Doc

Right .... And I assume that your average suburbanite landowner where most of the setback impact is likely to be felt does not subscribe to NYODN, this forum, or any of the other places that it was likely mentioned, which again was the point of my reply.

I just wish I had had my metal detector back then before the tore it all down.....lol. I always wonder what made a place like that become abandoned. The structure actually looked pretty decent .... No sway-backed roof lines or anything. Actually I have a heck of collection of old abandoned houses, but they are all on film. Like you, I always try to imagine the histories and the families and how things were back when these houses actually contained families. who are now long gone and completely forgotten. What makes this house so spectacular is the huge size of it. And of course the little one-room school house makes me one of the fast-vanishing generations to have actually attended one of these, so that picture has a special significance to me. This house was one of the 12 original schools in the town of Bristol and I was only there for one year before the state went to the centralized school system. Almost all of these schools are gone now. More history lost.

My kindergarten school. As I remember we had 8 grades in that building. Check out the plumbing out back ....lol- Somebody's home. It's gone now. Was along the Honeoye East Lake Road- Gannett Hill (Jump-Off) Ontario County- Powdermill Park fish hatchery-

We've got "Big Oil", and "Big Tobacco", and few other "bigs". Is it too soon to start calling the fracking guys "Big Gas"? Or how about the wind farms ... "Big Wind"?

Sorry, I missed it. And of course a thread or two on a hunting forum does not exactly do much good for all the other people that are impacted by this change....particularly those most effected the suburban homeowners, which of course was the point of my reply.

Yeah, I think you're guess of it being a bear is probably on the money. I say that not so much from the picture, but more based on the camera damage that you described and the way the whole set-up was disturbed. That all sounds like typical bear response to cameras that I have read about.

It all depends on what kind of a hunt you want. I encountered an article on the net that raised a few red flags for me. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/11/nyregion/ranch-hunting-one-person-s-sport-another-s-slaughter-business-grows-so-does.html It's only one article written by someone who may have some kind of agenda, I don't know. But I offer the link only because it does contain two aspects that are troubling for my kinds of hunting. One was that apparently they are guaranteed hunts and the other thing I found in the article was that their whole operation is less than 300 fenced acres. Both of those things would probably end any further investigation for me. But then that is just me and my personal version of hunting. Others may go there and have a great time. I would suggest that you first consider what you want out of your hunting, do a bunch more research on the place to make sure it meets your own personal needs, and then do what you want.

Ha, you make it sound like everytime the DEC has a comment period on any of their proposals, they publish a legal notice in all the papers. If they did that, I certainly missed it along with a whole lot of other folks too I imagine. I hate to tell you, but damn few people monitor the DEC web-site to see what they are up to. Maybe they are all busy monitoring all the other NYS agencies as well as chasing down all the legislative proposals in the works and just don't always get a chance to get around to the DEC .... lol. I wonder how many people even know that the DEC has put forth a 5 year plan? Probably none of those non-hunting suburbanites that are most effected by the setback part of the proposal. So if some of this crap happens to slip by almost all of the people in the state, I don't think they should really be all sitting around wringing their hands with guilt....lol. I want to meet the guy who is up on all the things we are supposed to have a personal responsibility to keep ourselves informed on. Chances are good that when I find someone who claims that they successfully do this, I will have also found a liar. If you devoted your entire waking hours to digging out all the agenda items of every state government agency (notice I didn't even mention Federal) you still could not come anywhere near discovering all the things that are going on in government that effect your life. It all reminds me of that other ridiculous statement that "ignorance of the law is no excuse". Sure that's the theoretical way that the government gets themselves off the hook, but when you add in logic and practicality, you quickly realize just how stupid a statement of that sort really is. This other notion that it is a personal responsibility to keep yourself informed is equally ridiculous for anyone who actually takes the half-second to think about it. And as far as the surveys are concerned, if only a handful of hunters are surveyed, I guess the responses will likely be skewed in favor of only hunter wishes. Seems kind of logical doesn't it. And if you don't survey those that are most closely impacted (residents) then it shouldn't surprise anyone if the survey come out a bit skewed.

