Doc

What is an *OXBOW*?

Quite often, comfort makes the difference on whether you stay in the stand or leave early (just as the deer begin to move). I love some of the examples of what you guys plant your rump on while on stand. My problem is that I hunt a lot of public land and have to carry out whatever I carry in. That makes size and weight an important consideration. I generally stuff a small aluminum and canvas folding stool into my back pack, and that serves the purpose of being able to get off my feet when I need to. It weighs just about nothing and is very compact. I like the looks of that backpack chair shown above. I also see the value in having the ability to pivot or swivel. Deer have a habit of coming in from unpredictable directions. Maybe I need to do some more thinking on what seat to take along.

I have to wonder what is learned from summer scouting other than just a general census of what the deer herd size looks like. Let's face it, the feeding habits vary wildly in the fall from what they are like now. Food sources are what drives the deer movements, and the food sources are totally different right now from what they will be when the season rolls around. Of course, the way we are driving season openers earlier and earlier, perhaps the variations may not be as different as it used to be. I have seen smoking hot summer trails go stone cold when the leaves and temperatures begin to fall. I have seen the growth of farm crops effect deer movements. I have seen the ripening of fruit trees move deer patterns. And then there is rut which trashes everything that might be learned right now. There are other seasonal changes that put summer scouting in question. So, I have to ask, what useful info for fall hunting can be relied on from the movements that you see in the summer.

Over the years, I have had some pretty impressive deer wander into the yard and start grazing during the open season, and I have always refused to shoot them. I guess it does violate some idea of what hunting is to me. It feels like taking advantage of conditioned animals. Almost like shooting pets.......lol. But I always wondered if I was being dumb. Sometimes these incidents happen during seasons that have not really been all that exciting. I do feel a little silly giving deer a pass just because they happen to use my lawn to feed on. But then too, I have to wonder if I had a "food plot", would the situation really be any different. I was just curious what the attitude of others is.

Thanx everybody for the info.

They are a mixture.

My biggest fear is that Republicans and Conservatives and Independents will all assume that a Republican victory is a foregone conclusion and will not feel it necessary to vote. We have a habit of doing foolish things like that. This next mid-term election is so important for putting the brakes on Biden's assault on our country, we cannot afford to fall to over-confidence and apathy.

Along with the corroded rifle ammunition, I also acquired a couple of boxes of nasty looking shotgun slugs that are definitely throw-aways. I want to dispose of it in a way that is safe. Throwing them in the garbage does not seem really safe for the trash pick-up guys so I was wondering what is the best way of disposing of loaded and primed slugs. Is there a recommended way to dispose of ammo?

But the real question is, will there be anything left for Trump to save? Can we survive 2 more years of Biden?

I recently acquired a whole lot of ammo that had been in storage for a long time. There are hundreds of rounds of .22 ammo, and some lead balls for a muzzleloader. The problem is that the lead is kind of corroded with a white outer layer. Will this corrosion affect the bullet performance or the gun barrel in which they are fired? Is there a way to clean the corrosion off the lead?

What if a buck that you considered to be a trophy was grazing on your lawn during season. And let's assume you lived out in the country where you could legally shoot. Would you slide open a window and shoot it?

I have to admit that bow season starts a bit too early for me. I hate battling the bugs. And the excessive heat that usually comes with such an early start. Also, opening up a deer with the heat and the flies all over the place is a bit nasty if you are not super-fast at getting the deer into a cooler real quick. Besides, the fishing is still good that time of year, and summers are so busy, that I am usually looking for some time along the lakes and creeks.

I am not against electric powered vehicles either, as long as I am not waiting 40 minutes for one to charge, or my house doesn't burn down while I am waiting for the batteries on the fire trucks to charge up. I just want to know all the angles on these things before we start pricing fossil fuels out of existence. Doesn't that seem like a much more rational approach than declaring war on fossil fuels and hoping for the best without knowing all the facts and limitations of the arbitrarily mandated switch over. The other thing that no one seems to want to talk about is the percentage of homes that are heated with fuel oil. And how about the idea of declaring war on the primary ingredient in every plastic part manufactured? The list of questions and potential deadfalls involved in covering our eyes and hoping that we get lucky and some miracle occurs that solves all of the potential unintended consequences.

Look, I am not an economics expert or any kind of guru of the energy business like a lot here believe hey are. All I know is that we went from energy independence to shortages and dependence on our enemies for something as vital as energy. We have a president that publicly declared a war on the fossil fuel industry. We have a president who took open, public actions to back up that threat. I'm not sure it takes much more expertise than those observations to figure out where this all started and how we are all impacted and by who. Biden recently stated " We are changing people's lives". He did not say he was changing them for the better, and the results clearly show he is not. Come-on people use your brain. Make a few observations at what is going on around you. The problems that exist at every turn are not really all that hard to see and figure out if you aren't all muddled up in the close-minded attitudes of your past politics.

