of all sorts. There gets to be these kinds of internal squabbles that destroy whole organizations. It's too bad.

I used some 2" x 4" welded wire fencing formed into a 4' diameter circle around the apple, pear and peach trees that I planted to keep the deer way from nipping branches and rubbing antlers on them until they were big enough to survive the onslaught of deer. It worked good.

I have a lifetime's supply of reloaded ammo that I have built over a bunch of years. I don't buy factory ammo anymore. And when I bought reloading components, I made sure that I didn't cut myself short on quantity, so the price of what I've got looks ridiculously cheap. The only way the anti-gunners can get to me is if they outlaw lead bullets.

I have been toying with the thought of joining back up with Avon Bowmen, but it is so many miles to get over there. I was a member through the 80's, and it was a lot of fun. They have a great set of courses over there and great facilities.

What's the name of your club?

I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be good eating. They eat the same things that rabbits eat. The only thing that might not be so good is all the fat that they have. I imagine they might be a bit greasy if that fat goes all through the meat. I do have one that was wandering around my yard that I may decide to take out.....and maybe even eat. He's getting dangerously close to the garden, but I think the electric fence may discourage him. I have one strand about 3" off the ground tat may zap him a bit.

Frankly all my old favorite pastures and hay-lots are being filled up with houses and such, or are growing over with brush so high and dense that if there are woodchucks there you could never see them. I have given up woodchuck hunting because the wide open spaces that used to be around locally are no longer good habitat for woodchucks. So how about the rest of you? Anybody still taking up the challenge of long-distance woodchuck hunting?

So, how many of us bowhunters keep our archery skills sharpened by competitive shooting at bow clubs? Do you people continue shooting through the summer months?

Well, here we are in June. Anybody still looking for things to do? I can't even find enough time to do a little fishing. By the way, if anybody tells you that retirement now gives you time to do all those things you never had time to do while you were working, don't listen to them. Since retirement, I have been busier than ever before......lol.

I have a lifetime hunting and fishing license, and every year I get a an armful of licenses without sending or requesting anything. When I kick the bucket, will those licenses keep on coming and will the DEC continue to assume that I am alive and hunting such that I will always be counted among the active hunters? I doubt that my wife or whatever survivors will be thinking of contacting the DEC to tell them I've croaked. How do they account for this kind of situation?

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 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.