Doc

Welcome back! These things don't usually fix themselves, especially after that much time.

Thanks. I tend to add in safety factors on things like that. I remember when they used to have winter carnivals on the ice at Honeoye Lake (one of the Finger Lakes). Huge crowds gathered out on the lake with motorcycles. I don't know how thick the ice was then, but it was holding up an unbelievable amount of weight. They did discontinue it after just a couple of years. Thinking back on it, it does sound like a rather foolish kind of event.

Yeah, once the rut is done, they go back to being best buddies.....lol.

I would love to see what some of you people have come up with for winter shooting shacks, if anyone has built any. Next summer I will be putting one together and I could use some ideas on what you guys have come up with. Any pictures or descriptions of designs?

It's interesting to see the time of year some of the boys begin to drop their antlers. I have seen bucks with antlers in March, but that is pretty rare.

I have a collection of stones of all sizes and shape and grits, and I couldn't tell you what material is in them. The ones that work the best were white at one time. I use 3-in-1 oil, and they put a scary edge on all my knives and axes. I went to a guy over in the Avon flea market and he had some kind of machine with a rotating wheel of some sort. In 15-20 minutes, he put an edge on my pocket knife that was about as sharp as any that I have ever seen. Unfortunately I was kind of on-the-run and didn't have time to chat with him about his equipment. I would like to know what was on that wheel. What I saw could have been a leather strop glued onto a wheel.

Ok......One little side-story I have to tell you all about our Canadian moose hunt. This almost got me thrown into the lake. We used to have a dog that loved to have a tug-of-war with us if you had an old towel or rag of some sort. and while she did this, she would growl and snarl like some kind of rabid, wild, crazed, animal. Well, being the a-hole that I am, this sparked an idea in my evil brain. I had a portable tape player, and I put a 20-minute empty leader on the tape and then I started to tape all the growling and snarling of our dog while I had a tug-of-war match with her. It was beautiful.....That sound that she was making sounded like some unknown variety of insane wild animal. So, the first night at camp as soon as it got completely dark, we were all sitting around the campfire, talking and I declared that I was going to go take a leak, and I walked out into the pitch-black night away from the campfire and set the tape player down and turned it on.....Full volume. I had that 20 minutes of blank tape so everyone would forget that I had even been out there. All of a sudden, all that loud growling and snarling started to come out of the darkness. It was absolutely terrifying. I mean, here we were deep in the Canadian wilderness sitting in the dead quiet darkness, and we hear this supposed unidentified wild animal threatening the camp, growling and snarling. It was pretty horrifying. Everyone grabbed knives and whatever they thought would save them from this menacing wild beast and like the brave savior, I grabbed a flashlight and started out to confront the beast. They all trailed after me. When I finally got to the tape player, I dove on it and lifted it up proclaiming that I had killed the critter and started laughing at the joke I had played on them. I thought I was going to wind up in the lake, but we all had a great laugh, and still do today. Yeah, it was a mean trick, but I've always been a bit of a ball-buster.

What is the recommended minimum thickness that they recommend as being safe to ice fish on? I know 1" is not it!

Walleyes and northerns, but mostly they were supper.

Sardines are a great bait for coons, skunks, possums, and a lot of other critters. Strong scent and a fishy smell. Works good. The best time for success is usually the first day or two. You are probably right to relocate the traps. Look around for sign....Scat, trails, tracks, etc. With this cold weather that has just set in, the critters are not going to be super active, and in some cases not active at all. However, foxes and coyotes will be on the prowl. Any stolen bait?

Yes.......I'll bet that what it is. The camera's reaction to motion. That looks real weird.

Let's hope it never gets to that stage. Our old hunting rifles won't really stand up too well against missiles and such.......lol. No, I think we will more likely get "nickel and dimed" to death to the point where we won't even know what happened. Just activities, rights, freedoms will be gone, and we won't even realize it or even know why. I look around today and I have to say that this generation does not have the same spirit and backbone as those people the revolutionary war days.