I kind of thought that there were a lot of questions about this forced action of switching over to electric cars that were not being asked or the answers not reported to the public. That is why I started this topic. It appears that we are trying to go into a whole new technology without the required baby steps. That is not really a very smart thing to put the U.S. population through. It is kind of like everything else that the government is touching these days. There usually is an evolutionary process that ensures a well thought out final product, and I think we have been working towards that. But to kill off one major energy source when the next one is no where near ready, that sounds like the scatter-brained thinking that drives our government these days. Wait until winter arrives and all the people heating with fuel oil find that the government has made fuel oil impossible to afford. Not really a problem....right? Just throw more free money at it and make another whole segment of the population dependent on the government for staying alive. Not to mention the extension of inflation. I am starting to get concerned.

I would like some specific facts about electric cars that are supposed to be the salvation of our planet. It is every difficult to find actual owners of electric vehicles to get credible (and honest) answers to these questions. The following are questions that the proponents of electric cars are not really explaining, and yet we are being pushed very hard in the direction of electricity being taughted as the perfect fuel for all things in the future. I am just curious about hearing the rest of the story. 1......How long does it take the batteries to charge compared to filling up a gas tank? 2.....How long do the batteries last before they have to be replaced? 3.....If you are on the road and your battery is starting to badly run low, where do you go other than home to re-charge? I did see a recharging station at a mall quite a ways from home, but that is the only one that I have ever seen. 4.....What is the cost of a new battery when the old one finally dies? 5.....What is the real relative impact to the planet in terms of producing the cars and the batteries when compared to fossil fueled vehicles? 6.....What will be the real impact to our electric grid system when all cars are powered by electricity? 7.....If you get caught in a blizzard and have to spend hours stuck in a snow bank awaiting rescue, how long will the battery keep you warm and alive?

I have not been involved in a private gun sale in quite a few decades, ( approximately the 1970's or 1980's) so a lot has happened since then. Also, before go merrily on my way in ignorance, I should probably also ask about pellet guns. Any new regs on those too?

Well, thanks a lot for all the replies. I never realized just how far behind I am on the current gun transfer laws. I knew I could count on you guys for the straight scoop. I knew pistols were all snarled up in harassment laws, but I didn't realize that they had already spread their crap to long-guns too.

My Brother-in-law just sold his house and has moved into a small apartment. He wants to get rid of his guns along with most of his other belongings. He has several rifles and shotguns and a couple of muzzleloaders to get rid of. So the question is can long-guns be sold at a yard sale or is this now prohibited by NYS gun laws? There are no handguns or AR style guns involved.

Most likely it is both.

His "handlers" were not pleased that he actually said something that he was not a part of the party line. They should have had that Easter Bunny there to stand in front of him waving its arms in his face to keep him from actually speaking an independent thought. Well I guess they have him under control again since that got walked back almost immediately. I am still wondering just who it is that are pulling his strings.

Oh.....scary.......The libs have pulled their favorite race card on this covid post. Oh the horror of it all. Now we are supposed to shrink into a corner and stop calling these diseases by their location of origin. What the heck, the race card works on everything else...right? The weak functioning of progressive minds have a peculiar reliance on calling everyone that disagrees with them bigots and racists. You people have made a mockery of the term. Thanks Nomad for pointing out the stupidity of these kinds of claims.

Well dammit, I'll say it. Joe Biden, head of the Biden Crime Family, is an agent of China and is working diligently with the Chinese in their attempt to weaken the U.S. to a second place position in the world. Oh, I am being facetious of course.......or am I? When you start listing all the things that he is undermining here, it certainly does make you wonder. The only thing that makes this allegation lacking in credibility is that Biden doesn't have enough brain cells left to be that clever.

I am old enough to remember the old push reel style mowers and the days when my Dad used to mow the lawn with the sickle-bar mower and the 8N Ford tractor once or twice a year. Gas powered mowers were for the rich folks. So this idea of paying jillions of dollars for feeding the lawn so that you're able to mow it more often is something that I can't really get into. I don't do a thing to promote it to grow faster and taller. Yes a lot of the green is because of the weeds, but I guess I really don't care. The price of fertilizer will be going through the roof, and those 5 gallon cans of gas are starting to yield a healthy dose of sticker shock, and as I get older, my time keeps getting more valuable. So I just can't get into the weed killers and the fertilizers and other lawn chemicals. If its not as green as others when August gets here....so what.

It is interesting that these shootings seem to occur daily across the nation. These stories are becoming common daily news now, and now the incidents are increasing at a geometric rate. I can easily remember when these incidents were unheard of. So what is evolving in our society that places human life at such a cheap level. I think it is more than just mental illness. There is something brewing under our cultural evolution. I think we had better start digging into what the heck is going on with our society and stop settling for easy answers like guns and mental disease.