Look at the money they are saving (and making) by automating law enforcement. Just imagine how far they can take all this stuff as drone technology evolves and a wider and wider network of citizen surveillance cameras increase. Maybe some day we can get rid of traffic patrol personnel completely and have it all done with remote 24/7 surveillance. Add in a few well-camouflaged speed detection devices to catch speeders and a network of drones to control other offenses, and maybe some mandatory breathalyzer devices to control your starter and monitor drunk driving offenders, and before you know it we will all be safe .... right? How about transmitters to detect seat belt compliance and issue tickets via VIN numbers. It can all be done in such a way that we are never without proper monitoring.

Get used to it folks its just another step toward installing all kinds of remote enforcing of the government's control on its subjects. Seriously, there seems to be no limits on how, how much and what technology can be used against us. There's not even a whole lot of discussion about it. And every year the capabilities take huge leaps toward 100% surveillance. Cameras, drones, listening devices, who knows how many other devices that they are developing or have developed that we are unaware of. Yes we are heading for a remote controlled enforcement system in all kinds of areas of our lives.

No ... I didn't become aware of the comment phase until after it had concluded. Their fault -- my fault, I don't know, but I do know that I refuse to go off on a guilt trip over it....lol. Furthermore, I will guarantee those who are most effected by all of this (the average suburban homeowner) will never become aware of any of it until they try to lodge a complaint about some weird-looking guy sitting next to their house in camo and grease paint. And as a matter of fact, it appears that this is not an issue (weapons discharge distance from occupied buildings) where the DEC has the final say anyway. So comments to them probably will not really have that great an impact in the final outcome. Likely the proper place to lodge comments is with your state legislators. And relative to the surveys (which as usual I didn't receive) it sounds like they were only sent to hunters. The fact is that the setback issue is not just a hunter's issue. In fact it primarily affects homeowners, renters and tenants. Was there ever an attempt to sample opinion of the general public. Not that I have seen mentioned. So I suspect that once again the attempts at public input were skewed in a direction to get the answers that they wanted.

I'm trying to figure just where on the base of any cartridge there would be room for anymore markings. I mean there is the maker's mark, and the caliber already pre-stamped there. I would assume that the ID markings would probably be some kind of 6 or 7 digit number. That would really have to be a "micro" stamp, and would probably last for a few shots before it was destroyed. Imagine trying to get anything on the base of a .22 cartridge. And then there is the question of what kind of mechanism would force the imprint. Would they be relying on the recoil to force the stamping action? It's not real surprising that the technology can't yet be achieved. It is likely that it never will. And the big question is what kind of new evidence would this supply. Are they expecting that some number is going to supply the name and address of the shooter? What percent of the time would that ever actually be the case. It might supply the name and address to the guy who legally bought the gun in the first place .... the robbery victim who had it stolen from him. Now there's a real useful piece of evidence. No, it is obvious that this is just yet another harassment law applied against legitimate gun owners and manufacturers. It's starting to get real blatant now. It's more of an "in-your-face" kind of law than anything aimed at crime prevention.

Nobody has heard? I wonder how they handled the house/hunting setbacks with that hunt. Special exceptions to the law?

It is interesting when you stumble across old sugar-shacks in the middle of the woods. It makes you kind of look around and try to imagine what it was like back when guys were busy cutting up their supply of fire wood with the old buck-saw, and hauling gallon after gallon of sap by hand or horse-drawn skid, and the big boiling pans that looked nothing like the evaporators that everyone uses today. For a lot of farmers, syrup was just another farm product that they started off their spring activities with. Around the clock attention to the fire and the sap....just another annual farm activity.

You're right. Sometimes we have to rely on logic and good old "horse sense" when breaking new ground. I judge the examples of bad press and potential safety hazards that have already been pointed out to be not only gambles, but darn near a set of certainties. By the way, one of the risks that has been pointed out, but I sense underestimated and under-commented on, is that this proposed 50 yard setback not only applies to hunting situations, but also degrades the legal safeguards of set-back from those kids and adults who are target shooting in their suburban yards. What kind of humongous backstop would it require to stop an errant arrow touched off with mistakenly triggered release. Ah yes, the scenarios go on, and on, and on, and they are all very likely to occur as setbacks keep being diminished to a point of ineffectiveness.