OK.......I have to ask. What the heck is that top picture? It looks like it is a deer rack, but yet it doesn't. I've never seen a camera do that to a picture. That is a deer rack isn't it?

Cubby sets or dirt-hole sets or what? What size traps? You can get "pull-outs" if a big old coon gets caught and the trap is too small. Sometimes a drag is a more reliable way to anchor the traps because they don't have something solid to pull against.

That sounds like a lot of fun too. I was always going to build a "shooting shack" out behind the house. haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe I will get to it next summer.

Back in 1986, myself and three other coworkers planned an archery moose hunting trip up in Ontario Canada. We took 2 canoes and a small aluminum boat and all our gear back along an old dirt road for umpteen miles, entered a lake and went to the end of that lake. Then we did a 150 yard portage into another lake and then went to the far end of that lake and set up camp. It was to be a 1-week hunt.... No guides. We set up tents and that was home all during the hunt. We did our hunting in the first hours of the day and during the last part of the day. During the middle of the day, we fished and caught some of our meals. The fishing was great. I never saw nights that were so dark and it was so quiet like I have never experienced. These lakes were not occupied, and there was a feeling of total isolation. There was a grey jay that we could feed out of our hands. I saw my first and only marten on that trip. It just was a fantastic experience that I never would have had if we hadn't decided to rough it. Oh, and by the way, we did get a small bull moose. It was just a perfect trip.

Yes that is a problem. We used to camp all over the adjacent state land, until they posted all the rules and regulations. They don't allow camping there now. There is a sign up in the parking lot stating that.

I've got to say that the best memories I ever had were made on those hunting experiences that involved primitive winter camping. I think back to some of those trips back in where you couldn't even here a car or any other human sounds. There was an extra connection with the whole hunting experience. We were a lot tougher back then in our youth, but the effort got us away from other hunter pressures and often paid off. We didn't know the meaning of discomfort. It was all just excitement and anticipation and adventure. Of course I was a whole lot younger back then. Today at age 80, I have to agree with you. I have grown accustomed to my need for creature comforts now. But I sure am glad that my youth was filled with those remote camping experiences.

Sounds like fun, but a little too far from home for me. I wish it were closer, I would consider it.

What kind of sets have you been making?

Any snow so you could see tracks?

Our exploits up on the hill were a bit more challenging because it is a 1/2 mile climb up a rather steep "killer" hill before the advent of ATVs. But once we got ATVs, we dragged all the materials up and built that little 12' x 12' cabin and it all seemed like great luxury. We had a kerosene heater and propane lanterns for light. Bunk beds with real mattresses. A sink (no running water other than what we took up in a huge Igloo water container), an old kitchen table and a few chairs. We hunted out of there for quite a few years. Last year we logged the woods, and the loggers dropped a tree on the cabin and demolished it. So that was the end of that.

Avon Bowmen used to run winter indoor leagues in an old building in Caledonia. I don't know if they are still doing any indoor competitions, but that was really fun. It got to be pretty nasty trying top drive that far (35 miles one-way) during the winter, so I had to quit. but it was fun for the years that I could put up with the drive. Perhaps some members here have access to indoor facilities that they can use.

11 yards is plenty good for keeping the muscles toned up, and the techniques sharp. What I have done is that I have created a target on an 8-1/2 sheet of paper that has 4 different small 1" spots on it to avoid smashing arrows into each other. Shorter distance = smaller targets.....lol. It works good.

I too feel sorry for the grandchildren and beyond for more reasons than just the cost of ammo. And I have no reason to believe that future generations will be any more vigilant than we were in terms of safeguarding the original content of our system of government and the benefits that we have enjoyed. The apathy that afflicts our citizens has been going on a lot longer than just our generation. The spirit of the great experiment in democracy has been eroding almost from the day it began. There is a slow evolution that our country has been experiencing, and that evolution picks up pace as each new generation takes control. The cost and availability and the excessive regulation of ammo and components is only one very tiny part and indicator of this evolution that is getting more and more obvious every day. Can it be reversed? Probably not. I don't believe that it is in the human will and nature of the majority to reverse it.