All these changes within our lifetimes. In my case a mere 70 years with most of these changes accelerating in the more recent years. It doesn't look all that good for the future, does it? Anybody here thing that any of it will reverse? ..... lol. Not hardly.

I see large crowds of people standing out in all kinds of ugly weather protesting the Safe Act, and enough letter writing campaigns to get that freak Cuomo a bit concerned. I suspect that the gun advocacy organizations are experiencing huge spikes in membership. People are beginning to put their money, time and letter writing efforts, where their mouths are. I don't call any of that lazy, apathetic, or ignorant. In fact I have to wonder more about those who's first reaction is to cut and run. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the NYS liberals will not drive me from my home. And yes they will constantly have me in their face, and targeting them at the polls.

You haven't lived until you have encountered a real honest to goodness Japanese beetle infestation. They just flat out killed my two cherry trees before I had a chance to spray. They went from not being there at all to total defoliation in one day. I've never seen anything like it. They seemed to go right past the other trees just to get to the cherry leaves. About three years of spraying all the other trees, finally have gotten them down to the levels that can be controlled.

It has been a long time since I last stopped into a car wash. The last time, I hadn't gotten a quarter of a mile down the road when a tractor-trailer veered into a pile of salty slush and slopped up the whole car. So, I think it can wait for another few months before I wash it again. I'll just pretend that it is a white car. If I do it again, I will most likely just pull into one of the manual stalls and give it a quick once-over with the rinse.

Ha! what can I say that I haven't said a thousand times before. This video is exactly right. Oh and while we're on a roll, I might point out that I am a taxpayer in the same school district that I graduated from 53 years ago. The enrollment today is only slightly larger (fewer than a dozen more) than it was the day I graduated. But since that time, another entire school building complex (elementary school) has been added complete with an entire additional administrative staff and maintenance costs and staff. We now have an entire additional bus run to handle the extra curricular activities. We used to be responsible for providing our own transportation if our activities ran past the normal bus route time. We have a separate gymnasium instead of the combination gym/auditorium that everyone survived with for many, many, decades. The auditorium now has nice plush theater-style seats instead of the bleaches and rows of folding chairs. I hear the new addition being put on this year will consume a very large portion of the playground where students used to go out and actually get some fresh air and exercise. Oh and did I mention that the student population only grew by a dozen or so since I went there .... lol. One would guess that the quality of our education suffered because we had been deprived of all these goodies. The fact is that none of these multi-million dollar expansions and grandiose furnishings and services have really gone toward anything that has to do with education. How did our generation ever survive and prosper with such deficient surroundings?

That's it! Cartwright's Maple Tree Inn. http://www.cartwrightsmapletreeinn.com/ Phenomenal place. It's a pretty long drive for me, but it is worth it just to get away for a few hours.

Mike, the message that you quoted was in response to another member. As far as I know, we are both on the same page on this issue.

I'm not exactly sure how anyone here knows what kinds of problems the 50 yard set-back has caused in other states as far as actual incidents and attitudes toward hunters of residents subjected to that. Heck I don't even know of all the incidents that happen within my own neighborhood, so I have no idea how anyone could make any statements like that about other states. I can't say that the 50 yard setback definitely is causing problems, and I doubt there is anyone here that can credibly say that it is not.

I will say that if my Brother-in-law hadn't shown me how to reload, I probably wouldn't be reloading today. I'm willing to learn just about anything from a book, but when it comes to things that can blow up in my face, I prefer to have someone looking over my shoulder for the first few times that has done it before. If you don't have a mentor, or know anyone who could give you a hand and keep you from misunderstanding things that you read, this may be a good time to join your local rod & gun club and find some guys tat are willing to guide you along a bit.

Anybody familiar with the pancake place down in Angelica? Cartwright's? .... I think that the name of it. Those guys aren't open very long, but boy do they ever do a humongous business during the few weeks they are open..... Buses and everything. And they are way out in the middle of nowhere. Its a great place and a great way to bust up the cabin fever at the end of a long winter.